Hermitage Museum - Specific Information

[Dbedros]

This is a request for specific information concerning the Hermitage. I do not need information on the Gold Room as this holds nothing of interest to us. Ditto for most of the paintings as we have been to most of the major museums in the world. I say this because I do not want the thread to deteriate into other topics.

 

Now, for my request. Has anyone actually toured the Winter Palace? Did you see the white marble ceremonial entrance stairway, the Throne Room, the Grand Throne Hall, the Malachite Room, and the Armorial Hall? If you did, was it enjoyable?

 

The two big companies tout this in their tour information, but I have yet to hear or read any reviews that mention this. Everyone speaks of the Gold Room and here they don't even say which one was seen, but the rest of the Hermitage just sort of fades away. Even the Hermitage web site only gives brief information on the Winter Palace. Anyone with information on the rest of the Hermitage please share as it would be greatly appreciated by me and maybe some others.

 

Thank in advance.

[Artemis]

Hi, Dbedros,

 

With such specific preferences, I hope you are considering booking a custom tour. I fear you will be very unsatisifed with stock touring. We did a custom and were delighted with our SPb experience. Denrus accommodated every special request we made to the extent possible. At the Winter Palace, our request was specified collections (we excluded the Gold Rooms, too), although our guide did give us the "stock" overview of most of the rooms on your list to the extent they were conveniently located on our path (the palace is huge, of course). Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about many subjects. Like you, we have had the opportunity to travel a bit, and we've often found that guides are surprisingly (disappointingly) shallow in their depth and range of knowledge. By contrast, our SPb guide "knew her stuff" across many disciplines, and in the few instances she did not, she quickly volunteered an apologetic, "I don't know," instead of trying to snow us.

 

Your case is slightly different in that at least for this one attraction, you seem to want a tour with a very narrow focus, thus you may be better off with a guide less well-rounded and more narrow in expertise.

 

I suggest you contact several operators and describe with some detail the type of tour you want to take--are you interested in the palace rooms from an architectural standpoint? historical? both or other?--and also state what you don't want--no viewing of the collections, or just specified collections. Request they assign the guide with the most knowledge/expertise in the pertinent field.

 

Note, we did the most refining and "tweaking" of our itinerary right on the spot with our guide. The limits of email and, in some instances, language difficulties made it a challenge to work out all of the details in advance. Please also be aware that the guides used by the big operators are mostly independent contractors--while Denrus or RO, for example, would presumably attempt to make a good match for you, I think with such defined interests, I might be more inclined to search for a self-employed guide with the knowledge base you seek. Alla, for example, has received quite positive reviews here--but I don't know her area of expertise. If I were in your shoes, I would probably start with her to explore whether she could take you on the Winter Palace tour you want to take!

 

Good luck.

[Dbedros]

Thanks for the advise Artemis. We are using Alla and just trying to get information on what others like yourself did on their tour.

[JodiBB]

ETA: Saw you were using Alla already...OOps!!

 

Dbedros...Alla, like RO or Denrus, would be able to work with your requests if you let them know early enough...Our guide was an art history major and knew so much about the Palaces that we were overwhelmed!

[cruisintwinsmom]

 

Dbedros...Alla, like RO or Denrus, would be able to work with your requests if you let them know early enough...Our guide was an art history major and knew so much about the Palaces that we were overwhelmed!

 

Did you happen to have Anna? We will be touring with her in June. Sounds like a wonderful 2 days!

[JodiBB]

We went through RO, so I wouldn't know any of the Alla guides. Sorry :(

[cruisemom42]

Now, for my request. Has anyone actually toured the Winter Palace? Did you see the white marble ceremonial entrance stairway, the Throne Room, the Grand Throne Hall, the Malachite Room, and the Armorial Hall? If you did, was it enjoyable?

 

 

Thank in advance.

 

 

We saw quite a bit of the Winter Palace with our Den Rus tour, including all the rooms you mentioned and more. I'm really into history and architecture and I certainly enjoyed it very much. However, the rooms are extremely formal and very impersonal -- don't go expecting to see traces of the Romanovs behind every urn.

 

We also opted not to do the gold room(s).

[Jane110]

 

Now, for my request. Has anyone actually toured the Winter Palace? Did you see the white marble ceremonial entrance stairway, the Throne Room, the Grand Throne Hall, the Malachite Room, and the Armorial Hall? If you did, was it enjoyable?

 

 

Yes, went to all those places with our Red October guide and enjoyed them very much. The malachite room was a favorite of mine. We had a group of 4 so that our visits could be as short or as long as we wanted them to be. Other than a couple of set appt's that were pre-made by our guide, we were able to be a little flexible. At one palace, we were scheduled to spend time in the rose gardens after our palace tour. Well, the four of us could care less about the roses and I asked our guide to take us to a russian supermarket and some typical stores where russian locals shop (DH and spent 2 weeks in Russia some years ago and knew our traveling campanions would enjoy it). So she did and we had a blast and bought some non-tourist stuff at non-tourist prices.

 

I'm sorry that I don't recall our guide's name, she was wonderful - a 30something school teacher who worked for RO when school wasn't in session.

[OhioDogLover]

We saw most of the areas you mentioned on our RO tour last year. If you haven't already, take a look at the Hermitage web site. It is really quite good and should give you a nice overview of the museum. However, nothing could have prepared us for the magnitude of the museum. I am sure you will enjoy it. We found it to be fascinating.

Ohiodoglover

[roysmith99]

We did a standard tour with RCCL last year and enjoyed every room we went into. We too saw all of the places and rooms you mention but have to admit, as smaller personalised tour might have been better.

 

The tours start in the winter Palaceand yoru first experience is th emarble staircase and that beautiful architecture.

 

Why do you wish to avoid the Gold Room (there is only one) - it is magnificent, one of the most memorable sights the Winter Palace? some people on our cruise did think its was something different to what it is?

 

Perghaps my most enjoyable elements were the beautiful sculptures.

[Dbedros]

It has been helpful and lets me know that I have made the correct decision.

 

To answer your question roysmith99, not seeing the gold room is just a personal choice. Like cruisemom42, I prefer history and architecture. We have also traveled a lot and seen extensive jewelry and artifacts from various periods.

 

Previously there were two rooms, one was just various artifacts and the other called the diamond room showed the development of the jeweler's craft over the course of mankind. These were the Gold Rooms, but now there are more because of the public's interest which caused more artifacts to be put out for viewing. The Hermitage web site gives some interesting information on the jewelry in the collections and the progress of the rooms; you just have to dig for it.

 

There was a gold drawing room in the Winter Palace that suffered some damage in the siege of 1941. Is it still there?

 

Thanks again to everyone.

[Dbedros]

Alexei

 

Thank you for the clarification and the information on the rooms.

[RJG1011]

WE did see the Winter Palace rooms with Red October. We also went to Peterhof and Catherine's palace during our two days of touring. There was a bit of flexibility because of our small group (8) and the guide was fabulous. Unfortunately, I can't locate her card, but if I find it, I'll post again.