Long lines at Catherine's Palace in St. Petersburg?

We will be in St Petersburg June 8,9 2017, four adults. Can someone clarify whether a Private group of 4 can skip lines and a Group of 16 cannot ?

The price difference is significant $470 pp for 4 and $285 pp for 16.

Just to update, we were at Catherine's Palace today. Yes there were queues but nothing that we wouldn't expect anywhere with so many visitors. We were lucky that we were a group of 4 with an excellent guide who knew how to play the system.

 

I do find it very hard to believe that SPB tours are pulling such an amazing place.

Our SPB tour on 6th and 7th August is still going to St. Catherine's Palace. They are just warning us to expect delays.:)

We will be in St Petersburg June 8,9 2017, four adults. Can someone clarify whether a Private group of 4 can skip lines and a Group of 16 cannot ?

 

The price difference is significant $470 pp for 4 and $285 pp for 16.

I suspect that it is the luck of the draw. Some groups (private included) will experience little or no delays, some will probably visit at a particularly busy time or on a very busy day - I assume that all tours, including private, would be impacted.

I usually tour St. Petersburg on my own (party of 2) & have only experienced delays once.

We will be in St Petersburg June 8,9 2017, four adults. Can someone clarify whether a Private group of 4 can skip lines and a Group of 16 cannot ?

 

The price difference is significant $470 pp for 4 and $285 pp for 16.

I would double check with your tour operator. but what we were told by our tour guide was groups of LESS than 6 including the guide.

So i would think 4 is the max (plus guide to make 5). a group of 16 CANNOT skip the lines.

But again, I would double check with your tour operator.

good luck!

We booked a private car and guide for two days in St. Petersburg. It was worth every penny. An example of this was at the Catherine Palace and the Church of the Sacred Blood. There were HORDES outside both. Some dignitary had decided to tour the palace and so many busloads of people were held outside it. But our guide walked up to the front and said, "It is just we 3. Can we go in?" And we did. Ditto on the church. She walked up to the front and asked to go in ahead of everyone else.

Denrus got 13 of us on their minibus into the palace by the guide saying something at the entrance & we queue-jumped. :-)

I would guess that none of the tour companies will guarantee anything, but if you contact the tour companies (including SBP) and tell them that for you Catherine Palace is nonnegotiable, regardless of the possible wait or what else you might have to skip, then someone may be able to take that into consideration. If you are booked on a small private tour it will be easier (albeit more expensive). Group tours may be a bit more inflexible because they are trying to get multiple parties to as many places as possible without major alterations that might result in complaints. It may be going to depend on how many of your group are willing to trade an extra hour or so of tour time for a minute or two in the Amber Room (they don't allow lingering in the rooms). Maybe they can move you to a different group that has said the same thing.

I was just there last month with a private tour of 4 (5 including the guide) and we walked right in through the back entrance, did the tour and didn't see the big lines until we got out. private tour was worth everything paid for it, and more (and it was my second time touring St. Petersburg).

The problem with visiting the Catherine's Palace this summer is that all the tour agencies get a certain time slot for a visit. They try to book for a morning slot and get 5.20 pm instead - that means that the itinerary needs to be revised on the spot (not mentioning that it is impossible to get to the theatre on that day in this case). It does not matter how many people are in the group - if there are 4 or 6 trying to enter the Palace at 10 am instead 4 pm they won't be able to do that. So the lines do not matter - the main thing is to come at your time slot. And yes, individual tourists (up to 6 persons) will be able to skip the lines.

I did a 2 day tour in May with SPB. The problem we had was it was raining when we arrived at Catherines Palaces and it was required to check in all coats etc. With the crowds they became overwhelmed and literally stopped letting people in until others left. We were right ate the front of the entrance line and ended up waiting close to an hour past our scheduled time. Nobody was getting in at all. When we finally entered crowds were massive.

That said, and I'm not a museum and /or art person, it was amazing to see. The Amber room blew me away.

