St. Petersburgh

Can anyone recommend which MSC excursion to do in St. Petersburgh? Was looking at an all day one that takes about 9 hours, just wondering if this would feel very long or is there private alternatives?

Other private alternatives are SPB, Alla, TJ travel among others.

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Thanks, will look into private tours too!

It's been a while since we were in St. Petersburg, but at that time, if you wanted to get off the ship on anything other than a ships tour, you needed a Russian visa that had to be purchased prior to leaving for the cruise. If the excursion was from the ship, that was included, but there was no roaming around before or after.

There is soooo much to see in that city that whether you do private or not, I would plan on a full, long day. We did two, full, long days of ships excursion and even though they were tiring, I wouldn't have wanted to miss any of it.

If you go private, just check on the visa timing and cost.

I just got back from St. Petersburg. Any excursion (private or ship) would include the visa to get off the boat and stay with your guide. Check your passport to see if you even need a visa, though; Brazilians don't, along with several other issuing countries.

Go with a private tour for St. Petersburg, as you get smaller groups with an extremely high quality experience. Look at the Northern Europe & Baltics Forum for a VAST amount of information.

Lady Shiva is right a private tour includes your visa - its costs a lot for a Russian Visa (Australia $$ 164) and if you buy one youcan get off the ship on your own and get around but its not easy. The tours are good value - long daybut they include lunch - the tour we did was about $240 but included the visa.