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Advice for foreigners visiting the Hermitage Museum: Find a tour group. This may have changed, call the museum ahead of time to find out.: They're 200 rubles instead of 350, and include the photography fee and a whistle-stop tour of the museum (but note the free entry for students). Don't accept a tour from the numerous touts hanging around the queue. Instead, march past the queue and in through the main ntrance, or the exit opposite if the queue's blocking the entrance (don't worry, you're not queue-jumping). Have a scout around for notices with museum tour times in your native language, or in extreme circumstances, ask at the desk. If you find a good candidate, you're all set to go to the Tours Office to book yourself on it. This is where things get slightly surreal. To get to the Tours Office from the main entrance, go forward past the cashiers, and turn left down the corridor. The Tours Office is in front of you at the end, and may or may not be marked. Get yourself a place on your tour, collect the bit of paper, go to cashier No. 5 (who is not with the rest of them, instead turn left out of the Tours Office and she's in a box at the end of the corridor), pay, get your paper stamped, take it back to the Tours Office and get it checked, stamped again and muttered over and then you're ready to brave the coat dungeon.

• The Hermitage Museum/The Winter Palace [3] is Saint Petersburg's prime attraction, a massive palace-cum-museum showing the highlights of a collection of over 3,000,000 pieces spanning the globe. The Hermitage is truly one of the world's great museums, with an imposing setting displaying priceless works by Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Michealangelo, Reubens and more. It is recommended, though not required!, to get a tour guide. They can charge as much as $100 but they can tell you more about the building and the items and take you directly to the items you want to see.

Ticketing is complex, but the Hermitage itself is 100 rubles for Russians and 350 rubles for foreigners. Students of all nationalities get in for free, but don't forget your student card with photo! Entrance is free on the first Thursday of every month. Bags aren't allowed in the museum (and while technically neither are cameras without the appropriate ticket, they never check the photo-permission tickets so it's not worth buying them), so stash them in the busy cloakroom.

• Russian Museum This is the other museum in St. Petersburg.

• Peter and Paul Fortress You can go in for free, but to enter the church and exhibitions you need tickets. You can get a combo ticket for everything, or you can just enter the church. Other than the church, which is where the all of the Romanov Czars of Russia (bar two or three) are buried, the other things on the island aren't terribly impressive, so it might be worth it to just see the church.

• The Admiralty, located in the area of Admiralteyskaya. You can't g

If you wish to see newly released American films, be aware that most cinemas in St. Petersburg show these films dubbed (often quite poorly) in Russian. There is a theater called the Dom Kino that sometimes shows films in their original language. It can be found at #12 Karavannaya Ulitsa (near Gostiniy Dvor metro station). If you can't find your favorite film showing in English, there are places where you can purchase bootleg DVDs of new releases. Many such shops can be found in the vicinity of the Sadovaya metro station. Sometimes, these discs are also only in Russian, and the labels aren't always accurate as to which languages are available. Now these shops are desroyed. Some (but not all) shops are willing to test the DVD on an in-house TV to make certain it has English available.

As St Petersburg is located on the water, a tour of the canals by boat is a great way to see the city.

• Chainaya Lozhka There are a few of these fast food restaurants in St. Petersburg. They serve blini (Russian crepes) with a variety of fillings. They also have a wide selection of teas.

• Teremok, Locations all over the city. These street corner bliny stands serve arguably the best food in the city. Nothing, absolutely nothing, tastes better than hot Russian crepes with mushrooms, caramel, berries, or what have you with a cup of tea on a cold winter street. 20-80 rubles for a filling meal.