Guide to Visiting Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg

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Peterhof Palace is Peter the Great’s Palace that he built in the early 1700s to rival Versailles. Not only is it a grand palace, but the grounds around the palace are full of extravagant fountains and museums showcasing imperial life in St. Petersburg.

It took me awhile until I started to enjoy my time at Peterhof Palace. It may have been because of the rainy day, which is very common in St. Petersburg, or it may have been my confusion with the ticket system or apparent lack of food options. I can’t prevent a rainy day, but hopefully I can provide a few more details to make your visit better. The website really doesn’t make visiting clear, so I am going to be a little more detailed in giving information on how to visit!

Getting There & Back

Taking a car is more expensive and time consuming with traffic. Public transportation is possible but takes much longer. What looked like the best way to me was by hydrofoil.

The high speed hydrofoil boats go from the city center directly to the lower gardens of the palace. From the city there are a couple of different companies on the Neva River behind the Hermitage museum. They run about every 30 minutes starting around 10am and ending at about 6pm. Only buy a one way ticket so you are not tied into a particular company or time for departure.

The journey goes on the Neva River and through the Gulf of Finland quickly and comfortably. It takes about 30 – 40 minutes and there are toilets, but no food sold onboard. I rode with two different companies coming and going, both looked and felt exactly the same. They both even had the same annoying 10 minute sales pitch for various souvenirs.

You reach the dock, which has a short pier that goes directly to the ticket booths of the lower park and palace. On your arrival  you will see the ticket booths for your transportation on the way back home. Make sure you check the times to plan when you want to leave.

Overview

The complex is divided into the upper garden and the lower park.

Upper Garden

-Free admission to the garden

Lower Park

-Admission 900 roubles (~$14)

-If you exit the lower park and go to the upper garden you will need to pay admission again. If you are taking the hydrofoil back you will need to pay and enter the lower park, walk through it and exit on the other end to the hydrofoil.

-Hydrofoils only arrive and depart with access to the lower park.

-The ticket to the lower park contains: the grounds and all the fountains

-You need to pay additional admission for places within the lower park: The Peterhof Palace, Aviaries, Imperial Yachts Museum, Museum of the Fountain Craft, Special Treasury, Grottoes of the Grand Cascade, Historical & Cultural Project “The Court Entertainments”, Marly Palace, Hermitage Pavilion, Bathhouse Block, Catherine Block, Monplaisir Palace

Tickets

Let me start by saying that the ticket situation and layout is really confusing here. Throughout the day I realized I wasn’t the only one confused either. Other people were trying to enter places they didn’t have tickets to and were getting some not so friendly responses back from the staff. Basically you need at least a lower park ticket to enter from the hydrofoil to go anywhere and then you need different tickets to enter each place at the complex.

Upon arriving at the ticket booth I saw that all the ticket information was in Russian. I know when you are in a foreign country you can’t complain if you don’t know the language, but at one of the biggest tourist attractions it was like come on, couldn’t you have this printed in English especially when it is clear that so many people are confused about what their ticket is for?

I just went up to the desk and held up one finger for one ticket. I figured out later that the ticket I received was just for the lower park grounds. I couldn’t visit any of the buildings. It was 900 roubles (~$14). According to the website for 1100 roubles ( ~$17) you can visit the lower park and one museum, not including the main palace. The website gives a description of all the museums.

Then there are multiple other ticket options available online and possibly at the ticket booth. I would recommend buying tickets online because then you can translate the website and know exactly what you are buying and for how much. Even if you don’t buy tickets online I would take a look here beforehand so you have a general idea of what is available. Tickets can also be bought directly at the various museums/palaces.

Lower Park

I ended up only buying the lower park ticket and spending my time wandering around the gardens and fountains. Like me, you can easily fill several hours doing only this. Maybe it is because it was rainy when I visited the right side of the park and sunnier when I visited the left, but I liked the left side of the park (as you are facing the palace) better.

Fountains

If you love fountains, this is the place for you! If you are spending most of your time just wandering around the lower park you will run into many like I did. Good luck trying to see them all. I thought I spent a lot of time meandering throughout the park and there were many fountains I didn’t find.

Bathhouse Block

If I would have visited a museum this would have been one of my top choices. It’s a chance to see what everyday life of the imperial court was like and learn about their bathing procedures!

Grand Peterhof Palace

This is the main attraction and where the hordes of tourists congregate and push for the perfect picture. Along with visiting the palace you can visit the grottoes of the Grand Cascade. Seeing how things actually work can be quite interesting.

It was enjoyable just looking at the palace and grounds from different views too. I initially took photos in the rain, so when it stopped I had to revisit and take all the shots again of course!

Food

There is a little cafe type restaurant near the pier entrance. It serves basic park fare, such as burgers and sandwiches, and is cash only. The little food stands throughout the park all sell the same type of food and are cash only as well. Even though a worker told me the whole park was cash only, I later found two restaurants next to each other, one more a casual buffet place and the other a nicer sit down place, that had credit card machines. The restaurant was called Shtandart and had different options from the other places. There is also food near the palace on the other side of the gates. But remember if you leave you will have to pay to enter back into the park!

Toilets

All toilets are free within the lower park. One is near the pier entrance. A few throughout the park and one inside the palace before the ticketed area.

Does it make more or less sense now!? Oh I forgot to mention they don’t have maps either….well as far as I know. In the hordes of tourists I didn’t see a single person with one. It’s a beautiful place though, so all confusion aside, go visit! 

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