6 Reasons You Need To Visit Saint Petersburg

With the re-election of Vladimir Putin as the President of Russia on Sunday, my thoughts turned to my last visit to the beautiful city of St. Petersburg. Putin was born there, after all and, beyond Moscow, it is the most populous and culturally significant city in the country.

Many men are drawn to Russia for its beautiful woman and also for its traditional, some might say patriarchal culture. But like everywhere, things are changing. St Petersburg in particular has a somewhat hipster vibe, and beards and smoothie bars are legion.

However, as it is somewhat tricky to get into Russia—you need a visa for entry—it isn’t overrun with Western tourists. And because of its famously nationalistic bent, which subdues outside influence, societal change is slow. You shouldn’t underestimate the power of social media, however.

So what is St Petersburg like as a destination for meeting girls? In short, fantastic. The women who live there are frequently extremely attractive, well-dressed and well-educated. On the whole they tend to be far better presented than your average American or British girl (although the scourge of McDonalds and KFC is present there as it is in the West). Of course, it all comes down to personal taste, but for me the classic Slavic look—high cheekbones and wide eyes—is perhaps the most appealing in the world.

That said, here are 6 things I learned about St Petersburg and its dating scene when I visited at the end of 2017.

1. There Are More Women Than Men

One very simple fact: there are more women than men in Russia. According to this article in the Washington Post there were 87 men for every 100 women in the country in 2015.

This naturally differs somewhat between age ranges and locations. But the bottom line is that girls outnumber guys. And the hottest girls are drawn to the big cities.

This demographic oddity is the case across much of Eastern Europe where the scourges of war and alcoholism have both taken a hand in decimating the male population.

2. Russian Girls Are Not Universally Happy With Russian Men

Get talking to most Russian girls and it won’t be long before they start disparaging Russian men. The stereotype is that the guys are overweight, alcoholic and lazy. I’ve also had several girls tell me that men feel they don’t need to ‘make an effort’ with their appearance or grooming or anything else, really, to get laid.

Of course, as with all stereotypes it is only partially true. In St Petersburg and Moscow there are plenty of handsome, rich men who are well turned-out. But as a general rule you are dealing with a lower level of competition than you would be in locations like London or New York. On several occasions I noticed girls walking along with their boyfriends giving me very obvious IOIs (indicators of interest), which really brought this home for me.

I’m not saying you should go to Russia looking to steal peoples’ girlfriends. That would be a very bad idea. But it is encouraging to discover a playing field that is tilted somewhat in one’s own direction.

3. You Have Exotic Appeal As a Foreigner

As a foreigner in St. Petersburg you naturally possess a high degree of what is sometimes called ‘exotic appeal’: you stand out, in other words.

I personally don’t believe that I look any different to the average Russian person walking down the street, and in the past I have been told that I look Russian. But clearly something is going on, because on my visits to Moscow and St Petersburg I have received a disproportionate amount of interest from random women on the subway, in stores, and elsewhere.

If you are well-groomed, well-dressed and take care of yourself then as a foreigner your chances of meeting girls are high. Add in some game skill and you will be flying.

4. Day Game Approaches Are Easier

Day game feels easier in St Petersburg than in, say, London, because the girls are on the whole friendly and more receptive. This makes approaching easier, because you don’t have to worry too much about harsh blowouts.

The whole city is very pedestrian-friendly and so you can day game anywhere, but the key areas are the main shopping street Nevsky Prospect, and the Galleria shopping centre. The latter is particularly good in the winter and even into the spring (St Petersburg is still being buffeted by snow even now).

My experience was that even when Russian girls are not interested they still appreciate the direct confidence of a good day game approach and they will stop to chat. It is also relatively easy to get phone numbers—girls use WhatsApp, although not everyone is on Facebook as they tend to prefer the Russian platform VK—but, like anywhere in the world, converting those conversations to dates is not always so easy.

