Help with tours in St. Petersburg

Can someone post the web site addresses for SPB and ALLA? Thanks.

Did you have some problem with Google? The web addresses are easy to find.

SPB: https://spb-tours.com/

ALLA: http://www.alla-tour.com/

There are also TJ Tours and Red October as well as several others! Google is your friend....you might want to search for Private Tours Russia/St Petersburg.

Come on Brenda, you really can't figure out how to find the websites for any tour company.

Shame on you :D:D:D:D:D:D

Cheers

Len

My daughter is taking her family on a Baltic cruise that includes St. Petersburg for 2 days. The children will be 15 months and 7 years old sailing in early June 2016. When we did this cruise a few years ago, I thought the bus ride out of the port area rather long and the lines for getting back on the ship very long (though the Russian band of old men were very entertaining). Any recommendations for this family for a good time in St. Petersburg. (Baby is a girl and 7 yr old is active boy.) The family has traveled often (Mom goes for work and they tag along) and this will not be the baby's first cruise so they know somewhat the challenge they are taking on.

I went to the Baltic last month and did St Petersburg with TJ Travel, they were brilliant and I have no hesitation in recommending them to you.

We did a two-day "all highlights tour" with TJ Travel in August and they were absoluetly superb. Our guide, Elisabeth, was extremely knowlegable and very efficient and made the most of the time we had to give us an excellent tour of the key sites.

Don't hesitate - just book it.

We used Insider tours,a private tour very reasonably priced,might be easier with children.

Can someone post the web site addresses for SPB and ALLA? Thanks.

Some friends and I just got back from the Baltic. We used TJ Travel out of St. Petersburg - we used them for 5 Baltic Capitals (Berlin, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm). Their tour guides are excellent and they are extremely reasonable in cost. They are much better than the excursions you can book through the cruise lines.

We used Tj tours and they were fantastic. They arranged a dinner in a private home and it was the highlight of our trip.

My wife and I just got back from a Baltic cruise that included a 2-day St. Petersburg Russia tour with TJ Travel. I can't say enough about how fantastic this tour was. The arrangements were made beforehand via email so that we had all we needed to get through the Russian passport control. Thereafter, our small group of 13 were guided by Victoria who was enthusiastic, professional and thoroughly knowledgeable. Her English was impeccable with very little accent (she teaches English in St. Petersburg) and she was very receptive to questions about Russian life. Our Mercedes van had high speed wifi and bottles of water were supplied to keep us quenched. I won't get into all of the sites we saw (everything of importance in St. Petersburg that one could possibly squeeze into 2 days) and Victoria had a knack for getting us around crowds and delays. She had incredible knowledge of the Hermitage museum having worked there. Our van driver, Anton (call me Tony) was particularly adept at getting through traffic so that we would maximize our touring experience. The tour included 2 "authentic Russian" lunches and a hydrofoil trip to the Peterhof palace which also saved time. Admissions, transportation and lunches were included. All of this for considerably less expense than the excursion offered by the cruise ship. I felt compelled to give Victoria a kiss (and a disproportionately higher tip) before we boarded the ship after our second day. A few days later, we had another wonderful tour run by TJ Travel, this time in Berlin (with Boris, a Yankee) but I'll leave that review for another thread.

I would recommend TJ Travel without hesitation.

P.S. I was apprehensive about paying for the tour by credit card with all of things that can go wrong (exchange rate, fraud) but there were no issues whatsoever. Tatjana made sure of that for us.

My daughter is taking her family on a Baltic cruise that includes St. Petersburg for 2 days. The children will be 15 months and 7 years old sailing in early June 2016.

No doubts there are many tour companies with excellent reputation and several of them are mentioned in the posts above. But taking in consideration that your daughter is travelling with children I would recommend Best Guides Company. They have several children friendly tour which were developed for different age (starting with 5 y old). More over they have several guides who are particularly good with children. We just returned from our second Baltic cruise. We traveled with a kid of 5 and among other activates – all the tours were just excellent - we had Matroshka doll master class which was organized in a Russian family with a kid of almost the same age. Just imagine – two lovely girls 5 and 6 years old, one is speaking only English and another is speaking only Russian. They had no problems to understand each other! After the master class they played different games while we enjoyed Russian style tea with pies. In one hour Nic got quite a few Russian words and Jana (the Russian girl) started to speak English. OK, a little bit :) but any way!!! We had only one problem – how to say good bye and return to our bus:):)

All the info concerning these tours you can find on their website. It’s very easy to find it – just google for Best Guides St Petersburg :D

Goo luck! Jess:)

How do you manage for visas if you use an independent tour company?

