Things to Do in Saint Petersburg When You Have Already Seen the Hermitage

On prices: figures on this page were researched in September 2026 and are given as bands, not quotes. Russian admission and transport prices move often. Note also that foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work in Russia: what you actually pay with is cash or a locally issued card.

Saint Petersburg Things to Do When You Have Already Seen the Hermitage

The mistake most travellers make is treating Saint Petersburg as a checklist of five monuments. You see the Hermitage, the Church on Spilled Blood, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the Peter and Paul Fortress, and you think you are done. You are not. The real city sits in the spaces between those sights. The single most useful thing to know is that the best Saint Petersburg things to do involve walking into neighbourhoods that are not on any cruise ship itinerary and letting the canal map guide you. This is a city for the return visitor, the slow traveller, or the person who has an afternoon left after the big sights and wants something that feels earned.

Alternative Saint Petersburg Attractions: Three Districts That Reward Slow Movement

New Holland Island

New Holland Island was a naval timber depot for two centuries. It reopened in 2016 as a restored brick island with a food hall, a contemporary art space, and a rectangular park where locals sit on the grass reading. The draw is not a single building but the pace: you walk in, you buy a coffee from the courtyard kiosk, and you stay for two hours doing nothing. Entry is free. The bridge to the island is on the far side of the Admiralteysky district, a 15 minute walk from the Mariinsky Theatre. Go on a weekday afternoon when the families are not there.

Loft Project Etagi

Loft Project Etagi, a former printing factory on Ligovsky Prospekt, operates as a gallery and co working space. The rooftop has a city view that competes with St. Isaac's colonnade for half the cost and none of the queue. Entry is 300 RUB. The interior changes every few months, so check what exhibition is up before you go. The building sits in Tsentralny district, one metro stop from Ploshchad Vosstaniya. The rooftop closes at 22:00 in summer.

Smolny Cathedral and Tauride Garden

Smolny Cathedral stands alone in a wide, quiet square surrounded by Soviet administrative buildings. It is a working church, not a museum, and you can walk in for free. The interior is white and blue and empty of tour groups. The Smolny district is a 20 minute walk from the Chernyshevskaya metro station. Combine this with a walk through the adjacent Tauride Garden, which locals use for jogging and dog walking.

Non Touristy Things to Do in St Petersburg: the Canal Walk and the Dive Bar Route

The single best non touristy thing to do in St Petersburg is to pick a canal and walk its full length until you reach water that opens onto the Neva. Start at the Fontanka River embankment near the Anichkov Bridge and head south. You pass the back of the Russian Museum, then the apse of St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, which is blue and white and feels like a church that does not expect you. The walk is 45 minutes at a normal pace. At the end you are in Kolomna, the district where Dostoevsky lived and where the streets narrow and the paint peels.

Rubinstein Street and the Dive Bars

From there, Rubinstein Street is a 10 minute walk north. This is the street where locals go for a night that does not involve a club. The bars are small, the tables spill onto the pavement in June and July, and the drinks are cheap. Vladimirskaya dive bar is a specific address on Vladimirskiy Prospekt: a basement room with no sign in English, Baltika draft at a low local price a pint, and a pinball machine from 1990. The bartender speaks enough Russian to pour and take your cash. This is not a scene. It is a room where people sit and talk.

Carry a 2GIS offline map on your phone. Google Maps does not route public transport reliably here, and street signs are Cyrillic only. 2GIS works without data and will show you which bus stops are actually in service.

Saint Petersburg Beyond the Guidebook: Morning, Afternoon, and Evening Itineraries

A Morning on Vasileostrovsky Island

Skip a museum and walk to the Rostral Columns on Vasileostrovsky Island. They stand at the tip of the island, facing the Neva. The columns were navigational beacons in the 19th century, and the gas torches still burn on public holidays. The surrounding square is empty at 09:00. Walk the embankment east to the Field of Mars, a large square that was a parade ground, then a revolutionary burial site, and is now a park where young families picnic. The memorial flame at its centre burns permanently. From there, the Summer Garden is five minutes north. It is a formal garden of straight paths, marble statues, and an iron fence that took 20 years to build. Admission is 300 RUB. The garden closes at 22:00 in summer, but the marble statues look best in the early light.

