Insider Tours anyone?

[agathasmum]

has anyone used Insider Tours for a 2 day Tour of St Petersburg? Their prices are comparable to other tour operators, but limit the size of their groups to 6.

 

On paper they look good, I'm wondering if anyone has used them before? Sorry the search feature on this forum has disappeared.

[Nitemare]

I've never seen them mentioned here. Personally, I wouldn't take a chance during a trip of a lifetime with a tour company that doesn't have dozens of recommendations here at Cruise Critic.

 

All the other companies also will limit their tour to 6 (or 2) people, if you want.

[Giantfan13]

No need to go any further, Nitemare said it all very well. Almost everyone here feels exactly the same way.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[Baxter69]

This is a long review so if you don't want to read the whole thing let me sum up my experience in Russia with Insider Tour in one word - GREAT!

 

My wife and I just completed a 2 week cruise of the Baltics on Oceania's Marina which included a 3 day stay in St. Petersburg. Like everyone who goes to Russia we were a bit leery about the tours but because Oceania's tour was so expensive, I decided to look for alternatives.

 

After some internet searching for tours on Trip Advisor, I came across Insider Tour. I liked what they said on their website so began a dialog via email with them a few months before sailing. Their responses to my emails were immediate and they answered every question I threw at them.

 

Like most cruise lines, Oceania tried to scare\bully us by telling us we could not get into Russia without a visa or through one of their tours. This is of course poppycock. As we found out the only things you need to tour from a ship is your passport and a ticket with any organized tour company. If you want to tour on your own then you do need a visa.

 

After some soul searching we decided to use Insider Tour for their package of 2 days in St. Petersburg and 1 day in Moscow. It was the best decision I could have made. Their price for the tour which included a private guide, private car and driver, train tickets to Moscow, and private guide and driver in Moscow was less expensive than the one day tour to Moscow offered by Oceania.

 

Going through customs in St. Petersburg was a breeze by presenting our Inside Tour ticket and our passports. Outside the customs area our guide was holding a sign with my name on it and off we went into St. Petersburg where we spent a wonderful day seeing the things we wanted to see. Another perk of Insider Tour is that they totally let you set your own agenda.

 

Our second day we were again met outside the customs area by a representative of Insider Tour and she not only accompanied us to the train station, she rode the train to Moscow with us. Her ticket was included in the quoted price for the complete tour.

 

Upon arrival in Moscow we were met by another wonderful guide and driver and spent our 8 hours there seeing all the highlights of a Moscow experience. Once again we set our own agenda. The tour rep met us at the end of the day and rode the train back to St. Petersburg with us. We could not have been more tired but also could not have been happier with our experience in Moscow.

 

So, for anyone on the Baltic cruises that have a 3 day stop in St. Petersburg, do yourself a favor and use Insider Tour. I paid upfront by credit card and got a 10% discount. Processing of the payment was very easy and the prepayment made it easier once we got to Russia.

 

Know that I am a pretty saavy traveler and have been to many places around the world and I am very careful when planning my trips. I was completely and totally satisfied with my Insider Tour experience and think they are a terrific company. They more than met expectations for my "trip of a lifetime" to Russia. Insider Tour took care of everything and even arranged for perfect weather for our time in Russia. Well not really but we were blessed with terrific weather while there and Insider Tour had done everything else so perfectly it only seemed right to give them credit for the weather as well.

[Pet Nit Noy]

I've never seen them mentioned here. Personally, I wouldn't take a chance during a trip of a lifetime with a tour company that doesn't have dozens of recommendations here at Cruise Critic.

 

All the other companies also will limit their tour to 6 (or 2) people, if you want.

 

 

I'm sorry, but it's time to stop the scare tactics. There are many wonderful tour companies that are not favorites among Cruise Critic posters but are well rated on Trip Advisor, arguably a bigger pool of reviewers even than Cruise Critic.

 

Insider Tours is ranked #5 out of 184 tours and activities in St. Petersburg. There are 381 reviews of which 357 rated the company as excellent, 23 rated it as very good, 1 rated it as average and no one gave Insider Tour a low rating.

 

I'll share our recent experience with White Nights Tours, the #9 rated company on Trip Advisor which illustrates the point that among the top rated companies there are such minor differences that the ranking is almost irrelevant.

