Advice from those who have cruised to St Petersburg

Hank....by any chance did you eat at the Soviet Cafe? This is the place that I so want to have dinner at again since we fell in love with it when we were in St. Pete several years ago.

Just saw your post (sorry it took so long) and that is not where we stopped for lunch.

Hank

Hi all,

Just a question on tipping.

We have booked a tour with Best Guides in St Petersburg and also Berlin.

Is there a recommended amount to tip i.e. 10% or is it just down to an individual choice.

Many thanks

Lu

Tipping is always about individual choice. On my St. Petersburg Tours, my tour guides were all teachers and college/university professors working the summer to make ends meet.

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I've been taking notes so I don't know where I got it but I have at least 10% for guides and 5% for the driver

I've been taking notes so I don't know where I got it but I have at least 10% for guides and 5% for the driver

We had a 2 day tour with Ulko 3 weeks ago for 6 . 10% for the guide and 5 for the driver is normal but certainly not required. We were very happy with our guide so gave her an extra 50 € and paid for her 2 lunches.

Thank you very much.

Lu

We had a 2 day tour with Ulko 3 weeks ago for 6 . 10% for the guide and 5 for the driver is normal but certainly not required. We were very happy with our guide so gave her an extra 50 € and paid for her 2 lunches.

that's a great idea. I've just been making notes to have a guideline.

Guides and drivers don't pay for their lunches they are always provided free by the restaurant where they take you.

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Guides and drivers don't pay for their lunches they are always provided free by the restaurant where they take you.

Let's be a bit more precise. If you're on a tour that includes lunch as part of the basic cost -- and you have no say about where you will be eating -- cruisers can assume the lunch is prearranged and that the guide's lunch is provided free by the restaurant. If you're on a tour where you pay for your lunch directly to the restaurant because the cost is not part of the basic tour -- and you're typically asked "What kind of restaurant would you like to try?" -- it is a very nice gesture for the cruiser to pay for the guide. Lunches where the group walks off the street without prior arrangements are not offering free lunches to the guides.

Pet nit noy

Having worked as a guide I disagree. The guide and driver never pay for lunch.

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Having worked as a guide I disagree. The guide and driver never pay for lunch.

Our experience does not match yours. On our Baltic cruise, my husband and I took all day tours with a private guide in the ports of Zebrugge and St. Petersburg. In Ghent, we ate at a restaurant and I paid for the guide's lunch. Her meal was listed on the check and I paid for the food. Ditto for our two lunches with a private guide in St Petersburg. The essential point is that three people walked into a restaurant, ate our lunch, and paid for it in entirety just like any other table of three people in the restaurant. Frankly, I don't even know how the restaurant might have known we were accompanied by a licensed guide.

Well, I have friends who are still working as guides throughout Europe and the restaurant never charges them or the driver. That's how it works.

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Well, I have friends who are still working as guides throughout Europe and the restaurant never charges them or the driver. That's how it works.

We're going to agree to disagree. You may have friends working as guides throughout Europe, but you can't know or speak for 100% of the licensed guides.

And this brings me back to my point in Post #34. We can't speak in absolutes. Earl Roseberry and I have offered experiences to dispute your claim of never. Judijmn (#32) appreciated hearing how Earl -- who we have no reason to doubt -- handled his payment to his guide.

Letting people know the range of possibilities they may encounter while traveling is helpful. You and Earl and I have done that so Judijmn and other cruisers are now prepared for several options when it comes to lunches for their guides.

By paying the cost of a guide and drivers meal, then it's a win, win situation for the restaurant.

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It is just common sense that tour guide and driver eat for free, at least a free basic meal. Why not, they bring in rich foreign customers daily. Specially American they are good tippers, they tip where tipping is not required.

May be McDonald and Starbucks would not let guide and driver eat for free.

Do you have experience that tour guide always tell you about their personal life ? They have a 92 year old mom to support. They work 2 jobs to make ends meet, attend evening school. Life is a struggle for him, something like that.

Hope you will tip generously.

sysy007

I can't make out if you are being sarcastic or serious. If you are serious and a tour guide gave me a sob story like that I probably wouldn't tip at all as I would find it unprofessional. A good tour guide makes a decent living.

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It is just common sense that tour guide and driver eat for free, at least a free basic meal. Why not, they bring in rich foreign customers daily. Specially American they are good tippers, they tip where tipping is not required.

 

May be McDonald and Starbucks would not let guide and driver eat for free.

And what about the opposite end of the spectrum from McDonald and Starbucks?

Beginning on May 13, 2017 the participants/lurkers on this board had an instructive experience with a post "Walk in St. Petersburg After Tour." The thread began with a poster asking about touring independently when the formal tour was over. At first, the responses were predictably along the lines of "No. You can't tour St Petersburg independently unless you get your own visa from a Russian consulate." Suddenly, Post #17 showed up describing 2-3 hours of independent time via a ship's excursion on the Cruise and Maritime Line. By the time the thread was over, we learned that at least four companies -- both cruise lines and licensed Russian companies (AIDA, Princess, Alla, and TJ) -- will let cruisers do the very thing which "everyone" had long assumed was not possible.

This is a different topic, but the principle is the same. I don't understand why people keep insisting things are always done a certain way when posters offer evidence that there are exceptions.

My husband and I tour with companies that happily offer wholly customized tours. As repeat visitors to St Petersburg, we went to destinations that were far off the radar of the standard tours and that includes restaurants. As visitors with an interest in food, we had no interest in speedy lunches and ordered our meals off the menu. In St Petersburg, we ate at the restaurant where the owner of the tour company would be holding her son's engagement dinner within a few weeks of our visit. In Ghent, we ate lunch at a Michelin Bib restaurant. These two establishments are not playing host daily to groups of tourists. (Ghent doesn't get many cruisers. The port call Ze Brugge is touted as the access port for visiting Brugge. We've been before so we went with our guide to Ghent and WWI battlegrounds in Flanders.) These very upscale restaurants have no expectation that guides will bring tourists there for lunch and, as such, are not comping meals for the guide.

For readers who are trying to make sense of the situation they might encounter, here's a clue: If your guide says he/she will meet you after lunch, the restaurant is not comping the guide's meal. The guide can't afford to pay for his/her meal at a upscale restaurant unless we cruisers pay.

I won't bother returning to this thread if you and others want to continue to dismiss my information. Multiple responders to "Walk in St Petersburg After Tour" convinced readers the situation about free time without a visa is more flexible than we believed. I've been the only person offering an alternative on this topic, but I hope I've succeeded in offering some clarity.