Hi, All... Any suggestions on a reliable company in St. Petersburg that can provide a day or two of tours in St. Pete? Eight of us, two days in port. The ship tours may be too "regimented" Hermitage, Peterhoff, shopping, maybe a visit to the ballet, or folkloric dancing show. Thanks!
Edit: Moved to Europe Port Chat. RF
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Raoul Fiebig,
We are planning to use Alla tours, http://www.alla-tour.com/ in July 2006. Alla and her group have been very accomodating and also arranged for a group blanket visa. I feel we have made an excellent choice. We are a group of 12. Daphna
Daphna01 _ I know you will be very happy with your choice of Alla-tour. As you say, a visa is not needed to tour with her and she meets you on the dock. We toured with her last year and were extremely pleased. Her English is excellent, she is extremely knowledgeable and very personable. I first heard of her thru a recommendation by a reader in the LA Times and have since talked to numerous people who have used her services and also recommend her.As soon as we contacted her we realized hers was a very personalized service. We are so glad we arranged our tours with her.I have been recommending her without hesitation.
WE ARE GOING TO ST PETERSBURG ON THE JULY 24TH SAILING OF THE STAR PRINCESS.WE WILL BE IN ST. PETERSBURG 28 & 29 JULY. WE ARE INTERESTED IN VISITING THE GRAND CHORAL SYNAGOGUE. DOES ANY KNOW THE HOURS THAT IT WILL BE OPEN FOR VISITING ON THOSE DAYS?
our guide had to call in advance to schedule a visit to the synagogue when we were there last week.
as for tour company, we used Denrus for 9 of us in a 16 passenger van so were very comfortable. was cheaper than ship and much more efficient. we were able to customize our tour completely. we only had 2 people and used Denrus calendar for sailing dates to sign up for extra people and also put a notice in roll call at cruisecritic.com. had no problem meeting 7 others. as a matter of fact, we ended up with 21 replies of people who wanted to join us and we took the ones that seemed most compatible with our age and our site seeing wishes. it all worked out great.
tablemates used Red October and they also were very happy. I think from the feedback at dinners that everyone who did a PRIVATE tour was happier than those on the ship's tour.
Posts: 6 | Location: lake forest | Registered: June 10, 2006
We are planning to use Alla tours, http://www.alla-tour.com/ in July 2006. Alla and her group have been very accomodating and also arranged for a group blanket visa. I feel we have made an excellent choice. We are a group of 12. Daphna
Hi Daphna101 We are thinking about this trip in 2007, let me know how you trip went with Alla Tour, Regards
Posts: 30 | Location: England | Registered: June 11, 2006
We're going to be in St. Petersburg on July 19-21, arriving on the Insignia. We're looking for others on the Insignia to join with us to tour St. Petersburg with Alla-Tours. If you get in touch with her, she'll put the group together. We don't have much time!
We are on the Star Princess sailing of August 13th. We will be in St Petersburg on August 17-18. We're looking to form/join a private group for a 2 day highlights tour. So far we haven't selected a tour operator, though we've heard about DenRus, Red October and Alla Tour. Sounds like the three of them are very good so will come down to availablity and price. Any suggestions to help decide between them?
We're doing the Baltic/Russia aboard Century next year. Nancy N'S review was very helpful. We might do a private tour w/Denrus in St. Petersburg. The rest, we'll probably just do independently or get a cheap tour from the ship.
To anyone using an independent tour guide, I would HIGHLY recommend including a visit to the Russian Museum (all Russian art and actually a more interesting collection than the Hermitage--heresy, yes..but it's true), the Museum of Ethnography, Church on Spilt Blood (has several names) and directly behind the church an open air market with high quality Russian souveniers priced much lower than any of the stores. The ballet at the Hermitage Theater is okay, but if the Kirov/Mariinsky or Eifmann troups are in town...a MUST! I've traveled extensively and this is one of the most interesting cities I've ever visited...and a lot of the truly wonderful sites are not covered by the usual tours. Enjoy!
Can you share with me how you used DenRus to locate other pax on your dates in St. Petersburg? I am trying to book a van for 8-10 pax, including my four.
Originally posted by blueducky: To anyone using an independent tour guide, I would HIGHLY recommend including a visit to the Russian Museum (all Russian art and actually a more interesting collection than the Hermitage--heresy, yes..but it's true), the Museum of Ethnography, Church on Spilt Blood (has several names) and directly behind the church an open air market with high quality Russian souveniers priced much lower than any of the stores. The ballet at the Hermitage Theater is okay, but if the Kirov/Mariinsky or Eifmann troups are in town...a MUST! I've traveled extensively and this is one of the most interesting cities I've ever visited...and a lot of the truly wonderful sites are not covered by the usual tours. Enjoy!
Hi, We are a party of 4 that will also be in St Petersburg on the Star Princess 6/25 & 6/26. We are thinking of doing an independent tour with DenRus. We might be interested in joining together with others to do a custom 2 day tour, rather than the large one.
Originally posted by blueducky: To anyone using an independent tour guide, I would HIGHLY recommend including a visit to the Russian Museum (all Russian art and actually a more interesting collection than the Hermitage--heresy, yes..but it's true), the Museum of Ethnography, Church on Spilt Blood (has several names) and directly behind the church an open air market with high quality Russian souveniers priced much lower than any of the stores. The ballet at the Hermitage Theater is okay, but if the Kirov/Mariinsky or Eifmann troups are in town...a MUST! I've traveled extensively and this is one of the most interesting cities I've ever visited...and a lot of the truly wonderful sites are not covered by the usual tours. Enjoy!
I would second these recommendations, with one comment: Eifmann Ballet tours the US almost every year (they are here this spring). If you can, see them here and use the precious little time you have in the city for other sites - there is so much to see in St. Petersburg!
Hi, We've been to St.Petersburg last summer. Our group of 7 were more than satisfied with the service of Anastasia company, http://www.anastasiaworld.com. My parents are from Leningrad (former name of St.Petersburg). And even I knew a lot about this city, I was just shocked with Anastasia's knowledges. She was very personable. She arranged a group blanket visa and met us right next to the ship. Within just 2 days we've seen really a lot, beacause we were entering Amaber room? Hermitage without any lines (very important). Stasy
our group of 9 used Denrus and we were very happy with their service and their price. It was about $275 per person for two whole days of touring. our guide, Anna, was an ex school teacher and VERY knowledgeable about Russian history. it was amazing how much we got to see because of her "insider" information as to how to get to the fronts of lines and how to avoid bottlenecks such as in the Hermitage. I talked to people at dinner who were very happy with Red October as well, but they paid more for the same itinerary we followed. one thing i would suggest whoever you use is do NOT use the ship's tour. those people were not nearly as happy as the private tour participants. herded around in large groups. too much time taken for lunch when there was so much to see. i would suggest a box lunch in the van on day one rather than a sit down lunch. the traffic is sooooo bad, you have plenty of time to eat a leisurely lunch and sit and rest while you are driving to your next destination. you can eat anywhere, but you can only see St Petersburg, most likely, in these two days in your life.
Posts: 6 | Location: lake forest | Registered: June 10, 2006
This year I'm going to St.Petersburg. I would like, dcefenitely? to have private tour. As I could realize, price depend not only on the travel agency, but also on the number of people in the group? We are a team of 2. Do you have any idea what will be the price in Alla tours, Red October, Anastasia company and DenRus. It seems to me they are the most suggested comanies.