An Afternoon on Krestovsky Island

Dedicate your afternoon to Krestovsky Island. Take the metro to Krestovsky Ostrov station, then walk 15 minutes through the parkland to the western tip. The island holds the modern Gazprom Arena, but the reason to come is the long walking paths along the Gulf of Finland shore and the absence of tourists. The island is far from the centre, which is exactly the point. Bring food because the kiosks are sparse. Return via the same metro line: the bridge schedule does not affect this route because the island has no lift bridge to the mainland side before midnight.

An Evening and the Bridge Schedule

Time your evening around the bridge schedule. The Neva bridges open between 01:00 and 05:00 from April to November. If you are on Vasileostrovsky Island or Petrogradsky Island after 00:30, you are stranded until the bridges close, unless you take a taxi that detours 20 km via the northern ring road. The solution is to plan your return to the Dvortsovy Okrug or Admiralteysky side by 23:30. Or stay on the island. A White Nights stroll across the Palace Bridge at 02:00, when the sky is still light and the bridge is lifting, is one of the things that justifies the entire trip. Stand at the bridge approach on the Vasileostrovsky side and watch the metal span rise. You will not be alone. Dozens of people sit on the granite steps until dawn.

What to Do in Saint Petersburg Besides Museums: the Food That Tells the Story

Pyshki: The Doughnut Queue

The food in Saint Petersburg is not the cuisine. It is the queue. Pyshki on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street is a Soviet era doughnut shop that has not changed its recipe or its tile floor since 1958. You pay 20 RUB per pyshki at the counter, take a paper napkin, and stand at the high table in the corner. The doughnuts are fried in front of you and dusted with powdered sugar. There is a queue. The queue moves fast. Do not order more than six because they cool in two minutes and lose the texture. The shop is a five minute walk from the Church on Spilled Blood, so you will pass it. Do not skip it.

Stolovaya No. 1: The Canteen Lunch

For a full meal, Stolovaya No. 1 on Nevsky Prospekt operates as a modern cafeteria. You take a tray, point at the pelmeni and the vinigret salad, and pay at the end. A full plate of pelmeni with sour cream costs a modest local price. The crowd is office workers, not tourists. The system is: pick your tray, take a number, pay at the register, find a seat. The tables are communal. Eat fast and leave the tray at the return window.

Georgian Food on Rubinstein Street

Georgian food is the serious meal in Saint Petersburg. Khachapuri i Vino on Rubinstein Street serves the adjarian khachapuri, a bread boat with cheese, butter, and an egg baked into the centre. You tear the bread, dip it, and eat the centre last. A khachapuri and a glass of wine costs 800 RUB. Book a table two days ahead in summer or arrive at 17:00 before the dinner rush. The restaurant does not take card payments from foreign issued cards due to sanctions. Carry cash. This is the rule across most small restaurants in Saint Petersburg, not an exception.

Koryushka: The Seasonal Catch

Koryushka is the seasonal April speciality. Fried smelt, served with dill and lemon, appears on menus for four weeks. The fish is small, the bones are edible, and the smell of frying koryushka fills the streets near the Neva. If you are in Saint Petersburg in late April, order it. If you are not, skip it and wait until next year. It is not worth ordering frozen in August.

Who Saint Petersburg Suits and Who it Does Not

Saint Petersburg suits the traveller who walks five hours a day without an agenda. It suits the person who wants to eat a standing room only doughnut at 20 RUB and call it lunch. It suits the architecture obsessive who will cross a bridge at 02:00 to watch a steel span lift against a white sky. It suits the repeat visitor who already knows the Hermitage layout and wants to find the courtyard where Dostoevsky set a murder scene.

It does not suit the fast paced traveller who needs a nightclub open until 06:00. It does not suit the budget backpacker on 20 USD a day, because central costs rival Western Europe and a meal in a decent restaurant runs 1,000 RUB before drinks. It does not suit anyone who needs warm, sunny weather: June and July deliver long days, but the rain comes often and the wind off the Neva is cold even at 20:00.

The single thing that most often goes wrong here is the assumption that everything is open. Museums close on random weekdays. Bridges trap you on the wrong island. Card payments fail. The solution is to check the bridge schedule for your date, carry enough cash for one day, and install 2GIS and Yandex Go before you arrive. If you do those three things, Saint Petersburg will not punish you for getting it right.