Rent a bike or boat on Yelagin Island

From May to July the nights never get fully dark, and light at three in the morning can look like day. Before you book, check that the room has blackout curtains or blinds, and pack a sleep mask. One resident says that even thick curtains and a mask do not stop early waking, so ask for a room away from the street and…

Admiralteysky is as central as the Tsentralny district but calmer, with St Isaac Cathedral and the Mariinsky Theatre close by. Guides advise against booking right on Nevsky Prospect because of traffic noise, so look for a side street or courtyard room. Staying on the same bank as the Hermitage also keeps you clear of…

The Peterhof fountains are shut off and covered in winter, then run again from late April. The opening festival is usually held in mid-May, with music and a show at the Grand Cascade. Check the museum-reserve site for the year schedule. Go by hydrofoil from the piers near the Hermitage, though strong wind can cancel…

Each May the park on Yelagin Island holds a tulip festival, with large flower beds, a music programme and exhibitions in the palace rooms. It usually runs for a week or two in mid to late May, and organisers mark the first weekend as peak bloom. Buy entry on the park website, go on a weekday morning for fewer people…

The Jazz Philharmonic Hall on Zagorodny Prospekt has presented jazz since 1989 and holds concerts most evenings except Monday. The big hall has a bar, a dance floor and two or three sets, while the small Ellington Hall is an intimate room of 45 seats. See the programme on the hall website before you go, buy tickets at…

The Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia, in the former Noble Assembly building on Mikhailovskaya Street, has been the home of the Philharmonic Orchestra since 1921 and is known for its acoustics. Premieres by Borodin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and others took place here. Check the programme on the Philharmonia…

Dom Knigi occupies the former Singer sewing machine company building at Nevsky 28, a six-storey Art Nouveau landmark with a glass-globe tower that is lit in the evening. Browse the shelves of fiction and travel writing on several floors, then have coffee in the second-floor Singer cafe, whose windows face Kazan…

Kuznechny Market stands in a lane near Vladimirskaya Square, in a historic hall where farmers from the Leningrad and Pskov regions sell beside permanent stallholders. Locals head for the meat and dairy rows, where you can ask for the exact cut, and in autumn the stalls fill with grapes, plums and melons. Prices at…