Dancing Bear Tours in St Petersburg?

Hello all,

Has anyone used Dancing Bear Tours in St. P. recently? They get great reviews on Trip Advisor, but I'm a bit skeptical about TA reviews. I'd love to hear from any CC'rs. (I did attempt to search it, but didn't come up with much, so please forgive me if I missed a lot of info.)

Thanks so very much in advance to anyone who may be able to help.

Hello all,

 

Has anyone used Dancing Bear Tours in St. P. recently? They get great reviews on Trip Advisor

Well, they have done up till now, but the latest Trip Advisor review on 22 July is not at all complimentary. That may just be a one-off of course.

Their details look authentic and they have a large number of positive reviews. I'm just a bit mystified as to why this company isn't being regularly mentioned on CC if it so many people are impressed by it. I must confess I'd never heard of it before your post.

Well, they have done up till now, but the latest Trip Advisor review on 22 July is not at all complimentary. That may just be a one-off of course.

 

Their details look authentic and they have a large number of positive reviews. I'm just a bit mystified as to why this company isn't being regularly mentioned on CC if it so many people are impressed by it. I must confess I'd never heard of it before your post.

Oh my goodness. You're absolutely right. I was looking at the reviews this last weekend. That negative post must have come in yesterday. Thank you for pointing it out to me.

I was also wondering why I didn't see more on CC. One CCr was very positive, but I couldn't find anyone else.

I was going to use SPB, but then I read some rather bad reviews from this summer. It looks like there may have been one or two bad guides, but I'm not sure.

There are other groups, but most seem to have the same issue - mostly great guides, but a few substandard guides, which leaves me with a big unknown. Dancing Bear appealed to me because it seemed to offer certainty with only a husband and wife team. If they were indeed good, this would be a nice situation.

Oh my goodness. You're absolutely right. I was looking at the reviews this last weekend. That negative post must have come in yesterday. Thank you for pointing it out to me.

 

I was also wondering why I didn't see more on CC. One CCr was very positive, but I couldn't find anyone else.

 

I was going to use SPB, but then I read some rather bad reviews from this summer. It looks like there may have been one or two bad guides, but I'm not sure.

 

There are other groups, but most seem to have the same issue - mostly great guides, but a few substandard guides, which leaves me with a big unknown. Dancing Bear appealed to me because it seemed to offer certainty with only a husband and wife team. If they were indeed good, this would be a nice situation.

You should book with an operator you feel comfortable with.

The problem with small family companies is that if there vehicle has issues, there often is no back up. The one negative review for Dancing Bear relates to the reviewer being upset because the A/C was not working in the vehicle. Is that a reflection on the guides? I wouldn't think so.

As for SPB, the lion's share of their reviews are excellent, but if you are leary of them, book with someone else or find other means to enjoy the ports. I'll note the top ranked tour operator, according to Tripadvisor, does not conduct tours in English. Many others are hardly mentioned on Cruise Critic. We rely more on cruise critic reviews for shore excursions and tripadvisor more for restaurants and hotels.

Hi Hub of Hockey,

We typically follow the same strategy i.e. book tours with those recommended in CC. Most of the time we've had good luck. I was looking around because the tour guides that I seemed to see sited most frequently also had a few issues reported in either this or other forums. However, you make a very good point -- if there is only one car and it is broken down or only one guide and s/he is ill, the day could be a loss. That would be very disappointing.

From an outside perspective, I would guess that some of the tour organizations have "growing pains". They begin with a small staff of high quality guides and vehicles. As the business grows and demand increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for the owner to assure the quality of every tour, so occasionally a guide or vehicle is used that isn't up to the standard that the owner would like. I believe that most of the groups cited on CC try extremely hard to provide a great tour and are usually successful.

Thanks for your help! I appreciate everyone's thoughts and insight.

Hi Hub of Hockey,

 

We typically follow the same strategy i.e. book tours with those recommended in CC. Most of the time we've had good luck. I was looking around because the tour guides that I seemed to see sited most frequently also had a few issues reported in either this or other forums. However, you make a very good point -- if there is only one car and it is broken down or only one guide and s/he is ill, the day could be a loss. That would be very disappointing.

