Gatchina is the most underrated day trip from Saint Petersburg: a huge palace, a lake-filled park and none of the queues that make Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo hard work. The catch is the schedule — the palace is closed on Mondays and the ticket office stops selling an hour before closing time.
Opening hours and prices in 2026
The Gatchina Palace is open 10:00–18:00, closed on Mondays; the ticket office and the entrance close at 17:00. The Palace Park is open every day from 06:00 to 22:00.
- Gatchina Palace — 700 roubles for adults, 400 for students and pensioners, 1,600 for a family ticket (two adults with children).
- Priory Palace — 300 roubles, 150 reduced; open 10:00–18:00, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, last entry 17:30.
- Both palaces on one ticket — 950 roubles, 550 reduced.
- Palace Park — 250 roubles, 150 reduced, 600 for a family.
The palace ticket covers the state rooms, the Arsenal Hall, the private apartments of Nicholas I, the palace church and the underground passage — the one with the echo that children come for. The entrance is from the Palace Parade Ground, not from the park side.
What closes in October
Several parts of the estate shut down for winter, so autumn timing matters: the park pavilions (the Venus Pavilion and the Birch House) are open until 13 October, 11:00–19:00 daily; the Palace Farm works until 5 October, 10:00–18:00, closed Mondays. 6 October is a maintenance day — both palaces are closed.
Getting there
All three options take roughly an hour: a suburban train from Baltiysky station to Gatchina-Baltiyskaya, which is the closest stop to the palace; bus 431 or minibuses 18 and 18A from Moskovskaya metro station; or a car along the Kiev highway, about forty kilometres from the ring road. Check the return timetable before you go — evening services are noticeably rarer than daytime ones.
A plan that works
Arrive at ten, start with the palace while the halls are still empty, then walk down into the park along the White Lake to the pavilions, and leave the Priory Palace for last — it is small and half an hour is enough. The park is too big to cover in a day; the shortest worthwhile walk is from the palace along the lake to the Humpback Bridge and back, about an hour at an easy pace.
Sources: opening hours and price list published by the Gatchina State Museum-Reserve (gatchinapalace.ru); prices in force from 9 January 2026. Checked on 15 September 2026. Cover photo: Evgeny Zykin, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
