Useful Information and Contacts

Author: Maria Mushtrieva (on 19 Mar 2015)
City guides, pharmacies, laundromats, shopping and more useful information about St. Petersburg

CITY GUIDES & INFORMATION.

City Tourist Information Centre (www.eng.ispb.info) is a state organization that provides different kinds of free information for tourists, like info about places to visit, things to do, cultural events in the city, hotels, travel companies, tourist safety, transportation, etc.
The main office: Address: Sadovaya st., 14/52 (metro station "Gostiny dvor"); opening hours: 10.00-19.00 weekdays, 12.00-18.00 Saturday; Sunday - closed; tel./fax: +7 (812) 310-28-22
Information support: tel.: +7 (812) 310-22-31; e-mail: service@ispb.info, infocenter_spb@mail.ru
Tourist Helpline: tel.: +7 (812) 300 33 33 or 0333
Their information bureaus:
Sadovaya street, 14 (10.00-19.00, daily). Tel.: +7 (812) 310 2822
Sadovaya street, 37 (10.00-19.00, daily). Tel.: +7 (812) 570 7625
Palace square, 12 (10.00-19.00, daily). Tel.: +7 (812) 982 8253
Pulkovo-1 (10.00-19.00, daily);
Pulkovo-2 (10.00-19.00, daily);
Moskovsky railway station (10.00-19.00, daily);
Peter and Paul Fortress (10.00-19.00, daily);
St. Isaac’s square (10.00-19.00, daily). Tel.: +7 (812) 331 3862
City port "Morskoy fasad". Tel.: +7 (812) 326 9803

Travel guides to St Petersburg:
Rough Guide (http://www.roughguides.com)
Lonely Planet (http://www.lonelyplanet.com).
For a directory of companies' addresses and contacts (yellowpages) the best guide in English is this website - http://www.yellowpages.ru/ (choose St. Petersburg).
A good St Petersburg guide in Russian is the local Afisha (Афиша) magazine sold almost everywhere. You can see what's on in St Pete on their site also at http://www.spb.afisha.ru/
The main English language newspaper is The Saint Petersburg Times (http://www.sptimesrussia.com). There are almost the same articles as in The Moscow Times, but also some local news and a classifieds section. You can get this newspapers in some hotels, business centers, big supermarkets, restaurants and clubs for free.

EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS. In the most emergency services only Russian is spoken.
Fire Rescue: 01 | Police: 02 or 164-9787 (for foreigners) | Medical Care (government): 03 | Information about casualities: 278-0055 | International phonecalls (order): 077 | Exact time: 060 | Train Schedules: 055 | Information Line: 326-9696 (24h) or 09 (only russian) or 050 | 24h pharmacy: 325-0900 | Lost & found: 278-3690 (Zakharevskaya ul., #9; open: mon-fri 10-17)

HEALTH. There are plenty of public hospitals in the city, that can provide you with any kind of care and treatment. However, the quality of their service is often quite poor, patients have to wait in line for a long time and most of the doctors speak Russian only. So it might be better to choose one of the private clinics that are quite pricy, but provide better service and are more foreingers friendly. Here's a list of several medical centers in St. Peterburg:

 

Euromed (private). 24-hour emergency medical and dentistry services. All kinds of medical care. Works with the major European and Asian insurance companies. Discounts. Address: Suvorovski pr., #60; tel/fax: +7 (812) 327-0301. internet: www.en.euromed.ru |

American Medical Clinic & Hospital (private) Established in 1993 multi-specialty clinic with 24-hour emergency, intensive care unit, in-patient and outpatient department of premium class, surgical unit, laboratory, modern diagnostics equipment etc. The personnel of the clinic speaks different languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese. Address: 78 Moika embankment; medical helpline: +7 (812) 740 2090; fax: (812) 310 4664; internet:www.amclinic.com/index.php; e-mail: info@amclinic.ru

Medem international clinic(private). Address: Marata ul., #6 (near Mayakovskaya metro station); tel.: +7 (812) 336-3333, emergency tel.: +7 (812) 336-3336; internet http://medem.ru/about_clinic/

