would an evening tour to Faberge be too much after

[shamrockace]

We are planning the two day highlight tour with TJ Travel while in St. Petersburg. The only thing missing for us would be the Feberge Museum and we are considering it for an evening tour. Has anyone done this and was it just too much / too tiring after the rest or was it worth it. We don't think we will ever get back and want to see it all but we all have limits. We are both in our mid 50's.

[meicheraxo]

I would love to hear answers as well. My other question is would there be time for any kind of dinner

 

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[p_mori7]

Do it. When will you get the chance to back to St-Petersburg ?

 

We had the chance to see the ballet on our evening in Port...but thought we would be too tired...we weren't...we didn't...and we wish we had.

 

:(

[khr316]

I agree, we were in St Petersburg for 3 days and did Faberge one night and the ballet, the next. Both were wonderful. Best tours arranged everything including dinner before. We weren't too tired and we were 70 & 68! Enjoy, St Petersburg is amazing!!!

 

 

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[nybumpkin]

We did a canal tour the night we were in St. Petersburg. It ended up being a repeat - the night tour we did was through the ship, and the two-day tour we took with Alla included a canal segment, so we saw a lot of the same places twice. Even with the fast-paced two-day tour we did, we were very glad we went out at night - it's a different atmosphere, and I was glad to spend the time off the ship. The Faberge museum was not an option on our cruise, but I would love to see it. I was fortunate enough to see Malcolm Forbes' collection of Faberge in NYC before the collection was sold and returned to Russia, and it is amazing.

[kitkat343]

Honestly, it could be - St. Petersburg is exhausting and some people needed to collapse after a full day touring. But others really loved their night tours and were glad they took advantage of that opportunity. It really depends on your financial situation. If you won't really miss the money, I'd register for the tour and be willing to eat the cost if you really want to see the exhibit.

 

The other possibility is that your tour company may be able to accommodate you last minute. Our visa waiver covered all 48 hours we were docked in St. Petersburg specifically because people sometimes add night tours at the last minute, and the tour company wants to be able to accommodate them if possible. We thought about going to dinner the first night, but didn't make it out due to exhaustion (we brought our 3 year old to see St. Petersburg, and so it was a different situation). SPB would have been able to arrange a private driver to bring us to dinner last minute, and I would imagine your tour company would be willing to add you to their Faberge tour if they can get tickets and have room on one of the buses going there. But if you'd want to guarantee a spot, you will probably need to agree to sign up for the tour and be willing to eat the cost if you can't make it. You might want to email the tour company to see what they think.

 

A final possibility: if money honestly isn't a huge factor, you might want to consider booking a private tour for just your family. We did this because we had a three year old with us, and the private tour was the only thing that let us see everything. We were able to skip through the lesser rooms of Catherine's Palace, and just see our favorite artwork in the Hermitage. We could stop whenever our son get tired and feed him. Due to those adjustments, we were able to visit all the major sites in St. Petersburg. If you book a private tour, you can probably add the Faberge museum in place of something else (we added a visit to the subway and a canal tour which we were able to do without dropping anything else since we didn't spend a lot of time anywhere else. It worked out perfectly for my family.

Edited December 16, 2016 by kitkat343

[mocrimlaw]

Regarding the private tour, I can't vouch for enjoying the tour yet as we don't go until August, but I have booked a private tour with Anastasia tours and they have been incredibly responsive and pleasant to deal with while planning the trip. The cost did not seem that much more than a group tour, and I'm sure we will see much more this way. We are doing the 3 day tour with the middle day in Moscow.

[Pet Nit Noy]

We are planning the two day highlight tour with TJ Travel while in St. Petersburg. The only thing missing for us would be the Feberge Museum and we are considering it for an evening tour. Has anyone done this and was it just too much / too tiring after the rest or was it worth it. We don't think we will ever get back and want to see it all but we all have limits. We are both in our mid 50's.

 

We booked a private tour that began at 8:30 AM and ended after an evening visit to Faberge Museum. We planned our itinerary to include a brief break for coffee and a pastry in the late afternoon shortly before arriving at the museum. (At 6:00 PM, the museum is open for independent tourists. Arrive earlier than 6:00 PM and you will be combined with others to form a group too large to get a good sight line of the pieces.)

 

The museum is worth going for two reasons: the building itself (the former Shuvalov Palace) and the Faberge objects. The Faberge collection includes nine Imperial Easter eggs and many rooms displaying general decorative objects: picture frames, cigarette boxes, etc. We found we had the energy to listen to the audio guide description of each of the nine eggs. We did not have the energy to do a detailed look at the general decorative objects. Visitors walk through rooms filled with cases that are grouped by color. Whether the items are coral or rose or turquoise or light blue or emerald green or lime green, there's a certain sameness to the display cases. We picked one case and used the book that is loaned to visitors to learn a little about a few of the pieces that appealed the most. After that, we just strolled past the display cases rather quickly.

 

The area where we found our energy had the biggest impact was that we skipped listening to the audio description of the rooms in the palace. Considering the wealth of the Shuvalov family and the amount of money spent on restoring the palace, we probably would have enjoyed the audio information. But we visited on day one of a two day port call so we had a lot on our schedule for the next day. I think we spent about an hour at the palace, and, then, went back to the ship for dinner.

 

I'm glad we made the visit, but we sure were tired that night. Fortunately, our interest and enthusiasm was high again in the morning.