St. Petersburg, Russia SPB Tours

We are booked on a May 25th Baltic, Celebrity cruise and read about a SPB tour or (SDP) in St. Petersburg, Russia which was given very positive reviews as an alternative to the ship tours. Does anyone have specific contact information regarding this tour?

We are booked on a May 25th Baltic, Celebrity cruise and read about a SPB tour or (SDP) in St. Petersburg, Russia which was given very positive reviews as an alternative to the ship tours. Does anyone have specific contact information regarding this tour?

You can email SPB tours just google their name for the website or check on the Baltic forum in the ports of call section here

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

SPB, Alla Tours, TJ Tours, Red October, Anastasia Tours, & others all offer much the same seat-in-bus tours in 16-seater vans, or can tailor a private tour - for which a group of about 6 to 8 or more will cost no more than seats on a standard seat-in-bus tour. Denrus also offer much the same, a little cheaper but I think they operate 30-seaters.

We used Alla but all have exceptional reputations & none will disappoint. Contrary to misleading info from cruise lines, those tours are all visa-free - it's only those who visit independently (eg by taxi or public transport) who need a visa. For ships in port for two days (that's most ships) I think all these tour operators only offer two-day tours - but believe me, St Petersburg needs two days. Cost is only a small saving on equivalent ships' tours but IMHO the experience is way way better, smaller groups & no wasted time. That said, & if you're the type that prefers the security of ships' tours, to be fair I've not heard the usual complaints about ships' tours to SPB that I hear about other destinations. Possibly because they're run by the same local operators ;)

Plenty of more detailed info on the Baltics forum linked by LHT.

Great city, the highlight of any Baltic cruise

JB :)

Check the Baltic section of the boards.

We joined 4 others that we met on this forum to do a mini van tour organised by SPB tours. It certainly covered a lot, the metro trip and the market were great, I really enjoyed seeing the people and the places in the city as well as Catherine's palace and the Hermitage. The cost was slightly less than the ships tour but having only 6 people made a big difference in terms of time and getting around, we also got to talk to the guide and ask individual questions, something that was difficult in a 40person group on other tours.

I hope you enjoy it, it is a wonderful city and has some very special places, even one day is better than not going I think. :D

We used SPB tours while we were in St. Petersburg and Berlin. I can not say enough good things about the company. In St. Petersburg, our family of 5 had a mini van with a driver and a guide. We were able to see so much in our two days there. As well, we were able to change some things on the tour to suit our interests.

When we went to the Hermitage, my mother-in-law was worn out so she wanted to go back to the ship. The driver dropped us off at the Hermitage and drove my mother-in-law back to the ship. You can't get that kind of service on a ship's tour.

Since our trip, I've recommended SPB to clients who used them too.

I initially decided to use SPB after reading reviews on cruise critic. I emailed other tour providers but Viktoria's was the first response I received and I preferred her tone in the letter.

SPB tours are great, don't hesitate to book with them

We are booked on a May 25th Baltic, Celebrity cruise and read about a SPB tour or (SDP) in St. Petersburg, Russia which was given very positive reviews as an alternative to the ship tours. Does anyone have specific contact information regarding this tour?

SPB is ranked #1 among St. Petersburg Sightseeing Tours on TripAdvisor

St. Petersburg Sightseeing Tours - TripAdvisor

You can read the reviews on the forum

SPB Tours - St. Petersburg - Reviews of SPB Tours - TripAdvisor

As to your request for specific contact information, if you send a message to

vika@spb-tours

Viktoria will be happy to answer your questions.

There are several very highly recommended private tour companies as mentioned above...We emailed all of them and ended up going with TJ Travel (just our choice)...Best to do this and get a comparable response from them all.. I use and rely often on Trip Advisor but prefer the advice that this board gives over and above that...Good luck and enjoy this amazing city.

Hi, we are also booked on this cruise and have contacted spb tours about the 2 day tours, we are still deciding whether to do the deluxe tour or the treasures of st petersburg, just go to their website and send them an email.

Be extremely careful taking SPB's Evening Fun Tour. You will arrive back at the ship very happy and drunk :D First hangover I've had in years :o SPB tours are fantastic!

Another vote for SPb. We actually used them for tours in St. Petersburg, Berlin, Helsinki and Tallinn. Everyone says you can do Tallinn and Helsinki on your own with a Rick Steves book but we opted to tour. Doing the 20 Euro walking tour of Tallinn was the best spent money of the trip. The guide was exceptional. I have no problems recommending SPb and would use them again in a second.

