St Petersburg and Berlin

[bookman]

Need some advice on St. Petersburg and Berlin seen via a cruise ship. To start with, our group usually doesn't like to go on cruise ship shore excursions ( due to the large numbers of slow moving passengers) and are all experienced independent travelers. Having said that we are wondering about the advantages of using the cruise ship services in St Petersburg due to visa issues.

 

1) Is it advisable to just go with the ship's tour or do those of you who have been there recommend going it alone , obtaining a visa and using a local guide? Also, where is the dock compared to St. Petersburg- close by/ walk off or a bus ride away from the city. Finally, how difficult is it to obtain a visa?

 

2) Berlin- we are planning on hiring a private guide. The ship docks in Rostock/Warneminde. Should we take the train to Berlin and meet the guide there or arrange for a private car and have the guide pick us up at the ship

[ab0si]

I like Berlin ... however, I would save it for another trip. It is a LONG trip from where the ship docks. There is more than enough things to do and see close by. A trip to Berlin would spend more time in transit than in Berlin. If you do decide to go, I can think of no reason to hire a guide. You will be able to get around the city faster via public transportation than by being driven around. It is a very easy city to navigate.

 

The major guide services in St. Petersburg provide the needed visas. That should not be the determining factor in how you choose to see the city.

 

Paul

[cruisemom42]

I suggest you have a look at the Baltics Board (under Ports of Call) where you will find a ton of information on private guides for St. Petersburg. Several guides are highly recommended, and from our own experience, you will get a lot more out of St. Petersburg than with a ship tour. The major services will have a visa for you -- no need to do it yourself.

 

St. Petersburg port is not close to the city at all, unfortunately. It is in an industrial port area and there is nothing to see in the vicinity.

 

I can't answer for Berlin, as we also opted NOT to do the long daytrip after so many other long days of touring.

[kitty9]

As for Berlin, a lot depends on how long you're in port. It's at least a two hour drive or train trip from the dock to the city. And, I have no idea what your finances are like and how much you want to spend for a tour, but with the Euro so strong against the US dollar, it will be terribly expensive. I checked into a private tour three years ago from Rostock to Berlin, and the charge was insanely expensive, at least 4 times what the ship charged. A private tour now, because of the weak dollar, will be even more expensive.

 

As for St Petersburg, if you take a Denrus or Red October tour, they will get the visas for you. It's the same with ship's tours, they will get a blanket visa for everyone. But if you want to step even one foot off the ship by yourself, you'll need an individual visa. The dock there is not safe, and very industrial and there are no buses to take you into town.

[klauer]

I agree with what the other posters said about St. Petersburg. We used Red October for a group of 8 that we put together through CC, and were very pleased.

 

I loved the opportunity to go to Berlin, also. We had a driver pick us up at the ship, and take us to the guide we met in Berlin. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see the city, and felt that we wouldn't go back to Germany in the foreseeable future. I can't remember the price, but it wasn't outrageous with six of us dividing the cost. To be honest, I really enjoy learning about the history of the places we visit, so the day didn't seem long to me at all.

[sailaway5]

Ditto Klauer, Kitty9 and CruiseMom - we used a private tour in St Petersburg and they provided our Visa. We had two days of wonderful touring in this beautiful city. We gained all of our information from these Baltic boards.

 

As for Berlin, we opted for the ship tour via the train and riverboat. It was a long day but we enjoyed every minute and would do it again!!

 

Have a great trip.

[Len3]

We put together a mini-group for St. Petersburg using Alla Tours. She has arranged our 2 day visit so that we have early entrance into the most important sights and we limited our group size to 8 people. We'll be long gone each day while the people on the ships tour will still be gathering onboard. Alla gets great reviews on the CC boards and her pricing came to $270.00 pp for the 2 full days. The tour will be in a Mercedes mini-bus that holds 12 people - so plently of room.

 

As for Berlin, we'll leave that for another time. It's just a really long day with only about 6 hours actually in Berlin.

[sarh]

I thought our day in Berlin was a highlight of the cruise. About 10 of us got together off the CC board and friend in berlin organised a minibus to collect us. Susanna was our guide - she was excellent, remembered the days when the wall was there and could talk about the reality of life now. We were driven around the main sites and did some stops - there are choices they advise on before you go. Great little cafe for lunch. We had long enough in Berlin and were back hours before the train! In fact the ship left late because the train was delayed.

 

Our St Petersburg visit with Alla Tours was terrible - if you book with her make sure that you know who the individual guide will be as she is simply the middleman (early reviews are based on her as the guide not as the organiser). Others on our ship had great tours with Alla - in contrast we had a young guide who was disorganised and knew less than we did about Russian history! If I did it again i would do it with an individual guide, although I know that it takes some organisation because of the distance of the port from the city. From the previous post it does look as if Alla has reduced her prices though as we paid much more than that.

