Houses on Legs in Saint Petersburg: Towers on Columns at the Edge of Vasilyevsky Island
Four towers on Novosmolenskaya Embankment stand on concrete legs three storeys high, 380 metres from Primorskaya metro. Who designed them, where the pilotis idea came from, and how to photograph them without bothering residents.
Food Poisoning in St Petersburg: Where to Go and How to Get Your Money Back
Emergency care in Russia cannot be refused, whatever your paperwork. How to call an ambulance, what travel insurance covers, what to keep as evidence against the restaurant and how to claim compensation.
Fines Visitors Get in Saint Petersburg: Smoking, Alcohol, Swimming and Drones
A cigarette at a bus stop costs 500-1,500 roubles, a beer on the embankment the same, swimming in the Neva up to 1,000, a drone up to 50,000. What counts as an offence, the city's quiet hours, and why there is no 50 % discount on these fines.
Lost or Broken Podorozhnik Card in Saint Petersburg: What Can Be Recovered
A lost Podorozhnik cannot be blocked and its balance is not refunded — it is a bearer card, and the 90-rouble price is not a deposit. A damaged card is different: the balance is transferred to a new one.
The Most Photogenic Bus Stop in Saint Petersburg: the Glass Shelter on Vasilyevsky's Reclaimed Land with a Gulf View
A glass bus shelter on Miklukho-Maklaya Embankment with nothing behind it but the Gulf of Finland. How to get there by bus 168 from Primorskaya metro or bus 220 from Krestovsky Island, when the light is best, and how not to get stranded by the bridges.
A Child Travelling Abroad from Saint Petersburg: Documents with One Parent, with a Grandparent and Alone — Pulkovo and the Land Border
With one parent no consent from the other is needed under Russian law as reworded from 20 January 2026. With a grandparent or coach: notarised consent from one parent. Alone: plus the airline's unaccompanied-minor service. How to check for an exit ban, what consulates require, and the state of the Finnish and Estonian borders.
The Ruskeala Express: Steam Train from Sortavala to Ruskeala — Getting There from Saint Petersburg, Tickets and What to Expect
A daily steam-hauled train: Sortavala 10:40 to Ruskeala Mountain Park 11:50, back at 17:30, with a turntable show at the terminus. From Saint Petersburg take the 06:15 Lastochka — and plan an overnight, because the evening Lastochka leaves before the steam train returns. Tickets 45 days ahead, park prices.
Kolomyagi: A Village Inside Saint Petersburg — Wooden Church, Manor Park, Artists' Village and the Children's Railway
A kilometre from Udelnaya metro the city turns into a dacha village: a sky-blue wooden church of 1906, the Orlov-Denisov manor with its restored park and pond, sculptures of the Artists' Village, a Catholic chapel with cross-shaped windows and a children's railway. A two- to three-hour walk and how to behave in a residential district.
What Happens in Saint Petersburg Every Year: A Month-by-Month Calendar of Festivals and Events
Bridge raisings from 10 April to 30 November, Museum Night in May, Stars of the White Nights, Scarlet Sails and Opera for All in summer, Leningrad Bridges and the Vyborg tournament in August, the Peterhof fountain closing in late September, the Manezhnaya Christmas fair in winter. What is free, what is ticketed and when rooms cost most.
SHKAF and Saint Petersburg's New-Format Libraries: Free Exhibitions, Talks and Quiet Coworking
The SHKAF library and art residency at Marshala Tukhachevskogo 31, Rzhevskaya with a VR corner and photo studio, KUB in Novaya Okhta and three more district libraries: addresses, hours, what is inside, how the free reader's card works and why a tourist should care.
Mother-and-Child Rooms at Pulkovo Airport and Saint Petersburg Railway Stations: Where, What Is Inside and What It Costs
Pulkovo has a free 24-hour mother-and-child room on the second floor: children up to seven, a medical note from the first-aid post, three hours maximum. Saint Petersburg's railway stations list no such room, only changing tables, play corners and paid rest rooms. Where to go, which documents to bring and when to rent a place nearby instead.
Travelling with a Pet to and from Saint Petersburg: Vaccinations, Documents, Trains, Pulkovo and the Finnish Border
What a cat or dog needs inside Russia and for leaving it: pet passport, microchip before the rabies shot, antibody test three months before the EU, Form 1 and Form 5a. Train and metro rules, veterinary control at Pulkovo, the closed Finnish border and where in the city the papers are issued.