GENERAL INFORMATION

St. Petersburg has more tourists both from Russia and abroad than any other Russian city. The city has over 130 accommodation facilities, which can put up over 30 thousand guests. The largest hotels are located close to each other in the historic center of the city or not far from it. Over 300 restaurants offer traditional Russian and other cuisine. St. Petersburg has a wide network of resorts with a modern and multifunctional complex for rest and medical treatment. Presently, St. Petersburg is the only Russian sea gateway to Europe, with its large harbor operating over 10 months a year. Each year, over 150 thousand tourists come to St. Petersburg by sea. The harbor is one of the largest in the Baltic sea and ocean liners of the leading cruise and passenger companies of the world pass through the harbor.

St. Petersburg is the northernmost of the world's greatest cities. It lies at 60° north and 30° east. The city covers over 600 km2, or 1439 km2, including the suburbs. The white nights phenomenon is due to the high latitude. The white nights can be witnessed from May 25-26 to July 16-17. The longest day of the year (18 hours and 53 minutes) is the Midsummer's Day, June 22. The shortest (5 hours and 52 minutes) is December 22. The climate is humid, close to maritime. The summers are mild and warm and the winters are long and cold. The average winter temperature is -8°С, and the average summer temperature is +17,8°С. When the weather is hot and dry, the air temperature may rise up to +25°С…+30°С. In winters temperatures of about -25°С…-30°С may be experienced. The rainfall is 550-600 mm per year.

The Neva river is the city's main waterway. Its name originates from lake Nevo (the name of the Ladoga lake in the ancient times) from where the river springs. The Neva is 74 km long (32 km within the city), its average width in the city is 600 m, and its depth is up to 24 m. In the Neva delta, the river branches into three armlets: the Greater Neva, the Smaller Neva and the Great Nevka. In addition to the Neva, the city is laced with over 100 rivers, streams and canals. The waterways constitute one tenth of the total city area. St. Petersburg is located on 42 islands in the Neva delta. The largest islands are Vasiljevsky (St. Basil's Island) and Petrogradsky (Petrograd Island).

There are many bridges since St. Petersburg lies on these many islands. Presently, there are 308 bridges in the inner St. Petersburg and over 225 bridges throughout the suburbs. Twenty-two of them are drawbridges. The total length of all the St. Petersburg bridges is 16 km. The longest bridge across the Neva is the Alexander Nevsky Bridge (909 m), and the widest bridge is the Blue Bridge across the Mojka River (99,5 m).

The highest point of the city is the Poklonnaya hill (the Hill of Worship), which rises 42 m above sea level. Floods are quite usual in the city, occurring most often in the fall, when stormy west winds blow. From the time of the City's foundation, the Neva has risen above its regular level over 300 times. In 1877, a hydrometric station was built near the Institute of Mines. The rising of water, 180 cm above the reference mark, is considered a flood. The biggest flood in the history of St. Petersburg was that of November 7, 1824, when the water rose 4.1 m above the reference mark.

According to data from early 2000, the population of St. Petersburg is 4,663,000 people. St. Petersburg is in the same time zone as Moscow, which is +4 hours GMT in the summer and +3 hours GMT in the winter. Daylight savings time begins on the last Saturday of March and ends the last Saturday of October.