After the success of my post “ Top 10 Unusual Attractions in St. Petersburg” I decided to dig out a few more St. Petersburg hidden gems – and believe me there are plenty! Don’t go to St Petersburg, Russia just to see the usual tourist traps, try to include some of these slightly off-the-beaten-track sites in your tour of St Petersburg’s hidden gems.

1. St Petersburg Museum Route 66

This is an interactive museum where visitors are immersed into the classic American Route 66. This St Petersburg hidden gem is for retro fans who want to become a Hollywood legend, an action hero or feel like they are speeding down Route 66. Walk down the recreated road lined with vintage cars; “visit” Las Vegas and “meet” Marilyn Monroe. There is a zombie themed section; an Indiana Jones set; Ghostbusters and of course a car chase! In all there are more than a dozen themed areas within this colorful St Petersburg museum.

Where: 2 Konyushannaya Square, St. Petersburg

When: Mon-Fri 12:00-21:00; Sat-Sun and holidays 11:00-21:00

2. Costume Ball at Yelagin Palace, St Petersburg

With this hidden gem St Petersburg, you can attend a grand ball at Yelagin Palace. The palace hosts costume balls for groups and independent travelers who want to join in. The events focus on 19th century ball culture and the dances are held in the Literary and Musical Drawing Rooms of the Fraylin Corps. Visitors can take a tour and rent period costumes before taking part in the grand ball. After putting on their crinoline dresses and tail-coats visitors will be taught 19th century ball room etiquette – how to greet each other, how to bow/curtsy etc. Visitors are taught basic Polonaise, waltz, polka and mazurka, and then the dance begins. The whole experience lasts about 2 hours.

Where: 4 Yelagin Island, Freilinskiy Korpus, St Petersburg

When: Check online. Events usually on weekends

3. Restaurant Erarta, An edible Work of Art

The Erarta Restaurant is within the Erata Museum of Contemporary Art and is a true St Petersburg hidden gem. The restaurant embodies the theme of the museum; it is a concept restaurant treating every dish as a work of art. Don’t be surprised if your dish looks like a Pollock or Mondrian with the food carefully placed to form a “painting.” Sometimes the restaurant has special events where its menu takes on the theme of a particular exhibition in the museum.

Where: In the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, Vasilyevsky Island, 29th Line, Building 2

When: Sun-Thurs 12:00-22:00, Fri-Sat 12:00-23:00

4. Unusual Statues St Petersburg

Throughout St Petersburg you will encounter unusual statues including the horse tamers at Anichkov Bridge; the 3,500 year old sphinxes near the pier by the Academy of Arts; the lions on Palace Pier and the 11cm high Chizhik Pyzhik statue of a small bird on the Fontanka Embankment. See the statue of a hare by the Peter and Paul Fortress that commemorates the animals and humans who lost their lives in floods. Outside a café on Ploshchad Turgeneva is a statue of a small dog and a pair of boots. This statue depicts a scene from the famous Russia short story Mumu by Ivan Turgenev. A bronze monument to St Petersburg photographer Karl Bulla depicts the photographer with his tripod, dog, umbrella and bowler hat on Malaya Sadovaya Ulitsa.

Where: Across the city.

When: 24/7

5. Kunstkamera Museum

Originally this museum was called “Peter the Great’s Cabinet of Curiosity” but it soon morphed into a part of the natural history museum called Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. The museum has been around for over 300 years and has one of the most extensive ethnographical collections in the world. Among the museum’s weird and wonderful exhibits there are a range of human and animal bodies preserved in jars. See Siamese twins, encephalitis-infected skulls, the skeleton of a giant and tumors in a jar. The exhibits come from across the globe and although some are quite tame you can find objects here that will freak-out even the most blasé tourist.

Where: 3 Universitetskaya Embankment

When: Tues-Sun 11:00-16:00, closed Mondays and last Tuesday of every month.

6. Udelnaya Flea Market

If you’re like me and always on the lookout for an unusual souvenir then Udelnaya Market is a real St Petersburg hidden gem. It is like one enormous garage sale. Here you can find authentic Soviet memorabilia, cheap goods, household items, secondhand goods, old coins, clothing, tools, vintage items and more. This will get you off the tourist route and give you a glimpse of real life in St Petersburg. This is not a sophisticated or gentrified market; it is literally people selling off what they don’t need to buy their daily bread.

Where: Exit at Udelnaya Metro Station and ask directions.

When: Daily 11:00-19:00

Photo by rt11sj

7. Bar Code Building

Checkout this ultra-modern building in St Petersburg that has a unique façade resembling a bar code! This is not the only bar code building in the world; in fact it is quite a popular theme. St Petersburg’s bar code building is a hidden gem not visited by most tourists. The red building has vertical slit windows resembling the bars and above them numbers. If you have to ask for directions the building is called Shtrikh-Kod in Russian. Today it houses a shopping center in one of the St Petersburg residential suburbs on Voldodarski Bridge Square.

Where: 5-6 Narodnaya Street, Nevsky District

When: 24/7

8. Nikonov Revenue House (Nikonov Hotel)

The stunning Russian-revival façade of the Nikonov Revenue House rivals some of the more famous gems of St Petersburg. Russian-revival architect Nikolay Nikonov bought this building in 1899 and renovated it adding three more stories to the existing two. He also turned the façade into a work of art adding colorful majolica tiles and painted motifs to every surface of the façade. Today the building houses a St Petersburg luxury hotel.

Where: Kolokolnaya Street

When: 24/7

9. Orthodox Bar

This hidden gem St Petersburg is a cocktail bar located in chic basement and courtyard. The bar serves unusual drinks prepared with unique traditional Russian ingredients like apple vermouth, bread wine, nutmeg chacha, buckwheat vodka, a Georgian pomace brandy, chamomile liqueur, and horseradish vodka. Check out their cocktail menu divided into sections named after famous Russian artists. The aim of this St Petersburg cocktail bar is to break the Russian stereotype and show that vodka is not the only drink in Russia. Of course they wouldn’t let you drink on an empty stomach so there is a food menu as well. Not only that but take a look at the open hours! You can drink until the sun comes up!

Where: 2 Rubinshteyna Street

When: Sun-Thurs 18:00-02:00, Fri-Sat 18:00-04:00

10. Datsan Gunzechoinei

This St Petersburg Buddhist Temple is one of the northernmost Buddhist temple’s in the world. Gunzechoinei means “source of Holy teaching of all-caring Lord Hermit” in Tibetan. The temple has survived since construction in 1909-1915 when the XIII Dalai Lama sent an envoy to Tsar Nicholas II asking permission to build the temple. Under Communist rule the temple was used as a military radio station and then a Zoological Institute laboratory. The St Petersburg temple resumed its original purpose in 1990. This hidden gem St Petersburg has beautiful stained glass windows, a modest café serving traditional Nepalese food and pleasant gardens. While here you can get Tibetan medicine; consult a Tibetan physician or astrologer.

Where: 91 Primorskiy Prospect

When: Mon-Tues 10:00-19:00, Thurs-Sun 10:00-19:00

Tip: I highly recommend taking a few organized tours of St Petersburg to get the usual must-see sites out of the way. You can also see some unusual St. Petersburg hidden gems if you take day trips to places further afield like this half-day tour to the royal suburbs.

For shoppers this is a new St Petersburg shopping tour worth looking at.