fellowtraveler

We recently toured St Petersburg and I'd say the last poster summed the difficulties up quite nicely. We were over an hour and a half waiting in line on the cruise ship to even get into the port to be checked in by immigration which was another long wait. Fortunately, we were with TJ Tours and they handled the delay expertly, they made sure that we got to see everything we'd hoped to see.

When first planning our vacation we were thinking of driving ourselves around in St. Petersburg and now we know for certain that this would have been madness. I've never seen traffic like that even in the mean streets of LA during rush hour. Luckily for us the driver was like some sort of Ninja. We'd be at a complete snarl and then like magic we'd be out of it. I never even saw the openings he slipped into to get us from point A to B. In addition he obviously knew all the back streets and where to park and wait for us in a city which appeared to have millions of vehicles and no parking places.

The guide was charming and knowledgeable and answered all of our questions, even the awkward ones that guileless Americans ask like "Do Russians like Putin"? (They do). she was always interesting and informative, not just relating history, but also current affairs and how the people of St. Petersburg live, their hopes and dreams, etc.

Even though we went in May all the sites were nevertheless crowded. The guide said that it would be getting much worse with little wiggle room as the summer progressed. In hindsight it was genius to go in May when temperatures were a bit cooler, flowers were in bloom, tourists were fewer and it's actually the least rainy month as well.

St. Petersburg is a charming city and anyone touring the Baltics should be sure to see it! I'm certain there are other great tour companies, but I can say for sure TJ's was super excellent in every way! As a matter of fact, I registered at this site just to say so. I can well imagine how it could've been a pointless nightmare without them.

In addition all three cruise ships I've been on were excellent too. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian and their crew provided superlative service.

Happy Trails!