St Petersburg Tours

[Johnmac]

Hi,

 

Ive been looking at various options for St Petersburg Tours.

 

RCI - St Petersburg 2 Day Tour Package - £189

 

Denrus - Russian Experience Value Tour - £156 ($255)

 

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference in the price. From folks past experience is the Denrus offer a lot better value as it includes more?

 

Thanks

[MeHeartCruising]

I used Denrun a few years ago with one of their value tours. I think you'll find that they visit pretty much the same things as the ship tours, but there is sometimes a slight variation. If you have a particular interest in something specific, you should compare the exact stops each will do. Denrus certainly lists the exact stops you will hit on their website. The primary advantage I found with Denrus was that the busses they use seem to be a little smaller than the larger busses used by the ships. I looked at the tour you mention on Denrus website and notice that they say the first bus will leave when 30 passengers get off the ship and on to the bus. I'm pretty sure most of their busses top out at about 30 passengers. Whereas the ship tours seem to use the bigger "greyhound" busses which I'm sure must hold closer to 60 people. That means twice as many people they must coral and possibly wait for at each stop. This usually seems to slow things down some. And of course, many people on here will promote that you should arrange a much smaller, more intimate tour, perhaps teaming up with co-cruisers to bring the cost down. That's fine. But I was perfectly happy with my Denrus 2-day tour. By the way, our bus only had 25 people on it.

[Giantfan13]

Hi,

 

Ive been looking at various options for St Petersburg Tours.

 

RCI - St Petersburg 2 Day Tour Package - £189

 

Denrus - Russian Experience Value Tour - £156 ($255)

 

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference in the price. From folks past experience is the Denrus offer a lot better value as it includes more?

 

Thanks

JohnMac

 

I see you are fairly new to Cruise Critic, so let me welcome you here. On this particular board, almost to a man (or woman), we all used private, independent tour companies to tour St Petersburg. You will have to search for quite a while to find one who would recommend a ships tour over a private one, no matter what the price range.

That said, there are simply countless threads on this board as to why to do a private tour over a ships tour. Just look around, scroll thru some of the past pages and do a quick search and you will find a wealth of info as to why you should do the independent tour over a ships tour.

 

As for Denrus, all the major players, as far as independent tour comapnies in St Petersburg, will do a great job showing you their city. They try harder as they want you to come back to crusie critic and shout their praises. So you are almost guaranteed a fantastic time. We used a company called SPB tours. They pride themselves on great customer service and a real personal touch to all correspondence. That said, and I have been on this site for about 3 years, Denrus seems to be the worst of the independents. Not that they do not do a great job, but as you have just read, they do load their buses with many more people than any of the other independents. Most private tours never take more than 15-20 people MAX, which makes for a more intimate group and much easier to get around. Plus, Denrus usually sends sort of 'form' letters instead of really dealing with the customers personally. Before we went, we wrote to all the major players and Denrus was the only one without any personal stamp on it, if you know what I mean. We selected SPB tours because their owner, Viktoria, always responded the very next day and really seemd to care what you wanted to do, and how she could make your experience in St Petersburg that much better. Their price was comparable with all the others and we valued that personal interest so much. We have heard from past cruisers that Denrus has sort of gotten away form this, and tries to carry as many people as possible on their buses. A definite no when you want to get from place to place.

Now, I'm sure all those that did Denrus, will have my head, but if you want a smaller group and a more personal feeling to your tour, at least contact other groups and see what they have to offer.

anyway, you will love St Petersburg, no matter how you see it.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[dogs4fun]

Hi,

 

Ive been looking at various options for St Petersburg Tours.

 

RCI - St Petersburg 2 Day Tour Package - £189

 

Denrus - Russian Experience Value Tour - £156 ($255)

 

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference in the price. From folks past experience is the Denrus offer a lot better value as it includes more?

 

Thanks

 

There are other SPB tours that are favorably mentioned on CC that you might check-out if you haven't already done so:

Alla Tours $300 (£189) - http://www.alla-tour.com/

SPB Tours - (price dependent upon # of participants) http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en

TJ Tours - http://st-petersburg-tours.ru/

[SJ27]

I think most of them price varies acording to numbers. We want a specific St Pete itinerary and Alla was happy to arrange it for us. If we can get another family to join us the price per person will come down a bit, if not we get a really private tour :) and get to do exactly what we want to do (which includes quicker lunch stops in favour of more sightseeing time) for a bit more than others but still less than the ship tour.

Definitely contact the other companies and see what works for you. You may also find some helpful info on the St Pete board on tripadvisor.

