Recommended tour companies in St. Petersburg

Len-

I think any of the BIG companies would be willing to "twink" a tour for a group. Say stopping at the Grand Choral Synagogue or Stolle for lunch. In our case our proposed tour involved a long drive to a place not often visited by tourists from St Pete. Our guide in Novgorod told us that most of her business was from Chinese tourists who knew nothing about the history of Novgorod (it's one of the oldest cities in Russia and icon painting began there) and could care less. I think she found us a bit "refreshing". The walking tour could have been done by any company but again the big ones are looking for the "full van" deal. Just so you know, we used Alla on our 2010 visit and SPB in 2013. That's why I contacted them this time. Both times the tours were great.

As a side note, I visited the Grand Choral Synagogue in 2013 and again this year. I have Jewish ancestry on my mother's side although I was not raised Jewish. This time I hoped to buy Jewish themed nesting dolls painted by members. Didn't do it in 2013 and I wished I had. However, it was a Jewish holiday and the booth was closed. I did go in, though, and said a prayer for my Jewish ancestors.

<<<Karen>>>

Recently returned from our Baltic cruise and want to put in my plug for TJ Tours. I did a lot of research before we left, comparing the itinerary of the top tour operators (including Alla, SPB, etc). I liked TJs itinerary best, so we chose them. They certainly delivered all that was promised and more. We had an awesome time....with only 8 people in our group. We were able to move pretty efficiently being a smaller group and had the opportunity to make friends pretty quickly. We did join up with another TJ group of 10 at a few places - but only to give out tickets. We received a 5% discount for being CC members and 5% for booking before 1/1.

We had also booked an evening excursion for a canal tour and short walk. When our tour guide asked who had evening excursions planned, we raised our hand. She asked us what we had scheduled. When we told her, she noted that the canal ride was the exact same ride we would be doing the next day, as well as part of the walk. She said that choice was often picked by people who were only doing a one-day excursion. Not to mention it was going to rain that evening. She offered to cancel it for us, if we wished (which we did). She took care of everything. I thought that was pretty good customer service - considering it was technically a "lost sale" for the company.

We later talked with a woman on our ship. She had booked a private tour with "someone she found online at the last minute". She said it was horrible....the tour guide rude. And it cost her more than twice what we paid. I felt really bad for her. That's not to say one needs to stay with the top 4-5 tour operators. I would just strongly suggest people be sure to do their homework thoroughly. If you're getting one shot at this, you don't want to be disappointed.

Recently returned from our Baltic cruise and want to put in my plug for TJ Tours. I did a lot of research before we left, comparing the itinerary of the top tour operators (including Alla, SPB, etc). I liked TJs itinerary best, so we chose them. They certainly delivered all that was promised and more. We had an awesome time....with only 8 people in our group. We were able to move pretty efficiently being a smaller group and had the opportunity to make friends pretty quickly. We did join up with another TJ group of 10 at a few places - but only to give out tickets. We received a 5% discount for being CC members and 5% for booking before 1/1.

 

We had also booked an evening excursion for a canal tour and short walk. When our tour guide asked who had evening excursions planned, we raised our hand. She asked us what we had scheduled. When we told her, she noted that the canal ride was the exact same ride we would be doing the next day, as well as part of the walk. She said that choice was often picked by people who were only doing a one-day excursion. Not to mention it was going to rain that evening. She offered to cancel it for us, if we wished (which we did). She took care of everything. I thought that was pretty good customer service - considering it was technically a "lost sale" for the company.

 

We later talked with a woman on our ship. She had booked a private tour with "someone she found online at the last minute". She said it was horrible....the tour guide rude. And it cost her more than twice what we paid. I felt really bad for her. That's not to say one needs to stay with the top 4-5 tour operators. I would just strongly suggest people be sure to do their homework thoroughly. If you're getting one shot at this, you don't want to be disappointed.

I agree that one should choose very carefully the tour operators. Also heard of some trying to save money but ended up scammed. Glad you chose wisely.

We also had a great tour with TJ and we had one of the best tour guides ever. We've experienced a lot of tour guides all over the world, I know what I am talking about. We were a family group of 4.

