St Petersburg Tour Company's Other Baltic Port Tours

Like many, we are going through the process of selecting our tour company for St Petersburg. We will also be including some of the other Baltic city tours as well in the package format. When going through the details, we have been able to identify the small differences for the tours in SP. However, some of the other city tour descriptions are almost identical.

This got me to wondering if SP tour companies are truly running independent tours in these other cities, or simply contracting with a local tour company in those cities for those tours (a plausible scenario given the logistics of distance).

So, for those that have taken tours in some of the other cities through an SP tour group, did you feel the tour was truly from the company you contracted with, or did you feel it was through a local provider? Also, just curious, does anyone recall being grouped up with others in those cities (eg: say you booked with SPB tours in SP, then in Berlin folks that went with Alla/TJ or one of the other companies were part of the Berlin tour).

Just curious mostly, but if they do use a common provider in other cites, it will make the decision process strictly based on the differences in SP. :)

We used SPB for Berlin. Best I could tell that is who we got. Heather did a great job.

We used Alla Tours for Berlin and it was an independent tour through Alla's company. We were not grouped with other clients from other tour companies ... all in our group were booked with Alla. We enjoyed our tour very much.

As far as I know, companies like SPB Tours use local people for their 'other' tours, but they are interviewed and hired by the tour company. It would be silly, IMVHO, to bring in some one from St Petersburg to give a tour in Tallinn. They all would use locals, but they do not hire other tour companies to do the work for them.

I also know that SPB Tours, Viktoria handles all the tours in St Petersburg, but her husband Stephan stays in Berlin thru the tourist season and he handles everything that goes to Berlin. So this makes it a family deal and they make sure nothing goes to chance. Obviously they use other people as guides, but they have been screened and tested and they make sure all guides are everything you would expect a tour guide to be.

Cheers

Len

KirkNC & Dogs4Fun, . . . thanks for sharing your direct experience for Berlin. Berlin for those 2 operators appear as if they are either going the direct employee route, or have dedicated independents that they have vetted and are operating under their name (the same as far as I am concerned).

Any others have direct experience either in Berlin or any of the other Baltic cities?

Just thought I'd post a follow-up to this question, for I got an answer. Some (but not all yet) St. Petersburg tour operators joined forces in 2012 to form Baltic Cruise Association (google will find this).

For my tours in Berlin and Stockholm coming up in June, I was instructed to look for signs with "Baltic Cruise Operations (BCO)" in those 2 ports and is how I came across this information. My understanding this is the operations arm of the association that will be conducting the tours in the other Baltic ports for members of the assciation. I think this might be the first (possibly the second) year they are doing this from what I was able to gather.

I should say, I see this as a good thing for cruisers as well as the operators, . . . and I thought it would make sense for the tour operators to do this which is why I originally asked the question.

Will pass on comments on how the tours in Berlin/Stockholm went when we return.

I used Alla tours' guides in Tallinn and Warnemunde/Rostock and they were wonderful. Small groups, great guides-- would go with them again.

We used SPb tours. Vika lives in STB and oversees the operations there. Her husband lives in Berlin Germany and oversees the Germany portion, and he drove to Tallin to make sure our tours there went off without a hitch.

We will be using TJ Tours for all 5 of the ports (excluding Copenhagen as they do not tour there). Based on communications - as we are using private tours - it appears TJ uses local guides/organizations in the other locales to work with.

Sharon

From all the responses, it sounds like no one uses the tours that Regent provides. Why is that? Are they too crowded? Isn't that part of the appeal to the trip is that shore excursions, except Berlin and a couple of other things, are included?

What would be the average cost of a private tour?

Sharon

From all the responses, it sounds like no one uses the tours that Regent provides. Why is that? Are they too crowded? Isn't that part of the appeal to the trip is that shore excursions, except Berlin and a couple of other things, are included?

What would be the average cost of a private tour?

Sharon

If you are speaking of the Cruise line and their own shore excursions, you hit the nail right on the head, at least for one answer, TOO CROWDED. Almost every shore excursion is a huge bus with what, 40, 50 maybe even 60 people along. So you can only go as fast (or slow) as the slowest person. They tell you how much time they can spend at a certain place, they take you to THEIR shops (where they get their kickback). PLUS, they are also too darn expensive, compared to what you can get doing things on your won or privately. Those are just for a start.

If you are mobile and have no problems walking, almost every port can be done very easily on your own. Except for St Petersburg, English is spoken fluently and people are just so friendly. If you prefer to do a group tour, check out some of the private tour companies in St Petersburg. They all do a sort of 5 city package thing where they will have small group tours in many of the ports you will be visiting and for a much cheaper price than any ship's excursion. We used a company called SPB Tours and they have an excellent package 5 city tour. http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en/node. Several of the other companies offer the same deal also.

Steer clear of ship's tours, you can do so much better many other ways.

Cheers

Len