For me personally the ‘English gentleman abroad’ schtick tends to work very well. I dress nicely, and always have an expensive-looking coat or jacket. Appearance matters and will take you a long way, and it is definitely worth thinking about what your angle is before you approach, since many girls will be interested in knowing why you are in Russia in the first place.

5. Tinder Is Off The Scale

I am an exponent of ‘holistic game’, which means that I use all available game avenues in order to fill up my dating pipeline, whether it be day game, night game, or online game. Tinder is my least-favourite method of meeting girls. But whether or not you are a fan I can tell that as soon as I set my searches to St Petersburg my matches went through the roof.

Tinder is a very different beast depending on geography. In one city you may only match with a few divorcees if you’re lucky. In other territories, depending on the local dating market, you could be more fortunate. In St Petersburg, for whatever reason, I achieved a large number of matches and went out on dates with the most attractive girls I clicked with.

Even if you are Tinder-agnostic it is worth swiping in advance of reaching a new city just to get to know the lay of the land and what the dating market is like there. When visiting St. Petersburg, where many of the girls use it, it is a great way to augment whatever other pick-up strategies you choose to employ.

6.Dating Is A Process

Dating, however, is still a process. Russia is a conservative country and outside of the cities women are married with children by their mid-to-late twenties. In St Petersburg and Moscow things are, of course, a little different. But don’t go there expecting some sort of sexual free-for-all. In general you will need to go on at least two dates before anything happens. Which of course has a knock-on effect in terms of how long you stay. I was only there for five days in December. Next time I will go for a fortnight or longer.

I did end up sleeping with a girl who came back to my Airbnb apartment on the last night of my trip by telling her that I was leaving Russia and so it was now or never (in actual fact we have since spent more time together in Berlin). But I suspect this was something of a fluke. If you want to visit St. Petersburg and get the most out of your trip I would recommend staying for at least a couple of weeks if you can.

Final Thoughts

At Dostoyevsky’s former apartment. Behind me is the desk where he wrote The Brothers Karamazov

St. Petersburg is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to, with stunning architecture and rich cultural experiences such as The Hermitage, The Church of Spilled Blood, and Dostoyevsky’s former apartment, which is open to visitors. It is also friendly, has more of a European feel than Moscow (it is very close to Helsinki, Finland) and is easy to navigate with a great transport system. Uber and AirBnB both work fine there, which makes everything easier.

The only other advice I can give you is not to drink the water, as it will make you sick. Buy bottles from your local shop. Oh yes, and did I mention that the girls are beautiful, too?

Want to find out how jerks and bad boys get the hottest girls? Click on the link now to read Troy’s latest book How To Be An Asshole 

Read More: How To Get Good With Girls Through Embracing Mundanity 

51 thoughts on “6 Reasons You Need To Visit Saint Petersburg”

  1. The Battle of Thermopylae (/θərˈmɒpɪliː/ thər-MOP-i-lee; Greek: Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν, Machē tōn Thermopylōn) was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae (“The Hot Gates”). The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. By 480 BC Xerxes had amassed a huge army and navy, and set out to conquer all of Greece. The Athenian politician and general Themistocles had proposed that the allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae, and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium.
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Thermopylae_ancient_coastline_large.jpg

  2. According to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river. Eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giant’s own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan (to throw), which has evolved to today’s warp.
    A longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante (before) Verpia (deposition, sedimentation), indicating land that forms by deposition in the inside curve of a river (which is in fact the same origin as Germanic waerpen). Note that the river Scheldt, before a transition period between 600 and 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, situating the city within a former curve of the river. However, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named ‘Antverpia’, but more something like an outpost with a river crossing.
    However, John Lothrop Motley argues, and so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, that Antwerp’s name derives from “anda” (at) and “werpum” (wharf) to give an ‘t werf (on the wharf, in the same meaning as the current English wharf). Aan ‘t werp (at the warp) is also possible. This “warp” (thrown ground) is a man-made hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide, whereupon a construction could be built that would remain dry. Another word for werp is pol (dyke) hence polders (the dry land behind a dyke, that was no longer flooded by the tide).
    Alfred Michiels has suggested that derivations based on hand werpen, Antverpia, “on the wharf”, or “at the warp” lack historical backing in the form of recorded past spellings of the placename. He points instead to Dado’s Life of St. Eligius (Vita Eligii) from the 7th century, which records the form Andoverpis. He sees in it a Celtic origin indicating “those who live on both banks”.