How do you manage for visas if you use an independent tour company?

All the independent tour companies issue a temporary visa for everyone who tours with them. Same with any ship's excursions. Thats the way they do it in St Petersburg to allow for anyone who wants to take a tour with a credited agency, can do so.

That is why, when you sign up for a tour, they will ask you for your passport info.

Cheers

Len

My daughter is taking her family on a Baltic cruise that includes St. Petersburg for 2 days. The children will be 15 months and 7 years old sailing in early June 2016. When we did this cruise a few years ago, I thought the bus ride out of the port area rather long and the lines for getting back on the ship very long (though the Russian band of old men were very entertaining). Any recommendations for this family for a good time in St. Petersburg. (Baby is a girl and 7 yr old is active boy.) The family has traveled often (Mom goes for work and they tag along) and this will not be the baby's first cruise so they know somewhat the challenge they are taking on.

No need for them to be on a "bus" or with a group of other's. I think in this situation a private tour would be a good idea.

We also used TJ Travel...contact Tatjana or Julia...they'll take care of everything for them...;)

All the independent tour companies issue a temporary visa for everyone who tours with them. Same with any ship's excursions. Thats the way they do it in St Petersburg to allow for anyone who wants to take a tour with a credited agency, can do so.

 

That is why, when you sign up for a tour, they will ask you for your passport info.

 

Cheers

 

Len

Thanks :)

Hi! When I was booking my first Baltic cruise and choosing a company for tours in St. Petersburg I also worried about visas. When I got my temporary visas from the company I booked with I was in real panic. Those temporary visas didn’t look like visas at all. There were just tickets sent via mail Yes, we mailed our passport data to the company but these tickets had nothing beside of our names, the name of the ship and the dates of the tours. I have to say that despite of it these tickets worked perfectly.

I’ve just returned from my second cruise. This time we also used temporary visas (or “tour tickets”) issued by the same company (Best Guides). In the same line to Passport Control there were people with tour tickets from Spb tour, Alla tours, TJ and others. No one had any problems.

Jess :)

We used TJ Travel for our tours in Berlin,Tallin,St. Petersburg,Helsinki and Stockholm. Our tour guides were excellent. They were there to greet us as soon as we departed the ship and had us back to the ship with time to spare. Working with Tatiyana was seamless. We never hit a snag. We highly recommend this agency.

My wife and I enjoyed two wonderful days in St Petersburg in September. Not only were we lucky to have sunny weather but we were also lucky to have booked our two day tour with TJ travel. The cost was about half that of a ships two day tour. There were only 15 in our group and the guide (Daria) and our driver (Tony) were excellent. We visited museums, palaces, fortress's, beautiful gardens and other sights. It was all done in a leisurely manner and rest room facilities were available at all sights. Don't be put off by any scare stories about not being able to disembark unless you are on a ships tour. That is nonsense. TJ will send you a tour ticket which allows you to get off the ship without a visa and you will be met by them in the arrival hall-it is all so easy and safe! So thank you TJ you have an amazing company!

Our reasons for taking a private tour were 100% confirmed by the end of the day. For about the same cost as our ship's tour, four of us had a private guide and driver. Two of our group were 80 years old and it was much more enjoyable for them not to be rushed along with a large group tour. We heard every word of Elizabeth's weath of knowledge about St. Petersburg, whereas we saw our ship's groups in the same venues straining to hear over the crowd between them and the guide. From the first email to the last thanking Tatyana, Elizabet and our driver for a perfect tour, our communications were fast and easy. At Tatyana's suggestion, we were first off the ship so our tour started easily 30 to 40 minutes before those who were off the ship last. The line through immigration became very long very quickly as the immigration office had only two officials and they were very thorough checking documents. The documents provided by TJ by email before our trip were all we needed. We had an all day tour with a return to the ship to freshen up and have dinner before going to the ballet. Our driver waited outside the ship for us, waiting outside the ballet, and after the ballet, on his own time, drove across the river so we could look back at the gorgeous city and our ship. TJ was first class and St. Petersburg a truly magnificent city. Thank you.

