St Petersburg Tours - Best Company / How Long?

We are taking our first cruise this summer on the Oceania Marina in the Baltic Sea. We will be in St. Petersburg for 3 days. I was looking at the Shore Trips offerings and they have 1, 2 and 3 day trips. I was thinking of the 3 day but wondering if it was too much. Does anyone have experience with Shore Trips and specifically with their St. Petersburg trips?

We went on the two day but a third day would have been nice. I couldn't imagine being in St. Petersburg and hanging out on the ship for a day.

Some people use the 3 days to do 2 days in St. P and 1 day in Moscow, but you can easily spend 3 days in St. Petersburg. Any of the big tour companies should have 3 day group tours available (I know SPB Tours, which we used -- for the 2 day Highlights Tour -- had 3-day options, including a 3 day Deluxe Tour and the 3 day St. P + Moscow). You could, I suppose, arrange for private tours, but 3 days of private touring would be pricey.

I've heard consistently positive comments about most of the big tour companies (SPB, Alla, TJ, etc.) often referenced on here. I doubt you can go too far wrong with any of them.

We did the 2 day with SPB. Excellent. A friend went to Moscow. Said it was great but he spent a lot of time on the train and talk about pricey.

If you have 3 days in St Petersburg, consider yourself lucky, as most of us had 2, at the most. But you must get off the ship to enjoy it. For most of us, St Petersburg was the Jewel in this cruise and usually a once in a lifetime event, be sure to maximize your time there. It is most definitely NOT too much.

We also used SPB Tours and they were wonderful. All the major players in St Petersburg do a great job showing you this magnificent city, just find one YOU are comfortable with.

And get out and enjoy it.

Cheers

Len

Thank you everyone for the wonderful feedback. Someone else recommended SPB tours to me as well and I think I will go with their 3 day tour. We are so excited and cannot wait for our first cruise.

Well end August 2017 we will be on ms Marina (Oceania cruises) 3 full days in St Petersburg. Friends who where there confirmed me that using Ships excursions is the best way, as they have priorities to enter the nice places. I know that Oceania excursions are good quality. However it was not easy to make my choice, so much offers! Even when it is probably more expensive we preferred to do it with Oceania!

Well end August 2017 we will be on ms Marina (Oceania cruises) 3 full days in St Petersburg. Friends who where there confirmed me that using Ships excursions is the best way, as they have priorities to enter the nice places. I know that Oceania excursions are good quality. However it was not easy to make my choice, so much offers! Even when it is probably more expensive we preferred to do it with Oceania!

no one on here will be likely to have experienced both ships and private tours

Your friends who used ships tours were probably happy enough but the reason given that they have priority entry is misleading as most of the frequently mentioned private operators also give you priority entry

the main disadvantage of ships tours[apart from higher cost] is that you will be on a 50-60 seater bus and will need headsets as you follow your guide through the museums etc

the private operators run from 8 seater to 16 and occasionally 30 seater maximum so a much smaller group and usually cheaper

Have you thought about sharing with others on your roll call? SPB discounts if you post it on your roll call. Our roll call got $30pp discount and another $22/pp when we hit 16 people for the three day deluxe.

I arranged a St Petersburg 2 day tour through TJ Travel (website is st-petersburg-tours.ru). It was very easy to put a group together over Cruise Critic and TJ Travel gave us a discount for doing this (they can put the group together too if you want), plus additional discount because we we were Cruise Critic members, and even an early booking discount. But more importantly their service was absolutely the best. Tatyana is a very hands on and competent manager, they responded quickly to all email queries, provided a Mercedes Sprinter van that comfortably held our group of 12, a very good driver, great itinerary and a very knowledgeable guide who spoke fabulous English (she was an English major in college). We all had an absolutely fantastic time in St. Petersburg thanks to TJ Travel, the highlight of our Baltic cruise.

Private tour operators offer excellent tours.

Check my spreadsheet to compare some of the tours offered by top local companies.They cover all major attractions and meet all kinds of needs. The URL is

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7qPbaGB1wZ9LWFhektxV0w5UFVzaEdnU3dJd0tnSFh5S3hB/view?usp=sharing

Thank you for the spreadsheet.

Private tour operators offer excellent tours.

Check my spreadsheet to compare some of the tours offered by top local companies.They cover all major attractions and meet all kinds of needs. The URL is

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7qPbaGB1wZ9LWFhektxV0w5UFVzaEdnU3dJd0tnSFh5S3hB/view?usp=sharing

Thank you for sharing your spreadsheet - it is amazing!

One couple gave us a great tip (unfortunately after we left), which I think would work great with a 3 day stop. They did a one day tour to see the main sites and then on the second day they booked a shore excursion that was basically a shuttle to Novsky Prospekt that let them do their own thing. With three days, you could easily book a two day tour and then do something like that to have some flex time to wander around a bit.

Well end August 2017 we will be on ms Marina (Oceania cruises) 3 full days in St Petersburg. Friends who where there confirmed me that using Ships excursions is the best way, as they have priorities to enter the nice places. I know that Oceania excursions are good quality. However it was not easy to make my choice, so much offers! Even when it is probably more expensive we preferred to do it with Oceania!

