Anyone Crazy Enough to do St. Petersburg without a tour?

[Alison1466]

We have just booked a June 2013 cruise to the Baltics and everything I see talks about the ship tours and the various tour guides in St. Petersburg. I know that if you were not with a tour, you would have to get your own visa, but has anyone done St. Petersburg without a tour? We are pretty experienced and adventurous folks but we do have a 10 and 12 year old in tow and they think we are crazy wild about some of our travel choices so I thought I would at least explore the possiblity of going it on our own. Any thougths or experiences? Thanks!

[alcpa1]

I have done both a land trip and cruise to St. Petersburg.

The Russian Federation visa is both tedious to complete and very expensive. If any adult has been in the military or any government service and some professions it gets even more complicated.

St. Petersburg has so many incredible places to visit, and guess what, they are spread out for miles and miles. You could walk from The Hermitage to St. Basil's to the Church of the Spilt Blood and along Nevsky Prospect or even take the subway but that won't get you to Peterhoff or Catherine's Palace or Povlovsk.

If you are on a large ship - any vessel with more than about 700 passengers - you will dock far from the city center (The Hermitage) and a substantial portion of your time (and rubles) would be spent in finding cabs at the pier and the even more elusive cabs to return you to the port.

If you speak Russian you can probably negotiate better in a cab, in a palace or museum, or in a restaurant.

An independently booked tour with a English speaking guide will also eliminate long lines at every spot. Summer is the height of tourist season and the lines are huge.

Join the Roll Call for your sailing, find others to tour with. Many welcome children. And, make the most of your brief visit to Venice of the North.

It's not a matter of the money, it's all about packing as much as possible into a brief stay.

[scubacruiserx2]

We have just booked a June 2013 cruise to the Baltics and everything I see talks about the ship tours and the various tour guides in St. Petersburg. I know that if you were not with a tour, you would have to get your own visa, but has anyone done St. Petersburg without a tour? We are pretty experienced and adventurous folks but we do have a 10 and 12 year old in tow and they think we are crazy wild about some of our travel choices so I thought I would at least explore the possiblity of going it on our own. Any thougths or experiences? Thanks!

 

We have cruised and stayed in an apartment several times in St. Petersburg. We had booked a Baltic cruise with our grandson for May(which our daughter canceled) and would have used Best Guides. They have a special tour designed for childrean. http://www.bestguides-spb.com/children-page.html

 

Perhaps you could do a tour 1 day and go on your own the second day. A visa would allow you to come and go as you please. We will be glad to help if we can. You may want to see our new thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1775172

[Nitemare]

We have just booked a June 2013 cruise to the Baltics and everything I see talks about the ship tours and the various tour guides in St. Petersburg. I know that if you were not with a tour, you would have to get your own visa, but has anyone done St. Petersburg without a tour? We are pretty experienced and adventurous folks but we do have a 10 and 12 year old in tow and they think we are crazy wild about some of our travel choices so I thought I would at least explore the possiblity of going it on our own. Any thougths or experiences? Thanks!

 

If you are fluent in Russian, you might be able to pull it off, but you probably won't see a good chunk of the highlights of the city. Tour guides can get you in through other entrances and know what is busy at that exact time so they can change your itinerary on the spot.

 

If you are not fluent in Russian, you will have an adventure, but you certainly won't see much of the highlights of the city and you definitely won't get the understanding of what you saw, as none of the descriptions are in English.

[TLCOhio]

We have just booked a June 2013 cruise to the Baltics and everything I see talks about the ship tours and the various tour guides in St. Petersburg. I know that if you were not with a tour, you would have to get your own visa, but has anyone done St. Petersburg without a tour? We are pretty experienced and adventurous folks but we do have a 10 and 12 year old in tow and they think we are crazy wild about some of our travel choices so I thought I would at least explore the possiblity of going it on our own. Any thougths or experiences? Thanks!

 

Don't know how much our Colorado friend with this good question has traveled in Europe. Is this your first trip here? Many used to sailing in the Carib are surprised by the size and complexity of cities in certain key Europe ports.

 

St. Petersburg is that way and much more. This is a town of five million people. Large and sprawling!! Built over many islands and with lots of bridges and confusing highway and road patterns. Not a user-friendly situation in its language, signs, etc., etc. That's why being in a smaller group with a private guide and driver makes things so much easier, more time-efficient, etc.

