Baltic cruise in August

[wallycat16]

Has anyone done the Baltic? Should we take the ships excursion in St Petersburg or book privately?

Thanks

 

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[azbirdmom]

Has anyone done the Baltic? Should we take the ships excursion in St Petersburg or book privately?

Thanks

 

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You'll do better to book privately and join with others on your roll call. You can might be able to do the two day tour for half of what Princess would charge, and you'll be with a much smaller group as opposed to the 50+ on the Princess busses. If you book with a local tour operator, they will handle the visas for you.

[Posaune]

We did a private tour in a large van for 8 people with driver and guide. (Van would have seated 14 plus driver and guide) It was about half the price of the Princess tour and we got to see a lot more.

[cdnphotogirl]

I am going the Baltic Cruise in June and we are going to book privately. The two day cruise we are going to book is $285 USD vs $609. There appears to be two companies that appear to be the main source of private tours.

[whatcruiseisnext]

You will get a far super experience if you book privately. We used SPB tours and they were fantastic

[Pam in CA]

You will get a far super experience if you book privately. We used SPB tours and they were fantastic

I agree completely. We used SPB Tours and they were among the best we've ever had. The owner, Victoria Rather, takes a personal interest in every tour she arranges. You don't have to put a group together; she does it for you. Plus, you can book tours in several Baltic ports through her. Just one contact to arrange them. I highly recommend her company.

[Ashland]

After e-mailing all the major private tour operators..I went with who I thought responded the quickest and with so much info...I'm so glad we went with TJ Travel...the 2 day active tour we (just the two of us, guide & driver) took gave us the opportunity to see and do more in those two days than we ever thought possible...a true "Trip of a Lifetime".

[caribill]

We used DenRus and had a great two day tour. Current DenRus information is at http://www.denrus.ru/valueex/1completespb.html

 

Whether you use DenRus, SPB, Red October or another highly rated company, be aware of the following:

 

a) You do not have to obtain a Russian visa in advance. The tour company will arrange for the temporary visa you will need.

 

b) Princess may send out mailings or have words in the Patter that infer you cannot take a private tour without a visa obtained in advance. That is not true.

 

c) When you disembark in St. Petersburg you may see some lines to the Russian immigration booth labled "Princess Tours" and only one or two lines marked for independent tours. These signs are put up by Princess and can be ignored. The Russian immigration booth workers don't care at all with whom you booked your tour. Just get on the shortest line you see.

[ontheweb]

I agree with everyone, take the private tour.

 

In 2007, we used Alla, and it was fantastic. Viktoria, who now owns SPB tours, was our guide. (She told us she had just finished going through all the hoops that she needed to do to start her own tour company.)

 

The 10 of us from our roll call were in an air conditioned van. I spoke with others who had taken Princess tours. One person said that their bus' air conditioning was not working. (The temperature was in the upper 80s.) Another said their guide seemed sad that the country was no longer under communist rule. Another said their guide answered a question by saying "Why would you ask that?". And when I told another that our guide had 18 years experience, he told me that his guide was only 18 years old.

 

To be fair, most who took Princess tours did seem to be pleased. But I'm sure you will do better with one of the licensed private tour operators.

[LondonTowner]

wallycat16

 

There is loads of information on here to answer your question. If you do some searches and researches you will find all the answers.

 

We did the Comfort Tour with Alla and had a fantastic 2 days.

[Essexlass2]

We've booked with Alla too :)

[milolii]

After e-mailing all the major private tour operators..I went with who I thought responded the quickest and with so much info...I'm so glad we went with TJ Travel...the 2 day active tour we (just the two of us, guide & driver) took gave us the opportunity to see and do more in those two days than we ever thought possible...a true "Trip of a Lifetime".

 

That sounds awesome! What was the cost for 2? We will have 3 in our group. Did you do an evening tour as well?

 

 

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[wallycat16]

Thanks everyone for your experiences. Really appreciate it! Will definitely look at private tours.

 

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[Giantfan13]

Thanks everyone for your experiences. Really appreciate it! Will definitely look at private tours.

 

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Wally

 

First of all, welcome to cruise critic and to the Northern Europe/Baltics boards.

 

As all my fellow posters have already said, the best way to experience St Petersburg is with a private tour company. Since you are new to the site, you should spend some time going over many of the threads here. We have people who are located in many of the ports you will visit and are happy to answer any questions you may have about their cities. Most of us who frequent the boards have already done this cruise and are only to happy to repay to others, some of the help that they received before they cruised the Baltics.

We have so many wonderful, and knowledgeable people here, who are only too happy to help others, like yourself, fully enjoy their time in the Baltic countries.

 

We also used SPB tours for our time in St Petersburg. They are simply a wonderful company to deal with, and Viktoria is always there to answer all your questions ASAP. We chose them over others for several reasons that I won't go into here. If you decide to use a private tour company, write to or email several of the more popular ones, and see which one serves you best, the one you feel most comfortable with.

Go to your roll call, and see what others on your cruise are doing. You could hook up with another group, form your own or tell the tour company what you want and they can hook you up with another group. Most prices are all in the same ballpark, and are considerably less that any ship's tour.

 

Hope this helps and any questions you might have, just ask away.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[travelnnana]

I agree completely. We used SPB Tours and they were among the best we've ever had. The owner, Victoria Rather, takes a personal interest in every tour she arranges. You don't have to put a group together; she does it for you. Plus, you can book tours in several Baltic ports through her. Just one contact to arrange them. I highly recommend her company.

 

I also think Victoria is the best - Vikka spends $$$ on her image - professional signs - not paper in the piece of plastic - as her primary competitor does - also give $$$ to an orphanage

here is my share site https://haleurodambalticta2013.shutterfly.com/

Wonderful trip