St Petersburg Visa Confusion?

[Whiteheadedcruiser]

We are traveling with NCL on a Baltic Cruise that includes St Petersburg. I have seen reviews from cruisers that have used independent excursion tour operators.

 

Our travel agent says to get a Russian Visa (quite expensive) or that the Cruise line will arrange if you take one of their excursions (very expensive).

 

Quite a few Independent Excursion operators say a visa is not required if:

• You will be there for less than 3 days
  
• You are coming from a cruise ship
  
• and you use a Russian Govt approved operator
  

 

Has any one been on a recent cruise and know what the position is on the ground? and what has your experience been on the excursion? Would you recommend.

 

Many thanks

 

PS Based in Ireland

[KeithJenner]

Get yourself a better travel agent.

 

If you use a tour operator in St Petersburg then there is no need for a visa. They will sort it for you.

[denatravels]

There are three reputable companies on TripAdvisor that all will handle the visa: Alla, SPB, and TJ-- I second the suggestion for a new TA

 

 

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[Terry & Colette]

We went with TJ travel. We did a 5 city package tour with them last year. A lot of people from our cruise did the same.

They did get us to fill in forms for a tourist visa and all is well as long as you carry those forms with you as you disembark at St Petersburg.

We didn't have to pay until our second day in St Petersburg.

 

Other people used SPB Tours and Alla Tours. They all had a great time. You should read their reviews on Trip Advisor.

 

We shared the information through our cruise roll call. You will probably find the same if you join the roll call.

 

Have fun.

 

 

 

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[Two Kiwis]

Hi there. We visited St Petersburg on the Azamara Journey last year. Months before, we booked a two day tour with Alla Tours, a shore based company. They organised the visas for us, collected us from the ship and we payed for the tour (from memory) at the end of the first day. The cost was about 30% less than the ship's tour prices and we saw much more. Alexandra was our guide and she was charming, knowledgable, spoke excellent English and had a great sense of humour. All twelve of us on the minibus had very effective headphones which made it easy for us to hear our guide in crowded places. The big plus was that we visited many more sights in two days than the ship's tours did because we spent less time at each place. For example, we spent about two hours at The Hermitage (plenty of time to see the most important exhibits) whereas the ship's tour took about four hours there and involved much standing around discussing the works of art (so we were told). Communication with Alla beforehand was fast and efficient and I highly recommend them to you.

 

 

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[Terry & Colette]

I meant to add....as long as you stay with the tour company, you don't need a visa.

 

We did a British Isles cruise at the end of the Baltic cruise. I have information on shore excursions for those cities too if you want it.

 

Hope this helps...

 

 

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[John Bull]

There are three reputable companies on TripAdvisor that all will handle the visa: Alla, SPB, and TJ-- I second the suggestion for a new TA

 

 

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To google them it's Alla Tours, SPB Tours & TJ Travel.

Add to them DenRus, Best Guides, and Anastasia. (apologies to any I forgot)

All are frequently praised on Cruise Critic & elsewhere, I've never heard of any to avoid.

 

Usually no need to put together a RollCall group, you can just book for yourselves & the operator will add others.

 

Once fixed-up we asked for the e-mail addresses of those booked for our vehicle & arranged a little get-together on the first sea-day. At that get-together we agreed a meeting place (near gangway) and time (ahead of scheduled disembarkation time) to meet on the ship before going ashore. This ensured that the group was through immigration ahead of ship's tour groups & avoided long lines at immigration. If just one person on your tour is late they'll get stuck in the line & delay you & the others by as much as an hour. :rolleyes:

 

The process is much quicker on day 2, & generally no long slow lines.

 

JB :)

[roothy123]

To google them it's Alla Tours, SPB Tours & TJ Travel.

Add to them DenRus, Best Guides, and Anastasia. (apologies to any I forgot)

All are frequently praised on Cruise Critic & elsewhere, I've never heard of any to avoid.

 

Usually no need to put together a RollCall group, you can just book for yourselves & the operator will add others.

 

Once fixed-up we asked for the e-mail addresses of those booked for our vehicle & arranged a little get-together on the first sea-day. At that get-together we agreed a meeting place (near gangway) and time (ahead of scheduled disembarkation time) to meet on the ship before going ashore. This ensured that the group was through immigration ahead of ship's tour groups & avoided long lines at immigration. If just one person on your tour is late they'll get stuck in the line & delay you & the others by as much as an hour. :rolleyes:

 

The process is much quicker on day 2, & generally no long slow lines.

