Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

St. Petersburg - independent tours???

chives

By chives,
in Northern Europe & Baltic Sea

Recommended Posts

chives

chives

Posted
Posted

I am cruising the Baltic on HAL in July and wanted to know if anyone had used the private tour agencies. There are only 3 of us and so I would like a packaged tour. I saw that Denrus has a 2 day planned tour. Has anyone done this? Did you feel safe and comfortable not going through the cruise line? I saw that Alla and Red October also have tours but that I would have to gather more people in my group and submit an itinerary. I really don't want to do that and prefer a preplanned tour.

 

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jane110

Jane110

Posted
Posted

Both Red October and Denrus are really excellent companies. I've never heard of Alla, so can't comment.

 

You will need a Visa and both Denrus and RO will get you tourist Visa's as part of your tour package. To get your own would cost about $100. per person.

 

With Denrus and RO you can have as few or as many people on your tour as you want. Obviously, the more people the le$$ per person it is. To bring down your costs, do a roll call.

 

DH and I wanted only one other couple and we found a terrific couple here on CC. We ended up spending most of our cruise with them.

 

We used RO and they sent us a suggested itinerary which we tweaked a bit. Then, once enroute, we shortened our time in some places and added some other stops. These are things that you can't do with a large group, which is why we kept our group to just four.

 

I've never heard of anyone disappointed with either of these two tour company's.

 

Have a great cruise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

Posted
Posted
We cruised to St. Petersburg about 8 years ago. At the time you need to get a Russian visa in advance if you were getting off the ship on a non-ship excursion.

 

Paul

If you are only doing a private tour and not wandering off on your own the Tour company will provide you with "group visa"

Ship'd tours are gcovered under a "group visa" but you MUST stay with the group.

 

If however you want to go off on your own you do need a visa.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dpro

dpro

Posted
Posted
I am cruising the Baltic on HAL in July and wanted to know if anyone had used the private tour agencies. There are only 3 of us and so I would like a packaged tour. I saw that Denrus has a 2 day planned tour. Has anyone done this? Did you feel safe and comfortable not going through the cruise line? I saw that Alla and Red October also have tours but that I would have to gather more people in my group and submit an itinerary. I really don't want to do that and prefer a preplanned tour.

 

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

We came back from a Princess tour to SP back in September. We used Red October and would highly recommend them. They will provide you with a suggested itinerary if you ask. We changed our itinerary before the cruise to see some sights we wanted, and then even after the tour started. Our guide was Elena, and she was great. When getting off the ship there are two lines to queue up in to get thru customs, the RO/Denrus line went very smoothly, no problems. The ship line was extremely long, and although it moved along, we were in our van and off while most people on the ship's tours were still trying to board the busses. I would highly recommend using Denrus or RO, although I have seen that Alla is recommended as well. If you decide to go with the private tour, have lunch with a Russian family. We did not do that and regret it immensley. We heard nothing but good things about this part of the tour from others who did the Russian lunch. You should have a relatively easy time posting on your rollcall for persons to join you.

 

RO offered to try to help us in forming our group and we had to turn away two couples who wanted to join close to departure. We had 8 in our group and it was just about right.

 

Enjoy your trip, SP was by far our favorite port. If you want to contact me for more details, email to mrqcace@yahoo.com

 

RC

Link to comment
Share on other sites
naples queen

naples queen

Posted
Posted

We would like very much to take a private tour and hopefully join others from our cruise who would like to do the same. We are sailing in August and will look into the tour agencies previously mentioned. Can anyone quote the price of these tours vs the ship's tours which appear to be pretty expensive. I realize that the price is based on the number of people and the itinerary but would like a rough idea of the cost for a good inclusive tour. Thanks in advance for your help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
teacherman

teacherman

Posted
Posted

We did the HAL Baltic this past August It was wonderful. In SP we went with Red October. We joined a group of 8 that was already put together. We found them on this board. Also look on Roll Call for your cruise. We had a good time and saw a lot more than we would have on a ship tour. Before joining this group, we were planning to do a value tour with DenRus.

