Comparing SPB & Alla Tours in St. Petersburg

Cindy,

They are sister companies though!!

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Cindy,

They are sister companies though!!

 

 

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Yup! I know that, but when it comes to tours/excursions I can almost always find more information on Trip Advisor. The problem I have with CC is they won't allow reviews of tour guides/companies unless you are responding to a specific question. I understand why it's that way, but it does mean researching ports isn't one stop shopping![emoji23]

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I was very surprised that a lot of people that I met on Regal Princess come to know SPB or ALLA thru tripadvisor. They don't know about CC or roll call. I suppose tripadvisor is a more popular site for searching local tours.

Trip Advisor owns CC

Trip Advisor owns CC

And Expedia owns Trip Advisor.

And Expedia owns Trip Advisor.

and next week Amazon will probably buy them :)

and next week Amazon will probably buy them :)

Chuckle - probably true. :)

This is from 2012 and is 5 years old!!!!:rolleyes: I keep getting into it. I guess I should remove myself.......

After online research and words of mouth, we have booked the St. Petersburg and Berlin Tours with ALLA Tours. Looking forwards to the grand tours:cool:

That's the reason we decided to go with Alla. Can't wait till we get to St. Petersburg.

We were in St. Petersburg on June 8,9. Seems Alla had more vans than SPG, that's just my impression.

We were very pleased with our two-day SPB tour in St. Petersburg last month. It really is the guide and driver that make the difference. Our guide had ten years experience and it showed with getting us first in line (or close to it), free WC locations, arranging the schedule by going to the sites when open, and amazing how she was able to talk almost non-stop with facts for 19-1/2 hours during our two days. We also preferred the time taken for the two sit-down lunches - instead of a box lunch. Believe me, we were on sensory overload at the end yet didn't feel that we missed anything.

We did the SPB De- Luxe 2 day tour in 2015.

We are returning next June, but I don't want to repeat what we saw, so I was wondering about Moscow, but SPB don't seem to go to Moscow.

The Alla tour says 20 hrs, which would seem to indicate it either lapses over 2 days, or does it return in the middle of the night?

We did the SPB De- Luxe 2 day tour in 2015.

We are returning next June, but I don't want to repeat what we saw, so I was wondering about Moscow, but SPB don't seem to go to Moscow.

The Alla tour says 20 hrs, which would seem to indicate it either lapses over 2 days, or does it return in the middle of the night?

SPB does, indeed, go to Moscow - so does Alla. Both SPB and Alla offer Moscow on the middle day of a 3 day visit. Neither of them offer the Moscow tour if your ship is only in port for 2 days. If your ship is in port for 3 days, no problem - if your ship is in port for 2 days, I believe that you will need to book something through your ship.

Thank you.

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We are sailing on the Brilliance of the Seas next June and St. Petersburg is on our bucket list and Itinerary. This is also a back to back (with British Isles). When I mentioned St. Petersburg on the BI Roll Call, at least THREE folks highly recommended Alla so I went to their website and looked at TA reviews. WOW! Nearly all 5 strars - and nothing less than 4 stars). So I contacted them and registered. The reply was fast. They even ask if you have food allergies for food included. They even offer a discount for other tours if you include St. Petrersburg and there is a Cruise Critic member discount too! I feel very confident in booking with them, based on this experience. Of course, we haven't taken the tour yet so I can't review it, but really looking forward to it.

We are sailing on the Brilliance of the Seas next June and St. Petersburg is on our bucket list and Itinerary. This is also a back to back (with British Isles). When I mentioned St. Petersburg on the BI Roll Call, at least THREE folks highly recommended Alla so I went to their website and looked at TA reviews. WOW! Nearly all 5 strars - and nothing less than 4 stars). So I contacted them and registered. The reply was fast. They even ask if you have food allergies for food included. They even offer a discount for other tours if you include St. Petrersburg and there is a Cruise Critic member discount too! I feel very confident in booking with them, based on this experience. Of course, we haven't taken the tour yet so I can't review it, but really looking forward to it.

I think you will thoroughly enjoy your days with Alla Tours. We certainly did.

I think you will thoroughly enjoy your days with Alla Tours. We certainly did.

Ditto!

I think you will thoroughly enjoy your days with Alla Tours. We certainly did.

We were there in June and did Alla for all our stops and very pleased. Highly recommend them. Much cheaper than the ship's tours and always a small group.

Sue

I think I've responded to all the email requests so far for the chart I did. If not, please email me at newlaxfan at yahoo dot com and I'll fire it off to you. Just make sure you mention it in the title of your email.

 

Suzanne

Can you please send me the comparison Chart? I am going in June . Thanks so much

Can you please send me the comparison Chart? I am going in June . Thanks so much

Do you realize that you are asking for a comparison chart that is over 5 years old and, surely, out of date by now?

Suzanne just wrote me: Sorry but that chart is 6 years old now and would be horribly out-of-date, so I've decided to not share it any more -- I'd hate for people to make decisions based on incorrect information. (Unfortunately I can't figure out how to delete that post on CruiseCritic...!)

Makes sense. So this should end the request. BTW, Someone on our June Cruise created a tour with I Love Travel because she wanted to see the Fabrege museum not included in the All Tour. She sent me detyails and I compared those two. What I leaned was that the Fabrege Tour was 90 minutes. They found the time but cutting two castles from 60 to 30 minutes, and the Hermitage cut from 2.5 hours to 1.5 hours. It was a very TIGHTschedule. (also ILT had 2 sit down lunches while Alla does one - an hour - and other day is box lunch on bus - saving time to see things. I did not look at SPB yet but the important thing - other than cost is how muchtime they spend i a huge place like the Hermitage. That may help.

Check Best Guides. I'm in correspondence with them and they offered Faberge museum as an evening addition to the day group tour. I guess it makes sense.

Yes, Alla Tours also offers the evening visit to the Faberge Museum (as well as several other evening options).

Do they have ear pieces for hearing tour guide

We had a hard time deciding which to go with, so I did up a chart to help with the comparison. It showed when and how long we were at each stop, prices, etc. It was much easier to make a decision once we had all that info laid out in front of us!

Would you mind sharing your chart on the St. Petersburg tours? We couldn't find it on the web. Thanks.

I know this thread is for Alla & SPB comparison however we have also been recommended cruisingexcursions.com

Does anyone have any experience of this company?

Would you mind sharing your chart on the St. Petersburg tours? We couldn't find it on the web. Thanks.

Newlaxfan posted(or replied to me via message) that it was so old they didn't figure it was date. We are on alla next week. We return after July 4th if I can answer questions.