 

JB :)

 

Agree with this; good advice, except that our experience with Alla was a little different. There were 2 people who didn't arrive by ttime we were to meet Alla's guide, and they waited for a little while. However, after that (maybe 15-20 minutes but I forget) they took us down to the river for our first short stop and an Alla rep stayed behind to get the stragglers. If all of you don't meet pre-arrival into St. Petersburg, then you should definitely allow plenty of time to get off the ship, remembering that the individual Russian exit clearance process will take some time. Just about the whole ship empties out on the first day in St. Petersburg, and there will be lines - large pax or small pax cruise ship!

 

Bottom line is this: Don't believe the cruise lines or travel agents who say that you need an expensive individual Russian visa - unless you're brave enough to plan a tour of SP on your own via taxi, bus, feet, etc.

[DougH]

Earlier this year I used SPB for my 2 day visit in St Petersberg on the Regal Princess. When I booked the tour I provided them with my passport info etc and they handled everything. It was all included in the tour price which was much lower than thru the cruise line. I also booked tours with SPB in several other ports which dropped the price even lower.

 

We had a small group of about 10 and saw a lot in SP in the two days. Overall I though it was well worth the price.

[Pet Nit Noy]

We are traveling with NCL on a Baltic Cruise that includes St Petersburg. I have seen reviews from cruisers that have used independent excursion tour operators.

 

Our travel agent says to get a Russian Visa (quite expensive) or that the Cruise line will arrange if you take one of their excursions (very expensive).

 

Quite a few Independent Excursion operators say a visa is not required if:

• You will be there for less than 3 days
  
• You are coming from a cruise ship
  
• and you use a Russian Govt approved operator
  

 

Has any one been on a recent cruise and know what the position is on the ground? and what has your experience been on the excursion? Would you recommend.

 

Many thanks

 

PS Based in Ireland

 

The overwhelming majority of the posters on this board have visited St Petersburg and toured with a private, licensed Russian tour company. We're all passionate about the advantages of doing so and avoiding the expensive, large-group ship's tours. Your cruise line will lie to you for obvious reasons; they want cruisers to buy their tours. Your travel agent is a sadder case. He/she doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

 

Russian tour agencies are licensed by the government to provide a tour ticket to their clients. This ticket typically arrives by email attachment. The ticket doesn't get pasted in your passport and it may not even look like much, but it's legal and gets the job done.

 

When you choose a tour company, you'll be expected to provide information that will include name and passport number. The tour company will submit all your information to the Russian government, which will put you into their system, allowing you to come ashore in St Petersburg. You'll be limited to generally staying with your guide, although attending a ballet at night or dining in a restaurant gets handled a bit differently.

 

You've already been told the names of many of the highly regarded tour operators. If you have any unique requests or requirements (e.g. traveling with children, multi-generational group with varying energy levels, desire to visit non-standard destinations) some of these names are better than others. In fact, posters who want a highly atypical tour find that some of the tour providers don't want their business. If you fit into that category, come back on this board and we'll give you more names to better meet your needs.

 

We're all strangers to you and we have many different points of view, but on the topic private, licensed tour providers being a safe and successful way to visit St Petersburg, we're of one mind. Do it!!

Edited October 28, 2016 by Pet Nit Noy

[cherylandtk]

I second what the above poster said, especially with regard to customized tours.

 

Our experience was excellent, we booked one of the standard tours with SPB-Tours. Our Roll Call also put together a private group of about 50 (also with SPB) but we chose not to join that group as we wanted a different itinerary. We were glad that we had booked on our own so that our touring group that day was smaller.

 

Take a look at the different websites and see which appeals to you; I suspect you cannot go wrong with any of them.

 

I would only add one warning, and that is to know this is a very competitive field. Two examples of that:

1. Our Roll Call received half a dozen posts from three or four 'individuals' who claimed to be booked with Alla tours. Turned out these were not people on the cruise and the posts were just someone trying to drum up business for that company.

2. If you choose SPB, be sure you are on the REAL website. They are so successful that someone has 'copied' their name. The correct website is SPB-Tours. The copy is spbtours. So be sure you look for the hyphenated name. The real SPB is a very professional website, has a lot of orange background, multiple pages, links, full descriptions, allows you to book online, has full contact information, etc. The copycat is just a couple of pages, and they want you to call a phone number to book.

