If you are on the Silhouette sailing 8/23, our roll call has several group tours set up with SPB
and Alla.
Both had great reviews and highly rated with Trip Advisors.
I was just on Celebrity Silhouette ending in Amsterdam on July 18th. We also booked with TJ travel for St. Petersburg. Our guide was Itan, our driver Alexi. I thought they did a great job, especially given the number of tourists in most areas as we went along.
For some reason, there is a huge line for getting off the boat and being processed in St. Petersburg. The sooner you can get in line and off the boat, the better. Regardless of how long it takes, the tour guides are aware of this, so they are patiently waiting for you on the other side of the passport stations.
St. Petersburg has so much to see, so having a guide was great as she was able to get us into the Hermitage before the main hours. We were able to walk through in a fairly limited amount of time, but see the important items and get out and on to the next stop. When we were there, there were hallways that were empty for our photos. Our guide said that NEVER happens, so be prepared for dealing with large numbers of people. That being said, TJ travel does a great job of keeping you moving but letting you spend enough time in each place. There is going to be a lot of walking, but it was very enjoyable.
I would use TJ travel again, especially in St. Petersburg and Itan. She was a really good guide, very knowledgeable of everything we saw.
We used TJ travel for a walking tour in Tallinn, Estonia. The tour was fine, but the other people were too slow. We had younger people and people with canes. The roads are steep in places and there are cobblestones, so it made it very difficult for some people to maneuver. My mom is 70 and she said the tour was too slow for her and she is not a speedy person by any means. If I booked another tour in the future, I would ask if the group could place people together by walking abilities and interests. I think that would help.
There were never any issues about getting back to the boat with the outside tour groups, so I would not be concerned about that. Everyone did a great job.
The price was about half of what the boat was charging.
Good trip. Celebrity Silhouette is fantastic. The staff on that ship are just phenomenal.!!!
TJ Travel (Russia)
in Celebrity Cruises
Posted
I was just on Celebrity Silhouette ending in Amsterdam on July 18th. We also booked with TJ travel for St. Petersburg. Our guide was Itan, our driver Alexi. I thought they did a great job, especially given the number of tourists in most areas as we went along.
For some reason, there is a huge line for getting off the boat and being processed in St. Petersburg. The sooner you can get in line and off the boat, the better. Regardless of how long it takes, the tour guides are aware of this, so they are patiently waiting for you on the other side of the passport stations.
St. Petersburg has so much to see, so having a guide was great as she was able to get us into the Hermitage before the main hours. We were able to walk through in a fairly limited amount of time, but see the important items and get out and on to the next stop. When we were there, there were hallways that were empty for our photos. Our guide said that NEVER happens, so be prepared for dealing with large numbers of people. That being said, TJ travel does a great job of keeping you moving but letting you spend enough time in each place. There is going to be a lot of walking, but it was very enjoyable.
I would use TJ travel again, especially in St. Petersburg and Itan. She was a really good guide, very knowledgeable of everything we saw.
We used TJ travel for a walking tour in Tallinn, Estonia. The tour was fine, but the other people were too slow. We had younger people and people with canes. The roads are steep in places and there are cobblestones, so it made it very difficult for some people to maneuver. My mom is 70 and she said the tour was too slow for her and she is not a speedy person by any means. If I booked another tour in the future, I would ask if the group could place people together by walking abilities and interests. I think that would help.
There were never any issues about getting back to the boat with the outside tour groups, so I would not be concerned about that. Everyone did a great job.
The price was about half of what the boat was charging.
Good trip. Celebrity Silhouette is fantastic. The staff on that ship are just phenomenal.!!!
:)