  3. A westerner will do well in Russia and Ukraine. Just mention that you’re American or British and the many local women will see you as an escape option

      1. Russian girls are probably just like Brazilian Girls and other Latinas. They treat foreigners or Rich Guys right until they get citizenship or a way out of their countries or righteous family.
        Lots of girls from “humble backgrounds” now a days using men as their ticket to freedom your guys better watch out!

        1. Purê B$, That comment right there tells me you either never been abroad or hung out in the Gringo traps like Pobaldo Medellin or Copacabana Rio De Janeiro. At least 90% of Brazilian Women I chatted with and still ask on occasion had and have little interest in a US Green Card and would prefer their US Boyfriend stay in their county. Think about it why would most family oriented women want to abroad away from their families.

      2. It’s not hard to work out if she wants a green card or not. If she keeps bringing up your future in America. YES. If she says she wants you to live in her country, it’s the kind of girl you should stay with (traditional/love her family = will do the same to yours).
        If you take her back to the west, her soul will be easily poisoned by Feminism! Unless she doesn’t speak English, I highly recommend not to bring her back to the west. Be nice and keep her soul pure in her own country and live a happy life!

        1. What kind of beta simp shit is this. You want to move to a foreign country for a woman?

    1. They do this to every US or EU citizen, even I as Czech am seen as escape opportunity.

  4. *Wędkarstwo karpiowe*
    Wędkarz z karpiem
    Wędkarstwo karpiowe, karpiarstwo – metoda połowu karpi. Jest to odmiana wędkarstwa polegająca na połowie ryb z brzegu. Do połowu karpi stosuje się metodę spławikowo–gruntową która dzieli się na trzy odmiany:
    gruntową
    spławikową
    powierzchniową
    W wędkarstwie karpiowym najczęściej stosowana jest metoda gruntowa.
    *Historia*
    Wędkarstwo karpiowe zyskało popularność na świecie w latach 80. W Polsce stało się popularne w latach 90. przez napływ nowego sprzętu po upadku komunizmu.
    *Sprzęt*
    Do połowu karpi metodą gruntową używa się wędek o długości 3,60 i 3,90 metra. Do metody spławikowej używa się wędek o długości od 4,00 do 4,20 metra. Do obu metod powinno się używać wytrzymałych zestawów.
    *Łowiska*
    Łowiska karpiowe najczęściej spotykane w Polsce:
    związkowe (między innymi należące do Polskiego Związku Wędkarskiego)
    komercyjne
    Typy łowisk karpiowych:
    żwirownie
    jeziora
    rzeki
    starorzecza
    stawy

  5. L’esemplare giovanile presenta un corpo allungato, con profilo dorsale poco convesso, con livrea giallo chiara e ocello sul peduncolo caudale. L’adulto ha un corpo tozzo, compresso ai fianchi. La pinna dorsale è alta, composta da raggi ossei, i maggiori sono dentellati, come nella pinna anale. La mancanza assoluta dei barbigli lo distingue dalla carpa. La livrea è variabile, solitamente giallo-oro più o meno carico, con riflessi metallici sul dorso. Le pinne sono sfumate di rosso.
    Il carassio può raggiungere una lunghezza massima di 45 cm per 1,5 kg di peso, tuttavia la taglia media risulta variabile tra i 20-30 cm di lunghezza per 3-4 hg di peso.
    Il pesce rosso selvatico è quasi identico a questa specie e si può riconoscere con certezza solo mediante l’esame delle branchiospine.