 

AND, what type of advance planner and researcher are you? Those who have done it on their own will devote lots of time to do that needed research and in-depth preparation to know what they want to do, how to accomplish these DIY challenges successfully, etc. In the past, some individuals have also had to deal with some "safety" issues in this town when not accompanied by locals who know the system, what to avoid, etc.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 115,626 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 93,106 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[John Bull]

Here's a thread which you might find useful

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1256265

 

а скорее Вы чем я ;)

 

JB :)

[cruisemom42]

A few people here have reported their experiences going it alone in St. Petersburg. Most have reported being very satisfied with their choice. I think it depends on the type of travelers you are and also on what you want to see/accomplish during your visit.

 

Having been to St. Petersburg (and taken a very nice 2-day private tour for 4, by the way), I don't buy into all the fearmongering about getting around on your own. People seem to find taxis to get them around. Signage in the subway IS in English, to an extent. As a general rule, a nice restaurant or a hotel is almost always willing to call a taxi for you in a pinch.

 

I have traveled almost completely on my own for two weeks in Japan, where English isn't widely spoken and little English signage is available (other than on the excellent transportation system). We planned intensively and had very few missteps along the way. Having already been to St. Petersburg, I found the situation to be pretty comparable.

 

The next time I visit St. Petersburg, I will plan to do it on my own. HOWEVER, if you really want to visit the places that are far from the city center -- Catherine's Palace, Peterhof -- I think a private tour is worth considering. By the time you add up the visa cost + the transportation, you may not see much savings and everything will be arranged.

 

Personally, I enjoy making the arrangements and decisions myself. Next visit I will stay in the city and probably spend most of one day in the Hermitage. Really no need for a guide for that. (Good guidebooks are available.)

[dogs4fun]

Here's a thread which you might find useful

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1256265

 

а скорее Вы чем я ;)

 

JB :)

а скорее Вы чем я Nice idiom there, John! :D

[Alison1466]

Thanks for all the great replies and details. I will look into all the options. We have travelled pretty extensively in Europe. I lived in France for a semester in college, which is of course, easy, because I spoke French. Certainly, we don't know any Russian! My kids are from China and we have travelled there and Japan extensively, both with tours and without. As for Europe, we have done Britain, Ireland, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Monaco, Croatia, Greece, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, Spain and Denmark. Sometimes on cruises, and sometimes on our own. One of the only spots in Europe where we opted for a guided tour was Turkey. We did it the first time on our own, so the second time, we thought we could see more on a tour. It looks like St. Petersburg might be difficult without a guide. I am going to look into the children's tour from Best suggested in this thread, and also look into getting our own visas for the second day possibly? Keep the suggestions coming as I do my research and I will let you know which direction we go!

[jamessemaj]

You sound experienced and well traveled, and you would probably not have a big problem doing on your own. Many of the major sights are a good walk around the Winter Palace and from there up and along Nevsky Prospect would be a nice way to do it yourself. The local busses that run up and down Nevsky are easy to use. Pushkin is outlying through pretty heavy traffic, but Peterhof can be simplified by hydrofoil transport.

 

I have been trying to figure out the new 3 year visa. Does anybody have experience getting one of those? Not to hijack the thread, but not entirely ot, I have friends in St. Petersburg, and would like to just hire a car and driver who can provide the visa exemption without a grand group tour. Anybody know if that is possible at a reasonable fee?

[scubacruiserx2]

You sound experienced and well traveled, and you would probably not have a big problem doing on your own. Many of the major sights are a good walk around the Winter Palace and from there up and along Nevsky Prospect would be a nice way to do it yourself. The local busses that run up and down Nevsky are easy to use. Pushkin is outlying through pretty heavy traffic, but Peterhof can be simplified by hydrofoil transport.

 

I have been trying to figure out the new 3 year visa. Does anybody have experience getting one of those? Not to hijack the thread, but not entirely ot, I have friends in St. Petersburg, and would like to just hire a car and driver who can provide the visa exemption without a grand group tour. Anybody know if that is possible at a reasonable fee?

 

 

We looked at three year passport. It's $30 more than the 30 day one. We are waiting until June to apply. It appears that if you have a previous visa that you can reuse the previous info - if you have the app. number. Speaking of friends, we met Yuri and Nellie on a lunch with a Russian family visit arranged through DenRus in 2009. When we returned in 2011 Nellie made us the BEST meal that we had in Russia !

