CATHERINE PALACE AND THE HERMITAGE MUSEUM

In a nutshell An excursion combining Pushkin's imperial residence and the most important museum in Russia.

Main stops

• Guided visit of Catherine Palace: Amber Room and gardens
  
• Guided visit of the Hermitage Museum
  
• Lunch included
  

The programme

• We will set off towards Pushkin, a town known in the past as Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar's Village), where the wonderful Catherine Palace awaits us. Commissioned by Peter the Great for his wife Catherine in 1710, this estate was used as the imperial family's summer residence until the period of the last Tsar.
• Inside the palace, we will be amazed by the rooms and galleries decorated with period furniture, candelabra and paintings. Most striking of all is the famous Amber Room, once considered the eighth wonder of the world, with walls covered entirely in amber panels with gold leaf decorations and mirrors. Plundered by the Nazis during the Second World War, it was rebuilt piece by piece in 2003 by expert Russian artisans. We will end our visit to the palace with a walk in its well-kept gardens.
• After lunch at the restaurant, we will be full of energy and ready to explore the Hermitage, the famous complex consisting of five buildings, commissioned by Catherine the Great in 1764. There, a guide will show us part of this extremely famous museum where over three million works of art have been preserved including Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Chinese and Indian archaeological artefacts as well as priceless paintings by artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Rubens and Tiziano.

Good to know

• No shopping preview, more time for Museums!
  
• Space is limited, so please reserve early. 
• The coach transfer to Pushkin (Catherine Palace) takes approximately 1 hour. 
• It is not permitted to use cameras inside the Amber Room. 
• There may be queues at the museum entrances and an itinerary on foot lasting approximately 2 hours. 
• Due to its size, it is not possible to visit the entire museum; the museum's management team will decide which areas we will see. 
• The price of the excursion includes tickets to use cameras and/or video cameras inside the palace. Headsets are included in the tour. 
• The order of the visits may be reversed. 
• The tour involves a lot of walking. Comfortable walking shoes are recommended.
• This tour is not recommended for Guests with mobility problems. 
• Wheelchairs and pushchairs are not allowed inside palaces and museums.