Denrus Tours

Has anyone used the Denrus tours for either Saint Petersburg or any of the Baltic cities? I am considering the custom tour for St. Petersburg or maybe the value tour by bus which seems to be a very good value yet still goes to all the sights that seem to be worth seeing if only in port for two days.

Do a little research

Start here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=691174

There is soooooo much information on this board regarding DenRus, Red October and Alla Tours, the three principal companies doing shore excursions in St. P. You will find MORE than you want to know by just scrolling around a bit.

Have a GREAT cruise!

I've read much about the available tours. What I'm looking for is opinions from those who have actually taken the tours.

We were also looking for a DenRus value tour, but saw that Celebrity has the shore excursions on-line now. They are offering a car tour, but not any descriptions of what will be seen on their tours. Has anyone gone to Pushkin? I'm not familar with it and not sure it will be something I would consider important to see. Of course they will follow to the letter what the tour parameters outlined by Celebrity, no deviations are. But it is a small group. Car or van option. I may make a separate posting on this.

Catherine's palace is in Pushkin - the palace with the "Amber Room"..... It is about an hour's ride away from St. petersburg, however in the opposite direction than going to Peterhof (Gulf of Findland area)....

We were on a 3 day custom tour (8 people) with Denrus, and were very pleased.....we saw all the sites in the city, ate at Stolle Pies (2 different locations) and at Count Stroganoff's....went to see Peterhof, Catherine's Palace, and Yusopov Palace, spent 3 hours in the Hermitage- in addition to all the churches, Peter and Paul Fortress.....went on the subway, and we came back to St. Petersburg by hydrofoil from Peterhof.....our guide was very knowledgeable, and one evening 6 of us took in the folkloric show at Nikolaevsky palace.....

We very much enjoyed our tour - however, Denrus, Red October and Alla get equal praises from posters......

CJcruzer

I read so many posts on CC re the "big" three in St. Petersburg.

After reading and reading I contacted them all and chose DenRus for our 3 day private tour.

If you do a private tour they can customize it to fit your needs.

I think you would be safe and happy with any of these outfits.

So I suggest you read the many posts of this board from folks who have already gone and posted here in the past.

Agreed, there are many posts about these tour companies. We are going with DenRus because we really wanted to do the "Lunch with A Russian Family" which they offer. Our 2-day custom tour will end up being cheaper than the Princess 2-day tour (which does not go to the Catherine Palace, one of the places we want to see). Also we will be in a van as opposed to a coach bus with tons of other passengers. I have to say that I have been very impressed with the customer service at DenRus - when I email them I always get a response within 24 hours.

We used Denrus (4 of us) two years ago and are still talking about how wonderful our Russian experience was. We planned the things we wanted to see and even included some shopping. Our driver spoke no English, our tour guide, Nadya was the best! We bought them lunch and tipped them well at the end of the two days. When we discussed our tour with several cruise passengers who had taken ships tours we had seen so much more than they had in the same amount of time and for about the same money. Don't hesitate taking Denrus.

:)I have been moved to join cruise critic because of the damning post by a member who was not happy with Denrus. We used them 3 years ago, having seen a small recommendation for them in the Telegraph travel pages letters. We were not combined with another ship, so that day 2 midi coaches set off independently. We had an older lady as our guide, who gave us a fabulous 2 days. She told us about the history, culture, lifestyle and willingly answered questions. She included up-to-date information, like how to buy a flat etc. She whisked us to the front of the queue at Catherine Palace, muttering 'We are a small group, I don't think we will wait. Follow me!' Ours would be considered a value tour, and good value it was too. Other passengers who went on the ship's tours said they were on coaches of 50 had student guides who were not really interested. Someone else is right in saying that the guide makes the tour. I think the traveller who had the unsatisfactory private tour had not done her homework properly to know she exactly where she wanted to go. As everyone's taste is different, I don't think it is fair to say 'Take me to a bar', and then not be happy. If you want a private tour, invest in a good guide, like DK Eyewitness, so you know what is on offer. I can't fault our guide or trip. Brilliant.

It has been a few years now, but I was very pleased with Denrus' 2-day Value Tour that I took with them. We were on a bus of about 25-30 people and our guide was excellent. I had no complaints.