St Petersburg excursions

This will be our first cruise on Fred Olsen, though we have cruised before. We are going on the Baltic cruise on Boudicca at the end of August/beginning of September.

What advice would anyone give re booking excursions for St Petersburg, ie ship or Russian tour guide, pre-booking or waiting till after excursion talks? If we pre-booked with Fred and changed our minds, would we be able to get a refund or change to another tour?

Thank you in advance for any advice anyone can offer.

What ever you do, remember the if you don't go with a Fred tour you will need to organise a visa yourself.

We visited St Petersburg and Moscow for a 10 day holiday around 10 years ago.

No way would I recommend doing tours yourself.

St Petersburg was really scary, as there was a Russian Ship in and the Sailors were roaming the streets, it was like the Wild West.

We went in to the centre one evening on a courtesy bus, we spent 10 minutes there and got the bus back.

We always pre book the tours we want. On any cruise it's usualy 25% ships tours to 75% doing it ourselves. Don't think they are cheaper on board.

As for changing tours after the talks no idea, but wouldn't put my pension on it.😄

We are on the Balmoral in September to the Baltic and it will be 100% ships tours in St Petersburg.

Have a great cruise.

The thing to remember with Russia is that you must have tour tickets or a visa before they will let you past immigration. You have to give in your tour ticket with your passport. It takes a long time the first time you get off, but after that it's not too bad.

I went in May last year with Cunard and did a ship's tour which suited me. This tour included a drive through the city, a folk concert and then a full day to the Peterhoff and Catherine palaces. There is so much to see and so little time that it is hard work, but worth it.

Others will be able to suggest good companies to book with. Take a look at what is on offer and see what takes your fancy. I am sure you will enjoy your visit.

I would say it rather depends on how energetic you are and what sort of experience you are looking for?

If you have good mobility and want to pack in as much as possible then definitely book with a Russian tour guide.

If you are just looking for a relaxing wander around a couple of the better locations then the FO tours are going to be fine.

Do book in advance though and if you change your mind about the FO tours before you board then yes, you can cancel without penalty.

Once on board they do have the right to make a small charge for cancellations up until the published final change date for that day and after that you cannot cancel without losing your payment in full.

What ever you do, remember the if you don't go with a Fred tour you will need to organise a visa yourself.

That is not quite accurate unless something has recently changed?

You certainly can't just leave the ship on your own without a visa, but if you book with a properly accredited local tour company you do not need a visa.

That is not quite accurate unless something has recently changed?

 

You certainly can't just leave the ship on your own without a visa, but if you book with a properly accredited local tour company you do not need a visa.

My understanding is the same as this. We have not been to Russia but looked into it for a cruise we had booked which was cancelled. The private tours arrange a visa for you.

We have friends who went to St Petersburg 18 months ago and they arranged their own independent tour. As this was an individual tour, I have no doubt that it was not cheap, but they were very grateful to have been taken around on their own rather than in the large groups that all decended on the tourist venues. I understand the tourist locations do get very crowded in St Petersburg. We would like to do the same, but would need to look closer at the cost of course.

I thought the question was between a Fred Tour or DIY.

On reading the original post I see they were referencing a pre booked guide.

Having never done that I would bow to to other posters with experience.

Sorry should pay a little more attention.

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice. It will definitely be a tour organised by a Russian company or by Fred. Now we just have to decide our priorities and try to decide which tour offers the best combination. We do have good mobility and don't just want to sit on a bus and have buildings pointed out to us like a HOHO.

I would say it rather depends on how energetic you are and what sort of experience you are looking for?

 

If you have good mobility and want to pack in as much as possible then definitely book with a Russian tour guide.

 

If you are just looking for a relaxing wander around a couple of the better locations then the FO tours are going to be fine.

 

Do book in advance though and if you change your mind about the FO tours before you board then yes, you can cancel without penalty.

 

Once on board they do have the right to make a small charge for cancellations up until the published final change date for that day and after that you cannot cancel without losing your payment in full.

Thank you Mark. I think our next step is to gather together some alternative tours, both Fred and Russian, look at what they have to offer, and try to agree on our priorities. We definitely want to pack in as much in as possible.

Friends of ours used this company and said they were excellent

http://www.alla-tour.com. They organized visas, collection at the port and they speak good English.

Have a great trip - you will love St. Petersburg

We used Alla tours couple of years ago too. Absolutely first class. Search for my review on this site. They will organise visas etc.

Try this site http://www.whatsinport.com. It's an excellent site for information to any port that cruise ships go to. :)

Friends of ours used this company and said they were excellent

http://www.alla-tour.com. They organized visas, collection at the port and they speak good English.