 

After a while, it starts to become too much information on the tour. To me, the must sees are Peterhof, Catherine's Palace, Hermitage, the big cathedral. After that, it becomes very subjective. Have fun planning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chives

chives

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. I will email the companies and go on the roll call board and see if I can find anyone else sailing in July.

 

I am new to this site but have been extremely impressed with the responses of group members and the vast knowledge available on the site.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Juliadlf

Juliadlf

Posted
Posted

We used Denrus with a group from our roll call in August. Best experience we could have gotten to see as much as we did in the two days. We sailed on the Star Princess and would highly recommend Denrus. Our guide and driver were excellent and went the extra mile to be sure we had seen everything on our "wish list" and then a few extras thrown in.

There is a forum here on CC for the Baltics ports which you may want to look at. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

Lots of information and you can read what others have said about their tour companies they have used.

The other two companies, Alla and Red October are also from what we hear, very good companies.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Julia

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dancingchef

dancingchef

Posted
Posted

We did the Baltic cruise in July and used a company called Travel in Russia. There was just two of us and we had a driver and guide for out 2 days in St. P. It was by far the highlight of our cruise and our guide Marina was fabulous! She's been a guide for 20 years and is a wealth of information. We would highly recommend this complany. They will suggest an itinerary, but are very flexible. They obtained the visa's for us and were very responsive to my many questions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
roboref

roboref

Posted
Posted

I am not sure if you got the info you asked about. I would recommend Denrus (Complete St Petersburg) $265. I chose Denrus due to the promise to run the tour without a full group. I did not have to be responsible to get a group together or if it didn't fill up have it cancelled at the last minute. Ended up with a group of 8 people, my group of 4 and 2 other wonderful couples. Denrus went out of their way to provide a great experinece. From meeting us just outside immigration, to our guide filling time by taking us to on a subway ride and to the grocery market (my request), to being very capable of moving us to the front of the lines and taking care of tickets etc at the various museums. The price included 2 meals all entry fees, camera fees, etc. at a substantial discount over the cruise tours.

 

Another advantage to this tour was use of a 12 passenger bus ather than the huge buses, many times we were dropped off closer to the entrance than the large buses, which allowed us to save energy as well as with the small group we went through the sites much quicker and were able to hear the details given by the guide much easier. The meals were also very nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
porky113

porky113

Posted
Posted

We too used Red October for 2 days and they set us up with another couple and we had a blast. First in line for everything. You by-passed all the big lines. reserved parking spots. where ever you went you where first. Either company comes highly recommended.

Ed

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dbh62ark

dbh62ark

Posted
Posted

Have you checked the Baltics board section of this site? You'll find a lot of great information for your trip there (I'm surprised this thread hasn't been moved there). I have toured with Red October and Denrus on separate trips in 2003 and 2005 and highly recommend Denrus.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Host Karen

Host Karen

Posted
Posted

I agree with the suggestions that you should also check out the Baltics Port of Call board for the information you seek. However, since you are receiving so many responses to your questions, I'm inclined to leave this thread here for the time being.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
virgenia

virgenia

Posted
Posted

Unless you are a very experienced traveler, I would never consider doing a tour of SP on my own. It is defintely a different country. When we did the Baltic cruise last year we booked the Denrus Value Tour. This is an excellent value and does not require you to put together a large group of people. They handle the visa issue. We saw everything we could possible want to see in St. Pete. Our guide, Ludmilla, has received mixed reviews on cruise critic. However, I think she has received unfair criticism. She is very plain-spoken, has definite views of men in general and Russian men in particular, and is not afraid to express her opinions. However, she is a lecturer at the university and is so knowledgeable about Russian history, particularly art history. Her English is impeccable. You can book this Value tour on the denrus.ru website and it is very easy. I highly recommend this company. I have read many good things about Red October and Alla Tours, so you are probably fine with any of these companies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail on Sun Princess®
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...