I used SPB last year on a Baltic cruise. I did the 5 day pearl??? package deal (Berlin, 2 day St. Petersburg, 1/2 day Tallinn, and 1/2 day Helsinki). It was a great bargain, very organized, and they were great at answering all of my percruise questions. Also always the same small group (no more than 15 people) so we really got to know eachother. The guides were great! The website is spb-tours.com. And when I emailed with questions the email was vika.rother@gmz.de. The only glitch was when one of the ladies in our group printed out her confirmation instead of her TICKET when we got to St. Petersburg. They would not let her past customs without the ticket that she was suppose to print before leaving home. And our group had an hour and a half delay until Victoria (who owns SPB Tours) drove a copy of the ticket over to the customs area so she could enter the country. But the directions were very clear and everyone else had the correct document. I am going to do a Greek/Croatian cruise in June and wish there was a tour company like SBP as it was soooo good! I recommend bundling the cities as it was worth it, and even the 1/2 day tours were so informative and then it gaveyou time to do your own thing too. The 2 days in Russia are intense- very busy days but worth it. The Hermitage was very crowded all of the time.

We used them in both St Petersburg and Berlin, they do a good job.

I signed up for an SPB tour of St Petersburg for May 14, 2013. I found SPB to be incompetent, dishonest, and deceptive. They had contacted me by email claiming that, although Catherine's Palace was closed the day of my visit, SPB had made special arrangements to take a:eek: tour there whereas no other tours would visit this attraction. When all had debarked our ship and were on the SPB van, the itinerary read by the tour guide did not include Catherine's. The participants brought this to the guide's attention and she claimed she had no knowledge that the attraction had been offered. After checking with the SPB home office, the guide announced that Catherine's Palace was closed and that we would not be going there and that anyone who wanted to cancel their tour could do so. This was hardly a choice as the alternative would be sitting on the cruise ship all day without seeing St. Petersburg, one of the highlights of the cruise. We would later learn that our fellow cruisers who were wise enough to book other tour companies did indeed visit Catherine's Palace. Once we started rolling, the SPB tour guide then seemed to seize on every opportunity to delete another attraction from the itinerary. First, a ride on the St. Pete subway was eliminated because we were slowed by dense traffic. Despite promises that payment could be made by credit card, the guide claimed the two cards I provided would not work (my cards worked fine elsewhere before and after the St. Pete visit) and insisted on cash "or there will be trouble." Finally, despite having "not enough time" to fulfill the itinerary, we were delivered back to our ship more than half an hour before the scheduled return time of 7:00 pm.

I signed up for an SPB tour of St Petersburg for May 14, 2013. I found SPB to be incompetent, dishonest, and deceptive. They had contacted me by email claiming that, although Catherine's Palace was closed the day of my visit, SPB had made special arrangements to take a:eek: tour there whereas no other tours would visit this attraction. When all had debarked our ship and were on the SPB van, the itinerary read by the tour guide did not include Catherine's. The participants brought this to the guide's attention and she claimed she had no knowledge that the attraction had been offered. After checking with the SPB home office, the guide announced that Catherine's Palace was closed and that we would not be going there and that anyone who wanted to cancel their tour could do so. This was hardly a choice as the alternative would be sitting on the cruise ship all day without seeing St. Petersburg, one of the highlights of the cruise. We would later learn that our fellow cruisers who were wise enough to book other tour companies did indeed visit Catherine's Palace. Once we started rolling, the SPB tour guide then seemed to seize on every opportunity to delete another attraction from the itinerary. First, a ride on the St. Pete subway was eliminated because we were slowed by dense traffic. Despite promises that payment could be made by credit card, the guide claimed the two cards I provided would not work (my cards worked fine elsewhere before and after the St. Pete visit) and insisted on cash "or there will be trouble." Finally, despite having "not enough time" to fulfill the itinerary, we were delivered back to our ship more than half an hour before the scheduled return time of 7:00 pm.

Thank you so much for your review!

Your experience with SPB tour in St. Petersburg sounds awful! So sorry!

I was going to book them until I saw your review.

Would you happen to know which other tour companies did your fellow cruisers use? I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks again for your review!

Thank you so much for your review!

Your experience with SPB tour in St. Petersburg sounds awful! So sorry!

I was going to book them until I saw your review.

Would you happen to know which other tour companies did your fellow cruisers use? I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks again for your review!

I guess the saying, "it only takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch" rings true here.

One person had a bad experience compared to the others who responded here, all having glowing recommendations. Is that really enough to not book SPb now? There were certain things that happened with our pre-determined itinerary but we went with the flow pretty much. You cannot do anything about the Russian military closing off the waterways and you cannot go by hydrofoil. We also wanted to visit the train station (not ride) and the "farmer market" but were told it was really not possible. We insisted. Guess what? We did them both. I have no problem recommending SPb and would use them again.

