Short answer: to get from Pulkovo Airport to Peterhof you do not need to enter Saint Petersburg at all. The airport and the palaces sit on the same southern shore of the gulf, about 35 kilometres apart — 40–50 minutes via Volkhonskoye highway or the ring road. Going through the city centre turns the same trip into one and a half or two hours of traffic and adds nothing but metres on the meter. If your hotel is in Peterhof or your itinerary starts with the palaces, go straight there from the airport.
Public transport means crossing the city with two transfers
There is no direct bus from the airport to Peterhof. The standard route is a bus to Moskovskaya metro station, the metro across town to Avtovo or Baltiyskaya, then another bus or minibus to Peterhof. With a suitcase that is two to two and a half hours and three vehicles. A car covers the same distance in 40–50 minutes, and the price is per car, not per person — for a family or a couple with luggage the comparison stops being an argument very quickly.
Photo: Sergey A. Demidov, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
The road skips the city: Volkhonskoye highway or the ring road
Drivers use two routes. Volkhonskoye highway is shorter and prettier, passing through Aleksandrovskaya. The ring road (KAD) is slightly longer in kilometres but steadier in time: no traffic lights until the Peterhof highway exit. On a weekday there is little difference; on a Friday evening the navigator will pick whichever is freer. There are no drawbridges on either option — the route works around the clock.
