Known as the Russian Versailles, Peterhof Palace is not one palace but many. Its formal Lower Gardens are famous for the many fountains, operating May to mid-October. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is 25 miles (39.5 km) from the city on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. A town as well as a tsarist retreat laid out by Peter the Great, it can be reached by hydrofoil, train, metro and bus. Not to miss: the fountains, the Great Peterhof Palace and the Great Cascade Grotto below the palace, Petrodvorets Watch Factory (Raketa), Russia's oldest factory established by Peter the Great and and making watches since 1945, can also be visited.