I visited Saint Petersburg for 4 days in September 2017. Having visited Moscow last year it was quite easy for me to compare both cities and both are interesting cities to visit. Both cities are in my top 200 WHS and they didn't disappoint.

It's easier to cover the historic centre of Saint Petersburg on foot and overall I felt it has a much more European feel with several churches, palaces, monasteries and cathedrals with European architecture and just a handful of onion-domed ones.

The baroque exterior of the hermitage/winter palace (photo) is as striking as it's never-ending interior and its location in the palace square and on the Neva river bank is exquisite. The canal, fairway and drawbridge boat tour is a very pleasant way to explore the historic centre and beyond.

A stroll to the Peter and Paul Fortress (incredible drone or Google Earth view) is a must and apart from the panoramic view of the Neva river and overall lack of high-rise buildings, here you will find the UNESCO inscription plaque. Vasilievsky Island is the maritime heart of the city.

The exterior of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is less colourful and extravagant than St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow but its mosaic interior more than make up for this.

On separate half day bus/ferry trips I also visited the Peterhof Palace and Gardens often referred to as the Russian Versailles. My favourite highlights here were the Portrait Room and the lovely fountains with golden statuettes. In a way it reminded me more of Potsdam than Versailles. The rococo Catherine's Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, Pushkin is some 30km from St Petersburg and its interior is over-the-top with the highlight being the amber room. Even though I have visited several palaces worldwide, I'm glad I put some extra effort into visiting these two Russian palaces together with the hermitage.

I would recommend separate visits of St Petersburg and Moscow as they can be quite tiring and repetitive if taken in together. Moreover both cities have worthwhile nearby WHS which would be mere stopovers if both large cities are combined in one trip.