TJ offered to combine us with another small group from another ship at a lower price than our private tour, but we declined. We met the other family group on the canal cruise, nice people but constant selfie and family photo takers in front of every bridge and building. Maybe they are also on cc and recognize themselves. ;)

.. yet TA has been known, MANY TIMES, to (let's see how to put this) Pad the stats for many things. Basically anyone can write a review for anything they want. Having 53 reviews is hardly a way to judge a tour for that once in a lifetime trip, at least, that's how I view it. Even if those 53 write up were excellent, they may just have a large family who love to write good reviews.

Where are you getting your information that TA "pads the stats for many things"? Is it a case of "everyone knows"? Have you read an article exposing TA's practices? Having posted many reviews on TA, I don't see that their process invites scams any more or less than posting to other web sites. For example, a poster cannot place his/her review on the site directly; he/she must wait for a moderator to load it onto the site.

As for your hypothetical comment that the 53 reviews may have come from a "large family who loves to write good reviews" I can only ask if you actually read the reviews for any tour company, hotel, restaurant or whatever that you're researching. Just looking at statistics instead of reading the reviews might open the door to making a poor choice, but I hope no one is doing that.

Before responding to your post, I actually read the most recent 10 reviews for Tzarina Tours. (These 10 all appeared on the first of six pages of reviews). Reviews #6 and #7 may be from two clients who were together on the same tour, but otherwise, the comments clearly reveal that the posters are writing as individual satisfied customers. Each poster generally included enough detail for me to get a sense of what mattered to them and how the tour company met those expectations. That's powerful information to help people plan a St. Petersburg visit whether looking at the #1 rated company or the #22nd.

Please understand I am not saying everyone should suddenly abandon the top rated companies on TA. However, I am strongly saying that people should not be locked in to 4 or 5 choices, especially if those choices do not meet their needs.

Please understand I am not saying everyone should suddenly abandon the top rated companies on TA. However, I am strongly saying that people should not be locked in to 4 or 5 choices, especially if those choices do not meet their needs.

That's exactly why we used Best Guides for our June stop in St Pete. Yes, I know that they are one of the "smaller" major players in St Pete but they were the only company out of the 5 or 6 that I contacted that was willing to give us what we asked for. I contacted the "big companies" and several new to me (and not seen on this board) ones. Some replied back, others I'm still waiting for. Several were VERY expensive but Best Guides gave us what we wanted in the way of a tour for a reasonable price.

See my post #61 on this thread for more info. I would be happy to answer any questions.

<<<Karen>>>

We looked into TJ travel in the fall of 2015 and emailed them many times. They were prompt and courteous with every answer and helped us to get to a ballet on one of the evenings at a reasonable cost. The 3-day tour was thorough and covered much. I can't say enough about TJ Travel. They get top marks for their tours - we did Helsinki and Berlin with them too.

My wife and I visited Russia in July and after our time there did a Baltic cruise with Princess. We were not familiar with the Baltic or the tour companies so spent some time on Cruise Critic and the net. We read that companies such as Alla, TJ Tours, Red October, SPB Tours were mentioned often. We decided to use Princess for excursions except in Germany where we booked a Berlin tour with SPB Tours. We selected that company because of the many good reports and the company has tours in many Baltic cities. SPB Tours have “Your trusted friend in the Baltic!” in their emails and “Your Personal Tour Operator “ on their advertising material. I will now describe an event that occurred on our SPB Berlin tour and you can decide if SPB lives up to its advertising.

At each stop the tour guide stated that we could leave personal effects in the bus in the care of the bus driver. There were about 35 people on the bus which had a front and middle door. On about the fourth stop we returned to the bus which had the doors closed with no sign of the driver. Our group had been about 75 meters away from the bus for about 10-15 minutes. The bus driver returned and on entering the bus my wife found that her bag was missing and another passenger said her bag had been interfered with. The bus driver produced a phone photo of a person leaving the bus with my wife’s bag. The tour guide said losses should be covered by the bus companies insurance. He was given a list of the most important bag contents.

