Help with tours in St. Petersburg

I have used Alla Tours http://www.alla-tour.com in June for a 3 day private excursion in St Petersburg. We had excellent service with Anna as our contact and we were able to modify their suggested itinerary to suit our interests. I must say we were privileged to have Alexander (Sacha) as a guide. We appreciated his sense of humour, his flexibility and his knowledge. Thanks to his suggestions for restaurants, we had the best Soviet style dining experience at the Soviet Cafe with their decor (we loved their Olivet salad) and had an excellent meal at the Russian Vodka Room with the best borscht soup, chicken Kiev with lingenberry sauce I have ever eaten, with vodka of course. I can now appreciate more the history and culture of Russia. We were speechless with the beauty and work of art in the palaces and in the museums. I would not hesitate to recommend Alla Tours to anyone thinking of visiting this great city.

Diane

We used Alla tours for St Petersburg, 2 day tour. I rate them excellent, the guides well informed and most pleasant with the perfect wry humor typical of Russians and most eastern european guides. The included lunch restaurant was an excellent choice, we went to the Metropole, and I also enjoyed the subway Metro ride. Of course you deal with crowds but some places we were able to avoid them being with Alla tours. Good shopping stops, no pressure, back to the ship in plenty of time, although we didn't add a night time tour. We had very good weather for Oct 2014. No problems getting thru immigration or customs, maybe a little bit of a line, but they have a very good cruise ship dock in my opinion. you won't go wrong picking Alla tours.

We used Alla Tours for our 2 day stop in St. Petersburg on our recent cruise. Our guide was funny and informative as we hit all the highlights over the 2 days. The Grand Tour included an excellent lunch at a restaurant and a delicious box lunch with plenty of food. I highly recommend Alla Tours.

We took a Baltic cruise in June/July 2015 and used Alla Tours in all our ports except for Copenhagen, which was part of the NCL cruisetour package. All the guides used by Alla Tours were very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and professional, making for a very enjoyable and completely satisfying trip. The two-day St. Petersburg Grand Tour was amazing. I highly recommend them for enhancing your own Baltic experience. You won't be disappointed.

We used Alla tours in July this year for our family of 6 trip (age ranging from 12 to 78). They are simply wonderful. Though short, we had a great time in St Petersburg and Berlin by using their services. They also arranged transportation and night tour with very reasonable pricing per our special request since we had separately purchased tickets to Mariinsky. By the way, their tour guides are wonderful too, especially we enjoyed Valentina's friendliness and knowledgeable introduction of many areas. We definitely would recommend them.

I just received a note about Alla Tours. It may be information that everyone here already knows but it is new news to me: Alla Tours recently experienced a DoS attack (denial-of service) on their website. This was a hacking attack whereby one of their more unscrupulous competitors flooded their website with requests thus making it unavailable to legitimate clients.

Maybe that is why the website address was being requested. Possibly there was trouble accessing it?

Seems to be working now: http://www.alla-tour.com/

We had great luck with Alla during our Oceania Nordic Exploration cruise in June of this year. We enjoyed 5 of their tours, including 3-days with them in St. Petersburg. It makes me sad to think that their company would be hurt in any way because of a dirty trick -- hence, this quick post.

On the recommendation of friends who used them a number of years ago, we used Alla for tours of St. Petersburg (3 day), Berlin, and Lithuania in July this year. They were fantastic and so easy to work with from the first email to the final drop off at our cruise ship. The paper work was easy, clear and exactly what was needed by the Russian customs officials. The tour guides were all first rate and the buses and meals were also excellent. We also booked evening activities in St. Petersburg. One night Alla coordinated the whole thing and the other we had purchased ballet tickets ourselves and just booked transportation with Alla. Everything went very smoothly. Our Alla experiences were great and we have recommended them to others who are visiting the Baltic this summer.

Is this the TJ official fan club?

We're off in May and were wondering if any of the lively people here have experience with doing the tours with a 2yr old?

Thanks

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We used Alla Tours on our Celebrity Silhouette trip last May for the Grand Tour of SPB. Alexandra, our guide, was exceptionally knowledgeable about SPB and all of the magnificent sites we saw. She was also very proficient in English. She kept our group of 12 together and on time on the 70th anniversary of VE day on May 9th, a very busy time in the city...That was quite a feat!! Alla, the owner of Alla Tours, was on site at the Hermitage and supervised the many Alla tours that were there.

I highly recommend Alla for your touring in SPB.

Do not hesitate to book tours with Alla Tours. My wife, two sons, mom and dad, and I used them for about half of our excursions during our recent Princess Baltic Cruise in August 2015 and we were thrilled with them. Alla's tour guides were bright, cheerful, knowledgeable and fun. In each city (including 2 days in St. Petersburg) we felt we visited all the important sites and had exactly the experience Alla Tours describes on their web site. We had no issues with passport control in Russia (just remember to follow the directions from Alla precisely). In each city, the Alla tour guide will take very good care of you. In comparison to the tours we took directly through Princess, the Alla tours were always smaller groups, better itineraries, lower cost, and overall a more enjoyable experience.

I have done the Baltic tour twice, the first time using DenRus and the second time, Alla. ALLA is my first choice! Elena was our guide and was superb! Both of these companies are good and reputable.

