Has anyone done....

[argenta01]

Hermitage Museum & St Petersburg On Your Own

 

I was wondering how the "on your own" part works? You get 3 hrs on your own after the Hermitage, but the description does not really give a good of idea of it. Does anyone have any ideas? None of the Princess tours offer a trip to the food market or ride on the subway. I was wondering if it would be possible to do these on your own. :confused:

 

[spunkie4]

I can't answer the "on your own" question, but we just returned from the Baltic on the Emerald Princess. We took the two-day Princess excursion of St. Petersburg. It was worth every penny. The traffic was very bad. We just sat on the bus and enjoyed!

 

The plus would be no visa to obtain. Lunch both days was included. We had ample time at the Hermitage and Peterhof. also, all other stops were well-timed and our guide was informative and friendly.

 

the line at the Hermitage was very long. We had to wait about 10 minutes, but that was our longest wait for the entire two days.

 

Shirley

[Aggie83]

Check out the St. Petersburg postings in the Ports of Call section for ideas. Excellent ideas there, recommendations, and things to take into consideration. My husband and I did the Baltic Cruise on Princess in 2009 and St. Petersburg was fantastic. We did a Princess tour that included the market and the subway. Lots of people use private tour companies and seem to also recommend them and they also include the subway and market. Personnally, I would not attempt the "on your own" without someone who speaks Russian. Nothing is printed in English and you hear very little English spoken - unlike the rest of the Baltic region. Also - the subway in St. Petersburg is quite an experience - our guide told us "to leave our manners behind and keep a tight hold on personal belongings".

[Pam in CA]

Hermitage Museum & St Petersburg On Your Own

 

I was wondering how the "on your own" part works? You get 3 hrs on your own after the Hermitage, but the description does not really give a good of idea of it. Does anyone have any ideas? None of the Princess tours offer a trip to the food market or ride on the subway. I was wondering if it would be possible to do these on your own. :confused:

Yes, you can do these things on your own but you will need to get a Russian visa in order to do so. Also, the ship docks quite a distance from the city so you'd either have to pay a lot for a taxi or try to navigate the subway (which is a bit of a walk from the dock.)

 

We used SPB Tours (http://spb-tours.com/) and were able to customize our two-day tour; they also offer one-day tours. We went on the subway, stopped at the Hermitage, went to the Catherine Palace, Winter Palace (Peterhof), took the catamaran from the Winter Palace back to the city, took a river cruise on the Neva, Church of the Spilled Blood, Peter and Paul Fortress, etc. It was fabulous and the owner, Viktoria Rather kept on stopping by to make sure everything was going well. Very personalized. And they arrange for the visa so you don't have to worry about it. We stopped each day at a very local Russian "restaurant" for lunch. One day we had blini's, the next day we went to another shop for local food. We were the only tourists at each place. It was terrific and a lot less-expensive than the Princess tour.

[Griller]

We used SPB Tours (http://spb-tours.com/) and were able to customize our two-day tour; they also offer one-day tours. We went on the subway, stopped at the Hermitage, went to the Catherine Palace, Winter Palace (Peterhof), took the catamaran from the Winter Palace back to the city, took a river cruise on the Neva, Church of the Spilled Blood, Peter and Paul Fortress, etc.

 

Don't want to nitpick but its the

Church ON the Spilled Blood ,

Храм Спаса на Крови,

Khram Spasa na Krovi,

as its built over the spot where the Tsar's blood was spilt, I keep seeing this wrong name more and more widely used, somewhat how the word eurodollar instead of euro became popular in the US after just one person started wrongly using it.

http://www.tellthetruthtravel.com/SPetersburg1.htm

[Pia1913]

Don't want to nitpick but its the

Church ON the Spilled Blood ,

Храм Спаса на Крови,

Khram Spasa na Krovi,

as its built over the spot where the Tsar's blood was spilt, I keep seeing this wrong name more and more widely used, somewhat how the word eurodollar instead of euro became popular in the US after just one person started wrongly using it.

http://www.tellthetruthtravel.com/SPetersburg1.htm

 

Love your Russian, but actually it's:

The Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood

[Pam in CA]

Don't want to nitpick but its the

Church ON the Spilled Blood[/url]

You're right. I've been to Russia several times and I keep on forgetting that in Russia, it's "on" not "of" in church names. Lotta blood spilled in Russia.

[argenta01]

Yes, you can do these things on your own but you will need to get a Russian visa in order to do so. Also, the ship docks quite a distance from the city so you'd either have to pay a lot for a taxi or try to navigate the subway (which is a bit of a walk from the dock.)

 

But this is a Princess Tour, so no visa should be required or it would say so in the tour description. I have been to SPB before so I am not interested in doing all the touristy things. I did all that on the last visit. At that time Princess had a wonderful tour called "The Hidden Scenes Walking Tour" It was fabulous. I can't believe they do not have it anymore. I was hoping to recreate a bit of that.

Do you think there is anyone at Princess I could contact who would know more about it? I find it hard to believe they would just let 40 or so passengers run wild in St. Pete. :eek:

[djwa]

Shirley - We plan to do the 2 day St. Petersburg excursion that you went on. We are going in August. I am curious. What do they serve at those 2 lunches that are included in the excursion? Thanks. Diane

[san diego sue]

I can't imagine Princess letting anyone do part of tour on your own.

We didn't need to have our own Visa's when we were on Princess tours.

They had a government person on the bus with us (so we wouldn't get lost). We were being watched.

:D

[Griller]

Love your Russian, but actually it's:

The Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood

 

Love your American English but the original ( 1611 KJ Bible) uncorrupted and still current in everywhere but US spelling is Saviour....................and apparently its only changed somewhat recently even there, strange how these things happen.

 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090308205836AA2Egnl

[Owlhelm]

The pedants are revolting!! :eek: (Not that I'm one to talk ;))

[Al_Frescoe]

The pedants are revolting!! :eek: (Not that I'm one to talk ;))

 

Well, no one said "anal" anyway. ...:)

 

Cheers,

 

Al

[janina]

But this is a Princess Tour, so no visa should be required or it would say so in the tour description. I have been to SPB before so I am not interested in doing all the touristy things. I did all that on the last visit. At that time Princess had a wonderful tour called "The Hidden Scenes Walking Tour" It was fabulous. I can't believe they do not have it anymore. I was hoping to recreate a bit of that.

Do you think there is anyone at Princess I could contact who would know more about it? I find it hard to believe they would just let 40 or so passengers run wild in St. Pete. :eek:

If you call Princess customer service, and ask your question, they will contact or put you in touch with someone about shore excursions that can answer your question. I was wondering about that tour too, but we've hired a private guide now for the two of us.