I had toured St. Petersburg with Mila in the past with another company and was delighted with my experience. I wanted to be sure that the group (7 of us in total) that I was travelling with would enjoy themselves as much as I had a few years ago, so I reached out to Mila directly to plan our visit.
This time, Mila far exceeded the already high expectations that we had for her. Since we last saw her on tour, she has started working on building her own company and she has pulled out all the stops in doing so.
Since I had already visited in the past, I had an idea of what places my family would appreciate, and we all wanted some quality time together, so I decided to arrange a two-day private tour for us. I contacted Mila and explained that we wanted to tour Catherine's Palace, The Hermitage, The Church on the Spilled Blood, and Peterhoff Park, and we were open to suggestions for other places to fill our itinerary. I also mentioned that it was essential for our group to have lunch at Stolle at least once, though we were also open to suggestions in this area as well.
Mila responded warmly with a list of her recommendations for places to visit based on the information I gave her about our group. After checking with everyone else, we decided that we wanted to also go on a canal cruise, visit Grand Maket, the Soviet Arcade Museum, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and its colonnade (I did a brief write-up of them at the bottom).
Admittedly, I had never heard of either of Grand Maket or the arcade, but she assured us that these were proverbial "hidden gems" and would give us a chance to get away from the crowds that the main attractions tend to draw in. We decided to give it a try nonetheless and we were all glad that we had.
If you have the opportunity, you absolutely must visit St. Isaac's Cathedral. Its interior evokes the same feeling of inspiration and wonder as St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican with a scale that is nearly as impressive.
During our tour Mila once again proved that she is an expert at navigating small groups of people through large crowds and makes it look effortless in the process. At every one of the museums, palace, etc. that we visited, Mila explained to us the historical backgrounds of each of them with her usual sense of humor and wit. If she would have been my history teacher in high school, I would have gotten much better grades!
While on tour, she paid special attention to the older members of our group and invited them to sit whenever it became clear to her that they were starting to fatigue. It truly did feel as if an old friend was showing us around the city as her guest.
Overall, everyone in our group was extremely pleased with our private tour and we couldn't have hoped for more. Further, since we went with the private tour option, we were able to make changes to the itinerary (slowing down, speeding up, or stopping for a snack), which just isn't possible with a larger group of strangers.
I've encountered tour guides in the past who insist on going through every word of their script, regardless of if the group was interested or not and needless to say, it was not pleasant.
Mila is a wonderful tour guide with a delightful personality and a great understanding of what we needed, often before we even realized what we needed ourselves! She was friendly and personable without being imposing or intrusive, guiding our visits while allowing us to enjoy each other's company. If you find yourself with the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg, you'd be remiss if you didn't contact Mila to help plan your stay.
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I'll forgo further descriptions of the usual sites (Catherine's Palace, etc.), since they've been written about exhaustively and I'd like to shed some light on these less well-known attractions for anyone reading this who might not otherwise look into these options.
St. Isaac's Cathedral Colonnade
This is another one of those "must-sees". After climbing a few hundred steps up a spiral staircase to the colonnade below the cathedral's cupola, we were greeted with an incredible panoramic view of the city. Because of the city's design, namely - all "usual" buildings being limited in height, we were able to see over the tops of all of them. This view really put into perspective for us how beautiful of a city St. Petersburg is and we were able to see all the major sites that people come from all around the world to see. If you are physically able, do yourself a favor and pay a visit to the colonnade for the view alone.
Grand Maket
Grand Maket is a huge miniature (the oxymoron isn't lost on me) of Russia and depicts scene from all around the country. All throughout the model are many little playful and witty "Easter eggs" and life-like depictions of scenes, many of which are activat1ed by pressing a button on the outside wall of the model.
Among these were a group of protestors holding signs such as "Move your hands away from us!" (referring to guests who might not be able to overcome the temptation to reach into the model) and "They break us!". Another scene depicted a fire truck dousing a forest fire that was breaking out, complete with smoke and a simulation of a stream of water dousing the flames.
The attention to detail throughout the model was fantastic and the scenes from the various regions of Russia gave us a better perspective of what lies outside of the usual destinations- St. Petersburg and Moscow. This was much in the same way that Disney's EPCOT would give children a better perspective of the cultures in a few countries of the world.
These scenes raised many questions for our group and Mila was available the whole time to explain what life is like in other regions of Russia, though we were free to explore the layout on our own. Overall the model was very enjoyable and was a welcome change of pace from the rest of the itinerary.
The Soviet Arcade Museum
Before we decided on visiting this museum, which doesn't sound very compelling on its own, Mila had explained to us that it is more of an "Arcade" than a museum. In other words, though this museum features many arcade cabinets from the times of the Soviet Union, they aren't housed in glass to be observed from a distance. Instead, these cabinets are out in the open and are available to interact with. Let me clarify, these were not reproductions, but actual vintage arcade cabinets available for use.
When we arrived, we were each handed a small paper pouch with a stack of actual (from the 1960's, hammer and sickle and all) 15 kopek coins. This instantly took me back to visiting the arcade as a child with my father and it was a great feeling. Mila gave us a quick run-down of her favorites after showing us how to use the soda dispensing machine, which I had previously only seen in movies.
Like in The Grand Maket, we were able to enjoy the museum independently and at our own pace, but Mila was available the whole time to help us understand how a given game worked or to interpret the signage for us. In the center of the arcade is a small full-service cafe with a wide selection of teas, coffee, and espresso drinks. With our inner-children taking over, we opted for ice cream, which really rounded out the experience.
