This hotel, formerly knew as Nevsky 22, is comfortable, if you desire to spend your stay in the city centre of Petersburg.

In fact, it takes just a few minutes to get to the Hermitage (what a museum!). What is more, Nevsky Prospect is amazing: this boulevard was built in the 18th century and it is full of Italian and French influence: Saint Petersburg is really the union of two different cultures!

10 Bolshaya Konyushennaya St, 191186 St. Petersburg.
Tel: +7 812 3123131
Fax: +7 812 7033861
Website: www.nevskygrandhotel.com

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This legendary hangout frequented by expats, students, and local residents since 1996 recently moved to a new location (now right across from the US consulate).

The casual cellar atmosphere is cosy and welcoming. The staff pretty much all speak English. The moderately-priced menu (in English and Russian) features tasty American-style food including nachos with homemade chili, and monster burgers like nowhere else in the city.

Free WiFi and internet phone are really conveninent and helpful, and the English-language book and video library can help keep you sane if you're stuck here in winter.

The bar attracts a younger crowd late nights on weekends, especially when there's a DJ or band. It can get a little wild (in a fun way), and it's a great time to meet and party with locals.

Furshtatskaya Ulitsa 20
Metro Chernyshevskaya
www.citybar.ru

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Smaller than my one-room apartment in St. Petersburg, Dacha is a bar-cum-club which goes a little way toward being avant garde, or at the very least, off the beaten track. Its nights of 60s music, electronica mixed with punk, and insane remixed disco pop beats the packed crowd of twenty-something party-goers dancing 'till the club closes at 6am.

Round the back of Gostiny Dvor. Metro Nevsky Prospekt, Ulitsa Dumskaya.

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These are the main rivers and canals that criss-cross the centre of the city. Boat trips are widely available in the summer months, but walking their banks is also a very good way to literally view a cross-section of the city and what it has to offer. What you'll see will range from the industrial to the picturesque and parochial, but whether frozen or fluid they offer an unbeatable guide to the gamut of St Petersburg.

The Fontanka and Moyka rivers and the Griboedov canal all cross Nevsky Prospekt, the main street through the city.

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Cynic is a legendary underground bar hangout popular among local students and certain parts of the expat community. It can be rowdy, but it's not unfriendly. Originally housed in a filthy single room near Moscow station, it moved in 2002/2003 to new, larger premises just off St. Isaac's Square.

The basic drill is to sit around large tables drinking cheap-ish beer and vodka (occasionally absinthe), talking to friends and random strangers. Don't forget to try the grenki (fried bread with garlic), which give Cynic its special, peculiarly persistent smell. The food is actually surprisingly good, but most people come for the booze.

If you're lucky, some of the younger female patrons might have enough to decide dancing topless on the tables is a good idea. In which case, you've seen a genuine St Petersburg institution.

4 Pereulok Antonenko; www.cynic.spb.ru/ (Russian only), nearest metro Sennaya Ploshchad/Sadovaya. They probably don't bother answering the phone, if they have one

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If you want the nearest thing in Petersburg to a genuine British pub, Dickens is the best bet. It opened up in 2005, and has a variety of British beers on tap (last time I went these included Bombadier and Spitfire), and also does really good food. Best "full English" in town by a long, long way; although the competition is hardly stiff, this is worth trying. Be warned - it's huge. The bar serves food from early morning, but there's also a restaurant that serves from noon to midnight.

There's another Dickens Pub in Riga, so you could do a mini-tour. Although why you'd come to the Baltic to go to a British pub may need some explaining.

118 Naberezhnaya Reki Fontanka (Fontanka River Embankment), open daily from 8 am; tel 380 7888; nearest metro: Sennaya Ploshchad/Sadovaya

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This cathedral rarely gets a mention, but because it is often overlooked it is fantastic to visit. You don't have to jostle with other tourists and its cool blue walls look absolutely fantastic in the snow. It's a few minutes south of the Yusupov Palace.

Prospekt Rimskogo-Korsakova or just follow the Griboedova Canal west from Nevsky Prospekt for about 15 minutes

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If you're in St. Petersburg in the summer then don't miss the chance to visit Peterhof. The fountains are spectacular but unfortunately do not operate in the winter. The easiest way to get there is by hydrofoil which leaves from behind the Hermitage. It takes 30 minutes to get there.

www.peterhof.org

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During weekends in the summer it's possible to take a helicopter tour above St Petersburg. The cost is around $30 and the helicopters take off and land on the lawn beyond the northern wall of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Just follow the deafening noise…

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This is the most Russian in style of the St Petersburg churches and is one of those sights that it’s hard to walk away from. It’s likened to St Basil’s in Moscow, mainly because of the stripy domes, but in reality it’s much smaller and doesn’t bear much closer architectural comparison. It stands next to the Griboyedova canal, which makes the setting even more picturesque, but it’s worth seeing from all angles, so have a good walk around.

