St. Petersburg Tour Help

[Pet Nit Noy]

Tell me if I should start another thread, but I'm trying to decide about which company to use for a private tour for two. We move a little more slowly and have specific interests. We've found that the top 5 companies say they will craft a custom tour but then their responses make me question it.

 

Are all guides tied to a specific time when they purchase tickets for say, the Church on Spilled Blood? Or, if we spontaneously decide we'd like to change the day we see the Church, etc., can that ticket be used another day or at another hour? Sorry if this isn't clear. We'd like to avoid regimentation.

 

Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

There's custom and there's custom. If you're only talking about scrambling the order of the typical destinations or even extending the time at typical destination X while simultaneously eliminating destination Y, chances are all the tour companies will follow through. However, if your specific interests involve atypical destinations that will require assigning a guide with those specific guiding licenses or if the destination requires that you use the services of the corps of guides employed by the place, things may not turn out to be quite what you envision. I used to be able to say that the tour companies in spots 6-11 on Trip Advisor were more willing to be truly flexible and responsive to a highly customized tour. However, the listing in the Tour category has changed dramatically.

 

Moments ago, I went to Trip Advisor to the Tours category for St. Petersburg. There has been a lot of shifting of rank order. SPB used to be #1; they're now #8. White Nights was ranked #11 when we toured with them 3 years ago; they're now number #4. (They were wonderful for a truly unique custom private tour for 2 persons.)

 

Here's the link to the list of Tours as opposed to all the overlapping categories like "Private Tours" or "Walking Tours" or "Multi-day Tours" or "Sightseeing Tours." I think many category names for the same types of tours make the rank order less useful.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g298507-Activities-c42-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html

 

What are the tour companies saying that gives you concern? Which tour companies are giving you concern?

Edited March 15, 2018 by Pet Nit Noy

[dogs4fun]

However, the listing in the Tour category has changed dramatically.

 

Moments ago, I went to Trip Advisor to the Tours category for St. Petersburg. There has been a lot of shifting of rank order. SPB used to be #1; they're now #8. White Nights was ranked #11 when we toured with them 3 years ago; they're now number #4. (They were wonderful for a truly unique custom private tour for 2 persons.)

 

Here's the link to the list of Tours as opposed to all the overlapping categories like "Private Tours" or "Walking Tours" or "Multi-day Tours" or "Sightseeing Tours." I think many category names for the same types of tours make the rank order less useful.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g298507-Activities-c42-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html

The new rankings on TripAdvisor are very strange. Alla Tours was #1, now they are #2. SPB was #2, now they are #8 (I find it very difficult to believe that SPB fell 6 positions in just one week). TJ was #3, now they are #1.

These new rankings are an issue with many companies throughout the world - hotels, restaurants, etc., - rankings for some have dropped as much as 80 positions with services now above them that are no longer in operation. The new rankings make absolutely no sense to me. Owners are quite upset and are complaining on the TripAdvisor owner's forum. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g1-i14281-Owners.html

 

We had booked hotels in Munich and Budapest (October - November) based on, among other things, the reviews on TripAdvisor. With the new rankings, these hotels now have a much lower rating on TripAdvisor (but not on Booking.com or Trivago).

That said, I no longer trust the rankings on TripAdvisor.

Edited March 15, 2018 by dogs4fun

[KittyloverCA]

We’ve booked a private tour in July with TJ and they were able to include everything we requested. It seems that the things you listed weren’t really out of the ordinary in terms of the standard tours so I’d think they could easily customize