SPB-Help with 2 Options

Hello,

I am trying to decide between the Faberge Tour or the Grand Tour with Alla. The Grand Tour offers the palace where Rasputin was killed and St Issac's Cathedral. Also a hydrofoil ride. And the Faberge Tour obviously has the beautiful Faberge eggs. Just wondering if these three sights are all really worth it. Maybe I can get some opinions to help us with our choice. Also, with the Faberge tour we seem to be in a bus until 11 am, but the hydrofoil in the Grand Tour seems to cut down the transit time-sounds like a good thing?

Thanks

No idea what interests you, but the Faberge has no appeal to me...

We did the Grand Tour with Alla in July and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Some guidebooks dismiss Yusopov Palace (where Rasputin was killed) as not being anything special, but I found the interior to be exceptional and the guide's description of the events leading up to Rasputin's murder was so interesting. (You see the various rooms where the events took place and they use mannequins to re-create the participants.) One downside to the Yusopov Palace is that no photos can be taken.

St. Isaac's Cathedral contains some amazing paintings and gold artistry. And it also has one of my favorite sculptures of the entire trip--what I call "Jesus with a Bowling Ball". (I'm sure anyone who has been there knows what I'm talking about.)

The hydrofoil ride to Peterhof via the hydrofoil shaves 30 minutes off the trip and gives you a great view of Peterhof from the water as you arrive--as one did during Peter the Great's time.

Whether you think these 3 items would be 'better' than the Faberge Museum just depends on your interests. I must admit that I would have been very tempted to take the Faberge Tour, but I was fortunate to see the extensive Faberge collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts a couple of years ago which satisfied my "Faberge craving".

Whichever tour you decide upon, I think you'll be pleased with Alla.

Hello,

I am trying to decide between the Faberge Tour or the Grand Tour with Alla. The Grand Tour offers the palace where Rasputin was killed and St Issac's Cathedral. Also a hydrofoil ride. And the Faberge Tour obviously has the beautiful Faberge eggs. Just wondering if these three sights are all really worth it. Maybe I can get some opinions to help us with our choice. Also, with the Faberge tour we seem to be in a bus until 11 am, but the hydrofoil in the Grand Tour seems to cut down the transit time-sounds like a good thing?

Thanks

Make sure you understand how the visit to the Faberge Museum will work. Before 6:00 PM, all visits are done as part of groups with a Russian speaking guide taking the group at what has been described as a too-fast pace through the museum. Depending on the size of your group, that may mean more people could be added to your group. Also confirm who will be your guide when you're inside the museum. Perhaps a private guide is allowed to provide the explanation if the group size is large enough.

Incidentally, group size matters since the eleven eggs are displayed in one room with one or, at most, two eggs in individual cases about 2' square. Too big a group and you'll be jostling for a front row view.

After 6:00 PM, you're allowed to visit on your own with a rented English language head set. You set the pace and the crowds around the cases are minimal.

Besides the room with the eggs, there are many rooms with larger cases displaying every type of object Faberge made: cigarette cases, small desk clocks, picture frames, etc. The contents of these cases are grouped by color. Finally, the rooms themselves are restored to staggering opulence. If the Faberge jewelry weren't on display, the building would still be worth a visit for its beautiful excess! However, we gave the building just the minimal attention because we were focused on the Faberge items.

My husband and I visited the palace where Rasputin was killed. Our guide explained the events of that evening and went into some depth as to who and what was really behind the killing. After hearing from our guide, I'd have to say the motive is not what appears in most history books. The palace where the killing took place is another ornate extravaganza, but our enjoyment was more impacted by what we learned than what we saw. I hope your guide will be as good as ours was.

St. Isaac's cathedral would be my lowest ranked destination on your list. The architecture is very Italian, not Russian. If you've been to Italy, you've "seen" this church already. It's a beautiful cathedral, beautiful enough to later influence the building of the US Capitol, but it lacks the onion domes and icons that tell you you're really in Russian.