 

My husband and I wanted a two-person, two day private tour to totally atypical sites since our cruise last week was our second visit to St. Petersburg. I first wrote the SPB tours, one of the CC faves. They flat out said "no." Apparently, their popularity made them uninterested in the income from two person group doing a totally new itinerary. However, they did recommend White Nights. I didn't even bother looking up White Nights on Trip Advisor when I first wrote to White Nights, trusting the good name and reputation of SPB. (Before we agreed to hiring White Nights, I did investigate and I liked what I saw.)

 

From the moment I first contacted Irina of White Nights to the time we said goodbye to our guide Asya and driver Andrew, our experience was fabulous. The company really must have put in a lot of time figuring out how to translate our wish list of destinations into a workable itinerary. Over and over, my husband and I were amazed at how White Nights had figured out a schedule that allowed for meaningful visits to every place on our list with no wasted time that still got us where we needed to be for timed events, including our return to the ship each night.

 

They also used their insider's knowledge to avoid problems. For example, read Trip Advisor and you'll see lots of complaints about visiting the Faberge Museum before 6:00 PM. With a day-time visit, you're either required to go on a tour with a Russian-speaking guide who rushes people through the exhibit or travel with a group of at least 19. White Nights scheduled us to visit Faberge after 6:00 which allowed us to rent English language audio guides and to travel at our own pace. (The audio guides focus only on the centerpiece of the collection, the 14 eggs.) So while we had an incredible experience because of White Nights' knowledge, others had awful experiences.

 

In two instances, White Nights arranged for specialists to join us in two locations: a behind the scenes tour of the Mariinsky theater and at the Grand Chorale Synagogue. I'm sure we paid for these additional guides, but the results were so informative and meaningful to us -- and likely made at least the Mariinsky possible since Russia has very strict licensing regulations about who may guide in certain places -- that we were happy with White Night's initiative.

 

I'm not saying White Nights is better than Alla or SPB, two of the names we see most frequently on this board. I am saying that there are lots of good tour companies and we should not scare posters who for whatever reason are interested in hiring a tour company that is less popular on Cruise Critic! There are other resources like Trip Advisor to help each person find the right company. Recently, we've seen a name that is unfamiliar to me bubble up with highest praise for visiting with children. Now, I can add the name of a great tour company for repeat visitors interested in going to atypical places or bringing in an expert where appropriate.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Pet Nit Noy

[Pet Nit Noy]

Like most cruise lines, Oceania tried to scare\bully us by telling us we could not get into Russia without a visa or through one of their tours. This is of course poppycock. As we found out the only things you need to tour from a ship is your passport and a ticket with any organized tour company. If you want to tour on your own then you do need a visa.

 

We were on Nautica, with an itinerary that included a two-day port call at St. Petersburg. You were clearly on a different ship with a three-day port call but Oceania is Oceania so I'm surprised to read your comments about Oceania trying to bully private tour cruisers.

 

Beginning the night before arriving in St. Petersburg and continuing with the morning announcements in St Petersburg, I was delighted to hear our cruise director making announcements about the disembarkation/immigration procedures that acknowledged and respected the rights of cruisers visiting with a private tour group. We heard announcements like, "Cruisers on Oceania excursions meet at X at 8:30 AM. You must be on time so we can go through immigration together. Cruisers with private arrangements are free to disembark the ship at any time."

 

And those words turned into reality. We were cleared for disembarkation at 8:00 AM the first morning, and my husband and I exited the ship about 8:10 to make sure we could beat the crowds going on ship's tour groups. Our guide reported that my husband and I were number nine and ten off the ship.

 

Now, I'll admit I was carrying an email from our tour company that I thought I might have to use with the ship's staff if they tried to keep us on board. Here's what White Nights wrote to us: "Sometimes our clients say that ships try to control disembarkation process stating that all those passengers having made their own independent arrangements must wait until the ship's own excursion passengers have exited first. The ship has no right to hold its passengers aboard against their will. In fact there is no difference for Russian Сustoms between passengers booked with ship sponsored excursion and passengers booked with a private one. That means you can disembark at the time specified in your tour ticket."

 

I never needed to show this to Oceania's people.

 

What did Oceania say to you and when did they say it? In the pre-cruise correspondence? on board the ship?

