Deceptive itinerary for St Petersburg

Bollinge - if you'd booked as seven individuals for a regular 2-day tour a year or two back, the cost would have been more than double.

Because of the fall in the rouble I'm out of touch with prices, but they certainly haven't halved, so it looks to me like you got a pretty good deal on the tour :), & around even-money on the ballet plus that post-ballet free time in town.

 

There's one complication worth pointing out, though I can't advise.

The quoted price is in USD, so paying in roubles is open to dispute on exchange rates.

 

JB :)

Thanks for your note, the prices we paid are concessionary prices because someone knows someone else in the cruise business. I have only quoted them to show what others can get if they shop around and do not stick to the big companies who are still charging top-dollar as if the rouble was twice the value against the $ as it was before the oil crash and sanctions.

We have already paid for the tour via bank transfer, and I will do what I always do abroad, go to a hole-in-the-wall, (known as Bankomat in Russia), and draw out a few quid in roubles from a debit card for immediate expenses, tips and baksheesh.

In recent years immigration officer staffing and more accommodating policies on the ship regarding independent tour member disembarkation, St Petersburg has become very fast in clearing passport control, about 5 times faster than a typical airport.

Clearance on docking takes 20-30 minutes and the first passengers off are usually through passport control in a few minutes. A 7:00 arrival would mean 7:30 or sooner for the first disembarkation. If it is a small group, and all of you leave together, you could be on the road 45 minutes from the time the ship ties down.

There are some things that can delay it, for example having some stragglers and no reserve vehicles to take late comers to the tour in progress. Make sure your tour guide/operator has that capability or your tour is only as fast in starting as the slowest person in the group.

Another factor is first destinations. For example many of the ship tours and large mass independents have to use early entry at the Hermitage which means thousands of people assembling and being herded through a limited time window of viewing a limited, abbreviated path where every person follows the same path. That can delay getting on with the tour by quite a bit. Crowding and time to get in various places depends a lot on the itinerary and whether it is a shared itinerary with hundreds or thousands following in small groups of 15-45 to the same places at the same time. If you have a customized itinerary that is not a standard one, you have a much better chance of avoiding crowds, and adding other activities not on the standard tour the larger companies adhere to, will mean avoiding crowds and delays.

I know one company ordered 760 Hermitage tickets from a supplier for one day, at the same time, the same time the ship bus tours are scheduled to enter so you can imagine the crowding that will be expected.

Create your own itinerary, look up what others have done and do the opposite if you want a less rushed and crowded excursion.

There are hundreds of great museums, palaces and activities so get creative, pick things you are really interested in and not just the set itineraries that have become standard. The city is too interesting, varied and fun to be stuck in cookie cutter programs. Visit non-cruise travel forums or web communities to see what others are doing on their land based exploration, you will get lots of ideas that open up options you don't read about here.

Same with evening activities, there is so much more than tourist ballet and a folkloric show that has no, even remote, relationship to St Petersburg. When was Cossack dance part of Northwestern Russia? Never, it is not even Russian. If you are a ballet lover and regularly go, book your cruise every early in the season, before the Stars of the White Nights so you can see world class ballet in one of the most revered theaters. Tourist ballet is not the same experience at all. Go explore or go to a jazz club or blues river cruise, there are supper clubs with shows, 8,000 fine restaurants. There are night openings of galleries and even St Isaac Cathedral. 15 years ago everyone had customized tours but now everyone just seems to goes with the flow just does the identical thing as everyone else on the ship. The two cities visited that have the most to offer yet are not really explored much are Berlin and St Petersburg.

What a tour operator would you recommend for a private tour?

Here's our itinerary:

 

Good morning from St Petersburg! Hope all is going well.

 

Please kindly find the timing for both days. We shall certainly be flexible and get adjusted on the spot if necessary. The tour order may vary due to the traffic situation in the city these days.

