Peg1026 Posted September 15, 2010 #1 Share Posted September 15, 2010 We're traveling to St. Petersburg in July 2011 and are interested in hiring a great English speaking guide for three days. We'd be most interested in receiving recommendations for someone who is good at handling the basics and able to arrange tickets for a performance at the Mariinsky, a tour of the subway and perhaps a barge trip. Also, any other suggestions you may have based on tours you've taken would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Peg LA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted September 15, 2010 #2 Share Posted September 15, 2010 Check out the Ports Of Call forum http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192 all the major tour companies will do a great job & some will customized your tour if you ask in advance Enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted September 15, 2010 #3 Share Posted September 15, 2010 The two best tour companies are Denrus and Red October. They will work with you to arrange whatever you want to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimandStan Posted September 15, 2010 #4 Share Posted September 15, 2010 The two best tour companies are Denrus and Red October. They will work with you to arrange whatever you want to see. Dont forget Alla! http://www.alla-tour.com/ We toured with Julia and she made it an unforgetable three days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted September 15, 2010 #5 Share Posted September 15, 2010 They all pretty much follow the same tour schedule We found Viktoria very responsive to doing a custom tour http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sondi 14 Posted September 15, 2010 #6 Share Posted September 15, 2010 I agree that they all pretty well follow the same itinerary. We used Anastasia and were very pleased. Our guide was very flexible and we were able to fit in more sites than we had planned on visiting. http://www.anastasiaworld.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 1985rz1 Posted September 15, 2010 #7 Share Posted September 15, 2010 We used Denrus (http://www.denrus.ru/) for a custom tour and had a fantastic guide (Katerina) and driver (Boris). But as you can see, there are many wonderful tour companies and if you stick with the main ones mentioned here, you can't go wrong. We had email exchanges with three of the companies, before we settled on one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jescott54 Posted September 15, 2010 #8 Share Posted September 15, 2010 We were in St. Petersburg for 3 days in 2008 and after much research went with Denrus. It was a phenomenal 3 days. We had 4 couples and it was just the right size. Take care and enjoy the cruise. Also, the weather was cool, so pack accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted September 16, 2010 #9 Share Posted September 16, 2010 They'll all do a good job for you...just find who you are comfortable with. In 2008,we used Red October...this past July, we went with SPB...I would have no problem going with either again... SPB is a smaller operation, so, perhaps, a bit more personal attention... I was not impressed with Denrus when I corresponded with them. If you go with Red October, make sure to deal directly with the Russian office, not the US agent, Mike... Good luck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peg1026 Posted September 16, 2010 Author #10 Share Posted September 16, 2010 thank you ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted September 16, 2010 #11 Share Posted September 16, 2010 JimandStan, You're right. I did forget Alla and they are great too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phlewt Posted September 17, 2010 #12 Share Posted September 17, 2010 Glad to hear that there are lots of good choices. I have a related question -- is it better to have a small group (perhaps 4 persons) or to have a somewhat larger group for this tour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted September 17, 2010 #13 Share Posted September 17, 2010 Glad to hear that there are lots of good choices. I have a related question -- is it better to have a small group (perhaps 4 persons) or to have a somewhat larger group for this tour? Depends on your personal style and desires... The way most of these (St. Petersburg) companies price their tours, there is sort of an "optimum" value at about 8 people...2 or 4 can be a bit expensive, six more reasonable, eight puts you almost on even price terms with the ship's big bus shorexes...but, as you get larger and larger, there are diminishing returns...You don't get much of a price break going from 8 to 10 and virtually nothing going from 10 to 12... One of the reasons is that most use vans that seat 8 plus the guide and driver... I also wouldn't want to get much larger than that since you also want reasonable access to the guide...there's a lot of info to be shared... To me, 8 is still comfortable...We've done private tours in ports over the years with everything from just the 2 of us all the way up to 12 (The 12 was in Amsterdam on this most recent cruise--but it was a well-designed tour with not only our main guide, but also two additional guides for different portions of the tour...and a minibus that would have seated 16)...Most of the private tours we've done over the years have been for 6 or 8--usually dictated in part by the size of the vehicle... But, it is also a matter of where YOU feel comfortable... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikewrit Posted September 17, 2010 #14 Share Posted September 17, 2010 Thanks to our Roll Call, in June we joined three other couples on an Anastasia two-day package they had already set up. Terrific! All hail Cruise Critic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkiemomjn Posted September 17, 2010 #15 Share Posted September 17, 2010 I agree that they all pretty well follow the same itinerary. We used Anastasia and were very pleased. Our guide was very flexible and we were able to fit in more sites than we had planned on visiting. www.anastasiaworld.com We have some friends that used Anastasia this past July. We are going next June and we wanted to hear what they said about this company before deciding. They highly recommended using them, so I have already booked them for our cruise. Another plus, they were also the least expensive!:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted September 17, 2010 #16 Share Posted September 17, 2010 To me the appeal of a private tour is that it is exactly that....private. So I never combine with other people. Six or eight people means six or eight opinions about what to do. It's a bit more expensive but worth it to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no fuss travel Posted September 17, 2010 #17 Share Posted September 17, 2010 If you are in St. Petersburg in July you will be there during their White Nights Festival. Enjoy the ballet as all the top dancers will be performing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyQuinn Posted September 17, 2010 #18 Share Posted September 17, 2010 People are very passionate about their choice of guide in SPB! We chose Alla Tours with guide Elena & I cannot imagine how our tour could have been any better. But in reading reviews on other private operators, I'm convinced that SPB has many excellent options for independent touring. All of the usual suspects mentioned here (also check out the CC Baltic Forum) will give you a richer experience at a more attractive price than any ship tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted September 18, 2010 #19 Share Posted September 18, 2010 I think one of the reasons there are so many excellent guides in St. Petersburg is that there is an abundance of highly educated people who are unable to find proper employment in the chosen fields and so have turned to guiding. I have been there twice and both times my guide was a professor and/or teacher for whom this was much more lucrative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ruthnlarry Posted September 18, 2010 #20 Share Posted September 18, 2010 We just got back from our Scandinavian cruise on Regatta. Our group of 8 had booked the 3-day active itinerary in St. Petersburg and the Classic Berlin tour with SPB Tours. All of us thought that these tours were fantastic!! We did not have to worry about anything or stand in lines. Guides and drivers in both cities were phenomenal. Our guide in St. Petersburg was Tim who is a professor at the university. He was extremely knowledgeable and gave an excellent presentation. In Berlin, our excellent guide was Tom who was from the U.S. Viktoria who is the director(?) of the agency answered all of our email inquiries within a day. Sometimes, it seemed as if she was working past midnight (her local time). If we go again, we would definitely book them again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8mma Posted September 19, 2010 #21 Share Posted September 19, 2010 We used DenRus and loved it - no waiting in line for anything. Enjoy the beautiful city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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