[roothy123]

Wow, that's pathetic about the fake websites and emails, but obviously it happens.

 

Just wanted to mention that the standard tours these companies operate may end up with a group of 50 people, but at least for Alla, that's not how they send people out. I think for Alla we had a group of 16 in a very big mini-bus. I'm not sure what the other companies do.

[dixieagle]

We're on the Norwegian Getaway on June 3, and booked with SPB for their deluxe 2 day St. Petersburg tour with some other folks from the cruise (connected through the Roll Call.) SPB limits the number in the group to 16-24 people.

 

Good friends took this same tour last summer and raved about how wonderful it was. There are a number of licensed tour companies, and most of them get very good reviews. Check out Trip Advisor.

[Pet Nit Noy]

I would only add one warning, and that is to know this is a very competitive field. Two examples of that:

1. Our Roll Call received half a dozen posts from three or four 'individuals' who claimed to be booked with Alla tours. Turned out these were not people on the cruise and the posts were just someone trying to drum up business for that company.

 

There's not a cruiser who has posted to this board who hasn't raved about touring St. Petersburg with Alla. That said, I don't understand why such a well-regarded company would get involved in deceit like pretending to be legitimate cruisers on a roll call. Were there posts of outrage when people found out the Alla posters were shills? Were there any negative consequences?

 

2. If you choose SPB, be sure you are on the REAL website. They are so successful that someone has 'copied' their name. The correct website is SPB-Tours. The copy is spbtours. So be sure you look for the hyphenated name. The real SPB is a very professional website, has a lot of orange background, multiple pages, links, full descriptions, allows you to book online, has full contact information, etc. The copycat is just a couple of pages, and they want you to call a phone number to book.

 

The company I used, White Nights Travel is rated #5 on Trip Advisor, but there's a copycat company called White Nights Tours. The "Tours" company is only rated #82. If a cruiser goes to the tour company's web site via Trip Advisor, it's easy to be confident you're dealing with the better of the two. However, even after having been a happy client of White Nights Travel, I got tripped up. After our cruise, I tried posting a review to Trip Advisor; in my jet lagged state, I linked it to the wrong company. I had to write Trip Advisor to get them to remove my post. Then, I carefully posted my review to the correct company.

 

Having mentioned White Nights Travel, I'll add that this is one of the companies willing to do a totally unique itinerary for St Petersburg. It wouldn't be rated at #5 if it didn't do the standard stuff well, but it will do atypical tours, as well.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Pet Nit Noy

[dogs4fun]

There's not a cruiser who has posted to this board who hasn't raved about touring St. Petersburg with Alla. That said, I don't understand why such a well-regarded company would get involved in deceit like pretending to be legitimate cruisers on a roll call. Were there posts of outrage when people found out the Alla posters were shills? Were there any negative consequences?

 

I don't believe that Alla Tours was involved in any such posts as I have toured with Alla several times and am certain that she (Alla) is a very ethical person. Alla's tours are fantastic and she has an outstanding reputation - why would she risk such behavior - it makes absolutely no sense.

Furthermore, it is totally against the rules of Cruise Critic to post as shills and they (Alla Tours) would risk having their access to the site revoked. Several years ago, the same thing happened on a roll call only it was SPB tours that had two very aggressive members touting SPB with many posts asking others to join their tours with SPB. Once aboard the ship, this person was never found nor did she or her "friend" join any of the tours she had organized (we were all looking for her to no avail). I guess it just happens sometimes and there could be a totally innocent explanation.

 

 

The company I used, White Nights Travel is rated #5 on Trip Advisor, but there's a copycat company called White Nights Tours. The "Tours" company is only rated #82. If a cruiser goes to the tour company's web site via Trip Advisor, it's easy to be confident you're dealing with the better of the two. However, even after having been a happy client of White Nights Travel, I got tripped up. After our cruise, I tried posting a review to Trip Advisor; in my jet lagged state, I linked it to the wrong company. I had to write Trip Advisor to get them to remove my post. Then, I carefully posted my review to the correct company.

 

Having mentioned White Nights Travel, I'll add that this is one of the companies willing to do a totally unique itinerary for St Petersburg. It wouldn't be rated at #5 if it didn't do the standard stuff well, but it will do atypical tours, as well.

 

Good to know. There are many fine companies out there that are not rated number one on TripAdvisor. It makes sense to contact several companies and see which best meets your individual wishes.

[sonia2509]

We used Insider Tours and highly recommend them as well.

 

 

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