[Ricky Chan]

I thought our day in Berlin was a highlight of the cruise. About 10 of us got together off the CC board and friend in berlin organised a minibus to collect us. Susanna was our guide - she was excellent, remembered the days when the wall was there and could talk about the reality of life now. We were driven around the main sites and did some stops - there are choices they advise on before you go. Great little cafe for lunch. We had long enough in Berlin and were back hours before the train! In fact the ship left late because the train was delayed.

 

Our St Petersburg visit with Alla Tours was terrible - if you book with her make sure that you know who the individual guide will be as she is simply the middleman (early reviews are based on her as the guide not as the organiser). Others on our ship had great tours with Alla - in contrast we had a young guide who was disorganised and knew less than we did about Russian history! If I did it again i would do it with an individual guide, although I know that it takes some organisation because of the distance of the port from the city. From the previous post it does look as if Alla has reduced her prices though as we paid much more than that.

 

 

We are taking a Baltic cruise in May and contemplating using Alla for St. Petersburg tour. Our cruisemate that we met from our last cruise highly recommended this company(she took the crusie and tour in 2005)

 

I think Alla is the owner, same name as the company, she charges $300.00 per person for a two day complete tour (group tour). One can view all the tour guides on her website, they are all females.

 

Ricky

[BigBearLady]

I think Alla is the owner, same name as the company, she charges $300.00 per person for a two day complete tour (group tour). One can view all the tour guides on her website, they are all females.

 

Ricky

 

You got a good price. Alla is charging me $460 p/p for the two day visit to St. Petersburg for 3 people.

[Daria]

Need some advice on St. Petersburg and Berlin seen via a cruise ship. To start with, our group usually doesn't like to go on cruise ship shore excursions ...

 

Hi, BOOKMAN,

 

I've heard a lot of nice things about SPB-tours not only from my friends, but from the threads here as well. My friends used Viktoria's (SPB-tours) service last July and enjoyed their tours enormously!I'm planning to book Jewish tours in Berlin and St.Pete for our group of 4 from Viktoria. So far she's made only good impressions on me. Go to her website. I found there a lot of useful information.

Good luck!

 

DARIA

[Daria]

Just wanted to add, that Viktoria (SPB-tours.com) has got a m. board on her website, I guess since a couple of days. We are all set, but the others who are looking for the fellow-travellers might find it helpful to build a group.

Good luck!

D.

[Whale]

Hi,

My wife and I will be traveling the Baltic in July aboard "Regatta". With Viktoria's (spb-tours.com) help we've managed to form a group to reduce costs. There is a RC at her website, which helped us to find each other. Now we are the happy six and cannot wait seeing all these palaces and churches in St.Petersburg and Checkpoint Charlie, Reichstag and the Berlin Wall in Berlin! We do both tours with SPB-tours. I didn't doubt to go to Berlin or to leave it for the next time. There might be no next time and I will see this multicultural megapolis this July!

 

We are happy with Viktoria and her arrangements. We've booked her as our private tour guide in St.Petersburg. During a few weeks of e-mailing each other she was prompt and willing to help us. I've read great reviews about Viktoria & co not only in CC, but in the Trip advisor forum as well. Thank you, Daria, for your advice to check this co.

I'm sure we'll enjoy every minute of our tours!

 

I wish you all great time in all ports of call!

See you in the Baltic waters,

Whale

[Mary Ellen]

You got a good price. Alla is charging me $460 p/p for the two day visit to St. Petersburg for 3 people.

The cost varies depending upon the # of people. The expense of driver and guide are the same, so fewer in the tour = higher price pp. The quote we received last summer for 2 was $600/pp. We'll probably end up with 7, so we'll be more in the $350/pp range.

[friendship]

We were on Nautica last year and Viktoria gave us a wonderful tour of St Petersburg all three days. She is wonderful, full of knowledge, flexible if need be and uses wonderful English. We had her husband and a friend take us to Berlin. Those of you who have booked with her are in for a real treat. ENJOY!!!

[pattyj 1204]

We signed up with Alla for her value type tour. She limits the size of the group to 20 people and the cost is $300 pp. It would be more if you did a private-type tour with a smaller group. It makes sense to me the less people the more pp it would cost. It would also be easier to take smaller groups around the sites more time for touring if there aren't stragglers every time you got to where you were going.

[belle907]

We have a 2 day tour booked with Anastasia for 12 people, 3 familes from our cruise roll call, and it's running about $260. per person. We have picked the sites we wanted to see for both days. We are even including the gold room at The Hermitage.

[friendship]

Viktoria also arranges tours of Berlin. Her husband met us at the dock and took us to Berlin where we picked up the guide. I am glad we went though it is a long trip to Berlin and back. Viktoria is wonderful to work with.