[eetonaee]

 

 

On this particular board, almost to a man (or woman), we all used private, independent tour companies to tour St Petersburg. You will have to search for quite a while to find one who would recommend a ships tour over a private one, no matter what the price range.

 

 

Len

 

I don't have a lot to add but wanted to second what Len has said about support for private tours. We used SPB for our tours in St. Petersburg and Berlin last summer and were very happy. We joined groups that were already being formed by Cruise Critic members we met on this thread.

 

 

Taking a ride on the St. Petersburg subway

[KirkNC]

I don't have a lot to add but wanted to second what Len has said about support for private tours. We used SPB for our tours in St. Petersburg and Berlin last summer and were very happy. We joined groups that were already being formed by Cruise Critic members we met on this thread.

 

 

Taking a ride on the St. Petersburg subway

 

Check out the sailor!

 

Kirk

[jamessemaj]

Johnmac, I hope you don't take this as snarky, but if I lived where you do, I would take the cheapest thing I could find on the cruise. Then I would get a Russian visa and head back there on an independent land holiday. The cruise tours just can't do the place justice.

[gdayhoff]

We have used Red October(2005) and SBP-Tours(2009) in our two visits to St Pete.We looked at Denrus both times in trying to deciding which agenies to go with.We were very disappointed in Denrus replies both times.Had a very good tour with Red October(2005) and could recommend them.In 2009 we looked at all the major tour agencies in St Pete,including Red October and Denrus.We elected to go with SBP-Tours with no regrets.What sold us on going with SBP-Tour was Viktoria,the owner.She was such a joy and pleasure to work with . Viktoria has that knack of making you feel like in her you have a friend(we have received three Xmas greetings from her and her family). We had an outstanding guide in Elena and a great tour.If we were to go back to St Pete we would go with SBP-Tours and looked no further.I would just tell her to book us.

[Johnmac]

Thanks for your time everybody. Info very much appreciated.

 

John

[peggyjags]

I've signed up with ShoreTrips - $346 for 2 days in St.Petersburg - in an 8 person van. The itinerary looks great - anyone with experience with ShoreTrips?

[MszKitty]

duplicate post...see below.

[MszKitty]

On our upcoming Baltic cruise, we (3 couples) are using Anastasia Travel Company (first one listed on CruiseCritic's Europe Baltic/N.Europe Board...http://www.cruisecritic.com/shore-excursions/region.cfm?ID=4&setrd=s).

 

Although we haven't actually taken the tour yet (we leave on May 22), Anastasia has be great to work with and has always been very prompt in answering my gazillion questions/emails. I have no doubt I've made a good choice and am looking forward to our trip.

[Ashland]

We used TJ Travel for our 2 day active private tour this past August...Thanks Tatyana, Julia and our wonderful guide Anna and driver Igor for making our visit the trip of a lifetime !!!!

[In Retirement]

I've signed up with ShoreTrips - $346 for 2 days in St.Petersburg - in an 8 person van. The itinerary looks great - anyone with experience with ShoreTrips?

 

In my current tour-development efforts for this region, I approached Shore Trips and soon discovered that I was dealing with a US contact that then dealt (in our case) with people in Germany. Dealing with a German tourism company directly (hard then to find them, recommended by a private guide in Estonia) and had the opportunity to work options out with someone who really knows directly. Another benefit from using a local company (in our case, from Warnemuende) is that I now have the ability to email our guide before we leave for Europe. As others have suggested, make a list of tour components you currently have and compare cost/tour components. My thought is that your tour company then subcontracts with another, and the more folks touch your arrangement, the more people have to get paid?

My best,

DJ:)

[dolittle]

We used Den-Rus in 09 . The two day value was the best we have ever done saw almost everthing with two meals ,drinks, boat ,subway. Our guide was also great.(Tatianna)

[peggyjags]

Are you looking for another couple to keep the costs down? We'll be there May 24 25 on RCCL

[fourthalarm]

Because of their high recommendations from cruise critic members, I contacted SPB Tours and have a real special deal. They are offering 2 day tour of St. Petersburg, a 12 hour tour of Berlin, 3 hour driving tour of Helsinki and 3 hour walking tour of Tallinn for the amazing price of $399. per person for all 4 cities and the price doesn't go up or down. The minimum is 8 and max of 16 people.