Central Medico-Sanitar Department #122 (public) (Sokolov's Hospital). All kinds of emergency and medical care. Address: Kultury pr., #4; emergency tel.: +7 (812) 559-0339, tel.: +7 (812) 558-8687; internet: www.med122.com; email: infomed@med122.com |
 

Pharmacies. There are lots of pharmacies around the city. So if you need to find one look for the sign saying Аптека/Apte'ka (pharmacy in Russian) . 1. Apteka 36, 6. Address: Nevsky prospect, 98 and 158 |||2. Pervaya pomosh. Address: Vasilievsky Island, Line 6, #27A.

LAUNDRY

Prachka. Self-service laundry chain. Additional services and ironing are available. Tel: +7 (812) 318-34-41; email: info@prachka.com.
Addresses: 1. Fontanka Embankment, #123 (near Sadovaya metro station) ||| 2. Bolshaya Monetnaya, #138 (near Petrogradskaya metro station).
Gryazinet. Dry cleaning and laundry services.
Address: Vladimirskii pr., 19A (near Dostoevskaya metro station).
Diada Clean. Laundry, dry cleaning and other related services. Tel.: + 7 (812) 920-24-11, internet: http://www.diada-clean.ru
Addresses: 1. Vereiskaya str., #42 (near Technologicheskii Institute metro station). ||| 2. Pestelya str., #17 (near Chernishevskaya metro station).
Stirka. For alternative laundry experience go to Stirka 40 dergrees, which is a combination of laudry and a cafe-bar. You can drink coffee or beer, play foosball and listen to the music while washing your clothes.
Address: Kazanskaya Str., 26; tel: 8 (812) 314-53-71.


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MONEY. It's better to carry US dollars or euros - then you won't have any problems with changing them. There are currency exchange offices all around St Petersburg, many of them work 24 hours, but it's safer to change money in banks.
There are also many ATMs, usually next to banks' offices, metro stations' exits and department stores. The ATMs take no comission or only 1%, but your bank will charge you about $5 for a transaction.
You can use the credit card in most of the supermarkets, department and clothes stores, restaurants and clubs. Visa and MasterCard are widely accepted, AMEX and Diners are rare.
The most wide-spread travellers' cheques are AMEX and Thomas Cook, you can go to any bank to cash them. The banks are open from 9.00 to 17.00-20.00 usually.

OPEN HOURS. State institutions, offices, companies are usually opened from 9.00 or 10.00 to 18.00 or 19.00 and do not work on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The food stores are usually opened from 8.00 to 20.00 except on sundays from 8.00 to 18.00, but most of them are opened 24 hours. Big department stores, clothing stores, supermarkets are opened all week long from 9.00-10.00 to 21.00-22.00. There are many currency exchange offices working until late night and sometimes 24 hours a day.

PEAK HOURS. Usually 8:00-10:00 in the morning and 17:30-20:00 in the evening. If you don't want to be stuffed, better avoid the metro and public transport during these hours.

PRICES. (in $ US, $1 buys about 30 roubles) St Petersburg is less expensive than Moscow.
The food is relatively cheap: if you cook yourself you'll fit in 200-400R ($7-$12) a day, if you go to the restaurants only, expect to spend from 800 to 1100 R ($22 - $28) a day - of course if you're not up to the luxury stuff.
The transportation is cheap: a ride on the metro is 25 R ($0.85), a bus, a trolley, or a tram is 21 R ($0.7). A taxi will charge 200-500R ($8 - $17) depending on your appearance and your ability to negotiate.
Sometimes, you'll have to pay more than Russians to do sightseeing. Museums and famous sights charge about $3, however there are some tricks, see in the appropriate sections of our site.
If you go partying, you can spend nothing or everything. Some of the clubs don't charge any entrance cover, otherwise expect to pay $5-$10 and more if there's something special. A drink is usually about $5 (local beer can be even cheaper). A meal is about $12.