We were there on Marina in June. Believe me, private tours with any of the top 10 or more companies listed on Trip Advisor will be better and considerably less expensive . They have even better priority and the advantage of small groups. We were 6 with Ulko tours. This was the ideal size. With 16 or 35 you are as slow as the slowest member of your group. All of the companies frequently mentioned will arrange your visa and customize your tour if you have a complete group.

On Marina, everyone wanted to go ashore. We were divided into 2 groups of about 500 each. Half ships tours and half private tours. Neither group was given priority leaving the ship. We lined up early at the front of the private tour line and were through customs in about 15 minutes. Those who lined up late took up to an hour.

Well end August 2017 we will be on ms Marina (Oceania cruises) 3 full days in St Petersburg. Friends who where there confirmed me that using Ships excursions is the best way, as they have priorities to enter the nice places. I know that Oceania excursions are good quality. However it was not easy to make my choice, so much offers! Even when it is probably more expensive we preferred to do it with Oceania!

Please come back to this board after your cruise and tell us about your excursions with Oceania. You're in the distinct minority on this board; most of us have experience with and vastly prefer the smaller groups of private licensed tour companies. (One of the points that poster emphasize when they report back is that their small group got priority access to popular places so I'm not sure why your friends seem to think this is unique to a ship excursion.)

For completeness, it would be really interesting to hear about your experiences with Oceania's excursions.

Our group of four were on the Oceania Marina from June 19-29, 2017. In St. Petersburg we used Dancing Bear tours, also known as Julia's tours, and they were FABULOUS. Would not consider a ship tour. Bad reports from fellow travelers who did. We did three full days and saw everything with driver and guide. We also used Estonian (Nordic) Experience tours in Tallinn, Helsinki and Riga. They were great.

Tom

Has anyone used Shore Excursions Group for St Petersburg?

Our family of 4 (2 adult, 2 teen) just returned from a trip on Norwegian Getaway. We planned a private tour with TJ Travel.

This was a great option with the following benefits:

- we customized the locations we wanted to visit.

- we had a personal guide and driver (in a very comfortable and spacious Mercedes van). Our guide spoke perfect English and was very knowledgeable and provided great stories thru the trip - e.g., as we walked thru the Hermitage and Church on Spilled Blood.

- the cost compared to NCL was much cheaper

- we went at the pace comfortable for us and we even added some small unscheduled stops as time permitted (e.g., to go to a local market)

- paperwork was provided in advance to clear customs

- we paid for the tour (credit card) on the 2nd day of the tour.

Overall the pre-trip planning and travel in Saint Petersburg was excellent.

One last tip is to get off the ship ASAP on Day 1 to beat the crowd in Customs. This took an hour for us to clear the first day.

We just finished a 14 day cruse on the Celebrity Eclipse which included an overnight stay in St. Petersburg. We used TJ Travel for a 2 day tour and they were incredible. Two long touring days but we saw so much. I arranged the tour to include two sit down lunches (which were excellent) and a private river cruise. Our guide, Elena, was so sweet and thorough and our driver Constantine navigated the heavy SPB traffic like and expert. Highly recommend them.

Chris

We used Alla in in June for three days in SPB. Our guide was Anya and she was the best guide ever. We visited all the major sites along with subway and boat rides and no waiting in lines. Anya's vast knowledge of Russia's extensive history was impressive. Any question that came up she was able to answer with details. I forgot our driver's name but he was great and right there when we needed him.

Carole

We did a 12 day Baltic Cruise in July 2017. We used TJ Travel for our 1 day excursion in Helsinki, and our 2 day excursion in St. Petersburg. We highly recommend TJ Travel for excursions in the Baltic. TJ Travel was extremely fast and responsive to our numerous emails about setting up private tours for our group of 12 travelers. The guides in Helsinki and St. Petersburg were outstanding, and the tours were tailored to our needs and our requested itinerary. We actually got to meet the owner of the Company in St. Petersburg, and if you book with TJ in more than one port, you receive a nice discount. TJ Travel was considerably less expensive than the quotes we received for the same tours from SPB. We would definitely use TJ Travel again in the Baltic.

We also used TJ tours in St. Petersburg for a group tour and were very satisfied ..would highly endorse TJ tours as well ..

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Is the website for SPB Tours, spbtours.com or spb-tours.com? Both come up with different tour companies.

Thanks

We will be in St. Petersburg for two days and have been working with Anastasia of Alla tours to schedule 2-day tour which starts tomorrow. Alla has been very good about responding to questions we've had, they're rated number one on trip advisor and we're looking forward to the next two days!

Is the website for SPB Tours, spbtours.com or spb-tours.com? Both come up with different tour companies.

 

Thanks

The one with the dash in the middle. You'll see those distinctive orange signs leading tour groups everywhere around the Baltic.

ETA: Not to imply that the other is not a reputable company. I just haven't had any dealings with them myself.