White days or white nights? Your perception of St. Petersburg will depend on the choice. Visit in winter, when the daylight gloom is relieved by a blanket of pristine snow, and you will be immersed in the city’s melancholy side — the inspiration for the great novels of Dostoevsky and the music of Tchaikovsky. The River Neva is frozen over, and the streets and icy canals are enfolded in cold mist. This is Russia’s northern metropolis at its most atmospheric.

Everything changes in summer, when the sun barely sets. The whole place shimmers under round-the-clock translucent light. Fountains sparkle in the vast gardens of the imperial palaces. People sunbathe on the banks of the Neva. It is a season of celebration and joy.

Regardless of the time of year, St. Petersburg’s greatest attraction is the State Hermitage Museum (www.hermitagemuseum.org), occupying six buildings beside the Neva, including Catherine the Great’s magnificent Rococo-style Winter Palace. It is claimed that if you spent just 10 seconds in front of each of the 3 million items on display (which encompass some of the absolute masterpieces of Western art), it would take a full year to see everything. And even then, you wouldn’t have seen everything.

One of the city’s best-kept secrets is the Repository of the State Hermitage, a secure storage facility 40 minutes from the museum. Arrange an exclusive hour-long visit through Russian specialist tour operator Exeter International (www.exeterinternational.com) for a privileged private viewing of treasures such as Catherine the Great’s golden coronation coach.

The spine of St. Petersburg has always been Nevsky Prospekt, one of the great streets of the world, which runs for two and a half miles from the Admiralty (an imposing 19th-century building with a 200-foot golden steeple) to Alexander Nevsky Monastery, where many of Russia’s most famous writers and composers are buried, including Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Dostoevsky.

Between those two points, the street carves a path among former aristocratic townhouses that are now mostly occupied by designer shops, hotels and restaurants. Significant landmarks along the way include the mammoth Kazan Cathedral with its curved frontage of classical colonnades.

A short detour to the north will bring you to Ploshchad Isskustv, the Square of the Arts, a beautifully symmetrical public space fringed by the Mikhailovsky Theatre (formerly the Mussorgsky Theatre; www.mikhailovsky.ru), St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall (www.philharmonia.spb.ru) and the Russian Museum (www.rusmuseum.ru). The Russian Museum tends to be overlooked by foreign tourists in favor of the Hermitage, but it boasts the world’s most important collection of Russian art, from priceless religious icons to contemporary paintings and installations.

For younger tourists, the St. Petersburg Toy Museum has 1,500 exhibits from all corners of the world, though the displays are not as interactive as they could be. Things are more fun at the Museum of Dolls, where visitors can make their own dolls out of paper, straw or cloth.

The Peter and Paul Fortress, across the Neva from the Hermitage, protects several architectural gems behind its heavy stone walls, including the golden-spired cathedral in which Peter the Great is buried. One of the buildings was used as a rocket research laboratory in the 1930s and is now the Museum of Cosmonautics an d Rocket Technology, featuring a wealth of exhibits from the Soviet space program.

Historically, the former rulers of Russia hunkered down for the winter in the heart of St. Petersburg, then in summer dispersed to their fabulous palaces scattered around the archipelago on which the city sits. The finest of all is Peter the Great’s personal retreat, Peterhof, Russia’s breathtaking answer to Versailles. Visit by coach tour or catch the regular hydrofoil service that departs from the Hermitage.

For evening entertainment, there is no shortage of world-class high culture. Try to see the Kirov-Malinsky Ballet (www.kirov.com) if it is in town. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it spends much of each year on lucrative world tours, but nothing beats seeing the ballet at its home theater.

The Bolshoy Puppet Theatre, originally founded to indoctrinate children into communism, now provides pure, non-politicized fun for anyone over the age of 3. Zazerkalye Children’s Theatre puts on regular operas and ballets, with occasional performances in English. Language is less of an issue at The State Circus, where the performing seals, death-defying trapeze acts and slapstick clowns need no translation. Children are admitted free; foreign adults pay a surcharge — a policy that applies to all of St. Petersburg’s performing venues.

The question remains: When is the best time to visit St. Petersburg? Winter or summer? Each casts its own seasonal magic. But fall is also a great time to come, and some locals contend that spring is the season above all others.

The argument is seemingly intractable; until the definitive answer emerges, St. Petersburg is a city for all seasons.

