Over two centuries of capital status, a huge number of majestic architectural monuments were built in Saint Petersburg, which still attract tourists not only from Russia but also from many other countries of the world.
One of the formats for tourist visits to Saint Petersburg is weekend tours. Typically, this term refers to tourist trips where the duration of stay in the visited city or region is about two days (two days/one night). But for getting acquainted with Saint Petersburg, two days is a very short time due to the large number of significant landmarks in the city, and often quite large distances between them.
Therefore, even travel agencies often offer to get acquainted with Petersburg in the format of weekend tours lasting about three days (three days/two nights).
Weekend tours from travel agencies are well suited for a first introduction to Saint Petersburg. They are very packed, but some tourists consider them overly fast-paced, preferring to organize their own acquaintance with the city on their own, if not on the first trip, then on the second.
If you decide to go this way, then first of all you need to resolve the issue of accommodation. Most of your trip time will likely be spent walking around the city and its landmarks, so it's hardly worth overpaying and using expensive hotels where you will only sleep anyway. It will be enough to choose a mid-range hotel or rent an apartment in Saint Petersburg with daily payment.
Next, you should compile a list of landmarks you intend to visit. Guidebooks usually list among the most significant landmarks of Saint Petersburg the Hermitage, Kazan Cathedral, Smolny Cathedral, Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Bronze Horseman monument, Nevsky Prospekt, the Admiralty, the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, Palace Square, and Senate Square. This is a good list, but if you have decided to rent an apartment on your own, then when compiling the list of visited landmarks, you should use your imagination.
Include those interesting places in the city that you specifically want to visit, even if you have to sacrifice visiting two or three landmarks from the generally accepted list that are less interesting to you.
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