Yusupove Palace & Canal Cruise or The Legacy of Peter the Great

[jcmh]

We are doing Catherine's Palace in the morning and have a choice of one of these tours in the afternoon. Which would you choose? If we choose the Yusupov Palace and we don't want to continue on the canal cruise, can they get you back to the ship? Also when excursions are back to back like this, are there places for lunch?

[RachelG]

Are you sure that there is sufficient time between the morning and afternoon tours to do both? If so, Yusupov Palace is really interesting given the history there, and I actually think the canal cruise would probably be fun.

The Peter the Great tour includes the summer palace, his little cottage that he liked to stay in, and the Peter and Paul Fortress. It is a 3 1/2 hour tour for so you would not be spending much time at any one place. Of course, you can't go in the cottage, so you would only be looking at the outside, and the Peter and Paul Fortress doesn't take too much time.

I would pick Yusupov though.

[jcmh]

There is only a half hour between Catherine's Palace tour in the morning and the afternoon tours...that is why I was asking about lunch. I want to do the Yusupov Palace, but we are doing a different canal cruise on another day which is why I wondered if we could go back to the ship after the tour of the palace and skip the canal cruise part. There is so much to see and it's so hard to fit it all in.

[Lvtocruize2]

There is only a half hour between Catherine's Palace tour in the morning and the afternoon tours...that is why I was asking about lunch. I want to do the Yusupov Palace, but we are doing a different canal cruise on another day which is why I wondered if we could go back to the ship after the tour of the palace and skip the canal cruise part. There is so much to see and it's so hard to fit it all in.

 

Just my 2 cents....We loved the tour of Yusupov Palace and especially the canal cruise. The bridges are beautiful and each one is different. BUT I don't think there will be a way to go back to the ship after going thru only the palace due to the fact that you have to stay with a group because of the ship's Russian visa. Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you are asking but no one is allowed to be on their own. What I would do is take some munchies with you and then eat a super dinner on the ship. It's worth it because how often will you get the opportunity to see all you can see in St. Pete?

Have a super trip! The Baltic cruise is beyond description!!! :)

[rallydave]

There is only a half hour between Catherine's Palace tour in the morning and the afternoon tours...that is why I was asking about lunch. I want to do the Yusupov Palace, but we are doing a different canal cruise on another day which is why I wondered if we could go back to the ship after the tour of the palace and skip the canal cruise part. There is so much to see and it's so hard to fit it all in.

 

Don't think you can do both tours as I believe Regent requires an hour between the finish of the morning tour and the beginning of the afternoon tour. There is no place on shore you can do anything as you have to follow the tour from the ship and back to the ship unless you get your own personal Russia Visa. Everytime in Russia you have to go thru immigration when getting off the ship and getting back on.

 

Also as far as deviating on the tour, am about 99.99% sure you won't be able to do that as the bus will not take you back to the ship and for the visa reason, you have to stay with the tour. It is more difficult in Russia to do two trips a day due to the immigration issue and the fact that they get a blanket visa for all people on the ship who are going on ships tours.

 

If you do a private tour, the tour operator will get a visa for you as part of the tour and you have to stay with them as well. Only way you can go out on your own is to get a visa yourself which is expensive and difficult to get.

 

FYI, you do have to get back on the ship after the morning tour and meet with the destinations people before going back off the ship for the afternoon tour. If you have the hour, you can get something to eat on the ship. Our experience was that there weren't any tours scheduled such that we could do 2 half day tours.

 

Please consider all of this when planning on your tours in Russia.

[jcmh]

Wow...If that's true about the one hour from finish of morning to the start of afternoon tours then they have really screwed up the schedule. On the first day, the two morning tours end at 1:30 and the two afternoon tours start at 2:00. That really restricts what you are able to see. We are able to book our tours tomorrow so I'll see what they say.

Thanks for all the feedback.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

I can tell you that even with all inclusive tours, there is so much to see in St. Petersberg that I would take a private tour. It was one of the most tour intensive cruises we've taken. We were on Oceania Regatta and they have the exact tours. We made a group of 10 and for three full days we paid $750 for two of us ($7500 for 10) and we were touring on our own itinerary for three days. We skirted lines, we had a guide that knew every nuance. We were the only tour group at one location because we were early and our guide called and they allowed us in. The canal was fun. We did pack lunches from home one day (we actually brought a tuna lunch kit to eat on the canal tour because we had no time to eat and we planned in advance as a group). We probably saw twice as much because of doing a private guide (we used Denrus)

 

Here is a gallery of images from our cruise http://www.flashfrozenphotography.com/Travel/Baltic-Adventures/5065074_cHeWy#326344533_kYszF

[Emdee]

If you book a custom tour with Denrus or Alla or one of those operators they will take you to both the Yusupov palace and the Peter and Paul Fortress. Presume you are going to Peterhof another day.

[jcmh]

Thanks again for all of your suggestions. I will look into private tours and see if that would be a better option for us. Today's a good day to do that since the Regent website is down so I can't book excursions anyway!

[NETSEG]

We did the Peter the Great tour last August with Regent. The summer palace was closed so we went to the Menshikov Palace, then the cabin and the church of Sts. Peter and Paul. The best part of the tour was the cathedral. The other places were interesting but not highlights. This was an afternoon tour and I think we did the Hermitage in the morning. Others in our group had positive feedback on the Yusupov Palace and Boat trip.

[buddy5009]

We booked the Denus private tour for three days and were very glad we did. Besides the schedule flexibility, tours of five pax or less go to the front of the line at every venue, ahead of all of the cruise line tours and general public queing to enter...a huge advantage.

[leese]

We were on the Baltic cruise last summer and had 6 St. P tours booked/scheduled over the 3 days we were there. If you try to book the Regent tours online and the site actually allows you to book 2 on one day then it has been my experience that Regent has allowed enough time. You don't really have to worry about the timing yourself. If you are unable to book (the tour is greyed out) then there is not enough time as determined by Regent. This of course is only my experience.

 

Also, I don't see how you couldn't leave a tour. Of course you aren't supposed to, and I am not recommending it, but the guides we had didn't keep very close track of us. We were some places where it was also very crowded (The Hermitage) where I don't see how it would have been possible to keep track of all of us.

[jcmh]

I booked this morning and they would not allow me to book 2 tours on the same day...this was on day 1 in St. Petersburg.(2nd option was grayed out once I booked the first). It's a shame really because each tour is only offered on one day, so it's not like you can catch what you miss on day 2 or 3. Oh well...we're happy with our choices and we're seeing quite a bit without killing ourselves. We were able to do 2 tours on day 3, so that's good.

Thanks for your responses

[domer]

This is not to be missed if you can arrange it.

Domer

[Lvtocruize2]

I booked this morning and they would not allow me to book 2 tours on the same day...this was on day 1 in St. Petersburg.(2nd option was grayed out once I booked the first). It's a shame really because each tour is only offered on one day, so it's not like you can catch what you miss on day 2 or 3. Oh well...we're happy with our choices and we're seeing quite a bit without killing ourselves. We were able to do 2 tours on day 3, so that's good.

Thanks for your responses

 

My husband and I decided to book TJ Travel for 2 days of private touring in St. Pete. and it was the very best decision we have ever made because we knew this would be our big "hurrah" since we would never get back to this neck of the woods. This company was fantastic, as I'm sure most are. 6 of our friends went on the same cruise (different date) 4 chose to partake of the excursions the ship offered and the other 2 went on private tours. We saw (as did the other couple) tons more than those who stuck with the cruise excursions. If my oil well ever comes in ;), we would love to go back to St. Pete. and the Baltic.