St Petersburg

I spent 6 weeks in St. Petersburg this summer, and I never left the flat without this book. It's incredibly useful. If you are going to St. Petersburg, you need it. Trust me.

I just returned from St. Petersburg. The Lonley Planet guide was amazingly helpful. This little pocket sized book contains virtually everything one needs to navigate the city, find hotels, restaurants, visit the important and novel sites, and gain a perspective on the city's history.There is also a section on language and phrases as well as easy to follow maps of the subway. If you go, I also recommend a companion purchase, Lonley Planet's map of St. Petersburg. It is laminated and fits easily into one's coat pocket.

Amazing amazing book. This was my invaluable guidebook when it came to travelling St. Petersburg and the outlying districts for a week and a half (alone). I brought three books with me to St. P and soon was bringing along only this one when I went out. It has exact details/directions for everything, and really provides all the nitty-gritty that other guidebooks lack. If you want to buy one book, buy this one. If you want to buy more than one, still buy this.

I visited the wonderful city of St Petersburg in 1996, and I treated Nick Selby's first edition of this book as my most valuable possession while I was there. As an independent traveller with no guide other than the Lonely Planet, I relied very heavily on this little gem of a book, and it never let me down.From purchasing a train ticket in Finland (the book describes the process of purchasing your ticket in Helsinki in absolute detail), to finding somewhere to stay (the St Petersburg hostel), to navigating the streets (all signposted in Cyrillic), to following in the footsteps of great authors (like my personal favourite, Dostoevsky) this book was my friend and saviour.As an English-only speaker I found St Petersburg to be an intimidating city (very few people speak English, and the Cyrillic script adds several degrees of difficulty to written communication), so I honestly don't think I could have attempted, let alone survived, independent travel in this fabulous city without this book.

The group I was with in Russia had every guidebook under the sun, and the LP guide only one we ended up consistantly using. Like all guidebooks, some of the information is out of date. For instance, the prices listed in the guide were often 4-5 times higher than what we ended up paying (not that I'm complaining). Overall, the guide is very accurate, the maps are great, and the suggestions are right on the money. Nick Selby's wit and style make the guide not only practical but highly entertaining. You aren't going to find a better St. Pete guidebook.