Private Hermitage Museum & Treasure Room (Visas Included)

Experience overview

Aside from the Louvre in Paris, no other collection rivals the size and quality of the Hermitage Museum. On this cultural St. Petersburg tour, your knowledgeable English-speaking guide will lead you to the museum's many highlights. Founded by Catherine the Great upon purchasing 255 paintings from Berlin, the Hermitage now has over 2.7 million displays. With masterpieces by Da Vinci, Raphael, Monet, Rembrandt, and Renoir the Hermitage Museum is regarded as a marvel, both inside and out. You'll enjoy early admission to the museum on your private tour of the Hermitage, and will begin your exploration of this great collection before the official opening hours. The splendor of the museum, with its collection displayed in four opulent structures from the 18th and 19th centuries, is epitomized by the grandeur of numerous reception halls, such as the Throne, Ball, Malachite, and Gold Rooms. The collection in the Treasure Room (Golden room or Diamond room) is not to be missed, and on this guided St. Petersburg tour of the Hermitage, you get access to it all. The Treasure Room showcases archeological relics, including the Siberian collection of Peter the Great, the Scythian Gold of the 7th-4th centuries B.C., as well as diplomatic gifts and rare possessions of the imperial family. You'll also visit the General Staff building, where you will see masterpieces of 19th and 20th centuries. The paintings here include key works of Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin, Seurat, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso, to name but a few. This spectacular, Visas Included St. Petersburg tour covers all fees, plus bottled water. Snacks are available for purchase and restaurant recommendations can be made. Please note: this St. Petersburg excursion has limited availability and must be pre-reserved no later than 90 days prior to a scheduled tour date. Please Note: All of our tours in St. Petersburg are operated by authorized guides, and you therefore do not need to secure an independent visa in order to participate in this tour. However, in order to book this tour, you must provide us with full names, dates of birth, nationality, and passport numbers for each tour participant so that our guides can secure the proper tour visas on your behalf. Note also that, if you wish to explore St. Petersburg on your own while not accompanied by one of our guides, you will need to secure an independent visa. Please be aware that cruise lines occasionally mislead passengers by telling them that they are not allowed to disembark the ship in St. Petersburg unless they are on an excursion purchased through the cruise line. In addition, the cruise lines also sometimes tell passengers that they cannot disembark the ship until the passengers on the cruise lines' excursions have done so first. This is incorrect, and you are free to exit the ship as soon as passengers start to disembark because Russian law states that a cruise ship cannot hold passengers onboard against their will as long as they have the proper documents. In order to clear immigration, you will need to bring along: 1) Your passport; 2) A photocopy of the picture page of your passport; and 3) A copy of your tour tickets. We will provide you with your tour tickets as part of the documents we e-mail to you after you make a tour booking.