Do we or don’t we need Visas for our Baltic cruise?

We recently booked a Baltic cruise for June of this year that includes St Petersburg, Russia in the itinerary. I booked through a well known, reputable internet company whose rep assured me that if we stay with the ship’s group, we absolutely do not need a Visa. Last week, I was checking something on this travel agent’s page for our itinerary and I saw that on the page it stated that “note: Visas are required for this itinerary “. I contacted our rep who again assured me that we do not need a Visa (provided that we do not attempt to venture out on our own). I tried to verify this info with an Azamara rep but he knew less than everyone combined. Does anyone have good info on this?

You do not need a visa if you take a ships tour or if you take a private tour where the tour company has made the arrangements for you. You would need a visa if you tried to step off the ship on your own with no tour.

Keith

Yes, you definitely don't need a visa if you are doing a tour, either ship or private.

Phil

Your tour ticket, issued by a government approved agency acts as your ‘Visa.’

In 2015, I booked a De Luxe 2 day tour via SPB. A couple of weeks before we left home, we were sent a link to print out our tour tickets, one each for my husband and myself.

You will need this tour ticket and your passport to go through immigration EACH day you are in St Petersburg.

This summer, I have booked our tours in St Petersburg via the ship, as they have an inside visit to Peterhof, which we didn’t do last time. I am confident that the ship will provide us with the necessary group ticket.

More information can be found here on the Northern European and Baltic boards:

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2602912

Yes that is the position - with one more added for this year, if you have tickets for a world cup game, your FIFA fan ID which you need to apply for anyway once you get your ticket allocation, acts as a visa so you can tour on your own if you wanted to.

Of course for the Brits....the above is the position as at 18 March.....Uncle Vlad could yet have other ideas but lets hope he doesn't :)

We did the Baltic on Azamara last summer and I highly recommend SPB tours. Yes, you don’t need a Visa with an organized tour and yes, you go through immigration each day but everything was very quick and very well organized. Three days in St. Petersburg was very rigorous but we certainly saw a lot and our guide Tatiana and van driver Vladimir were extremely efficient and knowledgeable. Well worth the cost. I hope June will be less crowded for you than August — it was packed everywhere we went but the tour helped us navigate the crowds. We especially enjoyed the river cruise, riding the subway and lunch each day in a local restaurant. Surrender yourself to the control of the guides and go with the flow and you will see a lot.

Thank you all for the quick and helpful responses. As it happens, we just booked the 3 day tour this morning so I’m so glad to hear how good it sounds!!!