Over the next 11 days I received 5 emails from SPB Tours office staff in Berlin. Initial emails said a police report would be filed and a later email said a report was filed. The last email said that the bus company will not accept liability and that the sender will submit a police report on my behalf if I wish. There has been no contact or response from Steffen and Viktoria Rother who I assume are the company owners.

The rest of our cruise was not as happy as it could have been.

OK, you were robbed whilst on holiday in Germany. Sorry to hear it, but these things happen.

I don't know why it should reflect on tours in St. Petersburg, Russia, or even on SPB in general.

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OK, you were robbed whilst on holiday in Germany. Sorry to hear it, but these things happen.

 

I don't know why it should reflect on tours in St. Petersburg, Russia, or even on SPB in general

We'll agree to disagree on your inability to see how this reflects on SPB. I'm not stating that SPB has liability in the legal sense. I am saying SPB is in a business where good will counts and this incident certainly doesn't add to SPB's reputation.

I'm assuming the tour guide is a free lancer hired for that specific tour as an independent contractor. That means SPB has no liability for the tour guide's promises. Ditto for the bus company. The bus company was contracted by SPB (Belin) to provide its services for a specific day and time. Even if the bus driver himself had made the verbal promise, SPB has no liability after the theft.

As the situation now stands, SPB appears to have made the calculation that they have so much business with so many satisfied customers that they can ride out this incident without compensating Not a Skimmer. If they begin to see an unacceptable downturn in inquiries -- fallout from having their name appearing on the internet in connection with this incident -- I suspect Not a Skimmer will hear from SPB with positive news.

I guess the take away from this situation is that none of us should leave anything in a car/van/bus that we aren't prepared to lose.

Where are you getting your information that TA "pads the stats for many things"? Is it a case of "everyone knows"? Have you read an article exposing TA's practices? Having posted many reviews on TA, I don't see that their process invites scams any more or less than posting to other web sites. For example, a poster cannot place his/her review on the site directly; he/she must wait for a moderator to load it onto the site.

 

As for your hypothetical comment that the 53 reviews may have come from a "large family who loves to write good reviews" I can only ask if you actually read the reviews for any tour company, hotel, restaurant or whatever that you're researching. Just looking at statistics instead of reading the reviews might open the door to making a poor choice, but I hope no one is doing that.

 

Before responding to your post, I actually read the most recent 10 reviews for Tzarina Tours. (These 10 all appeared on the first of six pages of reviews). Reviews #6 and #7 may be from two clients who were together on the same tour, but otherwise, the comments clearly reveal that the posters are writing as individual satisfied customers. Each poster generally included enough detail for me to get a sense of what mattered to them and how the tour company met those expectations. That's powerful information to help people plan a St. Petersburg visit whether looking at the #1 rated company or the #22nd.

 

Please understand I am not saying everyone should suddenly abandon the top rated companies on TA. However, I am strongly saying that people should not be locked in to 4 or 5 choices, especially if those choices do not meet their needs.

TA is notorious for padding their stats as they say. If YOU don't know that, that's OK. If you want to believe everything you read on TA, that's OK also.

As to where I get my info from, many people from this site alone have stated that. You look here, people have thousands of posts. Most people on Ta have under 5. Take that as you want. I stand by my comment that 53 posts on one company is basically a drop in the bucket and who knows how many of those 53 are legit travelers.

Cheers Len

TA is notorious for padding their stats as they say.... As to where I get my info from, many people from this site alone have stated that.

I think your claim that "TA is notorious for padding their stats" is right up there with the fact George Washington chopped down the cherry tree and Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. However, on this fact, it's irrelevant whether or not we agree.

Your approach makes you comfortable and has brought you success. Fine. Where we disagree is that you go beyond giving advice to bully posters who inquire about a tour company that doesn't fit your mold. That's inappropriate.

We booked a two-day tour with CJ Travel. Although called a small group tour, it was a private tour for my wife and I. The guide Svetlana and the driver Max were terrific. We visited all of the major places and got an early entrance to the Hermitage. Because it was a private tour, we asked to go to particular places and they were very happy to accomodate us. For instance, we requested that we go to the Synagogue. They took us there and arranged for us to go inside. The whole tour was great and cost half the proce of the Viking Cruise 2 day excursion.

bully posters

I think you had better reread my posts from the past 5 years or so and show me where this 'Bully' thing has happened.