LODGING

GRAND HOTEL EUROPE
You’ll spend much of your time in St. Petersburg looking at palaces, so why not stay in one? Opened in 1875, Russia’s most famous hotel was instantly a palace-away-from-the-palace for Europe’s royalty. During the Soviet era, it lost much of its luster but was restored to its former glory in 1991. A multimillion-dollar renovation in 2007 bolstered the Grand’s reputation for refined luxury, and it is now the address of choice for visiting world leaders and celebrities.$$$$
GRAND HOTEL EUROPE
Nevsky Prospekt, 1/7 Ulitsa Mikhailovsklaya
tel 7 812 329 6000
www.grandhoteleurope.com

HOTEL DOSTOEVSKY
Sights and shopping are what most families look for in St. Petersburg, and at the Dostoevsky you’ll have both well covered: The Hermitage is a 15-minute walk away, and as for the shops, the hotel cohabits a building with a shopping mall and is only two blocks from Nevsky Prospekt. It is worth paying a little more for a superior room with a street view; standard rooms face the interior of the mall. The hotel has its own restaurant, but for the budget-conscious, the mall’s food court provides a range of very reasonable options.$$$
HOTEL DOSTOEVSKY
19 Vladimirsky Prospekt
tel 7 812 331 3200
www.dostoevsky-hotel.ru

PETRO PALACE HOTEL
The Petro Palace is a step down from the Grand Europe in both luxury and price, but there are no compromises on location — within walking distance of major attractions such as the Hermitage, St. Issac’s Cathedral and the myriad shops of Nevsky Prospekt. The 194 guestrooms are quite spacious by the city’s standards and are equipped with all the amenities you would expect. Children will enjoy eating under the gaze of the stuffed bear that presides over the Baron Restaurant and will certainly appreciate the heated indoor swimming pool.$$$
PETRO PALACE HOTEL
14 Ulitsa Malaya Morskaya
tel 7 812 571 3006
www.petropalacehotel.com

DINING

BORSALINO
When in St. Petersburg, eat Italian? Why not? When Peter the Great founded this city in 1703, he aimed to create a cosmopolitan showcase, recruiting the best talent and ideas from throughout Europe. That tradition continues at the flagship restaurant of the prestigious Angleterre Hotel in the form of head chef Stefano Balduccio. His recently revamped menu reaffirms the restaurant’s reputation as one of the best in town. I t’s not cheap, but you’d have to go a long way — perhaps even to Italy itself — to find linguini to match. And for dessert, don’t miss the American cheesecake.$$$$
BORSALINO
St. Isaac’s Square, 24 Ulitsa Malaya Morskaya
www.angleterrehotel.com

PODVORYE
Russia’s vast hinterland starts here. Catch the metro to Moskowckay Station and from there take a 15-minute cab ride to the entrance of Pavlovsky Park, one of the city’s great palace-and-garden complexes. Podvorye (The Coach House) occupies a rustic log building that would not be out of place in any village from here to Vladivostok. The menu is as traditionally Russian as the setting, offering perennial favorites such as borscht and beef stroganoff.$$$ PODVORYE
16 Filtrovskoye Ave., Pavlovsk
tel 7 812 466 8544
www.podvorye.ru

RUSSKAYA RYUMOCHNAYA No. 1
The name translates as “Russian Vodka Room No. 1.” Unless you want your kids to develop a taste for the Russian tipple, it might be best to leave them at the hotel and make this a night out for grown-ups only. Vodka isn’t mandatory in this popular eatery, but it would be rude not to partake — after all, the building is shared with a museum dedicated to all things vodka. Belying the name, however, it’s the food that is the star attraction. The restaurant is a showcase for a panoply of Russian cuisine, recreating favorite dishes from every historic era and from all walks of life, from homestyle stews to decadent delicacies. You can eat like a tsar, a peasant or a Soviet apparatchik.$$
RUSSKAYA RYUMOCHNAYA No. 1
4 Konnogvardeisky Bulvar
tel 7 812 570 6422

INFO TO GO
International flights arrive at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo-2 Airport (LED), 10 miles south of downtown. One of the most convenient ways into the city is the Airport Express Bus, starting at about $3 for the 40-minute ride. St. Petersburg’s metro is an inexpensive and easy way to get around; trains generally arrive every two to three minutes, with slightly longer waiting periods early in the morning and late at night.