Join our small group in St Petersburg 22/23 Sept

Anyone on Spirit sailing from Harwich on 17th Sept who fancies a smaller private group 2 day tour of St Petersburg with the likes of ALLA Tours or Red October ? Very well reviewed and better experience than the Thomson excursions apparently.

Hi

Myself and husband are on same cruise. Want to see as much as possible in St.P. including the ballet. Do you have details of the trips you are interested in.

Sandie

Someone who is going there this month says if you are not on a Thomson trip you need to get a visa if you want to go ashore. Might be worth checking with the companies you want to book with to be sure.

We are on this cruise too, (4 of us ) and are interested . We were going to book 2 half day trips with Thomson as it seemed less bother, but would like to hear what you have in mind. :)

Someone who is going there this month says if you are not on a Thomson trip you need to get a visa if you want to go ashore. Might be worth checking with the companies you want to book with to be sure.

We did a private tour with Delrus last July and there are no visa issues. The rule is that all cruise passengers can go visa free as long as they are on an official tour.

You are fine with any of the main ones that use registered guides. I would highly recommend doing private tours as you see far more than on the ships tours. You name it we saw it in St. P including going into church's during services, folk places and the underground along with taking us to several Vodka shops (at our request)

We are a group of 4, keen on the private 2-day Grand Tour which ALLA Tours will run.

In minor ways we can tailor what it includes. The Grand Tour program on their website pretty much ticks all our boxes.

The 9-hour first day doesn't include the evening ballet but, for anyone with the stamina, it's likely ALLA would arrange it or you could do the Thomson one.

ALLA arrange visa's and it all appears straightforward to sign up to ; they have lots of excellent reviews on Trip Advisor and I am in e-mail contact with the manager.

If we get a small group together (probably 10 would be as big as we'd want) it is a little over $300 each including all the entry fees.

Check out the ALLA website & Trip Advisor and let me know what you think. I read somewhere that the paperwork needs to be done 6 weeks before St.P arrival so we'd better not dally. 'Golfing disaster'

A couple of points about the ballet trip, as offered by Thomsons.

Many ladies go without their husbands/partners, that is considered quite acceptable, as it is a large organised group all from the same ship.

If you are on a full day or afternoon excursion it is quite a scatter to get back and prepare before joining the ballet party.

I had a "meaningful discussion" with Thomsons excursion staff on Spirit last summer. We were assured our day trip would be back around 4:00pm to 4:30pm with plenty time to get ready for the evening departure.

In reality we were not onboard until 5:45pm and that left little time for Her Ladyship to shower, dress and grab a quick bite to eat in the buffet.

Also - double check which performance is on, as either Thomsons and/or the ballet company got it wrong on the night. Swan Lake turned out to be the Nutcracker Suite which disappointed most who went expecting the former.

I think 9 hours is a bit intense for us, even though I realize that you have to pack a lot into the time you have. So we will stick to our thomsons. Hope you have a brilliant day.:)