1/5
420 reviews
Photo by Alice Butenko via Unsplash

Saint Petersburg

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beautiful

small

expensive

great

friends

interested

coworking

stay

matter

nightlife

yrs

extremely

cheap

spaces

Saint Petersburg is frequently praised as one of the most beautiful and liveable cities in Europe. Reviewers note its affordability, especially for those who understand local systems. Good public transport and coworking infrastructure are appreciated, complemented by fast average internet speeds around 77 Mbps. The nightlife is consistently highlighted as excellent, with entertainment districts offering vibrant options all within a compact area of the city. Summer is noted as particularly pleasant for visiting, especially June and July.

However, harsh winters are a repeated downside, with some reviewers recalling extreme lows, such as -34°C. Long-term stays can be complicated by local bureaucracy, where legal support may be necessary. While some visitors found the locals friendly, others had trouble forming friendships, especially without knowledge of Russian. Additionally, the quality and pricing of local Airbnb options were critiqued as being subpar for the cost.

Overall, Saint Petersburg offers high quality of life with low living costs, but navigating some social and bureaucratic aspects may be a challenge for extended or deeper integration without local knowledge or language skills.

AI-generated summary of reviews

Love this city, very romantic and cool in the summer. but it is difficult to find a nice airbnb. it is too much small or too expensive for the quality. you will def have great time here. but unfortunately, I had problem to make friends here. some how, It seemed the locals were not quite interested in having communication or making forein friends even in the co-working space. I don't think this is because of the language barrier but...I cant explain this well. anyway, the city is great to stay from Jun - July(Aug starts getting rains.), would be much nicer if you can speak Russian. Goodluck!

4 years ago

Doesn't matter what you're interested in, Saint Petersburg has it. It's the largest "small" city in Europe. Such a large population, but everything you want in nightlife and action is packed into several districts. Best city in Europe for nightlife. Not sure why nomadlist has "safety" as a con because it's safer than any western europe city and every american city. Cheaper than Thailand, but winter is COLD.

5 years ago

Came 14 yrs ago from Germany for a visit - and stayed. Is 1 of most beautiful cities on earth, and I was almost everywhere in my younger days.- Cost of living extremely cheap if you know the basic rules.- Opened my own travel agency 10 yrs ago and pay only 6% taxes no matter how much I earn.- Average internet speed is 77 Mbit/sec.- Red tape is on the down side. You really need a Russian lawyer if you want to stay for years.- Winters can get very harsh, my lowest was -34 C in 2016.-

5 years ago

Extremely beautiful and liveable city, not very expensive either, for the most part. People were very friendly too. Good public transport and working spaces (coffee shops, coworking spaces).

6 years ago

Beautiful livable and active city, relatively cheap.

6 years ago

✅ Very affordable

✅ Very beautiful

✅ Friendly people

✅ Good public transport

✅ Fast internet

✅ Great nightlife

✅ Affordable to live

✅ Perfect humidity now

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Nomads.com members liked going here a lot

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Good hospitals

❌ Harsh winters

❌ Bureaucratic red tape

❌ Hard to make local friends

❌ Poor quality Airbnb options

❌ Freedom of speech is weak

❌ No democracy

❌ Not very safe

❌ Not much to do

❌ Cold now

❌ Gets very cold in the winter

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Feels crowded

❌ Difficult to make friends

❌ Roads can be dangerous

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Not safe for women

❌ Not family friendly

❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+

❌ People smoking tobacco a lot

❌ High alcohol consumption

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

-5°C / 23°F freezing

-2°C / 28°F freezing

4°C / 39°F cold

12°C / 54°F cool

14°C / 57°F cool

21°C / 70°F mild

19°C / 66°F mild

11°C / 52°F cool

7°C / 45°F cold

0°C / 0°F freezing

-6°C / 21°F freezing

Real (median)

-5°C / 24°F
freezing

-5°C / 23°F
freezing

-1°C / 31°F
freezing

4°C / 39°F
very cold

12°C / 54°F
cool

14°C / 57°F
cool

21°C / 70°F
mild

18°C / 64°F
cool

11°C / 52°F
cool

7°C / 45°F
cold

0°C / 32°F
freezing

-5°C / 24°F
freezing

Humidity

damp
90%

damp
85%

damp
86%

damp
76%

damp
74%

nice
58%

nice
60%

damp
81%

damp
80%

damp
82%

damp
88%

damp
87%

Most common

Rain

dry
46mm

dry
44mm

dry
45mm

dry
39mm

rainy
53mm

dry
31mm

dry
23mm

rainy
76mm

rainy
57mm

rainy
70mm

rainy
66mm

rainy
53mm

Cloud

pockets
48%

pockets
42%

pockets
35%

pockets
36%

pockets
24%

pockets
25%

pockets
39%

pockets
38%

pockets
34%

pockets
45%

Remote workers

1,024 people

760 people

867 people

863 people

1,213 people

1,189 people

1,430 people

1,318 people

1,278 people

1,429 people

1,114 people

1,093 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Saint Petersburg's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

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Help pick the best photos for Saint Petersburg and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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50 Mbps

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	0.5/5 (Rank #1352) 420 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍14 liked it 👎1 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Bad
👶 Family score	Bad
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $2,004 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 12Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Bad
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥶 Too cold: 7°C44°F (feels 6°C43°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 54%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Great: 25 US AQI
👌 Safety	🧨 Conflict / political instability*
🤮 Food safety*	Great
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	🧨 Conflict / political instability*
🤝 Lack of racism*	Okay
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Great
💰 Income level*	Very low: $721 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
😤 People density	🧘‍♀️ Low density: 9k ppl/km² (1 per 11x11m)
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Bad
✈️ Airline scores*	Bad
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
🏥 Hospitals	Okay
😄 Happiness*	Okay
🍸 Nightlife	Bad
📶 Free WiFi in city	Okay
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Bad
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Good
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Okay
👩 Female friendly	Bad
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Bad
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Europe
🚩 Country	Russia
🗓️ Average trip length	15 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	12 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	☀️ 7°C 44°F + 😊 Comfy (54%) = feels 6°C 43°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 25 US AQI 🍃 OK
🔌 Power	230V 50Hz
🧔 Best neighborhood to stay	Vladimirskij okrug
🚀 Upcoming neighborhood	Vasil'evskij
🚕 Best taxi app*	Yandex Taxi
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 100 RUB in USD	USD 1.22
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	RUB 10,000 = USD 122
💸 Tipping	Yes, 12.50%
💳 Cashless	💳 Yes, cards OK almost everywhere
💻 Best coworking space	Zonaspace
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	👍13% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	2,856,500 visitors
📸 Tourists now	54,745 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	5,200,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$8,655 / year
😤 Population density	🤨 busy: 11x11m (121m²) per person
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 90% 👱‍♀️ 10%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
💻 Online electronics shop	Ozon
🏠 Apartment listings	Avito
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Aeroflot
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Aeroflot

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$2,004 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,184 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$2,467 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$705 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$1,322 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,293 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$500 / month
🏠 Median home price	$123,966
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$62 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$42 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$131 / month
🍛 Dinner	$9
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$2
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$2
👩‍🏫 International school	$7,088 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$3 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$1 / trip
💰 Estimated tax on $50,000	$3,000
💰 Estimated tax on $100,000	$6,000
💰 Estimated tax on $250,000	$15,000