  6. Hair fetishism, also known as hair partialism and trichophilia, is a partialism in which a person sees hair – most commonly, head hair – as particularly erotic and sexually arousing. Arousal may occur from seeing or touching hair, whether head hair, axillary hair, chest hair or fur. Head-hair arousal may come from seeing or touching very long or short hair, wet hair, certain colors of hair or a particular hairstyle. Pubephilia is sexual arousal at the sight or feel of pubic hair.
    Haircut fetishism is a related paraphilia in which a person is aroused by having their head hair cut or shaved, by cutting the hair of another, by watching someone get a haircut, or by seeing someone with a shaved head or very short hair.
    Hair fetishism manifests itself in a variety of behaviors. A fetishist may enjoy seeing or touching hair, pulling on or cutting the hair of another person. Besides enjoyment they may become sexually aroused from such activities. It may also be described as an obsession, as in the case of hair washing or dread of losing hair. Arousal by head hair may arise from seeing or touching very long or short hair, wet hair, a certain color of hair or a particular hairstyle. Others may find the attraction of literally “having sex with somebody’s hair” as a fantasy or fetish. The fetish affects both men and women.
    Some people feel pleasure when their hair is being cut or groomed. This is because they produce endorphins giving them a feeling which is similar to that of a head massage, laughter, or caress. On the other hand, many people feel some level of anxiety when their head hair is being cut. Sigmund Freud stated that cutting woman’s long hair by men may represent a fear and/or concept of castration, meaning that a woman’s long hair represents a figurative penis and that by cutting off her hair a man may feel dominance as castrator, not the castrated one (while paradoxically also being reassured by the fact that the hair will grow again).
    Trichophilia may present with different excitation sources, the most common, but not the only one, being human head hair. Trichophilia may also involve facial hair, chest hair, pubic hair, armpit hair and animal fur. The excitation can arise from the texture, color, hairstyle and hair length. Among the most common variants of this paraphilia are excitation by long hair and short hair, the excitement of blonde hair (blonde fetishism) and red hair (redhead fetishism) and the excitement of the different textures of hair (straight, curly, wavy, etc.). Trichophilia can relate to the excitement that is caused by plucking or pulling hair or body hair.

  7. well this time i partially agree with you, Troy, however let’s say to our fellows ROK comrades that girls do not exactly jump on you: as Roosh stated in one of his article, you should be ready to pass many shit tests, you should also know basic Russian language to have an edge, most girls knows english, but not all of them, so introducing yourself with basic Russian phrases and you’ll have better results than others.
    Spasibo drug Troy,
    Dosvidhania

  8. As a Russian I strongly suggest you to visit St. Petersburg. I would say it’s the best Russian city in terms of game and dating. There are a lot of good looking and beautiful girls. Moscow is also a killer, although Moscow girls usually tend to have higher standards and are more money-oriented. There’re also plenty of successfull rich guys, so, the competition is harder.
    And the city itself is stunning! It looks like an European metropolis at it’s best, but has many elements of typical Russian culture, and this mix is amazing. The only negative side is the weather – it absolutely sucks. Grey, rainy and windy.
    In general, this place is very worth visiting. Good luck!

    1. Nice article as always.
      I really want to go but it’s that visa and being invited by a hotel thing that bothers me a bit. But there are quite easy ways to work around that without too much time, money and effort involved so I will go sooner or later. If I were single I would definitely go and go through the process without thinking twice. If I go with my girl it will only be sightseeing and dinner.
      Sweden is nice to have as a point of departure when you travel around the northern parts of Europe. Close to Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Germany, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Some of these can be reached by ferry (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Estonia and Latvia) or car (Norway, Denmark), or very fast and cheap flights. Not the most exiciting countries but nice for a number of brief stays or nature explorations.
      In this part of the world, there are only Russia and Lithuania left for me. Probably St. Petersburg and Vilnius within one or two years. Likely a short trip. I like to see the countryside but I don’t think I would do that in those cases.

