Believe them - without obscure metro and buses with all the information in Russian you will not get there - unless you order a taxi (40-min ride from the centre).

But - in summer palace's box office may be closed all day long (possibly - opened from 12 to 14, or - only from 16 till 17) - depending on amount of pre-arranged groups and individuals

Dear, I stayed in St. Petersburg in June with my sister, we travel alone, but to go to the Palaces outside the city, the better way is to go with a person from the city, by car.

Before the trip I think that I can get there alone, but it doesn´t work easily.

We went to the Catharina´s Palace and Peterhof in the same day with Alex Lyubimov, I´ll give his E-mail, alex-lyubim@mail.ru

He is very helpful.

At the city you can estay alone, take a hotel near the centre and walk around.

Enjoy your trip.

Cida.

I found Alex's email here in tripadvisor forum, and I must say, he's really nice and the only guy who didn't try to rip us off coz we're tourist.

He was early to pick us up for 2 days we booked him, and extremely reliable (We wondered when he had lunch lol)

he managed to book us the Catherine's Palace tickets, and also sneak us to the front of the queue by smiling and chatting to the tour guides on the way.

He can do airport pickup as well

Bus K187 and ask the driver for Pushkin-Catherine Palace.

have someone at the hotel write it in Russian for you.

Get off at teh metrostop where the busd from the airport dropped you off. From there it is behind Lenins statute