We got the same e-mail for SPB (visiting on the 18th aboard the Musica). Today we got an e-mail saying that Catherine's Palace has been completely dropped from our tour. The Amber Room was the one thing we truly wanted to see in St. Petersburg, and now they've taken it away completely. Does anyone have a recommendation for another company which can "guarantee" that we'll visit the Catherine's Palace? I have time to cancel the SPB tour, but don't want to do so without a viable alternative. I would have preferred if SPB adjusted other parts of the schedule -- such as shortening lunch or taking out the built-in shopping time -- so as to accommodate for any delays.

I did get the same email and they assured us it is still on. Maybe because our evening option is just visiting Faberge museum so time is not the essence at the end of the tour. Are you watching a show as an evening option? I think maybe that is the reason.

TJ travel, private group of 4, July 2016:

Peterhof: no waiting lines for park

Catherine's Palace: no line at all right after lunch; when we left to see the park, a very long line had formed. I guess we got lucky.

Hermitage: long lines of large groups, we squeezed in at the moment our timed tickets allowed us to (10:35 a.m.). Two other TJ small tour groups squeezed in at the same time.

Yusopov Palace: no wait time, slow going inside because the basement site of Rasputin's murder is very narrow

Churches: no lines

When we traveled on the Eclipse to Russia, we had a private tour for two, so we always went to the front of the Line; I don't know what type of tour you have, but I would write the company to be sure. Look at what might happen to their olympic team in Rio. They seem to dance to a different drummer.

May I ask which company you used for your private tour? Looking to do one for just two of us also

I was in Catherine's palace just over a week ago as part of a TJ tour. Oh my God, it was soooo crowded and so warm and humid inside. They let far too many people in at a time and so we ended up standing in lines for ages waiting to move from room to room. It was very tiring and difficult to really appreciate what we were seeing because of the crowds, noise, heat and aching legs from just standing on one spot for so so long.

What a difference a day makes, or a year in this case.

 

In past years, most groups got into Catherine's Palace with just a short wait and had a Russian band serenading you while you were in line. Glad to hear tourism is up so much in Russia this year.

 

It is hard to imagine that companies would start skipping Catherine's Palace just because there is a longer than usual wait time. I would double check that. It would be a shame to miss it.

 

To be sure though, it is well worth the wait.

 

Cheers

 

Len

I had forgotten the band! That was really fun standing in line and being serenaded...it would be more than a shame if companies skipped Catherine's Palace due to lines...Catherine Palace and Peterhof were the two most memorable places we visited in Russia....and Kizhi....how could I overlook Kizhi.

To everyone who answered my questions about needing a Visa to have dinner at a favorite restaurant..thank you..I guess we'll just keep it in our memories since we can't even confirm that it's still there.

Catherine Palace and Peterhof were the two most memorable places we visited in Russia....and Kizhi....how could I overlook Kizhi.

There aren't many of us on this board who have visited Kizhi since that's a port call on a river cruise. My husband and I took our first visit to Russia with a Moscow to St. Petersburg river cruise, and we were simply blown away by Kizhi. So different from the opulent palaces of St. Petersburg, but every bit as impressive.

Our second cruise was a Baltic, Scandinavian, and St. Petersburg cruise. Both cruises have their virtues, but Kizhi is pure magic!!

I was on the same cruise - and in the same tour group - as Mim above. Overall I thought TJ did an excellent job. We were a group of 12 and rarely had to wait to get inside anywhere other than when our guide was picking up the tickets. At St. Catherine's we arrived a few minutes ahead of our scheduled entry time and had to wait until that time but had no wait time past our entry time. We did see incredibly long lines at the Hermitage when we came out - be sure to go with a company that has access to early entry. A lot will depend on how many ships are in port as well. We were there for 3 days and I think we had 1 other ship with us for 1 day and 4 other ships with us another day.

And what Mim said about the crowds inside is completely accurate. There is no AC anywhere. We were blessed with almost perfect weather but inside all the museums, palaces, etc. it was HOT! And the lines everywhere going from room to room were really horrible.