judyrabbit

We were on the Baltic cruise in June 2012 and chose I Love Travel mini-group tour. They state that even if 2 persons sign up the tour takes place. We were total 6 in the group - indeed a semi-private tour that included everything - all the musts inside visits, photo-permits, lunches, small boat tour, etc. As we are not really keen on shopping we discussed it with the others in the group and did a metro tour instead of shopping, which was a bonus. Another bonus was short visit to the Grand Synagogue. The only things we paid extra was the metro and tips for the guide and driver, all the other charges were included.

We toured with I Love Travel and paid with visa - no credit card fee with this tour company. But when I was just choosing and e-mailed several tour companies, most of them mentioned surcharge for cc payments.

yes, you need your passports or you can't enter Russia. we were on SPB and the guide had us leave our purses, etc. on the van whenever he felt there was any issue with pickpockets. just be cautious and you will be fine, I never felt in danger of theft because I kept my purse under my jacket and there would be no way to get it.

We toured with I Love Travel. Our guide warned us about Peterhof being particularly dangerous. We left our purses and pasports in the van and the driver stayed there all the time, so it was safe. We were told also to be careful about cameras and expensive lenses.

I understand that we don't need a Russian Visa if we are doing a tour through Princess. Please correct me if I am wrong.

It's not necessarily Princess. We were explained that there are around 80 local tour companies, who can arrange visa-free tours. We used I Love Travel, and going through passport control with their papers was quick and easy. You can check their tour options http://www.itravelspb.com

I am wondering if we should book other tours through princess; walk off the boat and tour the city on our own; or look for local guides who can meet us at the pier.

I don't think that is possible. People who took cruise-organized tours on our cruise were herded together and as far as I understand no one could or wanted to wander off. If you decide to get a local guide - do it in advance, as there will be no one sitting wating to be hired at the port.

We had tours booked in St. Petersburg and Warnemunde/Rostock, the other ports we did on our own.

We used I Love Travel for our St. Petersburg shore excursions. We were offered a choice of two folk show options. One was at 7 p.m. and included a buffet, the other was a different location, at 8 p.m. and we could choose whether we wanted the buffet or not. We chose the second one as that gave us the opportunity to return on board and change before the show.

This folk show (as far as I remember it was called Bogatsa or something like that) was way less expensive, and we didn't need the buffet, so we opted just for the folk show. We enjoyed the show greatly, it was fun and you could feel that the artists are like a family very much attuned to each other. Later we were told that their team has been on the stage together for the last 15 years almost without changes in the cast.

We use I Travel St.Petersburg and were very happy with the services. Before chgoosing them, I actually wrote to quite a number of companies (including frequently mentionel SPB, Alla and TJ here), but some answers looked very identical to each other - just different headlines. I chose I Travel as their answer to the initial inquiry really was different and showed personal approach.

[quote name=GTAgal;38173786 I wonder if you recall what the rules are at the Hermitage & at Peterhof' date=' at Catherine's Palace, etc regarding taking in purses, small backpacks, water containers. I have read that some places do not allow you to wear 'outer' garments which I presume means coats but does it also mean vests with pockets which is what we wear to carry our personal items.

[/quote]

It's for sure no water inside the museums. We had small backpacks and we were asked to carry them in front. In Peterhof palace they don't allow taking pictures so we had to put the camera into the locker too. Vests were OK.

The difference is that Alla provides a box lunch to eat in transit the first day, while SPB provides a sit down lunch at a restaurant both days.

We took Premium tour with I Travel last June. They offered a proper sit down lunch on the first day and time for coffee-break or quick snack if necessary on the second day. At first we were a little uneasy about not having a proper lunch on the second day too, but it turned out the best way. We were so well-fed on the ship that we really were glad to skip a full meal and just had coffee in Peterhof gardens. The weather was hot and it didn't feel like eating at all, at the same time we had more time for touring.

For us it was decisive that I TRAVEL guaranteed the advertised price from the beginning irrespective of the number of people booked. I didn't want to "drum up" anyone. We received the booking confirmation with the price fixed straight away. I Travel added the Grand Choral Synagogue to our itinerary without hesitation. As far as I understand it's not a problem to add this stop during the driving city tour.

We didn't even consider buying set of group tours in all ports as we prefer to explore on our own everywhere possible which we did except for St.Petersburg and Warnemuende.

Best advice is to send an email to several and ask what is on offer and how they can adapt to your needs.Your priority may be lower cost and finding tourmates to bring the overall cost down-ask how they can help

We did that. I e-mailed Alla, TJ, SPB and I Travel. In fact, we chose I Travel (http://itravelspb.com) as this was the only personalized answer we got, the others lookes very much like templates or machine-generated answers that were very similar. We never regretted the choice, our tour was just beyond and above! But I believe no matter what company you choose, St.Petersburg is the highlight of the cruise anyway.

Yellow blue vase, perhaps?

We were taught "yellow blue bus" but a smile worked better.

but in the end we were SO glad it was just the 4 of us. One review I read from our cruise, spoke of the two hours of wasted time on the second morning, waiting in the tour office/gift shop for 7 couples to process payments. I admit this is one thing I had not thought of!

I totally agree! We were so happy we were not part of a bigger group. I don't think the tour would have been such a pleasure if we were 18 or 20. Have never understood people who book big group tours.

I'll enthuse about Alla, others about TJ, others about SPB, etc.

I contacted those three. In choosing, the only difference I noticed was that Alla & SPB needed a minimum 8 to be charged the standard price, TJ needed 10. Prices were within a few dollars of each-other, all accepted booking without payment, payment was at the start of day 2.

JB :)

We used I TRAVEL SPB for our St.Petersburg stopover. They said that even if just 2 persons signed up the tour would take place and the price is the same as in a group of 10. That was no lie: we were just 6 persons on the tour and had it for the same group rate of 300 $ pp.