SAFETY. St Petersburg generally has the same level of security as any other big city. There are quite many policemen on the streets as in Moscow and there's a rare chance to see somebody who might represent a danger (especially in the centrum). The cases of assaults, especially on the foreigners are rare, but unfortunately i would have to say that people different from Caucasian race should be more careful.
Like in any big city you should avoid dark streets in the night, courtyards and some suburb areas. If you're careful with your things, nobody will rob you, however, in the crowdy areas beware of your belongings. Also beware of drunk people. because they might be aggressive towards foreigners. If you were robbed or lost something important. Contact the police (politsia) first and then the embassy of your country. The police phone number is 02, you can dial this number from any payphone for free, but don't expect anyone speaking English there. Also, you can find police stations in the city: there's Politsia - Полиция sign or inside the metro stations. The problem is that police speaks Russian only, so either find someone to help you to explain, or go directly to the embassy of your native country. The addresses of some foreign consulates in St Petersburg are at Practicalities  / Embassies & Consulates page.


SHOPPING / CLOTHES
:
Pay attention, that the prices on clothes of international brands are about 10% higher than in Europe. For a long time Gostiny Dvor (Nevsky Prospekt. #35., metro Gostiny Dvor) has been one of the main shopping spots in the city. However, now it's worth a visit more from a historic point of view rather than shopping. You can find all the main fashion and casual wear western brands represented on Nevsky Prospect. There are lots of shopping malls around the city, but the one definetly worth mentioning is a giant mall "Galleria" on Ligovsky pr., 87 next to Moskovsky Train Station (near pl. Vosstaniya metro station).
For international designer's clothes you should go to Gallery Grand Palace (Nevsky pr, 44) or take a walk down Starii Nevsky Prospekt.
During the weekend there is an informal flea market near Udelnaya metro station (line 2) in the northern part of the city,where you can find antiques, soviet memorabilia, second-hand clothes and lots of other stuff. For vintage clothes try vintage store OFF located near Ligovsky Prospekt metro station (Pechatnika Grigoreva 8 tel. (+7) 812 764 22 67).

SHOPPING / SUPERMARKETS:
1. Land. Address: Vladimirskii pr, 19 in the underground floor of "Vladimirskii Passazh" department store (near Dostoevskaya metro station).
2. Prisma. Address: pl. Aleksandra Nevskogo, 2A (near Ploshad Aleksandra Nevskogo metro station).

SHOPPING / BOOKS:
1. Dom Knigi. The oldest, the biggest and the most famous bookstore in the city, and therefore overpriced. Located on the corner of Nevsky Prospect (Nevsky pr., 28) and Griboegov Canal.
2. Bookvoed. A two-storeyd book shop in the building of Oktiabrskaya Hotel (Ligovsky, pr. 10 ) near Ploshad Vosstaniya metro station has a wide selection of all kinds of books in Russian, fiction and guide books in English, souvenirs. Inside the shop there is cafe, that sometimes becomes a place of movie scrennings, book presentations and other cultural events. Bookvoed is opened 24 hours a day.

SHOPPING / TRAVEL GEAR:
1. Irbis.
Equipment Center of St Petersburg Tourist Club. Fontanka River embank. #38. (metro Sadovaya) tel (812) 312-0856 ||| 2. Snaryazhenie. Liteiny prospekt, #30. (Chernyshevskogo metro) tel (812) 272-79-70 ||| 3. Snaryazhenie. Vasilievsky Island, Line 7, #38 (near Vasileostrovskaya metro station); tel: 323-98-20. ||| 4. Tourist Trading House. St Petersburg, Sadovaya ul., #62, tel (812) 310-8427

SHOPPING / SOUVENIRS:
The two best places to get traditional Russian souvenirs (like Matryoshka dolls, Shapka fur hats, or Soviet relics) are
1) The place in front of St.Isaac cathedral (along 5 minutes along Bolshaya Morskaya st. from Nevsky Prospekt)
2) A market behind Savior-on-Blood cathedral, which is 5 minutes walk up North from Nevsky Prospekt (Kazansky Cathedral) along Griboedova Channel.
The markets are usually opened 9.00 to 18.00 daily.
 

 




 

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