St Petersburg: Worth It? An Honest Look
St Petersburg earns every superlative thrown at it, and none of that answers the real question. Russia sits at the US State Department’s Level 4 “Do Not Travel” tier, reissued 2 January 2026, the same category as active warzones, over the war with Ukraine and the risk of wrongful detention. There have been no direct flights from the US, UK, or EU since 2022, and foreign-issued Visa, Mastercard, and Amex cards do not work anywhere in the country. The honest verdict: worth understanding, not worth booking, not yet.
| Case for going | Case against going |
|---|---|
| The Hermitage’s roughly 3 million items, inside the Winter Palace’s own state rooms | Russia is US Level 4 Do Not Travel, the same tier as active warzones |
| White Nights (late May-July): near round-the-clock daylight, a genuinely rare phenomenon | No direct flights from the US, UK, or EU since 2022; you’d route through Istanbul or similar |
| Peterhof’s gravity-fed fountains and Catherine Palace’s Amber Room, both still open | Foreign Visa, Mastercard, and Amex haven’t worked anywhere in Russia since March 2022 |
| Museum entry is cheap in rubles (the Hermitage runs roughly 700-800 RUB, cash only) | US, UK, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand passports are excluded from the e-visa entirely |
None of that erases what’s actually there. The Hermitage alone is one of the largest art museums on earth, and White Nights, the stretch when the sky over the Neva never fully darkens, is one of the odder and more genuine seasonal phenomena in European travel. Our full St Petersburg guide covers all nine sights in depth; this page is about the harder question of whether the trip itself makes sense right now.
Can you actually get to St Petersburg right now?
Not easily. The airspace bans both sides imposed after the 2022 invasion are still fully in force, so there is no direct route from the US, UK, or EU. You would fly through Istanbul, Belgrade, or a Gulf hub instead, adding a connection and real cost to what used to be a straightforward city break.
The Level 4 tier itself isn’t about flights alone. The US State Department advisory cites the war with Ukraine, the possibility of terrorism, and a pattern of wrongful detention, at least seven Americans held as of 2026, alongside a US Embassy with limited ability to help if something goes wrong. The UK FCDO advises against all travel to Russia, not just non-essential travel. Pulkovo Airport itself has taken repeated drone-related disruptions in 2025 and 2026, so even a working routing can get delayed on the day.
Do you need a visa, and will your card work?
Card: no. Visa: it depends on your passport. Visa, Mastercard, and Amex suspended their Russian operations in March 2022, and nothing has reversed since; a foreign-issued card is declined at ATMs, in shops, and on Russian websites, including the Hermitage’s own ticket portal and the Mariinsky Theatre’s booking site, both of which explicitly take only Russian-issued cards. Cash in rubles, or a Russian MIR card for a longer stay, is the only reliable method.
Russia’s unified e-visa (around $52, 30 days) is real, but it excludes the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand outright. Those five nationalities need a traditional consular visa instead, a slower process that historically requires a formal invitation, not a same-day online product. Most EU passports remain e-visa eligible, which answers the entry question without touching the advisory or the card problem above.
One more legal fact worth stating plainly: Russia’s “gay propaganda” law, broadened in 2022, and a 2023 Supreme Court ruling declaring the “international LGBT movement” extremist carry real, current risk for LGBTQ+ travelers, with no visitor exemption written into either.
So, is St Petersburg worth it?
Culturally, yes, unreservedly. Practically, for a US, UK, or EU reader planning an actual trip, not right now. The city functions, has millions of residents, and receives real tourism from Russians and from travelers whose passports still work with the e-visa; for that audience, going is a normal, if cash-heavy, decision.
For most Western readers, this is honest information to hold onto rather than a plan to act on this year: know that the Hermitage, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, and Peterhof are exactly as good as claimed, and know exactly why going right now is a different proposition than it was before 2022. If the barriers ever ease, keep the sequence simple, the Hermitage first, Peterhof second, White Nights timing third; our 3-day and 7-day itineraries lay out exactly that route, gated behind the same advisory as this page. Until then, check the current advisory yourself before treating any of this as a booking plan.