 

 

June 21st - Sunday 08.30AM - 4.45PM

 

08.30- 09.15 Drive to the Hermitage museum

09.15 - 11.30 Tour of the Hermitage museum (early opening)

11.30 - 14.00 Drive around the city, several photo stops and inside visits to St Isaac's and Spilled Blood Cathedrals, Peter and Paul Fortress

14.00 - 14.30 Drive to Grand Hotel Europe

14.30 - 16.00 Brunch time at the restaurant

16.00 - 16.45 Drive back to the ship, time at leisure

 

Evening

 

19.00 - 19.45 Drive to Alexandrinsky or Hermitage theatre

20.00 - 22.45 Ballet performance and a glass of champagne at the intermission

23.00 - 00.30 Time on your own in the city center

00.30 - 01.00 Return to the ship

 

Please note that due to the draw bridges in St Petersburg during the navigation period it is necessary to cross the Neva River to the Port territory side before approx 1.00AM because after that time the bridges will be put down only around 3.00AM for several minutes.

 

 

June 22nd - Monday 08.30AM - 5.00PM

 

08.30 - 09.30 Drive to Pushkin

09.30 - 10.30 Tour of Catherine palace (early opening)

10.30 - 11.30 Tour of the Catherine Park

12.00 - 13.30 Time for lunch at Podvorie restaurant (the exact time is TBA closer to the date)

13.30 - 14.00 Drive to Peterhof

14.00 - 15.00 Tour of Grand Palace

15.00 - 15.45 Tour of the Lower Park with Fountains

15.15 - 17.00 Drive back to the ship

 

 

The cost of the services will be USD 794.00 for both days which includes a private AC van for both days, services of an English-speaking guide, entrance fees to the Hermitage, Spilled Blood and St Isaac's Cathedrals, Peter & Paul Cathedral, Catherine palace in Pushkin, Peterhof Grand palace and Lower Park, photo/video charges where applicable.

The cost of a private van with a guide for the evening tour will be USD 110.00 bulk. The cost of a ballet ticket to Alexandrinsky or Hermitage theatre will be USD 70.00 per ticket, total cost for 7 of you will be USD 490.00.

Meals are not included, you will have brunch at Grand Hotel Europe and lunch at Podvorie. You will be able to pay directly to the restaurants, they accept major credit cards.

 

The total cost of the services for both days including the evening ballet performance will be USD 1394.00 bulk.

Yuor itinerary lokks great! Is the cost of $ 794.00 for both days per person? Hoa many people in your group? I am looking for a private tour just for two of us.

Lita

Just a word of advice, you simply cannot take what one person says about a specific tour company and use that as your basis for booking. All of us here have used many different tour companies and we all came back raving that ours was the best. They all do a fantastic job.

As per Stan, he has an agenda here and several things he says has to be taken with some grains of salt.

Bollinge has an 'in' with a certain tour group, as he plainly said, so I highly doubt you could even come close to the price he is paying.

You need to do this by yourself and just not take one person's word. You need to contact several of the tour companies and see which one YOU feel most comfortable with and if it costs you a few Rubles more, so be it. It HAS to be the one YOU feel comfortable with, not just one other person's recommendation.

Cheers

Len

Yuor itinerary lokks great! Is the cost of $ 794.00 for both days per person? Hoa many people in your group? I am looking for a private tour just for two of us.

Bollinge's price is the total for two days for seven, excluding the evening. :)

But as Len points out, Bollinge has "friends of friends".

Also bear in mind that the operator's costs of a private tour for two won't be much less than the same private tour for seven - perhaps a smaller vehicle and of course lower admission costs - but the major cost of the services of a driver and a guide will be the same regardless of numbers.

A couple of years ago we paid around $300 per person for seats on a shared two day tour, same as pretty-well everyone using local tour operators. Very good value at the time.

Since then the value of the rouble has plummeted, so theoretically the dollar price of tours - both ship-sponsored & independent tours - should also have plummeted. But of course those savings won't have automatically been passed on in full, same as the huge drop in the value of oil hasn't been passed on by suppliers of petrol, electricity, cruises etc. It's only competition that drives down prices, and that takes time - both the cruise line & the local tour operators will want to take the opportunity to broaden their profit margins until someone brings down their prices to maintain or increase their market share.

