Guide Books

The Rough Guide to St Petersburg is an excellent addition to the series, with exhaustive and entertaining information on the history and culture of the city, written with wit and a genuine understanding of Russian life and traditions. These guides are not that regularly updated, so the listings of restaurants and nightspots may not be so useful, but the general advice on traveling in Russia is accurate and comprehensive. If you only plan to buy one book about the city, this is the one we would recommend.

The Lonely Planet St Petersburg is also quite adequate, although considerably shorter. It is accurate and up-to-date, but not particularly engaging. Designed predominantly for budget travelers, it can go slightly too far in its efforts to recommend economies, but the reviews are normally correct.

Fodor's Moscow and St Petersburg was once unmitigatedly awful, but seems to have improved since the fifth edition. Every effort is made to keep the books up-to-date and, if you like the series, then this won't disappoint.

The Eyewitness Guide to St Petersburg is a little old but very popular with some travelers, who find the series' user-friendly maps and illustrations extremely useful for getting around. There isn't that much detail in the book, but it contains more than the bare minimum and is beautifully illustrated.