 

 

 

 

Yuri is quite the artist. On our first visit we bought some of his eggs as unique souvenirs. http://www.petrochenkov.net/cgi-bin/user/gallery.cgi?lang=0

 

 

A guide that we like and may fill the bill is Gennadiy .

 

 

 

His info is:

 

http://www.guide-petersburg.com/

 

 

When we first asked him to show us a statue of Lenin - He took us into Lenin's office in the government building in Smolny. I think he is retired from security in Smolny and retired Army Colonel. His rate are very reasonable @ $25 / hr. A great bargin for a guide,driver and translator !

[TLCOhio]

Thanks for all the great replies and details. I will look into all the options. We have travelled pretty extensively in Europe. I lived in France for a semester in college, which is of course, easy, because I spoke French. Certainly, we don't know any Russian! My kids are from China and we have travelled there and Japan extensively, both with tours and without. As for Europe, we have done Britain, Ireland, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Monaco, Croatia, Greece, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, Spain and Denmark. Sometimes on cruises, and sometimes on our own. One of the only spots in Europe where we opted for a guided tour was Turkey. We did it the first time on our own, so the second time, we thought we could see more on a tour. It looks like St. Petersburg might be difficult without a guide. I am going to look into the children's tour from Best suggested in this thread, and also look into getting our own visas for the second day possibly? Keep the suggestions coming as I do my research and I will let you know which direction we go!

 

WOW!! Great additional information and background from Alison. Yes, it is wonderful that you are so very, very experienced from travel in Europe and other parts of the world. That helps so very much. Some on these boards who ask such questions have only been doing cruising in the Carib and don't fully appreciate the difference and many options in Europe, especially for St. Petersburg. Your use of a guide in Turkey is a good example for how a guide can be beneficial.

 

Keep doing your planning and don't be shy with any added questions. Great added pictures by scubacruiserx2. For those interested in the Grand Staircase at the Hermitage, here is one of my pictures below showing this spectacular part of that unique setting.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 93,316 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

 

Here is the Grand Staircase at St. Petersburg’s Hermitage. It was restored after the fire of 1837. This white marble staircase is divided into two flights with ten solid columns of granite supporting the vaults of the staircase. Full of light and gleaming with gilding and mirrors, the staircase extends for the whole height of the Winter Palace. The painted ceiling is by 18th-century artist Diziano Gasparo representing the gods of Olympus Olympus. This gives an impression of an additional height to the staircase. The décor of the staircase includes monumental sculptures brought by Peter the Great from Italy. In the 18th century the staircase was known as the Ambassadorial Staircase because the envoys of foreign countries ascended it when going to the palace for official receptions.:

 

[Hlitner]

"Crazy enough?" Let me give you a different point of view. We think anyone who enjoys being part of a herd of cattle (tour bus) driven by the lead cow (tour guide) who has you follow a silly sign (like a cow bell with the lead cow) is "Crazy." Now, as to St Petersburg you can count DW and I as crazy because on our first visit (many years ago on the old Maasdam) we were one of 2 couples on a ship of over 1200 that did not take any organized tours. The one partial exception was that on a Sunday morning, when we took a taxi from the port to the Hermitage, we did hire a guide while we were waiting in line to get inside the museum. We actually had lots of fun doing things on our own (our norm in most any port) and probably the most rewarding excursion was when we went out to Peterhof on the Russian hydrofoil (leaves from a pier across the street from the Hermitage. The hydrofoil was fast (took about 40 min), comfortable and cheap. Those who took a tour paid a lot of money and were crammed in buses for nearly 1 1/2 hours (it might be faster now) and later complained that their guides rushed them through the Palace. Since we were on our own we could go at our own pace and actually had some interesting interaction with a few Russians.

 

Do we recommend that cruisers do what we did and go on their own? Nope. It is a bit of a challenge and only those with a proven "spirit of adventure" and lots of "travel smarts" should consider handling this port independently. For most we recommend booking a private excursion through one of several decent local tour operators (they will handle getting a group visa just like the cruise line excursions).

 

Hank

[Got2Cruise]

Also compare the cost of obtaining the Russian Visa. For a U.S. citizen to obtain the Russian Visa it costs almost the same as a tour.

[Alison1466]

Also compare the cost of obtaining the Russian Visa. For a U.S. citizen to obtain the Russian Visa it costs almost the same as a tour.

