- Meeting with you in your hotel anywhere in Saint Petersburg
- Hop on your private car
- Meet your private tour guide and enjoy 50 minutes ride to Peterhof Palace
- Arrive to Peterhof
Peterhof. Peter the Great commissioned Peterhof Palace as a direct response to the Palace of Versailles in France. Peterhof is one of Saint Petersburg’s most famous and popular visitor attractions. Versailles was, however, the inspiration for Peter the Great’s desire to build an imperial palace in the suburbs of his new city and after an aborted attempt at Strelna, Peterhof which means Peter’s Court became the site for the Emperor’s Monplaisir Palace and then of the original Grand Palace. The estate was equally popular with Peter’s daughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace and greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade.
Highlights:
Peterhof Palace is divided into two parts Lower garden and Upper garden.
1.Lower garden with Fountains. As well as Peterhof’s celebrated fountains, the Lower Park contains the numerous elegant buildings constructed for Peter the Great along the shores of the Gulf of Finland. The spectacular parkland at Peterhof is remarkable for the sheer variety of styles encompassed in its layout and features. The fountains of Peterhof were intrinsic to Peter the Great’s original plans for Peterhof – it was the impossibility of engineering sufficiently powerful jets of water that prompted him to move his attentions from the Strelna site to Peterhof – and subsequent generations competed with their predecessors to add grander and ever more ingenious water features to the parkland surrounding the Grand Palace.
2.Upper Garden. Surrounding the Grand Palace, Peterhof’s Upper Garden is an immaculately laid out formal garden dating from the reign of Empress Elizabeth. The Grand Palace was designed to be the centerpiece of Peter the Great’s “Russian Versaille”. Around 1720, the Emperor gave up on attempts to establish his court at Strelna, mainly because the boggy ground proved entirely unsuitable for the canals and fountains that he envisioned. Moving his attentions further west to Peterhof, the Emperor began to draw up his own plans for the grounds and palace. Work had already begun on a modest palace, designed by Jean-Baptiste Le Blond, in 1714, and that building was completed in 1721.
- Finish. Return to city
- Transfer to your hotel
Tour cost:
- $99 per person
- $55 p.p 2 pax
- $45 p.p 3-10 pax
What is included:
- Hotel pick up and drop
- Drinking bottled water
- Private tour guide
- Fuel and parking fee
- All taxes
- Lower garden entrance
What is not included
- Grand palace and other upper garden building entrance tickets
- Food and drinks
- Any extra sightseeing
- Tipping and gratitude
