Any recommendations for St. Petersburg?

[Hans@]

We are going to take a cruise with Princes Cruises to Europe,

including St. Petersburg, Russia.

Can anybody recommend a reliable Russian tour operator in St. Petersburg for shore excursions arrangemens?

We do not want to participate in group tours offered by cruise line. Any suggestions?

[Andee]

We loved our two days with Red October in 2003.

 

We had also gotten a quote from DenRus, but they became difficult when we wanted to make some minor changes to their suggested itinerary.

[DON M.]

We are going to take a cruise with Princes Cruises to Europe,

including St. Petersburg, Russia.

Can anybody recommend a reliable Russian tour operator in St. Petersburg for shore excursions arrangemens?

We do not want to participate in group tours offered by cruise line. Any suggestions?

We are using Denrus in July. Thus far, they have been very accomodating to changes in their suggested itenirary and have e-mailed in a timely fashion. The other popular choice is Red October. These two have very nice web sites to check out. They are both very close in price, a party of 8 for example is around $550.00 per couple for the two days. I dont think you can go wrong with either.

[wolfegizmo]

We used Red October last July and they were fabulous!!!!!!!!!! Our guide, Irina was wonderful and as a result, St. Petersburg was the best two days of our cruise. We even got in to Peterhoff on a Monday when it was officially closed and never waited in line anywhere. It was very easy to change the intinerary to suit us and I thought the price was reasonable considering all of the sites we went to.

[Zimmy]

We used Esperance last August, and we were more than pleased with our choice. Our guide was a full-time all year guide, rather than someone who guides only for the summer. She was well educated in history, literature, the arts - in all the questions we asked in the three days we were with her, there was really no area in which she faltered. Her command of English was fabulous, without a heavy Russian accent. We had a very comfortable van for the four of us. The van accomodated 9, so we had extra seats to stash packages, etc. The driver was pleasant. We had a preset schedule, but we were able to change it on a moment's notice - no part of our tour had a "prepackaged" one size fits all feel. We paid about $500 per couple, per day, which included all our admission fees - nothing was extra. We had lunch where and when we chose, with no preset menues. When we got in the car in the morning, we did not have to decide then what we wanted for lunch, which others have written about in previous posts. If we take another trip to Russia, we will use Esperance again. I can't recommend them highly enough.

[Skimnik]

The Denrus package we have reserved is 2 full days (with boat tour) for 8 people is about $550.00 per couple. What is the rate of this company?

 

580 USD per couple with private guide and transportation !!!

Package includes sightseeing tour with a visit to Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Isaak's Cathedral, State Hermitage Museum, Pushkin and Pavlovsk.

Quite enough for 2 days, isn't it?

I strongly recommend to ask Premier Voyage about your group of 8, just in case.

[David C]

Dear Hans@: Like so many others, we used Red October this past September in St. Petersburg and had a wonderful time. Although we mostly followed the "standard" itinerary (suggested by Red October and probably pretty similar to the itinerary suggested by the folks at Denrus), we did arrange with them to have dinner in a Russian restaurant the first night (the place was called "Demidov"), after which they took us to the folkloric show at a local hotel. The first day was very long as we did not return to the ship until after the show. Additionally, although we had not originally planned to do so, our guide suggested we take a St. Petersburg canal tour (by boat) the second day (at a slight additional cost) and we are thrilled we did so as it turned out that most of St. Petersburg was originally constructed to appear at its best by boat from the canals. This part of the trip was fantastic and I strongly suggest that whatever your interests, you arrange for the canal boat tour of St. Petersburg to be included in your itinerary. As others here (and elsewhere) have pointed out, the visa situation is an expensive nightmare in St. Petersburg unless you are with a ship-sponsored tour or with either Red October or Denrus. Additionally, the ship's tours, although comparably priced with what we paid to Red October for the four of us, require you to deal with 50 to 60 other tourists, instead of just a few of you. All-in-all, every aspect of our Baltics trip was fabulous and was made even more so by our experience with Red October. Although we were with Holland America last summer (and not Priness as you will apparently be) the trip itself is expensive enough that, in my estimation, it is worth the extra cost (which, by the way, is really minimal) to do it right and see as much as humanly possible in St. Petersburg during your two-day stay. We did so and we'll never forget it. Have a great trip.