Russia Port excursion: PCL or private?

Looking for valuable advice from fellow CCers...

When in St P, did you book through PCL or private? Why did you end up choosing as you did, and which tour operator did you choose? And - were you pleased with your tour?

Also, was this your first time to St P?

Much appreciated!!! [emoji5]️

If you look on the Northern Europe board, here:

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

you will see tons of info about the private venders, their prices and that, as a general statement, they are a better bang for your buck.

Definitely choose a tour company or do the ship's tour. There is far too much to experience in St Petersburg without a local guide.

We can highly recommend Alla Tours out of St. Petersburg. We used them in 2008 for two full days and had a wonderful guide called Julia. The 6 of us were picked up by a minivan on time and each day she seemed to keep us ahead of the galloping herds in all of the museums and gardens. We were on a NCL Star at the time. So just google Alla Tours. By the way they have a thumbs up on trip advisor; plus many personal recommendations and thank-you's on their web site. Have fun. It is a great city. Alla Tours drivers are very good also and the vans are pristine and brand new so not to worry.

Not even considering the cost savings, if you want to see the most of St. Petersburg you need to use a local company. You just can't get to all of the sights on Princess tours. We had a very good experience with SPb two years ago but from what I know, Alla, DenRus and Red October are also highly rated.

Our group of 5 LOVED our two day tour with SPB - they were very professional, personable, and made sure we saw as much as possible in our two days. It was not only less expensive than the Princess tour, we were in a much smaller vehicle with fewer people, which came in very handy when touring the Hermitage, where getting lost was too easy! And we are not people who stray very far from the Princess path - but SPB took care of us, not only in St. Petersburg, but Munich and Stockholm as well.

Private for sure. Much smaller groups, ability to see what you want and avoid the ship tours for the most part. We used kjoy and had a great time - we even had dinner with a local family in their apartment. I second visiting the northern european boards - they were a great source of information.

Thanks for the great feedback, and I will gather info from your suggestions!!

We did visit St P on our own with a Russian friend in 2000. He is a great guy and we saw a lot of the city. Yet you know the saying,"Russians never rush", and there's simply not enough time in port to be lingering over tea!! We move more slowly these days anyway [emoji6]

Follow cruiser bruce's advice and use all the info on the northern European ports of call board.

We used SPG and had a great tour. They included a subway ride, river tour and two days of lunches at local restaurants..as well as all the prime sights. We used them for 4 other pirts. All excellent. SMALL groups give so many more opportunities.

Don't let Princess scare you into thinking you have to book with them to leave the ship. Many cruisers are misled purposely.:rolleyes:

We used SPB in four Baltic ports and they are fantastic! Very professional and on the last day in St. Petersburg the owner of the company came to personally thank us for using her service. I would highly recommend this tour. Groups are small and tour guides are very good.

The last ships tour I did was in Israel. we never got to see Bethlehem because we had to sit at the store for 45 minutes. The guide was rude and the cruise line didn't care. I now use private tours everywhere. I've never had a bad one yet.

We just returned from a Baltics cruise and used Anastasia Travel Group for our 2-day tour. I cannot speak more highly of them - organized but flexible, fun, informative, we saw everything on our tour list and more! My husband and I had a private guide (Anna) and driver (Tim) just for the two of us, and the cost was $300 each for the two days. So it was no more expensive than the larger group tours offered through other tour operators in St. P. Anna has a masters in history so she knew everything (it seemed like it anyway!) but she was good at tailoring her info to our interests so we didn't tune out.

Keep in mind that if you tour on your own without a registered guide, you will need a visa. With a guide, you don't need one.

Whether on a Princess tour or a private tour, people have reported they enjoyed the tour.

We took (and recommend) a private tour:

o Costs significantly less

o Likely will cover more sights

o Will get you back to the ship on time the 2nd day

o Likely have less people on the tour (which means less time trying to round up people at the end of the visit to each sight)

We used Denrus (and recommend them), but any of the other private vendors mentioned here will do a great job.

You may be subject to notices from Princess onboard (and possible pre-cruise) hinting that only Princess tours will let you avoid getting a visa. Not true. Any recognized private tour company will arrage what you need to go through Russian immigration.

We used Alex's Tours (stpetersburg-guidedotcom) and had a wonderful time. We had two mini buses and had a dozen people in each as opposed to 50+ on the Princess excursions. We paid less than half the price of the Princess tour. We did the two day tour which included the summer palaces, Hermitage, churches and other sites but they are very flexible and will customize. It was our one and only time in St. Petersburg.

We had a private guide and driver for 4 from Insider Tours. Hardly ever do ships tours......And, the huge savings isn't the biggest reason.....simply loathe tour buses!!! :D

Princess tours: bus with about 40 other passengers and you always wind up waiting for a few people at every stop not to mention the time needed to embark and disembark that many people from the bus; no flexibility; guide doesn't have time to answer questions, and costs a lot of money.