Also, with the Faberge tour we seem to be in a bus until 11 am, but the hydrofoil in the Grand Tour seems to cut down the transit time-sounds like a good thing?

We took the Faberge group tour with Alla 9/10-11 of this year. It's all a blur at this point as to when we did what, but just looking back to the specific program I saved for our dates prior to the cruise, our actual two day itinerary ended up very different (different order of sites). The Faberge museum itself was nice, as were the pretty eggs, but the rest of the displays to me were just stuff. After the eggs I was more interested in the pretty building, but that's just me. No photography allowed. Our Alla guide provided the commentary to our group of 14.

We made the long drive out to Peterhof only to find it closed for the afternoon starting @ 2PM (mind you our original program showed a morning visit). That was very disappointing. I have no way of knowing if the Grand Tour made it there during our time in port. Saw the hydrofoils zip by our ship as we were sailing away.

So, in hindsight, wish we had gone with the Grand Tour we had originally scheduled. We just had bad luck.

Just to confuse you some more, we took the Faberge Tour with Alla in June of this year & were very pleased. If I remember correctly We started with a couple of photo ops (One was the outside of St. Isaac's to take photos of the gold dome), then after a restroom/souvenir stop it was off to Peterhof to see the gardens. Lunch was included, and after we went to the Catherine Palace for a tour of the inside that included the Amber Room. I don't feel we were "Shortchanged" in anyway because we took a bus rather than the hydrofoil to Peterhof.

Day 2 was a quick stop to tour one of the beautiful subway stations, then it was a canal boat ride, followed by early admission to the Hermitage. After an included lunch at a Stolle Pie shop (They serve both savory & sweet pies) it was a quick stop to the Peter & Paul Fortress to see the burial place of the Tsars, then the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, and finally the Faberge Museum. The museum has 11 eggs, 9 of which are Imperial Easter Eggs. Our Alla Tour guide walked us through.

No matter which tour you take, I feel that there is palace overload. The Hermitage was a palace before it was an art museum, plus you see the exterior of many palaces while on the canal boat ride.

:) Forget the eggs. Take the other tour. Seriously.

Enjoy.

K

I have decided to take Hockey Ken's advice! :). Mostly just because I like your user name! Actually, we've booked with SPB tours, and are going with the Deluxe Tour, which is like Alla's Grand Tour. It sounds like the Faberge Tour may not be the best use of our time, and it doesn't sound as extensive as I thought it might be. Also, my husband pretty much vetoed it anyway! I think it may be interesting to hear the story of Rasputin. So looking forward to this trip!

Hi! I vote for the Faberge museum:). I took Evening in the Faberge with Best Guides. The eggs are unbelievably beautiful. We entered the museum at about 6.30 pm. It wasn’t crowded inside but of course we weren’t the only visitors. We all got English language audio guides and spent about an hour and a half inside. Guided tours are not allowed after 6 pm and our guide Elena waited for us downstairs. Yes, there are several rooms in the museum but we spent almost all the time in the first one which has all the eggs. It was a fantastic experience. After the museum we continued with the complementary White Night Drive which was a real surprise. We were back at the ship at about 10 pm. By the way this evening option wasn’t expensive at all.

Jess :)

We had Elena as our guide as well for SPB and she was excellent.

I was not impressed with Rasputin Yusapov castle that much, but St Isaac was beautiful. I liked Catherine's Palace and hydrofoil ride. I wish we could have had the pies.

St. Isaac’s was really beautiful. We’ve been not only inside but we climbed the colonnade as well. The view was fantastic! It was something unbelievable! You can see all the cathedral, Nevskiy, river Neva and even Gulf of Finland and the port. Be careful – there are no elevators, only a staircase. 262 steps! The view was just stunning. It also was quite cold and windy upstairs despite of more or less good weather downstairs.

Jess :)