St. Petersburg Tours

[easy dad]

I would like to know if a private tour for 2 is worth the expense in view of Regent's free shore excursions in STP. The proposed private tour is for 8-10 hours/day for the three day visit and would take us anywhere we wanted to go with early admission to museums and palaces.

[Travelcat2]

Im my opinion, nothing beats the private tours in St. Petersburg. They are wonderful! However, if cost is a consideration, you could do private tours on two days and perhaps one day with Regent?

[mborchgardt]

I agree that the private tour of St. P is well worth the cost. We saw much more than we would have been able to see on the ship's tours. We arranged our touring plan to match our interests. We bypassed ALL lines at all sights with the driver practically dropping us at the front door everywhere. We were also able to tour the gardens at Catherine Palace before the palace opened for tours, so we and our guide were the only people in the gardens for our ~45 minute walk. It was probably the single most memorable and enjoyable travel experience we have had.

 

We also went to specific speciality shops (food, jewelry, art glass) that we would not have been able to do on the ship tours.

[Lvtocruize2]

Im my opinion, nothing beats the private tours in St. Petersburg. They are wonderful! However, if cost is a consideration, you could do private tours on two days and perhaps one day with Regent?

 

Approximately what would the cost be for 2 people/day? How does one arrange for a private tour? Are the tours prearranged or can we choose where we want to go?

[gfranzen]

Check out the Northern Europe & Baltics board. There's a ton of info there.

[easy dad]

I booked Red October through their web site. The cost for three full days of driver and guide for my wife and I is $1030/person. They provided a recommended itinery which looks good to us, but we can change it within reason. Includes one lunch, all admissions, and hydrofoil for Peterhof (to avoid traffic). No visas required since we will be with the guide all day and one night. We did pay extra for the Cossacks of St. Petersburg show at the concert hall.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Gee, maybe Regent should start giving a rebate if you promise not to take any of their excursions? Kinda kidding, but not completely.

[easy dad]

Gee, maybe Regent should start giving a rebate if you promise not to take any of their excursions? Kinda kidding, but not completely.

 

It does seem like a waste, but it looks like the crowds are large and you can't go off on your own without a visa (not huge problems, but a hastle none the less). With so much to see and so little time we decided to just bite the bullet. We have always taken Regent excursions on other cruises and we will take Regent excursions the other days on this one.

[merrilyanne]

My experience with private tours in Russia is to read the posts carefully as not all companies are efficient/reliable. Just like the ships' tours, they take you to their commissiond stores and restaurants whether you want to or not. We were told when booking we could have a flexible itinerary and not stop for lunch and have longer at the main sites, but despite our complaints, we were led like sheep to their restaurants and wasted 1 1/2 hours over lunch. they insisted on washroom breaks when we didn't need any, because they were at souvenir shops.

 

also, they switched us to a small old van with one broken seat and a broken microphone on the second day. They wasted 1/2 hour in the morning collecting the cash they wanted for payment.

 

However, you do have the advantage of avoiding the line ups at the major attractions.

 

Remember, you will have no recourse or customer service when you return as they will avoid your emails and phone calls if you complain.

[Balliett]

We had a private tour (for two) from Alla Tours. (google for contact info). They will book one-day tours. We had two days. An older mini-van, well spoken young lady guide, and non-english speaking male driver. Felt very safe. Took us where we liked, or suggested itinerary. I remember our little political discussions. But at the end she wanted to charge us a different rate than agreed! Her request was 30% LESS that what we agreed online. We did tip them both, something less than 10% and all of us were happy.

[Travelcat2]

We also used Alla Tours, however, I have not heard of the other companies (Red October, etc.) taking people to places they did not specifically want to go to. If you check out the "ports" section of CC, you can find many posts regarding experiences with private tours in St. Petersburg. They are about 99% positive. As I said earlier, now that Regent has "included" tours, I would try both - a Regent tour one day and private the next day or two.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

There are three major tour companies in SP. Red October, Alla and DenRus. I have never heard anything negative about Red October or DenRus. My travel agent uses Red October and has been many times. I used Denrus and we had an incredible tour last year. My guess is that there are possibly people from these companies who bad mouth them on the boards because the regular posters are pretty well established here at Cruise Critic.

 

We has Yupusov's Palace all to ourselves because we were early and she got us in because she knew the person.

 

All the stops are by appointment. Most of the time our guide was able to skirt us around any waiting anywhere. Her English was great. She actually studied in the US for a time and worked in some major hotels with American guests..

 

We were able to specify that we did not want lunch at the leisurely places (Well, we did but our travel companions - found here - did not) . One day, we brought snacks from home (literally) and we ate on the hydrofoil. Our guide was wonderful. We saw almost everything from the Synagogue, to the Church of The Spilled Blood and the grocery. We rode the subway for one stop. The Hermitage, Catherines, Gardens and more.

 

We were told us that they all work for the same three companies and they often have the guide use the name Alla so that you can't refer them away from the company.

 

A private tour is the only way I would want to see St. Petersberg.

 

I have a couple hundred images from our Oceania Cruise here: http://www.flashfrozenphotography.com/Travel/Baltic-Adventures