St Petersburg Visit June 2017

Hi

Sorry if this has been discussed but if so please point me in the right direction.

We are visiting St Petersburg for 2 days on our next cruise.

We have been advised that we need to obtain Visas if we wish to "go it alone" @ £180.00pp but if we take a trip from the ship they will organise it. Many of the tours seem to be for 7-9 hours long

We normally like to walk around a city or dare I say it take the "Hop on Hop off " bus tour :rolleyes:

The city maps look like most things are within walking distance

What have been your experiences.?

I would appreciate your guidance to help plan

Many Thanks

OnlyMe2

xxx

:D

I've been to St. Petersburg several times and will be going back again.

I would very definitely take tours - not necessarily ship's tours - as it is a large, spread out city and some of the best places to visit are outside the city (e.g. The Peterhof, St. Catherine's Palace). The tour guides are generally all excellent, with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the places that you'll see, they are friendly, speak excellent English and are very professional.

In almost every city I visit I usually use public transport and walk around, but St. Petersburg has so much to see that it really is worth taking a tour especially if you've never been before.

VP

You can book private tours with visa included they just need all passport details when booking

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Take a look over at the Northern Europe board, here:

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

All sorts of info about touring in St Petersburg.

I did the Baltic cruise in 2015 and only booked a half day tour at the Hermitage as I don't usually like museums etc BUT have been sorry ever since that I did not do the whole day tour as it is absolutely mind blowing!! Also sorry I didn't do the Peterhoff tour the next day!! Everyone said it was fabulous. I don't usually do SHIP yours but seriously think in St Petersburg it is the Best!! Have a wonderful time .

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We were a group of six, added some new CC friends, and booked two full day private tours. The best money ever spent on touring an amazing city.

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We strongly recommend booking private tours....instead of the overcrowded (and over priced) cruise line excursions. Any of the licenses local private tour providers (SPB, TJ, Alla, etc) can be booked online. These companies all provide a Group Visa to cover all their charges (some cruise lines neglect to mention this fact). For example, in August we spent 2 days on tour with TJ Tours. We had a group of 10 in a beautiful new mini bus (with 20 seats) and an excellent guide. All this for about half the cost of a similar cruise line excursion.

Hank

It seems like what you're asking, in part, is about the possibility of getting off the ship and walking/wandering without having a visa or being on a tour. That possibility is zero.

Russia is quite strict about it. You will not get through the security at the terminal unless a) you have an individual, expensive visa, b) you take a ship tour, or c) you take an authorized private tour -- of which many good options are discussed on the Baltics forum here.

I would not recommend the ship tours. Private tours can be configured to include as much or as little as you like -- potentially you could even arrange some time to walk around, although rules are rules (especially in Russia) and a guide is really supposed to be with you most of the time.

I am one who doesn't think it impossible for an experienced traveler to get a visa and do St. Petersburg on your own, but I say this mainly for completeness. For most people, obtaining a visa costs as much or more than the cost of a private tour, and they enjoy having a guide to help with entry to sites, provide information, and get them from place to place.

Unless things have changed in the past few years, your ship will berth at a commercial docks a little way from the city. Even if you had a personal visa, you would not be allowed to walk in the docks and the surrounding area is not particularly salubrious.

St Pete's is easier to get around than it used to be. At least many street names are now written in the Roman alphabet as well as Cyrillic. However, given the short time you will be there, taking a tour allows you to fit a lot into that time rather than wasting it trying to get from one place to another.

Yes, a tour with an independent local operator. We all have our favourites, but I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

You DO have to pre-book - the tour ticket emailed to you gets you through immigration without a visa.

But you DONT have to pre-pay - you pay when you are there, various currencies or cards.

The tour ticket only gets you through immigration for the booked tour. You can't use a Day 1 tour ticket to get through immigration on Day 2 , or even for the evening of Day 1.

JB :)

As others have said, this is not a port to try to do on your own. We booked two days with Alla with others from our roll call and it was one of the best tours I've ever been on. There are a number of vendors who get great reviews Alla, SP, TJ, etc.). I suggest you check in on your roll call and see if anyone's booked with them. I think we had two groups from our roll call. One of the best things about booking with a vendor rather than the ship, was that our group was small. We'd see groups from the ship with the little stickers on their chests and there were tons of people on those tours being herded from place to place. We had early entry to the Hermitage and we walked by a few hundred people on the ship's tours standing in the rain waiting for it to open. Our little group just walked right in with our guide! It was great! :D

We thought St Petersberg was one of the best places we have ever been. So much beauty and history. We used SPB tours and could not have been happier. They are rated #1 by Trip Advisor and I can see why. We also met alot of really nice people on our 2 day excursion. Enjoy your trip.

My husband and I also used SPB tours for St Petersburg (and a few other stops). It was a 2 day tour as well. It was this past July and it was amazing. I could not imagine trying to navigate the streets of Russia without a guide, even if we could. I highly encourage you to book a tour, many of the companies offer practically the same thing. You will not be disappointed. Enjoy!!!

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My husband and I have booked a tour with our roll call group for exploring St. Petersburg. We are saving the DIY touring for the other cities. With all the restrictions placed upon people traveling to Russia, I think it is the easiest and best way for us to explore the city.

At this point in time, St. Petersburg is the only city we have booked a tour. The other cities we have narrowed down what we want to see to a couple places each and plan to do it on our own, but not St. Petersburg.

We also used SPB Tours last August whilst on Celebrity Eclipse and they were excellent, booked them for the two days. They used small mini buses that seated 16-20. They had quite a number of buses at the terminal but we got sorted quickly into our pre booked group and away we went. We did meet some of the other SPB groups at various stops as my sister and hubby were on another bus, they had forgotten to mention when e mailing to mention the tour group name but it wasn't a problem.

The smaller groups definitely helped us getting around quicker and our guide was fantastic. We even went on the metro for one stop which was quite fun. Definitely wouldn't have fancied doing it ourselves as St. Petersburg is so big. Plus as someone previously mentioned what you would pay for the visas, would pay for the two day tour and you don't pay for the tour until you are on it.

We also used SPB for our tour of Berlin!

Mary