Naberezhnaia kanala Griboyedova
www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/church-of-savior.asp

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Also known as the Catherine Palace, this is the most spectacular of the former royal palaces in the environs of St Petersburg.

The first sight of it will linger always in the memory; the dominant blue, decorated with gold and white trimmings is overwhelming given the scale of the building. It contains the famous amber room, which is panelled entirely with amber taken from the Russian forests. The original is said to have been destroyed or stolen during the second world war, no one knows the truth, but they've just finished restoring it using the same original methods and materials.

Apparently Elton John played in the lavish ballroom not long ago - I'm surprised he hasn't put in an offer yet.

Pushkin, 25 km south of St Petersburg - there's plenty of organised tours; www.alexanderpalace.org/tsarskoe/

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This establishment is trying to be an English pub, but fails because it’s a little too kitsch and not quite cosy enough. The worst bit of décor is the ‘phone box’ doors on the loos. However, the staff are friendly and the food is good, and if you’re hankering after a British pint you could do a lot worse. It’s also got the inevitable ‘big screen’ for sports. Attached to the pub there is a coffee and cake shop which looks very appetising.

Ulitsa Rubinshteyna (just off Nevskiy Prospekt)

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Whether or not you want to see what’s in it, the palace is more than worth visiting in its own right. First walk around it, from Palace Square to the embankment to get a feeling of the grandeur and splendour – if you have time, go up onto the Dvortsovy bridge and admire the view with the Neva in the foreground. Then return to the entrance and go inside. The golden staircase is very decadent, but still gorgeous, and then there’s just room after room of opulence. No wonder the peasants revolted.

Palace Square - main entrance Dvortsovaya Nab (on the embankment)

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Clean, friendly, affordable hostel in the middle of St Petersburg. Breakfast included, internet available. Free tickets for the Puppet Theatre next door for guests. Around £13 per night in a shared dorm.

Just off Nevsky Prospekt

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Take a seat at any one of the outdoor cafes on Nevsky Prospekt, get a beer and watch the world walk by.

Main street in Petersburg - take the Nevsky Prospekt/Gostiny Dvor metro.

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Situated close to the Catherine and Alexander Palaces at Tsarskoye Selo, this restaurant is excellent and cannot be faulted. The interior is crazy - trees climbing out of the walls and across the ceiling are not to everyones taste - but it has excellent and reasonably-priced food (the solyanka is to die for) and the service is friendly and quick. Definitely head here after a day of sightseeing.

2 Sredniaya St, Pushkin. First left after Alexander Palace on Dvortsovaya Ulitsa.

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This is a trolley bus service that for 10 rubles takes you all the way up (or down) Nevsky Prospect. The trolley buses whizz past so fast it can be hard to decipher the place names if you don't speak Russian but this service takes all the leg work out of Nevsky and means it is less stressful when trying to cross the street. Just wait at the bus stop and smile when boarding - it disarms the ticket collector and they are then generally helpful. There are others but this one is safe, fast and easy to use. Whereas the Metro isn't much help as it goes no further along than Gostiiny Dvor.

The trolley buses run frequently up and down Nevsky Prospect.

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This is the smallest of the three ‘out of town’ royal palaces and, from the outside, the least ostentatious. It was built for Catherine’s son Paul and is situated in the middle of a large, wooded park that seems very popular with the locals nowadays. Inside it’s decorated as lavishly as any of the others and includes a Grecian Hall, an Italian Hall and a Hall of War.

From St Petersburg Vitebsk station to Pavlovsk station. Then a 30 minute walk through the park or buses 370 or 383. Guided tours also available.

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This is a three-star, going on four-star modern hotel, fairly recently built right opposite St Vladimir’s church. From a small foyer, access is via a lift to floors five – seven where the hotel is located above four levels of shops built around an atrium. The rooms are modern, clean and comfortable, the views vary from the atrium itself to the more usual street scenes. The restaurant and top floor bar are both pretty good, but my favourite feature is a multi-language cash machine in the foyer - Dostoevsky would not have approved.

Vladimir Prospekt 19

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Taking photos on the metro will attract the attention of the metro police and a modest but inconvenient fine having to be paid. On the positive side, the police are very helpful giving directions when your knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet fails you in the stations.

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