On another thread, spbstan mentioned Anastasia as having brought down prices and another contributor quoted excellent value from her, but her advertised website prices were actually higher than most. This kinda demonstrates Bollinge's point that it pays to shop around.

As Len points out, pretty-well everyone on CC & elsewhere raves about the operator that they used, and whichever you use you won't be disappointed.

If you book "seat-on-bus" I doubt you'll get a negotiated price. It certainly seems worthwhile to seek out competitive prices for a private tour, but I seriously doubt that for just two people you'll get a lower price than the advertised "seat on bus" prices.

But you won't know unless you ask. ;)

JB :)

We have paid around $200 each including the ballet and down-town after-party.

OK, we got "mates' rates" because someone bumped into someone else at a cruise business convention, but I was about to book a similar itinerary for a similar price with one of the many newer licenced tour operators.

So I am sure anyone can book similar for an equivalent price if they shop around.

We have paid around $200 each including the ballet and down-town after-party.

 

.

Err, yes, that's kinda what I said. ;)

The $794, mentioned by Lita that I was referring to, excludes the evening & works out at $113 each.

The $1394 grand total works out at around $200 each.

I'll continue to agree with Len that a twosome isn't going to get anything like the same value.

JB :)

Despite the 9:30 meeting time on the first day, my group still had to wait for somebody who still showed up late...

However, if you don't like the start time of your tours, there are other choices out there and you can cancel your booking and choose another tour provider.

I didn't want to cancel and choose a new tour provider because I didn't want to go through the whole negotiation process with another tour provider again.

It was kind of a hassle and took a bit of awhile with the whole back and forth negotiation with the tour company and the time zone delay in between responses. They didn't give me the price I ended up paying right away as I had to keep pushing for further discounts. But, in the end, it was worth it because of all the money I ended up saving.

If I started all over again, there was no guarantee I'd be able to get the same price from its rival.

We just returned from a Baltic cruise on Celebrity. We had a small group of 12 for our St. Petersburg tour with TJ. We had to do more on day one due to the holiday on Saturday. TJ worked around the holiday schedule and we got everything including the performance of Swan Lake in. Since there was not time to go back to the ship, TJ deducted the cost of the transportation to the ballet. TJ also adjusted our price, as the rubble had declined from TJ's original quote. Our guide was very helpful with perfect English. Everything went very smoothly and I would recommend TJ to anyone planning a Baltic trip with an overnight stay in St. Petersburg.

Bellefiore33472

....... TJ also adjusted our price, as the rubble had declined from TJ's original quote...........l

 

Bellefiore33472

Freudian typo ? :D

JB :)

We also used TJ on our May 2-13 Regal Princess Cruise. We happened to be in port for the 9 May VE Day celebrations in SPB. TJ had adjusted our schedule to avoid center city attractions on the 9th as the city was a ZOO around the Hermitage. That being said, the 3 cruise ships in port had pretty much everybody in the Hermitage first thing on the 8th. We had selected to do a private tour (just wife, guide and driver). It really wasn't that much more expensive than the "deluxe" ship's tour (about $250 more total). If you can afford it, it's the only way to see St Petersburg. We were dropped off at the door of all the attractions and picked up the same way. It was raining off and on during the 8th. Having just us and our outstanding guide, Alexsander, was so much better. Most of the other groups were about 10 to 12 and everyone wore headsets. I loved being able to just turn around and ask Alexsander. TJ definitely met or exceeded all our expectations.

In regards, to getting on and off the ship, I was a little leary since Princess really pushed their tours and said you might not be able to get off without "proper documentation", hinting that private tours might not work. Of course TJ had forwarded the right "tour ticket". It took about 35 minutes to get through immigration the first day. The worst was actually going thru immigration to get back on the ship the first day. They only had 3 or 4 booths open and everybody's tour seemed to get back to the ship at the same time (around 6:30PM). 2nd day was a piece of cake, 10 minutes both ways.

Bottom line, Tatyana and Julia at TJ do an outstanding job.