Canal/River cruise in St Pete's through private tour operator?

I'm reading that doing a river/canal cruise when in St. Petersburg is a must, but the only way I'm finding to do that is through a tour that our cruise ship (Princess) offers. It's only half a day, leaving me with half a day to either stay on the ship or do Princess' other half day option, the Subway/Walking tour, which ends up at the same place! (Church of Spilled Blood (?)).

Anyone know of any private tours in St Petersburg that include a boat tour? I've been searching the web and can't find anything. They're all bus and walking tours.

thanks!

Karyn

I'm reading that doing a river/canal cruise when in St. Petersburg is a must, but the only way I'm finding to do that is through a tour that our cruise ship (Princess) offers. It's only half a day, leaving me with half a day to either stay on the ship or do Princess' other half day option, the Subway/Walking tour, which ends up at the same place! (Church of Spilled Blood (?)).

 

Anyone know of any private tours in St Petersburg that include a boat tour? I've been searching the web and can't find anything. They're all bus and walking tours.

 

thanks!

Karyn

SPB-TOURS offers an Evening Fun tour which has a canal tour, Vodka tasting and folk performance.

I had booked their HIGHLIGHTS TOUR during the day, then found myself regretting it because I really wanted a Canal boat tour. At their suggestion, I added the evening FUn tour.

I now have the Highlights Tour for $200 and an evening Fun tour for $60, which for a total of $260 pp is quite a good deal in my opinion. Most of the other Privately run group tours are $300 and up.

I'm reading that doing a river/canal cruise when in St. Petersburg is a must, but the only way I'm finding to do that is through a tour that our cruise ship (Princess) offers. It's only half a day, leaving me with half a day to either stay on the ship or do Princess' other half day option, the Subway/Walking tour, which ends up at the same place! (Church of Spilled Blood (?)).

 

Anyone know of any private tours in St Petersburg that include a boat tour? I've been searching the web and can't find anything. They're all bus and walking tours.

 

thanks!

Karyn

Our Alla Grand 2 day tour has a 1 hour boat tour in addition to the hydrofoil and subway trip. Vs he describes it as a city tour from a boat angle.

A group from our Roll Call booked a private tour with Anastasia and requested that the canal trip be part of the day. We did it in the afternoon, and it was a nice relaxing break since we had planned a very busy morning.

we had a canal cruise through Anastasia for our private group of 3

we had the whole large boat to ourselves and our guide who provided Russian chocolate and fizzy wine for our 1 hour trip-great fun

SPB Tours 2-day deluxe tour has a canal boat tour the second morning. I think it was only about an hour or so, not a half day.

We also had a canal trip and hydrofoil included with the 2 day Alla tour last year, I can highly recommend this company.

So it seems like we have to book a 2 day tour to get a boat tour, which we really didn't want to do - too constricting. I wanted to mix and match a few different things on the 2 day stopover we have. I wanted to sign up for the ship's "Hermitage plus free time" tour which is the ONLY tour I've seen anywhere allowing us to wander about on our own for a few hours. (Contrary to popular belief, you can wander around on your own, visa-free, so long as you have a document from your tour provider. Ferry-boat passengers do it all the time. Local officials look the other way.)

I saw the SPB evening boat tour, but it has to be booked as part of a group of minimum 10 people, which we don't have, so I thought it would be unlikely we could do this tour. But I will inquire if there is an existing group we can join.

Thanks for responses!

So it seems like we have to book a 2 day tour to get a boat tour, which we really didn't want to do - too constricting. I wanted to mix and match a few different things on the 2 day stopover we have. I wanted to sign up for the ship's "Hermitage plus free time" tour which is the ONLY tour I've seen anywhere allowing us to wander about on our own for a few hours. (Contrary to popular belief, you can wander around on your own, visa-free, so long as you have a document from your tour provider. Ferry-boat passengers do it all the time. Local officials look the other way.)

 

I saw the SPB evening boat tour, but it has to be booked as part of a group of minimum 10 people, which we don't have, so I thought it would be unlikely we could do this tour. But I will inquire if there is an existing group we can join.

 

Thanks for responses!

We booked an evening canal ride and vodka tasting through TJ Travel last year. My husband and I took a full-day private tour (just the two of us) with TJ Travel, and then in the evening joined another TJ Travel-organized group for the canal ride. TJ Travel will put your names on a list and then form a tour group accordingly. Your don't have to organize the group yourself.

We had a two day tour with TJ in May,2013. Excellent tour, highly professional guide. The canal tour was part of our tour package.

We also used SPB Tours and their Deluxe tour include\s the Canal Boat ride. In fact, we had it scheduled for day 2, but we had such glorious weather, they asked us if we would like to end the day doing this instead of the next day. we all agreed and it was a marvelous way to unwind after a rather hectic day.

I would say it is not to be missed, as it gives you an entirely different view of St Petersburg.

Here are a few of my pixs to give you an idea

Winding along the canals, things look a lot different

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster771.jpg

Going thru one of the many very low bridges

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster783.jpg

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europe774.jpg

Tell me how people get down to these boats?

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster773.jpg

Just sit back and enjoy the ride

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europe786.jpg

It eventually empties out into the harbor, where you can view the spires of the Fortress of Peter and Paul

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz267/Giantfan13/baltics/europemaster760.jpg

Don't miss out on this wonderful part of seeing St Petersburg

Cheers

Len