Sorry, but I think a Cheers isn't even welcome here

Len

I think you had better reread my posts from the past 5 years or so and show me where this 'Bully' thing has happened

I'm taking you at your word.

Please go to post #86 in this thread. This poster describes arranging a tour that bears no resemblance to any standard tour. Yet your reply (Post #88) criticizes the tour company on the basis of their standard tour. It has no applicability to either southofnorth's experience or to anyone wishing to customize a tour beyond the most minimal changes.

Not satisfied to criticize Tzarina tours, you used southofnorth's low posting number -- ignorning highly specific and personal detail like working for an LED company -- to state that his post should be viewed with suspicion. Southofnorth's reply (#94) refutes every criticism you made.

You certainly include the conciliatory phrase "I'm not doubting your tour or the success of it", but that seems less than genuine when follow it by doubling down on your criticism at the end of post #88.

After NorthofSouth responds to each of your criticisms (#94), you reply (#103), "Just to be clear, I wasn't criticizing or condemning, just trying to point out some basic facts." We'll agree to disagree. Words have meaning. You ignored facts like the poster's unique itinerary and the abundant detail that identified him as a legitimate poster with something meaningful to add about non-standard itineraries. That is what took your behavior from reasonable advice to intimidating.

If you're tempted to write off what I've shared as my point of view only, I suggest you look at posts #96 and #99.

The most-named tour companies won't answer queries about significantly customized tours. The board should welcome discussion of every tour company that is willing to offer unusual tours regardless of the relatively lower number of reviews. We need help identifying the good companies that are willing to create successful tours for people with mobility issues, health issues, multi-generational issues, repeat visitors, people with highly specialized interests, and more special needs. If there's any doubt about the legitimacy of reviews, we can discuss those reviews to see if we can collectively help cruisers vet companies that are less well known to this board.

I've made all the points I wish to make on this issue.

We used ALLA tours after some intense research on here and the web. We had a GREAT tour and guide. Our guides name was Elena and we were on the St Petes Grand Tour. She spoke english extremely well, ( we met up with another Alla tour on a boat ride portion, and we overheard someone in that group remark how well she spoke, without a thick Russian accent. Apparently their guide did) we were also impressed by the depth of her knowledge, from the places we went to the works of art we saw, she would always be able to answer our questions.

My only complaint and I hesitate to call it that, is you seem to be rushed. St Pete's is not a place to do in 2 days, but we had a great tour and were able to see everything on the itinerary in spite of the fact of having MAJOR traffic problems on our 2nd day, due to the blocking of roads in the downtown area with the Russian PM in town. Our driver, with the help of our guide somehow got us around it. We heard later that many others did not see all their destinations due to this, especially if you were on the larger full size buses.

We were in smaller van sized buses, that are limited to 18 people and our group was only 15, this smaller sized group is easier to stick together, especially in some of the places you visit were there are hundreds of people around, Hermitage, Peterhof, any of the churches, Catherine Palace.

...My only complaint and I hesitate to call it that, is you seem to be rushed. St Pete's is not a place to do in 2 days, but we had a great tour and were able to see everything on the itinerary in spite of the fact of having MAJOR traffic problems on our 2nd day, due to the blocking of roads in the downtown area with the Russian PM in town. Our driver, with the help of our guide somehow got us around it. We heard later that many others did not see all their destinations due to this, especially if you were on the larger full size buses...

Were you on the Regal by chance? We were taking a 2-day TJ Travel Tour and ran into the chaos caused by Mr Medvedev's visit. I've bigged-up TJ's tour, our excellent guide Maya and our tame Russian driver The Stig - sorry Dimitri and his Merc mini-bus - in both my cruise review and on Trip Advisor. I'd have no hesitation in recommending TJ Travel or booking them again should we ever revisit St. Petersburg.

I'd agree that it is impossible to "do" St. Petersburg justice in 2 days, especially if you're a newbie like ourselves and want to get a taster, but of the sights we wanted to see, we saw them all and were back at the ship in plenty of time - definitely the highlight of our cruise!