Have a great trip - you will love St. Petersburg

That's an excellent site and I have read good reports about this company. Thank you.

We used Alla tours couple of years ago too. Absolutely first class. Search for my review on this site. They will organise visas etc.

Thank you.....I will do that. :)

Try this site http://www.whatsinport.com. It's an excellent site for information to any port that cruise ships go to. :)

Thank you for reminding me about this site. I have used it for Med. Ports. :)

That is not quite accurate unless something has recently changed?

 

You certainly can't just leave the ship on your own without a visa, but if you book with a properly accredited local tour company you do not need a visa.

I agree. Last year we used Alla Tours. Their 2 day Grand Tour was excellent value for money. The vehicle was new, the guide was excellent, and we just can't rate it highly enough. Our tickets (printed at home) served as our visas, and we had no problems at immigration. The tour company doesn't take payment until the 2nd day, so there's no need to worry about that.

We did a Baltic cruise with Fred in September 2013 and it was excellent. We have been on a number of cruises to various destinations all over the world and very rarely have booked the grossly overpriced ship excursions.

I would also add that I have limited mobility, so a bit of extra research is needed

In SPB we booked the 2 day Comfort Tour with Alla Tours and it was fantastic. Alla answered all my questions before we went even to how many steps in each place I would encounter.

if you book an excursion, then you don't need a separate visa it is included as a group one by the tour operator. Whatever a cruise line tells you there is no need to buy a visa as long as you are going on an organised tour.

When we got to SPB we were given directions where to meet our guide. He was waiting for us as said and he led us to our clean, modern mini bus. Although they take up to 16 passengers on the tours there was just the two of us and one other couple off our ship. It ended up being like a private tour and was excellent. Lunch was also included on each day.

We had been to Amsterdam before and the ship docks quite a way from the centre, so my Dutch friend met us at the ship and we went to a nice restaurant.

In Copenhagen we did the HOHO bus. We had an overnight in Stockholm and bought a 24 hour travel pass which included buses, metro, tram and ferry boats. We had a great time travelling around and seeing Stockholm. We also took the bus to the Vasa Museum which is well worth a visit.

In Tallin we took a local taxi up to the top of Toopea Hill and walked down through the narrow cobbled streets. We walked back to the ship as it wasn't far.

We docked in Gdanyia for Gdansk. Due to time constrictions we ended up doing the ship's tour. Gdansk was much nicer and more interesting than we were expecting. It was also the cheapest of the ports.

I loved this cruise, although OH prefers the Caribbean.

If you read the forums on SPB there is loads of information about tours and what to do in the Baltics. You can also find lots of information on Tripadvisor. We were also surprised that we had very good weather. It was about 28C the day we were in Tallin.

1160451

If you don't know the correct answer to a question then don't give out the wrong information. You DO NOT have to organise a visa yourself if you don't book a ship's tour. A local tour operator also does it for you as a group visa.

SPB was one of the most beautiful cities I have visited and I am very lucky to be extremely well travelled. At no time did I feel at all uncomfortable there and certainly wouldn't do an overpriced ship excursion. In fact, our Alla Tour showed us an awful lot more than those from the ships did according to our dining companions.

How many lines do you want me to write ?

My opinion of St Petersburg was that, my opinion. If you don't agree fair enough.

1160451

You can write what you want about your experiences, but you gave incorrect information about visas in Russia.

Read post 7, I apologised there. Not everybody can be perfect all the time.

You a teacher by any chance.

Forgot to add this...😄

This does seem an unfortunate interchange.

London Towner, may I also suggest that anyone can easily make a mistake as you did in another post in this Fred section earlier today. When I realised your mistake, I did correct it, but in what I hope would be considered a polite manner. The original mistake made here was corrected by two other posters and an appology from 1160451 immediately after. It was also much earlier in this thread so anyone reading this thread would be well aware of other opinions.

It would seem a shame if everyone cannot be allowed to use this site without having a - shall we say - an unfortunately worded response.

I'll drink to that

Tring as always your post is reasoned and thoughtful.

Next time I'm in London can I buy the drinks........

Happy Cruising people.......

In Tallin we took a local taxi up to the top of Toopea Hill and walked down through the narrow cobbled streets. We walked back to the ship as it wasn't far.

Alla Tours gave us a free tour in Tallinn as we'd booked the 2 day Grand Tour in St Petersburg. We saw all the main sights, and it was good, but the SPB tour with guide Julia was excellent.