Edited July 29, 2015 by Pet Nit Noy

[Baxter69]

I have sailed with Oceania 3 times & find them to be terrific but their tours are quite expensive. I should have put a caveat my bullying comments. All of Oceania's bullying was pre-cruise. Oceania sent a very strong email a couple of months before sailing that basically said we would not be able to get off the ship & they could not guarantee our safety if we used other than their tour.

 

It was different while on the ship. The cruise director & the destination office provided totally correct info & directed both Oceania tour passengers & other tour passengers on the correct way to disembark. I had no issues with the process AFTER I was already on board. It was during the months before the cruise that all my consternation occurred.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Baxter69

[Baxter69]

After one is on board the ship it would be terribly difficult to book an independent tour because it takes two weeks before sailing for the tour company to get your passport info cleared by Russian immigration authorities. Once you are onboard it is too late.

[Pet Nit Noy]

After one is on board the ship it would be terribly difficult to book an independent tour because it takes two weeks before sailing for the tour company to get your passport info cleared by Russian immigration authorities. Once you are onboard it is too late.

 

 

I wasn't actually referring to booking an independent tour while on the ship for the reasons you've identified. However, there are repeated stories of the ships staff trying to keep private tour clients captive on the ship until all the ship-sponsored tours have left. That's why I brought along the email I've already shared.

[Pet Nit Noy]

I have sailed with Oceania 3 times & find them to be terrific but their tours are quite expensive. I should have put a caveat my bullying comments. All of Oceania's bullying was pre-cruise. Oceania sent a very strong email a couple of months before sailing that basically said we would not be able to get off the ship & they could not guarantee our safety if we used other than their tour.

 

It was different while on the ship. The cruise director & the destination office provided totally correct info & directed both Oceania tour passengers & other tour passengers on the correct way to disembark. I had no issues with the process AFTER I was already on board. It was during the months before the cruise that all my consternation occurred.

 

All I can say is that either my Travel Agent never forwarded those Oceania emails or I blew them off. There is nothing Oceania could have said to me that would have impacted me, but shame on Oceania if that's the sort of language they were using. By any chance do you have a copy of the inflammatory email?

 

I'm a retired teacher so I'm a great admirer of language/student of language. What strikes me about what you're reporting is that Oceania's statement ignores the fact that Oceania can't guarantee our safety in any port worldwide if cruisers DIY or make arrangements with a private tour company.

 

And it ignores the fact that there's a third option between ship's sponsored and DIY; that's the one we're using when we book with Alla/SPB/White Nights/Insider/Dancing Bear/Ulko/etc.

 

Fortunately, we have Cruise Critic to steer cruisers through the ins and outs of private tour companies, especially what it means to visit Russia under a tour company's umbrella visa. Incidentally, if you really think about, people going on the ship-sponsored excursions are doing exactly what we private tour cruisers are doing. After all, who do you think is really getting the cruisers through passport control. Not Oceania, or HAL or NCL or RCI. What's getting ship-sponsored tour clients through passport control is the umbrella visa for whatever St Petersburg tour company is contracted to provide tours offered by the ship's excursion.

 

For what it's worth, here's what appeared in an email from my travel agent sent in March:

 

"VISAS AND INOCULATIONS: A Russian visa is required only if you are touring independently."

 

This is another example of slick use of language. That statement is absolutely true if the definition of "independently" means a cruiser walks off the ship, goes through passport control, and never meets with a Russian private tour company. That's an option that few cruisers choose.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Pet Nit Noy

[Baxter69]

Here is the email that Oceania sent to my travel agent a couple of months before the cruise.

 

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING

RUSSIAN VISA REQUIREMENT

Dear Valued Guests and Travel Partners,

Your upcoming sailing includes a call to Russia. Please be advised visa requirements recently changed for guests planning independent travel or excursions during our call to St. Petersburg.

This change affects guests who wish to explore St. Petersburg on their own, who are required to obtain a Russian visa. Cruise guests on independent excursions will now only be granted either a single-entry or a double-entry tourism visa by the Russian government. A one-time entry visa allows cruise guests to go ashore and return to the ship the same day. A double-entry visa will permit cruise guests to go ashore one additional time. Additional entries are not provided by the Russian government. If the ship is in port overnight, independent guests with a valid Russian visa may spend a night in the city and return to the ship the next day before departure. As a reminder, Oceania Cruises does not provide visa support letters for independent visa applications.

