Visa and excursions in St. Petersburg

We are going on a Baltic cruise June 29 on Oceania Marina. We will be in St. Petersburg 3 days. I was told that I would not be allowed to board the ship in Copenhagen if I have not already booked a ship excursion, as we don't have a visa. Is this correct? Do I have to book an expensive ship excursion for each of the 3 days or can I book another tour company? If so, what do you recommend for tour companies that are reliable?

I would also check the port of call forum: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

We are going on a Baltic cruise June 29 on Oceania Marina. We will be in St. Petersburg 3 days. I was told that I would not be allowed to board the ship in Copenhagen if I have not already booked a ship excursion, as we don't have a visa. Is this correct? Do I have to book an expensive ship excursion for each of the 3 days or can I book another tour company? If so, what do you recommend for tour companies that are reliable?

You can book a ship's tour or one with a private guide they will look after the Visa for you but with the private guide you must book in advance so they can submit your information for the group Visa

Lots of information on the Baltic gforum or check your roll call some probably have tours to share

a little late to be booking private guide but some may still have space

You will not be able to just get off the ship without some sort of tour prebooked unless you apply for your own VISA

We are going on a Baltic cruise June 29 on Oceania Marina. We will be in St. Petersburg 3 days. I was told that I would not be allowed to board the ship in Copenhagen if I have not already booked a ship excursion, as we don't have a visa. Is this correct? Do I have to book an expensive ship excursion for each of the 3 days or can I book another tour company? If so, what do you recommend for tour companies that are reliable?

You should be able to book a shore excursion with one of the many private companies in St P rather than having to book a more expensive ship excursion.

You should be able to book a shore excursion with one of the many private companies in St P rather than having to book a more expensive ship excursion.

I understand your meaning, but the way you have worded it might have someone thinking they could get off the ship and book a tour locally. What you mean is that you can pre-book a tour with an agency for SPB. EM

You can try to book online with private tours like SPB Tours or Alla Tours. After giving them your travel info, your emailed tour voucher serves as your group "visa" with the tour co.

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We used private tours in St. Petersburg, as they were much more inexpensive (because we had 8 in our group), got more places, could add things we wanted, and we interacted with the guide a lot more.

Which is the "best" tour company is a tough question, if you study the ports of call section, you will see lots of companies that get good reviews. We used a small company that was not mentioned on the ports of call section, and they were still fantastic. I think our TA used Shoretrips.com to find them.

We did a ship's tour to see the ballet one evening.

In St. Petersburg, unless you go through the expense and trouble to get your own visa, the tours arrange your visas for you. You will not be allowed off the ship without a visa, and the tour visas are only good for the duration of the day's tour! It is a strange and somewhat unfriendly place on the official level!! MAKE SURE that you take all of the paperwork with you when you leave the U.S. as you will need the tour information and visa information they send you as you get off the ship each day! Russian immigration will check you on and off each day, and they (used to at least) put a small ticket stub in your passport each day as you get off and they take it back when you return each day.

The private tour allowed the tourguide to take us to a "pie shop" for lunch, and she paid in rubles and we paid her back in US or European currency. She helped us understand the various options -- meat and fish pies for main courses, dessert pies for dessert. We also asked to be able to see a subway station, as I had been told to do that, and she took us from one stop to another and back. They are very ornate and interesting -- BUT NO PICTURES ARE ALLOWED. We were also told to go to the caviar bar at the Grand Europe Hotel but none of us wanted caviar.

A private tour allows you to add things like that.

We did St. Petersburg the first day, used the same tourguide to go to Catherine's palace the next day (boat out, van back) and then did the Hermitage on the third day. If you are on a small Oceania ship, you will likely tie up within a stone's throw of the Hermitage. If so, late in the evening, go up on deck and you will see all of the lighted bridges along the river open up to allow bigger boats to go through, and though I did it at about 1 A.M., it was worth it.

Cannot recommend the private tours enough.

We did TJ tours in St. Petersburg. Excellent! You can register online and they supply the visa which is really a print out of your tour ticket. You don't pay them until the end of the tour and you're paying credit card. Leave your tip in US dollars

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We used TJ Tours on our recent Baltic cruise on Holland America's Zuiderdam. My wife booked the two day tour months before our sailing. We had a wonderful time and the guide, Victoria was very informative. We knew before the cruise that we wouldn't be allowed to leave the ship in St Petersburg unless we had a ship sponsored or private excursion reserved. You could leave the ship unescorted if you purchased a private visa on your own.