If you're after a "vanilla" tour - and lets face it, the majority of us on the cruise were - I'd argue that it is pretty difficult to go wrong if you book with any of the top-rated tour companies listed on TA.

I would like some recommendations about which tour company to

book for my 2 day stay in St. Petersburg.

Thanks

Alla Tours are great and beat the price of Princess Cruises any day. Just a warning: Do not wear an anorak or carry an umbrella as the place where you must store those things is overrun and you never find the tour guide again. This is what happened to us. Three cruise ships were in town and on the 9th of May Russia celebrated the victory over the nasties, so there were double the school classes and tourists on the day before, plain murder.

Alla Tours take you to the Hermitage (a must), Peterhof, Katherine's Palace and churches galore and the guide speaks perfect English. Small tour bus. They also organise your Russian visa.

We used ALLA tours after some intense research on here and the web. We had a GREAT tour and guide. Our guides name was Elena and we were on the St Petes Grand Tour. She spoke english extremely well, ( we met up with another Alla tour on a boat ride portion, and we overheard someone in that group remark how well she spoke, without a thick Russian accent. Apparently their guide did) we were also impressed by the depth of her knowledge, from the places we went to the works of art we saw, she would always be able to answer our questions.

My only complaint and I hesitate to call it that, is you seem to be rushed. St Pete's is not a place to do in 2 days, but we had a great tour and were able to see everything on the itinerary in spite of the fact of having MAJOR traffic problems on our 2nd day, due to the blocking of roads in the downtown area with the Russian PM in town. Our driver, with the help of our guide somehow got us around it. We heard later that many others did not see all their destinations due to this, especially if you were on the larger full size buses.

We were in smaller van sized buses, that are limited to 18 people and our group was only 15, this smaller sized group is easier to stick together, especially in some of the places you visit were there are hundreds of people around, Hermitage, Peterhof, any of the churches, Catherine Palace.

We also had Elena and she is great!

Is it too late too book a private tour? We sail on 1st October! Thank you in advance

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Is it too late too book a private tour? We sail on 1st October! Thank you in advance

There are two unknowns:

o how long the Russian government takes to process an application for the ticket/blanket visa you need to enter St Petersburg

o which of the good licensed tour companies still has guides available (or can add a guide from its list of acceptable free lancers.) if you're talking about a totally private tour or can add you to an existing group.

Aside from the obvious which is that you should begin making contact with the tour companies the instant you read this reply, the other advice I can offer is to expand you net somewhat more broadly. Do not obsess on using the four names that get repeated on this site. Those companies may have a larger list of freelancers so they may be able to work something out for you. However, here is my best recollection of names people have used with success for private tours:

SPB

TJ

Alla

White Nights Travel

Insider Tours

Best Guides

Tzarina

I've used White Nights, yet I think I'm still the only one to have posted about them on this board. If you judge by the number of times their name pops up on this board, it's few and only in my posts. However, someone is using them and loving their services as much as we did. When we booked them, they were rated at Number 10 on Trip Advisor. By the time we actually took the cruise, they were rated number 6. Today, when consulting this list for my post, they are rated number 5.

If you aren't able to book a tour with a private licensed company, is it too late for you to book with your ship? I'm reluctant to recommend this, but, unless you have a visa that you individually got from the Russian consulate in the UK, the alternative is to stay on the ship while you're in port!!

Reaching out simultaneously to multiple companies -- and reaching out immediately -- is your only hope!

Thank you for your great advice and prompt response. I am currently looking at tour companies with a view to contacting them asap. You have confirmed what I thought so will step on the gas!!

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Evening ballet or folklore show? Any recommendations?

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Is it too late too book a private tour? We sail on 1st October! Thank you in advance

A couple from our Roll Call joined our tour with SPB a week before our sailing. If you email them soon enough, you will get a response within 24 hours.

Does anyone here have experience with SPB flat rate tours? I am not getting anyone on my roll call for my cruise and thought that the flat rate may be the way to go. Somehow you register your ship and they handle it from there. The price is really, really good that way.