memereboy

I have been trying to BOOK this 1 day Moscow tour through Guide Guru, but they say they cannot form a group unless I can get others to join.  The prices are much better if booked through them but ONLY if there is a GROUP.  Anyone on the Zuiderdam in St. Petersburg on June 28, 2019 who would like to book this trip???  Here are the prices...with Guide Guru: 

Let's try to get a GROUP RATE!  It is $590/pp on the ship!!

Thank you so much for the helpful reply!!  I'm curious though, what I learned from HAL is that unless we book our excursions directly from them, we would need a Russian Visa!? Did you have a Visa?  Guide Guru is a great source but we do not have time to get a Visa NOR do we want that additional expense ($400)?

14 minutes ago, Poodiepurple said:

Hi Annette

I chocked at the price of the Moscow tour but my hubby really wanted to go. So hang the expense, we went. I loved the whole trip and so glad I went. We did the train from St PB to Moscow and yes it is a long day but hey you can sleep on the train which is only around 4 hours one way. Food provided on the train wasn't very good, serving breakfast as a dinner or lunch meal and we had exactly the same meal on the way back. Just to walk in the Red Square was amazing along with the other sights we saw. We booked this trip through the ship and would have liked to go with Guide Guru but unfortunately it was not available. We used Guide Guru on our day in St Petersburg, fantastic only 6 people on the tour, which I can highly recommend. I wish you safe and happy travels.

 

OMG...Thank you so much for this advice!  We are going to book it despite the exorbitant price!  You have helped us decide.  One question....we are older (active) people....will there be anything so strenuous that we won't be able to do the tour?  They list it as STRENUOUS, but walking a lot is not what we consider strenuous!  Certainly Lengthy, but that being said, we can rest on the train!

11 minutes ago, CTOM said:

We did the 1-day Moscow day trip on the Zuiterdam.   It is an EXTREMELY long and tiring day.   However, all in all, wife and I say it's worth it.  St Petersburg is a cool city, but how often will you have a chance to see Moscow?   It's a rare chance.

I looked for specific reviews on the Red Square tour and didn't find any...so here is my own to help you and future tourists.

 

In theory, it was organized well.   Starts at 6:45 am.   (I was a little disappointed in HAL for waiting until 7:05 for the late people.  If you're not there at 6:46, we should have left without you).  A HAL guide takes you off the ship and leads you through customs.   After that, you meet your escort.   The escort leads you to the bus, and then the bus goes to the train station.  

 

Train ride is comfortable and clean and 4 hours long.  Clean bathrooms and breakfast included.

At Moscow, you meet a local tour guide, who leads you to another bus.  Drive through the city.

 

HAL has 2 tours of Moscow:  The Armory Museums OR Red Square.   You can see museums in every city on Earth, but there is only one Red Square.  Suggest that one.   BUT BE CAREFUL...HAL's website had conflicting info about which day trip was which.  Many people thought they were going to see Red Square, and were disappointed to realize they were on the museum tour instead.  This was HAL's fault, but I won't go into detail.

 

The bus ends up at Red Square and Kremlin (again, this is if you select the Red Square tour, not the Armory Museum).  You see the famous St Basil church and pass Lenin's Tomb (We could not see the tomb that day because it was a special parade day during on tour).  Then you get an hour free time.  I suggest you go see St Basil's.  We didn't and regret it.  The tour guide suggested we go instead into the Goom (Gum) Shopping mall.   It's a nice big mall, but malls are everywhere.   I wish we didn't go in there.  You only have 1 hour in Red Square, and we wasted ours in a shopping mall. 

After that, you go into the Kremlin, a fortified area where the government is.  They take you to one area of the Kremlin where a bunch of orthodox churches are, and you go in one.  Again, we would have preferred St Basil's, since it's by far the most famous one, but that wasn't included.  

After that, you get back on the bus and then back to the train station.  Our train left Moscow at around 7:30 pm, got to St Pete's at 11:45, and we were back on the ship around 1 am. 

A second bus left after us, but it arrived at the ship well before us.   Just an unlucky break that we had a horrible driver. Our bus crossed the river twice, meaning he took a wrong route and had to double back.  How does a professional tour bus drive not know directions from the train station to the pier? 

It's well worth it for the experience of it all, but there were some definite drawbacks...mostly with the tour guides and escorts and drivers, which probably wasn't HAL's fault.  For example, our Red Square escort talked to the locals a lot during the train ride, ignoring her tour group.  Meanwhile the Armory escort did nothing but wait on his group, helped them get free wifi, gave them instructions, etc.  If only our escort was as efficient as the other tour.

 

We do recommend this tour, despite some drawbacks.  Seeing our pictures of Moscow makes it all worthwhile.  Not too many people have that.

 

We are booked on the Zuiderdam and will be in St Petersburg, Russia on 6/28 & 29, 2019.  HAL offers a very expensive day trip (17-1/2 hrs) to Moscow.  Has anyone done it?  Is it worth the expense?  We do not plan to ever return to Russia so we want to do what we need to do while there!

Any help or recommendations will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much...Annette

We are booked on the Zuiderdam and will be in St Petersburg, Russia on 6/28 & 29  HA offers a day trip (17 1/2 hrs long) to Moscow for 1 day that is very expensive.  Is anyone interested in doing this? Those that have done it before....Is it worth the expense for 1 day?? Would appreciate any feedback! Thanks!

Annette