Kindly note this does not affect guests who have opted to purchase Oceania Cruises’ shore tours and are thus covered under our blanket visa. In fact, as a result of this new change, our shore tour groups will now have priority disembarkation in St. Petersburg.

For guests participating in a sponsored Moscow overland program, the blanket visa coverage included in the program does not cover any independent travel in Russia outside of the program. These guests must remain with the tour group at all times and will not be able to stay in town after the tour is over.

Based on this independent travel restriction, we strongly encourage you to explore our available shore excursions, excursion packages, or Executive Collection private vehicle arrangements, which can be viewed on our website at www.OceaniaCruises.com.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to providing you with a memorable cruise experience.

Warmest Regards,

Oceania Cruises

[Pet Nit Noy]

Here is the email that Oceania sent to my travel agent a couple of months before the cruise.

 

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING

RUSSIAN VISA REQUIREMENT

Dear Valued Guests and Travel Partners,

Your upcoming sailing includes a call to Russia. Please be advised visa requirements recently changed for guests planning independent travel or excursions during our call to St. Petersburg.

This change affects guests who wish to explore St. Petersburg on their own, who are required to obtain a Russian visa. Cruise guests on independent excursions will now only be granted either a single-entry or a double-entry tourism visa by the Russian government. A one-time entry visa allows cruise guests to go ashore and return to the ship the same day. A double-entry visa will permit cruise guests to go ashore one additional time. Additional entries are not provided by the Russian government. If the ship is in port overnight, independent guests with a valid Russian visa may spend a night in the city and return to the ship the next day before departure. As a reminder, Oceania Cruises does not provide visa support letters for independent visa applications.

Kindly note this does not affect guests who have opted to purchase Oceania Cruises’ shore tours and are thus covered under our blanket visa. In fact, as a result of this new change, our shore tour groups will now have priority disembarkation in St. Petersburg.

For guests participating in a sponsored Moscow overland program, the blanket visa coverage included in the program does not cover any independent travel in Russia outside of the program. These guests must remain with the tour group at all times and will not be able to stay in town after the tour is over.

Based on this independent travel restriction, we strongly encourage you to explore our available shore excursions, excursion packages, or Executive Collection private vehicle arrangements, which can be viewed on our website at www.OceaniaCruises.com.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to providing you with a memorable cruise experience.

Warmest Regards,

Oceania Cruises

 

Thanks! As an observer of language, this email is a doozie! Everything, Oceania has written is absolutely correct, except for the glaring problem of omission. Oceania's language portrays a cruiser's only two options as independent and ship-sponsored. They conspicuously leave out the type of visit you and I made to St Petersburg which is a private, sponsored visit.

 

Clients of any of the 184 tour companies listed in the Things to Do category in St. Petersburg (Trip Advisor) are not independent travelers. We are not free to wander off and move independently around the city. We control the places we want to visit and the time we want to spend at each of those places when we sign up with a company, but, once in St Petersburg, we're never without our Russian guide. The cruise lines are counting on travelers' confusion about the precise meaning of independent to drum up business.

 

Again, I'll make the point that for the tours offered by Oceania (and HAL and Princess and NCL and, and...) the legal authority for entering St Petersburg is coming from the tour company that is doing the guiding. Here's the line from the email I shared earlier which is the basis for my comment: "In fact there is no difference for Russian Сustoms between passengers booked with ship sponsored excursion and passengers booked with a private one."

 

I suspect someone on one of those ship's tours noticed that his/her guide was wearing a badge/hat or carrying a clipboard/tote/umbrella with the name of the actual local tour company doing the guiding. (Certainly, at every other port our itinerary as the ship's tours were loading pierside, the local company's name was obvious.) Again, these local companies have the license to bring cruisers legally into St Petersburg whether we book through the ship or book directly. The ship's excursion desk is communicating the names of its tour participants to a company, not to Russian immigration.

 

That email certainly was a good marketing tool to sign people up for ship's excursions. In light of these scare tactics and incomplete information, I can only repeat that we're all lucky Cruise Critic provides a meeting place to share questions and answers about cruising.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Pet Nit Noy