We just returned from the Baltic, we used TJ Tours, they were fantastic. We had a friend traveling with us that took sick, they only charged her for one day of tours. The only day she was able to go.. I found them to be extremely fair in pricing and all business dealings. We used them in 5 ports, I would not hesitate to recommend them. Our Berlin tour with them was outstanding as well as St Petersburg. I heard complaints from other passengers that went with another company. We had no complaints.

My wife and I just got back from a Baltic cruise that included a 2-day St. Petersburg Russia tour with TJ Travel. I can't say enough about how fantastic this tour was. The arrangements were made beforehand via email so that we had all we needed to get through the Russian passport control. Thereafter, our small group of 13 were guided by Victoria who was enthusiastic, professional and thoroughly knowledgeable. Her English was impeccable with very little accent (she teaches English in St. Petersburg) and she was very receptive to questions about Russian life. Our Mercedes van had high speed wifi and bottles of water were supplied to keep us quenched. I won't get into all of the sites we saw (everything of importance in St. Petersburg that one could possibly squeeze into 2 days) and Victoria had a knack for getting us around crowds and delays. She had incredible knowledge of the Hermitage museum having worked there. Our van driver, Anton (call me Tony) was particularly adept at getting through traffic so that we would maximize our touring experience. The tour included 2 "authentic Russian" lunches and a hydrofoil trip to the Peterhof palace which also saved time. Admissions, transportation and lunches were included. All of this for considerably less expense than the excursion offered by the cruise ship. I felt compelled to give Victoria a kiss (and a disproportionately higher tip) before we boarded the ship after our second day. A few days later, we had another wonderful tour run by TJ Travel, this time in Berlin (with Boris, a Yankee) but I'll leave that review for another thread.

 

I would recommend TJ Travel without hesitation.

 

P.S. I was apprehensive about paying for the tour by credit card with all of things that can go wrong (exchange rate, fraud) but there were no issues whatsoever. Tatjana made sure of that for us.

No accent? so she sounded like the Queen speaking English? or like a Canadian? :D

As we are Australian will she sound like she has an accent to us?;)

I recently had a NY lady tell me how much she loved my accent, I told her thanks and that I too loved her accent - her face fell into confusion and then asked her husband "but we don't have accents?!" haha. Maybe she thought she spoke American as opposed to English??

Thanks for all the tips - we are also looking at private tours in StP. We were going to book SPB but i will take a look at TJ now.

No worries Cansas just having a tease :p ... I enjoy a few jokes about which is the correct English language hehe. You must all agree there is nothing more romantic than hearing an Aussie chat in their nasal twang hahaha.

We used TJ Travel for our 2 days in St Pete this past May. It was just my DH and myself. We had already spent 6 days there and wanted to see some out-of-the-ordinary sights, so we hired a private guide, driver and car. It was splendid! No waiting around for others and c we could spend as much b or as little time at a place as we wanted. Also no rush to hurry up and get back to the group. We could stop anytime for toilets or food. I would think this would be ideal with children. And it was fabulous for the car to get up right in front of wherever we were going and drop us off - no walking from a bus drop-off point. Just before we were getting ready to leave a place, our guide would phone our driver and he'd be right there at the exit and we'd be whisked away. Now it's not the cheapest option, mind you!

No problems at all with our temporary visas. TJ Travel e-mailed them to us before we left, we showed them to Russian immigration as we disembarked the ship and our guide, car and driver were right there waiting for us.

Hope that helps.

We used TJ Travel for our 2 days in St Pete this past May. It was just my DH and myself. We had already spent 6 days there and wanted to see some out-of-the-ordinary sights, so we hired a private guide, driver and car. It was splendid! No waiting around for others and c we could spend as much b or as little time at a place as we wanted. Also no rush to hurry up and get back to the group. We could stop anytime for toilets or food. I would think this would be ideal with children. And it was fabulous for the car to get up right in front of wherever we were going and drop us off - no walking from a bus drop-off point. Just before we were getting ready to leave a place, our guide would phone our driver and he'd be right there at the exit and we'd be whisked away. Now it's not the cheapest option, mind you!

 

No problems at all with our temporary visas. TJ Travel e-mailed them to us before we left, we showed them to Russian immigration as we disembarked the ship and our guide, car and driver were right there waiting for us.

 

Hope that helps.

I was looking at the Visa portion. We are traveling under American passports and must have some form of visa. I know when we inquired through NCL they insisted we must book through the boat and be covered under their visa. I thought I read on TJ's website that you can be under their visa. Do you know if that applies to US citizens?

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