 

It looks to me like the cost of the tourist Visa is $140 but additional costs if you can't show up at your local Russian consulate can push the total cost to $235 per person. That is certainly a big chunk of change. My experience getting visas for China was that it was pretty easy and not so costly. I also wonder if the Russian consulate might balk at the fact that my girls have place of birth listed as China on their US passports or if they see all kinds of situations and wouldn't blink at that.

[TLCOhio]

It looks to me like the cost of the tourist Visa is $140 but additional costs if you can't show up at your local Russian consulate can push the total cost to $235 per person. That is certainly a big chunk of change. My experience getting visas for China was that it was pretty easy and not so costly. I also wonder if the Russian consulate might balk at the fact that my girls have place of birth listed as China on their US passports or if they see all kinds of situations and wouldn't blink at that.

 

Yes, I had thought of that question earlier when you mentioned the birthplace for your daughters. With the Russians, the only certain thing is that you never know for certain. Each day and each official can yield something, maybe, a little different. Then, they could just sit on it for a long period of time. With some in the Russian government, "customer service" is not exactly a long tradition. Maybe it will work out OK, but to me that's another reason to keep things simple and easy. Your choice!!

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 115,717 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[britashore]

We have just booked a June 2013 cruise to the Baltics and everything I see talks about the ship tours and the various tour guides in St. Petersburg. I know that if you were not with a tour, you would have to get your own visa, but has anyone done St. Petersburg without a tour? We are pretty experienced and adventurous folks but we do have a 10 and 12 year old in tow and they think we are crazy wild about some of our travel choices so I thought I would at least explore the possiblity of going it on our own. Any thougths or experiences? Thanks!

I finally get a chance to make an input after having received many helpful hints from these boards.

We did St. Petersburg independently last year while on the Emerald Princess. I didn’t quite understand the fear that everyone has of this city. Which ever major foreign city that you go to you expect to find everything written in the language of the country.

Anyway we researched everything very well, we bought the excellent DVD from John Lawrence and were lucky enough to have him lecturing on our cruise. We picked his brains for more information while we were on board. So this is the best way to go. There is a local bus 158 that stops outside each terminal building in the Marine Facade, it goes roughly every 20 minutes, the cost os 23 roubles (2012) and about 5 stops later you get off at the metro station stop, everyone gets off there so it is hard to miss. A very short walk - 1 to 2 minutes brings you to the metro station Primorskaya. Here you buy tokens from the Kassa, again 23 roubles each, best to buy enough for the return journey as well to avoid lining up again. Once through the barriers, a very steep and long escalator ride takes you to the scrupulously clean platforms. The metro stops are written in English as well as Russian which helped. The trains run about every 2 minutes and as Primorskaya is the end/beginning of the line you can get a seat. 2 stops later and we were in Nevsky Prospekt, from here it is very easy to walk to the Hermitage, and the Palace Square, the Church on the Blood, St Isaacs and the Kazan cathedral. We also caught a bus up to the Alexander Nevsky cemetery and church to see the graves of the great writers. We never felt in anyway threatened or in danger, just like in any big city you have to be aware of people, and there are an awful lot of them. For lunch we popped into a local fast food cafe called Teremok, here they prepare fresh pancakes in front of you and they have a menu in English. Not gourmet food for sure but it was quick. We wanted to look at the Mariinsky Theatre but they don’t let you go inside without a ticket so we had to make do with the outside. The new bit looks quite bizarre and nothing like the old building. A lovely church close by - St Nicholas I think - had a choir singing as we walked in and that was quite amazing. We did see a hopon hopoff bus going along the main Nevsky Prospekt but didn’t catch it.

We wanted to go to one of the palaces on the outskirts the next day and although we had read so much about it being hard to get to on your own decided to give it a go.

Second day following John’s instructions again we found our way by metro to the Baltic railway station and there caught a minivan going to Peterhof, arriving about an hour later. Lots of ticket booths so we dutifully lined up bought our ‘foreigner’ tickets and thoroughly enjoyed the grounds and the Palace. We had a specific time that we had to enter the palace. Then caught the hydrofoil back to the stop by the Hermitage. Walked up Nevsky Prospekt to the metro station (actually looking back it was Gostiny Dvor as the Nevsky station was closed for renovations) took the metro back to Primorskaya and caught the bus back to the ship. As we went through the dock barrier an inspector got on and checked our passports and visas. This didn’t happen on the way out. We arrived back at the ship with the tours at about 4.30pm and had to line up for ages to get through immigration and then the bag check on the ship. It was a fascinating two days and we saw as much as we wanted too. It didn’t really bother us that all the explanations in the Palaces were in Russian, we were just amazed at the beauty of it all. I would thoroughly recommend anyone to go it alone, a good map, a few Russian words and a sense of humour would help. Happy to answer any questions if I can.