As jvdmv says, there's no question that there are many positive reviews of SPB. But there are also some other "bad apples" in the SPB rating barrel. Prospective tour participants like Sdancer need to consider all the reviews but should give particular attention to the nature of the complaints in the negative ones. The obvious "bait and switch" tactics I convey in relating my experience with SPB pursuant to the Catherine's Palace visit should weigh heavily. It should be clear that while they were using that enticement to enlist participants, the fact that they didn't even tell the tour guide about Catherine's being on the itinerary is an indication there was never any intention to go there. This is nothing less than outright dishonesty. If Sdancer would like to see my email from SPB containing the Catherine's Palace enticement, contact me at nospam at vcn dot com. In answer to Sdancer's question about other tour offerings, I don't have any special insights but I know that others on my Royal Caribbean cruise who used the cruise line's on-shore excursions returned happy and felt they had accomplished their itineraries. Since I've returned home, other experienced "cruisers" have told me that the chances of bad experiences are diminished with these in-house excursions as dissatisfaction can easily be expressed at the guest services desk right there on the ship when things go wrong.

We used Red October. Their tours was outstanding. I got sick at the Hermitage (of all places) and our guide had our driver take my husband and me back to ship. We were willing to take a taxi. But they took full responsibility for getting us back to the ship.

I, along with quite a few friends, used SPB Tours in Berlin, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm during our 9/1-10/13 Baltic cruise. I can't think of a bad word I could possibly use about this tour group. Their guides, buses, vans and overall knowledge and hospitality were great. Their prices compared to the ship excursions are unbelievably cheap yet their quality is superb. Be prepared to walk and climb stairs particularly in St. Petersburg. You will get to see all of the major attractions in each of the cities and you will not be locked in on a bus. I strongly suggest the night fun tour of St. Petersburg that includes vodka and boat tour. The city is totally different from the river at night. They answer your emails and inquiries amazingly fast considering the time differential from the States. Victoria and her staff should train other tour companies on how to do it right. I can honestly say I did not hear one bad word about the service SPB provided.

We went with Alla when we visited in July, but I heard no complaints from anyone who used the independent tours, including SPb. (In contrast, one of the ship's tours that used a full-sized bus missed the Church of the Spilled Blood because the driver couldn't find a place to park.) Our tour with Alla varied from the published itinerary because Catherine's Palace was closed the day we would normally visit. The regular itinerary would have had us visit Peterhof and Catherine's Palace the first day, with the Hermitage on the second day. Alla reversed them for us so we wouldn't miss any of the sights.

SPB, Alla Tours, TJ Tours, Red October, Anastasia Tours, & others all offer much the same seat-in-bus tours in 16-seater vans, or can tailor a private tour - for which a group of about 6 to 8 or more will cost no more than seats on a standard seat-in-bus tour. Denrus also offer much the same, a little cheaper but I think they operate 30-seaters.

We used Alla but all have exceptional reputations & none will disappoint. Contrary to misleading info from cruise lines, those tours are all visa-free - it's only those who visit independently (eg by taxi or public transport) who need a visa. For ships in port for two days (that's most ships) I think all these tour operators only offer two-day tours - but believe me, St Petersburg needs two days. Cost is only a small saving on equivalent ships' tours but IMHO the experience is way way better, smaller groups & no wasted time. That said, & if you're the type that prefers the security of ships' tours, to be fair I've not heard the usual complaints about ships' tours to SPB that I hear about other destinations. Possibly because they're run by the same local operators ;)

 

Plenty of more detailed info on the Baltics forum linked by LHT.

 

Great city, the highlight of any Baltic cruise

 

JB :)

Denrus does not require booking for all days in St. Peterburg (two days for our cruise) like other companies. I also find Denrus more flexible with what we wanted to see and more customer-oriented. We already got a quote for a from them for a custom tour and going to book with them.

We went with Alla when we visited in July, but I heard no complaints from anyone who used the independent tours, including SPb. (In contrast, one of the ship's tours that used a full-sized bus missed the Church of the Spilled Blood because the driver couldn't find a place to park.) Our tour with Alla varied from the published itinerary because Catherine's Palace was closed the day we would normally visit. The regular itinerary would have had us visit Peterhof and Catherine's Palace the first day, with the Hermitage on the second day. Alla reversed them for us so we wouldn't miss any of the sights.

FYI:

It was one really bad review about SPB company on TripAdvisor - a tour in St. Petersburg, dated May 14, 2013 under the heading " Avoid SPB Tour of St. Petersburg".

FYI:

It was one really bad review about SPB company on TripAdvisor - a tour in St. Petersburg, dated May 14, 2013 under the heading " Avoid SPB Tour of St. Petersburg".

One recent bad review considering 830 reviews? They are ranked No. 6 out of 130 activities to do in St. Petersburg and received the Certificate of Excellence for 2013. We had no issues or problems with SPb and would use them again in a second. Also, SPb offers 1-day options as well as 3-day ones.

We are booked on a May 25th Baltic, Celebrity cruise and read about a SPB tour or (SDP) in St. Petersburg, Russia which was given very positive reviews as an alternative to the ship tours. Does anyone have specific contact information regarding this tour?

For contact info, try typing "SPB tour" into Google and clicking on the first hit. Also check on ALLA tours using the same technique. We used them for a 2 day tour of St. Pete and they were excellent.

DON

You might want to look at Alla Tours..