Hotels in Petergof

Central Peterhof is the triangle between Novy Peterhof station, Sankt-Peterburgsky Prospekt and the Upper Garden — ten to fifteen minutes on foot from here to the Lower Park ticket offices. The whole point of sleeping here is to catch the morning start-up of the Grand Cascade before the hydrofoils and the coach groups from St Petersburg arrive. Most of what you'll find is small-scale: historic mansions, mini-hotels and rooms on quiet side streets, which is why summer dates go early.

If you're driving and plan to take in Strelna, Peterhof and Oranienbaum in one trip, the tight centre is the wrong place to park yourself — it's easier to base near Sankt-Peterburgskoye Shosse and Alexandria Park. Getting out in any direction is simple from here, and the entrance to Alexandria with Nicholas I's Cottage Palace turns out to be practically across the road. On-site parking is far more common here than in the historic streets around the Upper Garden.

The western part of town around 1 Maya Street means Stary Peterhof station, the St Petersburg University campus and the calmest price level in the city. It works for a work trip to the university, for a student visit, or simply for anyone who cares more about having the train nearby than about a view of the fountains. The Lower Park is a couple of bus stops away, or half an hour on foot through quiet dacha streets.

Groups of friends and large families are usually better off renting a whole house in Peterhof rather than a room — with their own kitchen, a banya or sauna and a yard for the grill. These places sit on the outskirts and in the dacha settlements south and west of town: no neighbours through the wall, and nobody counting what time you got back from your walk. You'll need to drive to the fountains, but the evening is entirely your own.

Spas and pools in Peterhof cluster on the edges rather than in the centre — out towards Lugovoy Park, in Strelna and in the villages of the Lomonosovsky district. It's a strong plan for the shoulder season: the fountains are already switched off and more than a couple of hours in the parks gets cold, but the evening ends with a sauna and a pool. It suits couples on a weekend break as much as families who need a fallback for a rainy day.

Lomonosov sits very close to Peterhof, and from there you can walk to Oranienbaum with its Chinese Palace and Katalnaya Gorka pavilion. It's also a convenient place to extend the route further west along the southern shore of the gulf — towards Lebyazhye and the forts — or to head over to Kronstadt. Staying on this side saves you the round trip if you're spreading the palace suburbs over two days.

In high season Peterhof sells out almost completely, and the villages ten or twenty kilometres out stop being a compromise and become a perfectly good plan B. Strelna lies right on the road from St Petersburg, while the villages of the Lomonosovsky district offer forest, ponds and quiet instead of tour-group noise. The logic is simple: drive half an hour to the fountains in the morning and sleep where there's still space.

Sleeping in Peterhof wins you the morning at the fountains, but if the park is only one item on a bigger St Petersburg itinerary, it makes more sense to stay in the city and go out for the day. Hydrofoils run from the central embankments in summer and buses from the metro in the south-west, and the trip takes under an hour each way. In that scenario, base yourself close to Nevsky and the piers so you don't lose the morning before you've even set off.