[Alison1466]

Britashore:

Did you get to the Hermitage? My youngest daughter's passport expires in late July 2013 and we realized we needed to get her a renewal before we could even contemplate the process of getting Russian Visas. So...the passport renewal application has been sent off and we shall see when it returns if we want to pursue the Visa. Are you from the US and how did you find getting the Visas?

In the meantime, I found a tour that some other folks did with Tweens with Aventura that we might consider. I have also been waffling between our original cruise booked on NCL, which we have never sailed before, and one on HAL. We have sailed many times on Holland America and always been happy. So, our dates for St. Petersberg aren't fixed till I nail down which deposit I am going to keep and which one I shall refund!

[britashore]

Britashore:

Did you get to the Hermitage? My youngest daughter's passport expires in late July 2013 and we realized we needed to get her a renewal before we could even contemplate the process of getting Russian Visas. So...the passport renewal application has been sent off and we shall see when it returns if we want to pursue the Visa. Are you from the US and how did you find getting the Visas?

In the meantime, I found a tour that some other folks did with Tweens with Aventura that we might consider. I have also been waffling between our original cruise booked on NCL, which we have never sailed before, and one on HAL. We have sailed many times on Holland America and always been happy. So, our dates for St. Petersberg aren't fixed till I nail down which deposit I am going to keep and which one I shall refund!

 

Yes we did get to the Hermitage. made it the first stop to avoid the lines that we had been warned about. It was fantastic, far too much to take in though, so we hope to make it back there again one day, lets hope that they relax the visa regulations in the future. We are from the UK, the visas were not too much trouble, but we did use an agent. I can see the appeal of an independent tour but nothing beats just wandering and doing your own thing without any restrictions, and travelling on the local transport was an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world.

We were talking to some fellow Brits in Tallinn who were on an NCL ship docked next to us, they said they usually cruise P & O or Princess, they were not happy with NCL said it was more like a ferry than a cruise ship!

[Got2Cruise]

We cruised the NCL Sun for a 10 day Baltic cruise r/t Copenhagen, and believe me it is not a ferry.:) Is it the most elegant cruiseship? No. But it was quite nice, especially for the port extensive Baltic itinerary. Of course, we knew what we were getting, we have used NCL and RCI on several cruises of different itineraries. We made the decision to use the less expensive cruise fare, and spend the money saved on excursions and souvenirs.

Yes we did get to the Hermitage. made it the first stop to avoid the lines that we had been warned about. It was fantastic, far too much to take in though, so we hope to make it back there again one day, lets hope that they relax the visa regulations in the future. We are from the UK, the visas were not too much trouble, but we did use an agent. I can see the appeal of an independent tour but nothing beats just wandering and doing your own thing without any restrictions, and travelling on the local transport was an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world.

We were talking to some fellow Brits in Tallinn who were on an NCL ship docked next to us, they said they usually cruise P & O or Princess, they were not happy with NCL said it was more like a ferry than a cruise ship!

[Amnesia84084]

We have just booked a June 2013 cruise to the Baltics and everything I see talks about the ship tours and the various tour guides in St. Petersburg. I know that if you were not with a tour, you would have to get your own visa, but has anyone done St. Petersburg without a tour? We are pretty experienced and adventurous folks but we do have a 10 and 12 year old in tow and they think we are crazy wild about some of our travel choices so I thought I would at least explore the possiblity of going it on our own. Any thougths or experiences? Thanks!

 

Hi Alison, my wife and I are also going. We are going June 20th on Holland America, how about you?

[Alison1466]

We are going on the June 10th Holland America cruise! First booked on NCL, but then switched to HAL because we have always really loved HAL.

[sitraveler]

We were on our own during a river cruise and had no problems with getting around. Then we had a visa.

On a subsequent ocean cruise, we arranged a small group off our roll call and booked with Alla. We went where we wanted and the transportation was seamless. And its worthwhile having a knowledgeable guide. There are several companies offering individual service and that eliminates getting your own visa.

[Way2fast]

Hi Alison, my wife and I are also going. We are going June 20th on Holland America, how about you?

 

 

I just booked the June 20th cruise today for my family of 4. I have spent all afternoon looking at this forum and tripadvisor