Advise On Tour Co's In St. Petersburg

[TWOJERSEYGIRL]

Any advise on tour companies in St. Petersburg.:confused: Wll be on the Connie Sept 1st. Used to doing independent tours if possible. Any info would be greatly appreciated, also any do's & dont's on that trip also would help.

 

Heard of Red Oct & Denrus. Thanks Natalie

[jezzdogg]

We did red oct... was less than thrilled but that was because of our guide, some other groups from our ship had wonderful guides( one of the nights we were with another group's guide and she was wonderful)........so it is the luck of the draw..(possibly ask for one that has spent time in the US as the woman had,,made a world of difference.)

[Jancruz]

I too used Red October and was very happy with them..

Jan

*****

[Moeve]

Remember you will require a visa if you want to do an independent tour...

[spearmint]

Any advise on tour companies in St. Petersburg.:confused: Wll be on the Connie Sept 1st. Used to doing independent tours if possible. Any info would be greatly appreciated, also any do's & dont's on that trip also would help.

 

Heard of Red Oct & Denrus. Thanks Natalie

 

We used Denrus last fall, and they were fantastic, from our contacts via e-mail, (i.e. Ali and Stan) to our guide, Ljudmilla and driver, Andrei. We would recommend them in a heartbeat.

 

P.S. We took the Value Excursion Tour, rather than the private excursion due to price considerations. (We were also lucky in that there were only 10 of us on that particular tour.) Go the the website to see what is offerred; you can e-mail for specific itineraries that you might wish to experience, and they will tell you what it will cost. On those types of excursions, you may be able to hook up with others which brings down the cost. These boards and the roll-call will probably be very helpful in that regard. .:)

[msiowa]

There is lots of information and opinions about Red October, Denrus, and other tour operators in St. Petersburg on the Baltic Ports Board.

 

You do not need to obtain a visa if you tour with Red October, Denrus, and probably others. They obtain it for you. If you want to tour on your own, then you need to get a visa.

 

The Baltic cruise and St. Petersburg are phenomenal. Have a great cruise!

Joanie

[lysolqn]

We used Red October for our first Baltic cruise on Constellation, then DenRus when we returned on Connie the following year. We were extremely pleased with both and would use either again.

[Moeve]

Opps was not clear on that - you do require a visa if you take a tour outside of the cruiseline - HOWEVER some of the more reputable Outfits will organize the visa including the whole invitational process for their guests.

[BDA]

We did a Denrus tour of St. Petersburg last June. In total there were only 8 people in the van with a driver and guide. Although the ship arrived a few hours late, they were waiting for us at the pier. They gave us a refund for the things that we missed. It was wonderful tour. I highly recommend them.

[hisfirstm8]

Natalie,

Good to see your post. We think of you and Herb often......We will be cruising on the Zenith on her last cruise on April13th. Dave and Jean will be with us........Tell Herb hi!!!!!

 

Barbara and Mike

[TWOJERSEYGIRL]

Thanks to all of you with your great info. ;) I heard from Red Oct today & will get more info from them.

 

Hey you two (Barbara & Mike) So glad to hear from you again. We are very bad at e-mailing but think about you often. In fact we relived our Paris bus & train trip with you just today. So very funny. I lost your e-mail address. Send it to me Curtisinpd@aol.com

 

Take care Nat

[Dick in Falls Church]

We were able to hook up with some others through the Roll Call, and used Red October. Our guide was absolutely top-notch. Her English was excellent (she is used as a court interpreter) and she was exceptionally capable.

For about 1/2 hour, while she took care of helping some of our group with a problem, we were hooked to another Red October group--and that guide was not nearly as good.

 

If you can get a group of 10-12 together, you'll get the most bang for the buck.

[Baglady34]

We used Red October last year in St Pete and were very happy. They hooked us up with four others and we did the private van thing. Irena was our guide. She has an MBA in linguistics and was very pleasant and knowledgeable. She made is easy to negotiate the huge lines at the attractions. We even experienced the subway and dined for lunch at a local restaurant with good food.

 

Contact Mike Finn at Redoctober.us and tell him Fran sent you.

 

He is good friend who used to be in the promotional products industry with me.

 

Have a nice trip.

[cruisintwinsmom]

We used Alla tours. Anna was our guide. We had a great time. She supplied the visas.

[nido]

cruisintwinsmom, any feedback on Alla´s moderate or strenous tour diffreneces? any suggestions? first time to the baltic. Thank you.

nido