  9. Beautiful city, expensive for Russia, and is known by Russians as “the city of old women”.
    While all Russian women are very materialistic, Moscow’s women aren’t as blatant about it; or as stuck up.

    1. and is known by Russians as “the city of old women”
      Maybe for a few decades after WW2, for obvious reasons.

  10. Dostoyevsky may have written Brothers K. there but it’s Crime and Punishment that it’s the backdrop to. I may never visit St Petersburg, but Raskolnikov’s fevered wanderings round that city will never quite leave me

  11. Good article and cool pics Troy! Don’t get set back by the negative comments since you showed your face. You’ve been doing a great job along the years. You’re a fking reference I’d say.

  12. Is it really going to be a sausage fest during the next world cup in June or it will be ok to visit?

    1. Sausage fest but I’d imagine most of the beta expats will end up at hookers leaving a lot of women around in festival mode looking for fun attractive men to party with.

  13. As an exchange student, I visited St. Petersburg when it was still called Leningrad. Looks like I need to update that passport.

    1. They should go back to being Petrograd. Peter the Great’s obsession with aping the Germans was always silly, and of course, fuck Lenin and all of his Bolsheviks. They’re taking it up the ass in Hell. Petrograd honors St Peter in a Russian way.

  14. No mention of the reputation of Russian girls as predatory gold-diggers who eat Western beta males for lunch.

  15. Err…. this guy had luck with beautiful, fashionable and young Russian women? This guy? He is really short, does not seem nearly as well-dressed as he claims to be, and has a below-average build. One wouldn’t even notice you in a crowd, Troy. Who are you fooling?
    Yet another example of absolutely average men thinking they are the Alpha Chads of the dating world while being no better than the next beta simp…

    1. I am short as well and Russian girls didn’t mind at all, sure some did but never to an extend that it would cause me issues.
      They however do care about style, quality of clothing and general non-redneck look. Troy at least in these photos fails on style horribly.

    2. The whole POINT of learning Game for us former beta/ex-incel males, is to beat the Blue Pilled beta competition for women.
      Being alpha is a behaviour, being your own best version.
      It is NOT about being in the top 20% of males in the looks and money department.
      And it WORKS wonders for us average men.

    3. Height I would wager matters less in Russia than it does in the west considering many Russian men are not that tall.

  16. If Americans should be allowed to be homosexuals then why can’t they own guns?
    If Americans should be allowed to read Bibles then why can’t they smoke marijuana?
    Live and let live.
    Freedom is the American way.

  17. Yet another sex-tourism article by a self-appointed internet celebrity who no one cares about or will remember. Another day older and no meaningful achievements. If this is what you really do for a living then the only one you are deceiving is you.

  18. …and also for its traditional, some might say patriarchal culture.
    stopped reading there.

  19. I’m tired to repeat. Russia is a feminist matriarchy since the USSR ! It has the biggest number of female bosses in the world or in Europe. Russian women are ugly non-feminine rude career oriented bitches

