St. Petersburg private tour for 2

[Jay Bee]

We will be in St. Petersburg for 2 days next summer so I have been reading a lot of posts about the touring options. It seems that if you can get a group together, you can get a better price, but if it turns out that we opt to tour alone (just the two of us), is there a company that is more affordable? For instance, one that charges per person rather than per car? Or do some put you with other people who have signed up as well?

 

Thanks,

Jan

[TLCOhio]

We will be in St. Petersburg for 2 days next summer so I have been reading a lot of posts about the touring options. It seems that if you can get a group together, you can get a better price, but if it turns out that we opt to tour alone (just the two of us), is there a company that is more affordable? For instance, one that charges per person rather than per car? Or do some put you with other people who have signed up as well? Thanks, Jan

 

All of the tour companies have certain "FIXED COSTS" for the guide, driver and car. As your tour group size increases from two to four to six to eight people, your vehicle cost might go up a little from a regular car to smaller van to larger van, but most of these same fixed costs stay the same. The costs for admissions, photo stickers, etc., will, of course, vary proportionally due to the number of people in your group. Therefore, there is no "magic" or easy way to lower the per person cost much with only two people. Here are my added thoughts on deciding on the best for your private tours.

 

Price is important, but you will find when you really compare closely, apples to apples, that the cost differences are not that huge among the major, most experienced firms in St. Petersburg. It's about quality and responsiveness! First, outline, in detail, what you need, like and want in what you will send as a request to each potential tour firm. Ask questions, etc. Make it personal and custom to your interests and needs! Don't grab the first firm you write to and assume "that's it" after reading a couple of positive reviews for only one firm. We used Anastasia after contacting the top five firms, seeing what they said, how flexible they were, etc. She would e-mail back a detailed spreadsheet that outline showed the various detailed costs and options. Some folks will "low-ball" you a basic, lower cost and then hit you later with added fees and extras that you assume were included. If you have a group of four, those total costs over two days are going to be better or about the same as doing a tour through the cruise ship. The key advantage with a private tour is having a tour focused on YOUR personal needs, going at a pace that works best for your interests. The better firms are great in making adjustments like an early admission to the Hermitage, dealing with two people who like to take lots of pictures, adjusting for one person with a healing hip and finding the right shop to buy a Russian-style military hat, etc. Details make an important difference! You get what you ask for and seek!

 

Be sure to use the "SEARCH" function on these boards for each of the various cities you are going to visit. There have been lots of different posts, photos, etc., posted earlier that can help you get a sense of your many options in the Baltics. What ports will you visit? Don't be shy! Ask questions. Lots to share and learn from previous travels to these great cities of the Baltics. Also grab, maybe from your library or a transfer they can do for you, such good visual books such as Eyewitness, Insight, etc. These resources can you help better figure out your priorities for what you want to do and see.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[LHT28]

Anastasia & SPB-tours will do custom tours

 

check with them on what you have in mind then they will advise of the pricing

Ask about prices for 2, 4 or more people then you have an idea if you want to go alone or share

 

Lyn

[TLCOhio]

Anastasia & SPB-tours will do custom tours

check with them on what you have in mind then they will advise of the pricing

Ask about prices for 2, 4 or more people then you have an idea if you want to go alone or share Lyn

 

Anastasia gave us a detailed spread sheet that gave all of the specific costs on whether it would be two, four or six people. With such an outline, you can see and better understand where all of the costs come from and make informed decisions on what works best for your interests and budget.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[LHT28]

Anastasia gave us a detailed spread sheet that gave all of the specific costs on whether it would be two, four or six people. With such an outline, you can see and better understand where all of the costs come from and make informed decisions on what works best for your interests and budget.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Exactly & she will customized the tour to do what is of interest to you instead of the standard tour

 

LYN

[Jay Bee]

Thanks so much both of you for the information!

[MercedMike]

St Petersburg is a one time experience for most of us. The cruise will cost thousands. A couple of hundred dollars extra to do it the way YOU want to do it is well worth the cost.

 

We toured with DenRus and really enjoyed it. They were extremely flexible with making an itinerary that was exactly what we wanted. They have a "menu" of different choices on their site, and even included a special detour to the market for us (DW likes markets!) I especially recommend "Lunch with a Russian family!"

 

Check out our trip report and pictures at http://www.bully4.us/baltic.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[greyhound101]

Check out the SPB Tours website, Vika is very willing to help and customize your tour experience.

[vival]

We did a tour for two last summer with Viktoria (SPB Tours). We were in St Petersberg for three days so we had one full day tour and two half days. Viktoria was fantastic to work with, nothing was too much trouble. In order to keep the costs down she gave us a guide/driver which worked very well. We were really glad we had paid the extra for a customised tour just for us, it meant that we could set the pace and concentrate on what interested us rather than having to consider what other people that we hardly knew wanted to do.

Vivien

[Ashland]

We are doing our St. Petersburg 2 day very active tour Aug '10 and decided the private tour for just the two of us was what we were looking for..We are paying $500.00pp with TJ Travel..Yes, we could have gotten a better price with a small group..but this is a trip of a lifetime and a few extra $$'s was worth it for what we are getting..Good luck and enjoy !!!

[giraffelt]

Most of the tour companies will in fact put groups together but only with the consent of all parties. We have booked a private tour and found that several of tour companies were trying to steer us into joining other groups. Since none of them were covering everything we wanted to see and do we have opted to stick with our private tour.

 

You have gotten some excellent advice from others on this thread as to how to go about selecting the tour you want. the key being knowing what you want. I did a lot of research and spoke to friends who had been in St. Petersburg. I then put together my personal list of "wants". then I shopped that list amongst 6-8 different tour companies before deciding on the one we would go with.

 

Selecting on price alone can be misleading because not all tours are the same in terms of sites visited, admission costs, activities etc.

 

good luck.

[Giantfan13]

As my friend Terry has said, you must ASK QUESTIONS, and then ask some more questions until you feel you understand everything. Do NOT take anything for granted. Terry was right in that certain smaller companies are just people who broke away from the larger companies and may not even be licensed. You DO want some one who is licensed. Many of them will low ball you a figure and then hit you with 'other' expenses later on. We also used SPB tours, as I have said so many times, because of the great effort by Viktoria to make us feel she really cared about our trip. That was very important to us.

But make sure you know what type of transportation they will provide you. If it is Air Conditioned, if they will supply bottled water to you (you do NOT want to drink the regular water in Russia), if lunches are included etc etc.

If any company you correspond with evades any of your questions, simply cross them off your list.

Most of the companies want, and need, you to be happy so you can come here next year and rave about that company. They all need the recommendations.

 

Cheers

 

Len