We have signed up (2 persons) and are looking for 6 to 14 more passengers who are interested in a great tour of all 4 cities for less than the price of St. Petersburg alone. We are on the Holland Prinsendam and will be in Helsinki 2 July 2011, St. Petersburg 3 and 4 July 2011, 5July Tallinn, 8 July in Warnemunde for Berlin. If you are on another ship in port on the same dates, you are welcome to join our group. Contact me Patsy at fourthalarm@yahoo.com or SPB Tours and mention my name Patsy Wilhelm to fill up my group.

[bdwyer]

We just returned from the Baltic and three wonderful days with TJ Tours and guide Tatiana and driver Mishka. We couldn't have asked for a better experience. We saw every site we requested and they even accomodated one in our group looking for a camera download cord by stopping at the St. Petersburg version of Best Buy. They were always prompt picking us up at the dock, facilitated our entry into the major sites so that we never waited, even for 5 minutes, and were responsive to all needs in our group. Tatiana's knowledge of Russian history and art, as well as her English, were outstanding.

 

The website for TJ Tours has a message board where you can post requests for others on your sailing to join your tour. This may help you find others who aren't participating in the CC roll call for your cruise.

[MszKitty]

I highly recommend Anastasia Tours...advertised here on CC.

 

We (6 of us) just used Anastasia last week on our Crystal Serenity cruise. Anastasia was so great to work with. During our correspondence prior to the cruise, she was very quick in answering any questions or concerns I had. We worked together with the tour schedule, and she met up with us each morning before we left for our tours.

 

Our tour guide in STP, Svetlana "Lana" was wonderful....VERY knowledgeable. And when she explained history and such, I didn't feel as it was scripted. She was quite enthusiastic. She was also more than happy to accommodate us when we wanted to deviate from the pre-scheduled tour.

 

We also booked a tour that included the high speed train from STP to Moscow. She took care of everything..met us in the morning, took us to the train startion, and waited until we safely onboard, and the train left. She had a guide waiting for us when we arrived in Moscow.

 

 

There was no waiting at any of the various sites. Lana walked us right up to the front of the lines. At the Hermitage, we by-passed hundreds of people waiting to get in. Catherine's Palace, same thing.

 

I cannot speak highly enough of Anastasia Tours! If you have any specific questions, let me know and I'll be happy to answer them. But again...HIGHLY recommend Anastasia.

 

Anastasia's website is listed in the Baltic Excursions Advertising thread.

[62 Rubies]

Did you use her for any evening events? Thanks

[MszKitty]

Did you use her for any evening events? Thanks

 

 

If you are asking me that question, then the answer is no, we did not do any evening events. The first day in St Petersburg, our tour day was a long day..7am til 7pm. We had the option of adding on an evening event the first day, but we chose not to as we had a very early (6:00 am) and long excursion the next day. The 2nd day we did the train to Moscow which didn't put us back into St Petersburg until midnight. 3rd day we had to be back on ship by 5pm so no time for an evening event.

 

But, I have no doubt that if you go with Anastasia Tours, whatever evening event you choose, you will not be disappointed.

[RamRam]

We are a group of 10 who have booked the Moderate "B" 2 day Tour with SPb-Tours. We would like to add 6 additional people for our group. If you're interested, please email vika.rother@gmx.de giving your boat name, tour dates, number of people in your party and that you would like to join our tour (i.e., Ram Group). We also plan on doing the evening "fun tour" as well with them separately.

 

The itinerary includes -Day One City sightseeing, subway ride, drive to Peterhof, drive to Tsar's Village, visit to Catherine's Palace - and Day Two city sightseeing, visit to Peter and Paul's fortress/cathedral, the Hermitage museum, and visit to the Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood

[RamRam]

We are a group of 10 who have booked the Moderate "B" 2 day Tour with SPb-Tours. We would like to add 6 additional people for our group. If you're interested, please email vika.rother@gmx.de giving your boat name, tour dates, number of people in your party and that you would like to join our tour (i.e., Ram Group). We also plan on doing the evening "fun tour" as well with them separately.

 

The itinerary includes -Day One City sightseeing, subway ride, drive to Peterhof, drive to Tsar's Village, visit to Catherine's Palace - and Day Two city sightseeing, visit to Peter and Paul's fortress/cathedral, the Hermitage museum, and visit to the Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood

[wsparrow]

I was in St. Petersburg the end of May and had a personalized tour with 2 friends that we arranged through Denrus. It was a pretty rigorous 2 days but we could not have been more pleased. Our guide, Marsha and our driver, Alexander were fantastic at reacting to the weather (it rained one morning), the crowds (they werre celebrating the anniversary of the founding of St. P), and our whims (we decided we wanted to do some extra shopping). All our communications were answered promptly and clearly and everything went off perfectly.