St. Petersburg Excursions

One of the benefits of studying abroad is the ability to venture outside your host city and explore the surrounding area. Excursions are offered for all semester, trimester, year, and summer programs. You will receive a calendar of the specific CEA excursions offered for your program during orientation. To give you an idea of the possibilities, we have collected typical experiences from some of the tours and trips we may offer to our students.

Moscow

Students will travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow by night train with couchettes and arrive refreshed for an early-morning city sightseeing tour of Russia’s capital city. A weekend is just enough time to get familiar with the main attractions of this colossal metropolis of 8 million inhabitants. The day will begin with a visit of the area of Red Square, taking in the Kremlin, Lenin’s tomb and the extraordinary St. Basil’s Cathedral, whose onion-shaped domes are undoubtedly one of Russia's most famous images. Before lunch, students will stroll through the GUM shopping mall-- a stunning architectural masterpiece of the late 19th century. In the afternoon, students will visit fashionable Tverskaya Street with its great variety of shops, cafes and restaurants, then on to Victory Park, which was built to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War. No visit to Moscow is complete without a visit to the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer. Demolished by Stalin in 1931, it was recently rebuilt from scratch to mark the 850th Anniversary of the founding of Moscow. After dinner in a typical Russian restaurant, CEA staff will recommend a ballet or opera performance at the world-famous Bolshoi Theater, or a show at the Moscow Art Theater or Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Students are also free to take a cruise on the river Neva, visit the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery or pick up some cheap souvenirs at the Izmailovsky flea-market, or just enjoy riding the beautiful Moscow Metro.

Peterhof (Petrodvorets)

Students will travel by hydrofoil from the Hermitage jetty to Peterhof, St. Petersburg's most famous and spectacular Imperial estate. Former summer residence of the Russian tsars during the 18th and 19th centuries, this amazing complex of gardens and pavilions houses more than 150 spectacular fountains and water cascades. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, Peterhof was built by Peter the Great to rival the Château de Versailles in France. The focal point of both the Lower Park and the Upper Garden is the magnificent Grand Palace with its fascinating and elaborate interiors and the Grand Cascade featuring the impressive golden statue of Samson grasping the jaws of the lion. Spend the afternoon strolling around the wonderful parks admiring great abundance of water features.

Staraya Ladoga

CEA will take students on a journey to Medieval Russia to visit one of its most ancient and magnificent cities, Staraya Ladoga, which was founded by the Slavs in 753 and is located 70 miles east of St. Petersburg on the Volkhov river. Staraya Ladoga was the center of political power in ancient Russia during the eighth and ninth centuries, when it was one of the ten largest Russian cities. Today it is a site of archeological discovery and is surrounded by a national park that remains faithful to its 12th century layout, with important archeological sights. The highlights of the trip are visits to Ladoga Fortress, Rurik's Settlement, the 12th century Church of St. Nicholas, the 16th century Church of St. John the Baptist, the 18th and 19th century monasteries and ancient pagan ritual sights and the burial mounds known as Kurgan (Russian: курга́н).

Tsarskoye Selo (Czar’s Village)

CEA staff will take students out of the city and back in time to visit the lavish imperial palaces of Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar’s Village), formerly known as Pushkin. Catherine Palace matches the splendor of Europe’s finest residences. Its magnificent turquoise, white and gold baroque façade is lavishly decorated with a line of atlantes, columns and pilasters and stretches for 980 feet. Highlights of the interior are the ornate Great Staircase, Rastrelli’s Great Hall and the Amber Room, which took Russian craftsmen over twenty years to restore. The parks and gardens are truly magnificent and stretch over 1,500 acres! Named after its creator, Empress Catherine, the second wife of Peter the Great, the original palace was built between 1717 and 1723 by the architect Braunstein. The more modest Alexander Palace, built between 1792 and 1796 by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi, was the favorite residence of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family. Nicholas was kept under house arrest here after his abdication in August 1917. From here Nicholas and his family were taken to Siberia to be executed in Ekaterinburg in 1918. Many of the family's personal possessions, still fill the rooms.