While on our NCL Baltic Cruise in July, my husband and I had the privilege of being under the supreme guidance of Valentina from Alla Tours as we toured the beautiful and historic city of St. Petersburg. Our two days there were packed from morning until evening with incredible sights and unforgettable information. We learned so much and had a fantastic time. My only regret is that we did not have even more time in each of our destinations. It would have been wonderful to have at least a week in St. Petersburg under the tutelage of Valentina!

Booking with Alla was so easy, and everything worked out exactly as they said it would. We did not miss a thing!! Our small group of 14 jelled nicely, and everyone was ready to go right on time. The customs lines can be long on the first day, but the papers that Alla provided allowed us to sail right through within seconds once we were at the customs window.

I ranked Alla a 10 out of 10, and I recommend them without hesitation!!

Is this the TJ official fan club?

We're off in May and were wondering if any of the lively people here have experience with doing the tours with a 2yr old?

Thanks

Hi! I have experience with doing tours with a 3yr old. We’ve been to Baltic twice. When we did our first cruise Nic was only 3. Initially we wanted to join a group tour but finished up with an individual program for 3 of us. We checked quite a few local companies but after all we booked with Best Guides. They have special children friendly tours. They also have guides specially trained to provide such tours. They are very-very good with children. I’m not sure their tours could be adapted for a 2yr old but any way they accustomed to work with little ones. Just check “Children page” on their web site.

Jess :)

Is this the TJ official fan club?

We're off in May and were wondering if any of the lively people here have experience with doing the tours with a 2yr old?

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

errrr, no - it appears to be the official Fan Club for TJ and for Alla. ;)

(We used Alla, very well pleased with it, but the others have excellent reputations too.)

But Jess' post isn't the first I've seen praising Best Guides particularly for tours with kids. :)

Definitely worth at least putting them on your short-list.

JB :)

Nous avons visité St-Petersbourg pendant deux jours avec TJ travel. Notre guide, VIctoria, et son chauffeur nous ont permis d'explorer l'essentiel de la ville dans une si courte période, mais d'une façon particulièrement efficace. Le coût est bien meilleur que pour les excursions achetées via le croisiériste et surtout le groupe est moins nombreux, soit environ 15 personnes au lieu d'une quarantaine. Ainsi, il y a beaucoup moins de pertes de temps.

Nous avons particulièrement apprécié l'habilité démontrée par notre guide pour nous faire visiter le musée de l'Héritage malgré les nombreux autres groupes présents en même temps que nous. Même si le temps alloué à cette visite est très court, il fut utilisé de la meilleure façon, surtout que l'appartenance à un groupe comme TJ permet d'entrer dans le musée plus tôt que les visiteurs individuels.

Nous avions choisi TJ Travel suite à la recommandation d'amis: nous n'avons pas été déçus, de même que d'autres amis qui ont suivi le même conseil.

The customs lines can be long on the first day, but the papers that Alla provided allowed us to sail right through within seconds once we were at the customs window.

Just to clarify, cruisers go through passport control not customs before touring St Petersburg.

Customs deals with bringing purchases into a country. Passport control deals with making sure the people entering a country are doing so legally.

I will also express our great satisfaction with Alla Tours. My wife and I took their two day tour of St Petersburg when we were there on the Zuiderdam. From the initial inquiry through the booking to the farewell, it was a great experience. Alex was our guide. They gave us very clear instructions on passing through Russian customs, and we had no problems. We heard from others on our cruise who had excellent experiences with the tours they took with other providers, also. We didn't have any little children on our tour, so i can't speak to that.

-John

I am totally guilty of being a fan of TJ Tours. I was on the NCL Star Baltic cruise in June, and I used TJ for St. Petersburg. Using a combination of a Mercedes mini-bus, hydrofoil and walking, our guide Ksenia gave us a marvelous tour of this historic city. It was 16 hours split between 2 days. A tour should be more than just about transportation from place to place. What I liked about the guide is her insightful commentaries. To me this was the equivalent of a very enjoyable 16 hour lecture in art, history and culture, as well as being a tour. I was so impressed at St. Petersburg, I added another TJ tour in Stockholm and had another great tour.

Family with the babies should either look into a private tour (just the family) or, if they need to keep costs down, talk to some of the tour companies about setting up a group tour from their ship consisting of families with small children.

Any of the reputable tour companies will take care of your visa, no matter what the cruise line tells you. Cruise line wants you to buy THEIR excursions. But sometimes even a private tour with an independent company is cheaper than doing the cruise line's tours.

Yes, this works even if you have a US passport.

I've done tours with SPB twice (six years apart) one a group tour for 17 and one a private tour for 4 passengers. Neither time with young kids. the private tour is worth. every. cent.

In June 2016 we took the TJ Travel 3-day Grand tour of SPB. We signed up with TJ Travel mainly because they have the smallest maximum group size - 12 vs. 16 in other groups. I checked the itineraries of Alla, SPB and TJ, and all covered the same basic sights, but TJ also included the boat back from the Summer palace, which was fun and saved time. Our guide, Anna, was excellent, and kept us moving, which I appreciated. When Peterhof Palace changed opening times due to a special event, Anna rearranged things and got us box lunches to eat in the van rather than go to a restaurant. The box lunches were the best of the 3 days of meals. Be aware that there is a lot of traffic in SPB so a lot of time is spent travelling place to place. Our van had free wifi. From start to finish I felt TJ really delivered.