  20. I seriously think Russian girls are grossly overrated as the epitome of White female ideal as most manosphere articles on the web suggest. True, they can “act” feminine and “loyal”, are beautiful, be deferring to you (atleast in public), provide blowjobs/anal on demand, and shape-shift into what you want them to be…..till they find another option.
    33% cheating among married couples and a 60% divorce rate does have a lot to say about the mindset of Russian women. They simply need to experience life to the fullest, even if it means fucking a 1000 cocks up their ass on the sly should that qualify as living a full life. And it is non-debatable, non-negotiable. Indeed, the most matriarchal women on this planet.
    The alphadom and jerkiness of most Russian men that this article states or describes as a common Russian female “complaint”, is just a shallow justification that Russian women often state and use to slut it around with foreign men. So though I am not Russian myself, I say Russian men know and atleast acknowledge the sluttiness of their women very well, as compared to the often seen betaness of Western men who instead white knight the sluttiness of Western Anglo women.
    So you want to travel to St.Petersburg to fuck beautiful white Russian “traditional” girls (bitches), through all the tedious procedures? Save the trouble. Instead go to Dubai, Alexandria in Egypt, Goa in India, or Thailand, and you can fuck as much Russian female butts (from all parts of Russia, not only St.Petersburg itself) on their vacations with lesser investment, and standard clown game with intermediate Russian linguistic skills. Forget the superior Russian culture bullshit. In fact, they got no real culture at all in 2018. A culture which actually produces the world’s largest and most famous population of closet whore tradthots whose loyalty is insanely self serving and situational is no better than the brazen decandence of the West. It’s the same everywhere you go in today’s world, men.
    Russia is simply not as good as you think, no matter how much you whitewash it as the pool of white traditionalism. A whore is a whore and a slut is a slut, no matter how “traditional” or “feminine” she looks. It’s only beta blue pilled Western men who still buy that shit. The average Russian man today has to take on beta behavior because foreign men today get access to their women’s assholes with beta pedestalizing behavior (what they call as “romantic”), which gratifies the average Russian woman’s inner whore pride. That is all.

  21. Very strange piece of advice. I feel I need to make some explanations as a Russian. First of all Saint Petersburg is the least Russian city in the whole of Russia. It’s population is largely extremely pro-Western and even russophobic to some extent. Saint Petersburg citizens have this inferiority complex due to being the most European city in Russia, but still not being actually part of Europe. This probably makes girls in Saint Petersburg more prone to dating foreigners, but still don’t be fooled. A Russian woman will only date a foreigner for the following reasons: curiosity, not having much sex lately, hoping to get some financial benefits or citizenship of some other country. This is basically it. If she has a better option in Russia she will go for it for sure. And if a woman is not being in demand by good looking and financially stable Russian men, gets attention only from fat lazy alcoholics and sleeps around with foreigners… well, probably there’s a reason for it. A Russian woman which goes to bed with a foreigner on the second date is definitely not traditional and is probably snubbed by Russian men.

  22. Named after Lenin, his real name Bronstein……One of the first laws passed by the Jewish Bolsheviks was An Anti Semitic Law, punishable by death, this enacted after they banned guns.
    Then, they legalized Divorce. And things went South from there.
    Fast forward to 1951 and 66 million White Christians were killed by Stalin and his Jewish henchman, according to Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn, who cited the offical USSR Statistician in his book Gulag Archipelago. A long read, by very very good if you like history.

  23. Most of the russian girls you meet in St. Petersburg (or Moscow) in places where you usually get to as a tourist -the pubs and bars at the city center- are not the typical russian woman people here idealize, just like most women in Soho are probably not your typical american women.
    As everywhere else in the world, these places attract a lot of whores and gold diggers and since you are well off as a tourist -at least in their perception- you will have an easier time getting laid. Just dont expect to find a “good” woman there or even a traditional russian girl.
    Now russian girls are on average more beautiful, just beause obesity is far less of a problem in russia, they usually dont have tats all over their bodies and they know and still learn how to dress and make up.
    That being sail, St Petersburg is probably the most westernized city in Russia even more than Moscow. If you are interested in culture or just visiting a really beautiful city with rich history, this is the place to go.
    For meeting more traditional Russians and still get some other tourictic highlights you either have to go to the far less attractive suburbs or just avoid Moscow and St Petersburg. Cities like Rostov, Yekaterinburg or Irkutsk might be a better alternative.
    And about there being more women than men in Russia, thats only because men have a far shorter life expectation mostly because of alcohol abuse and smoking. That means you have a lot of old women, but for people <50 years old, the men/women ratio is about equal.

  24. Pedestrian Friendly? That’s a relief, because the grand majority of car accidents, (including ones where a pedestrian is hit), I’ve seen are Russian.

  25. Why is call Petersburg? That very german sounding name, are Russians that low?
    What was wrong with Petrograd?
    Second biggest and best city has german name, lost respect

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