A guide to Saint Petersburg for football fans

For football fans travelling to Saint Petersburg this summer, you’ll find plenty of culture, nightlife and attractions to keep you entertained in between matches. Here are the five highlights of this thrilling city, according to global travellers.

Skyline

With gold-leaf cathedral domes, light blue Baroque palaces, neoclassical church spires and industrial Soviet blocks, the varied architecture of Saint Petersburg creates an eclectic skyline. As of relatively recently, there are rooftop tours available for anyone who doesn’t suffer from vertigo, while the number of bars and restaurants that provide great city vantage points is also growing; Mansarda and Makaronniki are two of the most popular, with the former looking straight out onto St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Stay at the swanky Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel, just opposite Mansarda.

Parks

Make the most of Saint Petersburg’s long summer days and white nights (a natural phenomenon due to the city’s high latitude whereby the sun never fully sets) by heading to one of the old imperial capital’s many parks. Each green space possesses a distinct character from the next, from the grandeur of the greenhouses and giant lily pads in the Botanical Garden of Peter the Great, to the peaceful pagodas and statue-lined boulevards of Letniy Sad (the Summer Garden). The Grand Hotel Petrogradsky offers modern, light-filled rooms just around the corner from the botanical gardens.

Culture

Thanks to the warm weather and the twilight glow created by the white nights, summer in Saint Petersburg sees the cultural scene spill out onto the streets with events extended well into the evenings. The White Nights festival runs from late May to mid July and brings a 24-hour celebratory – almost euphoric – mood to the city; not to mention daily performances at the Mariinsky Theatre and the Mariinsky Concert Hall. There are open-air concerts, DJs playing in courtyards draped with fairy lights, classical ballet performances, and other events. It all culminates with the Scarlet Sails, a massive theatrical public show on the Neva River with a sailing ship that’s illuminated in purple, fireworks and music. Aparthotel Saint-P provides great-value, highly rated accommodation minutes from the Mariinsky Theatre.

Cafés

Café culture in Saint Petersburg is strong, with speciality coffee available in eccentric venues like historic grottos, libraries and palatial tea rooms. Bolshe is a café housed in a grotto that dates back to the Tsarist era, where you’ll find beans roasted in-house and espresso with a real kick. Then there’s Biblioteka, a café-cum-bookshop, and Books and Coffee, which was opened by Russian writer Aleksandr Zhitnitsky and hosts screenings, concerts and creative events. Visit Café Singer to gaze out of the window at the curved Kazansky Cathedral. Or relax in the concrete-adorned Coffee 22, with its industrial decor and ambient electronic music. Stay practically next door to Biblioteka at Abajour on Nevsky.

History

Of all the cities in the world, Saint Petersburg has one of the most fascinating histories. From ancient imperial rule through bloody revolutions and Soviet rule, there’s a wealth of unmissable landmarks and museums that are truly spine tingling in person. You could spend days exploring the Hermitage Museum alone, before you’ve even set food in the city’s cathedrals, fortresses and palaces. Some of the most monumental are the Winter Palace (former residence of Russian tsars) and the Peter and Paul Fortress including an on-site museum. And of course the elaborate bulbous domes of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, thus named because it was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881. Put your feet up after an afternoon spent in the Hermitage at the nearby Bridge Hotel.