Private tour: few people and it takes just a few minutes to board or leave the bus; see a lot more; tour is flexible depending on wait times, traffic, etc.; and the cost is a heck of a lot less than the Princess tour.

I've been to St. Petersburg/Leningrad several times, including land tours, since the early 70's and the absolutely best tour/tour experience was with SPB Tours. We stopped at small, inexpensive Russian restaurants (with no tourists) for quick meals that were delicious. I can't say enough good things about Vika Rather (the owner) and SPB Tours.

We used Alla tours last year and they were fantastic. We had a group of 6 who met on CC before the cruise. We went to local restaurants and stayed in SPB to eat at a local place in the evening.

I agree with the above comments. A private tour will be less expensive than a Princess tour and the tour group will be much smaller. We had an excellent experience in St. Petersburg with SPB tours.

The only reason I can think of that might give a slight advantage to a Princess tour is that Princess will make sure you get off the ship before those who have private tours. Not worth the trade off IMHO.

We also did SPB tours in St. Petersburg and several other ports. Their service and guides were excellent. Only note is that is you choose to use to pay by credit card, you will be subject to the exchange rate, the day you're billed.

Another vote here for SPB Tours. Eugene was our guide for two days and was excellent! Vika was very responsive by email when I had any questions. But I'm sure if you go with any of the highly rated tour companies mentioned on CC, you can't go wrong. Enjoy St. Petersburg! It's a beautiful city.

Thank you all again, very helpful. I will definitely research the above named private tours. We agree with the reasons above - private tours make for a valuable port excursion for a variety of reasons.

We have been to St P, but our kids have been only to other parts of Russia. We will want a guide since Pushkin is not close to the city and I don't want to rely on my rusty Cyrillic to get us around!!

My issue was the Russian tourist visas. Looks like that is not a problem, based upon the responses here, even though all the PCL documentation states contrary. (?!?!)

See, our son is a U.S. Citizen but he is a Russian born adoption, now reached the army age there. Not really wanting to think the worst, but want to make sure there aren't any issues of that nature!

Private tour operators such as SPB make all of the visa arrangements. Just the same as a Princess tour. If you have concerns, ask the tour operator. Personally, I think you'll get a better answer from them than Princess.

I can recommend both Alla (which used in 2007) and SPB (whose owner Viktoria was our Alla guide then).

On the ship afterwards, I spoke with several passengers who had used Princess tours. Most were happy with their tour, but I did find a few who had complaints. One said their bus was not air conditioned. (The temperature was in the upper 80s. We were in an air conditioned Mercedes van.) Another when I commented that our guide had 18 years experience, replied that their guide was 18 years old. And another said their guide lamented the fall of communism.

One hint that no one has mentioned is to use your roll call. Maybe someone there is already looking for others to join their private tour. Or if after looking at the Baltic boards and the websites of the various agencies you have one picked out, you can look for others to join. That is how I put together our group of 10, much smaller than a Princess tour, but large enough to become less expensive than similar Princess tours (and more flexible).

An other vote for SPB (Viktoria), Best tour ever. Almost half the cost of the cruise line, small group, excellent guide.

Also, the cruise line will tell you that Russian immigration will not allow you to disembark before their tours but that was not true when we went. We got off the ship at the same time as the ships tours.

Make sure your camera is good to go with extra batteries etc. We took more than 1500 pictures over the 2 days and then our battery ran out and no spare :mad:

Theo

Whether on a Princess tour or a private tour, people have reported they enjoyed the tour.

 

We took (and recommend) a private tour:

o Costs significantly less

o Likely will cover more sights

o Will get you back to the ship on time the 2nd day

o Likely have less people on the tour (which means less time trying to round up people at the end of the visit to each sight)

 

We used Denrus (and recommend them), but any of the other private vendors mentioned here will do a great job.

 

You may be subject to notices from Princess onboard (and possible pre-cruise) hinting that only Princess tours will let you avoid getting a visa. Not true. Any recognized private tour company will arrage what you need to go through Russian immigration.

Denrus was wonderful for our little group. We set our itinerary the way we wanted it and were able to do everything we wanted. We even were standing outside Peterhof to see the fountains come on before touring the palace. It was a fabulous two days. I've heard good things about the other private tour operators, too. Denrus has an office in the US, which made setting everything up very easy.

Our group was put together from our Roll Call, which has worked for us on multiple cruises.

I agree with the above comments. A private tour will be less expensive than a Princess tour and the tour group will be much smaller. We had an excellent experience in St. Petersburg with SPB tours.

 

 

 

The only reason I can think of that might give a slight advantage to a Princess tour is that Princess will make sure you get off the ship before those who have private tours. Not worth the trade off IMHO.

Our little group had heard we might have to wait till the ship's tours disembarked. Not so. We got to the gangway area first and I told the Princess employee we were going off NOW, and we did.