 

From an outside perspective, I would guess that some of the tour organizations have "growing pains". They begin with a small staff of high quality guides and vehicles. As the business grows and demand increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for the owner to assure the quality of every tour, so occasionally a guide or vehicle is used that isn't up to the standard that the owner would like. I believe that most of the groups cited on CC try extremely hard to provide a great tour and are usually successful.

 

Thanks for your help! I appreciate everyone's thoughts and insight.

Well, we were in Messina a couple of years ago and signed on for a day with an independent driver guide for a tour to Mt Etna and Taormina. The a/c in his van was not working that day. He did his best with personal fans in the vehicle and a cooler full of iced cans of soda, juice, and bottles of water. This gentleman was charming, but mainly a driver and a driver with no a/c in the Med in the summer. For St Petersburg, we'll play it safe and go with one of the big guys.

When we were researching doing a private tour in St Petersburg I e-mailed all the major ones recommended on these boards. One of the first to respond was TJ Travel...after consideration I ended up going with them...just a gut feeling...and was I correct. They gave us (just the two of us with a guide & driver in a new MBZ) a VIP private tour trip of a lifetime...Seeing what they suggested and a combination of what we wanted and with the flexibility to add or change it up on the spur of the moment...Once you contact a few companies you'll also get a feel for who to work with..Enjoy this amazing adventure and all this city has to offer.

When we were researching doing a private tour in St Petersburg I e-mailed all the major ones recommended on these boards. One of the first to respond was TJ Travel...after consideration I ended up going with them...just a gut feeling...and was I correct. They gave us (just the two of us with a guide & driver in a new MBZ) a VIP private tour trip of a lifetime...Seeing what they suggested and a combination of what we wanted and with the flexibility to add or change it up on the spur of the moment...Once you contact a few companies you'll also get a feel for who to work with..Enjoy this amazing adventure and all this city has to offer.

Thanks Ashland. It's great to hear about your fabulous experience! The customization, flexibility, and last, but certainly not least, less waiting(!) are the primary reasons that we love private tours. Also, with a family of four, it's often just a bit more expensive to go privately than to go with a much larger group. Do you recall the name of your guide?

Thank you!

Please realize that trip advisor does not use the same standards as cruise critic when rating tour operators. Here on CC it is simple to figure out if a review is genuine or not. It is easy to post fake recommendAtions on TA. Also to take under consideration is the experience with cruise ship pax. It is entirely different logistics than land based vacations. I have not seen any negative reviews of SPB here on CC

Please realize that trip advisor does not use the same standards as cruise critic when rating tour operators. Here on CC it is simple to figure out if a review is genuine or not. It is easy to post fake recommendAtions on TA. Also to take under consideration is the experience with cruise ship pax. It is entirely different logistics than land based vacations. I have not seen any negative reviews of SPB here on CC

Dancing Bear comments on Trip Advisor are from cruisers and non-cruisers. It's a mom & pop shop where mom gives the tours and pop drives. The website doesn't break out prices of what's included and what is not and is not as user friendly as the ones for companies more frequently reviewed on these boards. The one bad review related to the air conditioning in their van not working well on the day of the tour. I suppose you bear more vehicle risk when booking mom & pop type of tours. Other than that, they get glowing reviews. We will be booking with SPB, more because of the reviews on Cruise Critic, the detail of what is included and what is not included on tours and their responsiveness, even a year out for me. It's all a matter of what comfort level companies give you through reviews here and other other places.

Thanks Ashland. It's great to hear about your fabulous experience! The customization, flexibility, and last, but certainly not least, less waiting(!) are the primary reasons that we love private tours. Also, with a family of four, it's often just a bit more expensive to go privately than to go with a much larger group. Do you recall the name of your guide?

 

Thank you!

I am using TJ in three weeks. I'll try and remember to post the name of our tour guide when we get back for you.

Thanks Ashland. It's great to hear about your fabulous experience! The customization, flexibility, and last, but certainly not least, less waiting(!) are the primary reasons that we love private tours. Also, with a family of four, it's often just a bit more expensive to go privately than to go with a much larger group. Do you recall the name of your guide?

 

Thank you!

Our guide was Anna and she was AMAZING...:D

Our guide was Anna and she was AMAZING...:D

Thanks again!!

I will probably use SPB. They get spectacular reviews in St. Petersburg. In other countries where they outsource their tours their reviews are mixed.

We will also be using SPB Tours. We took the advice of others on CC and did our research prior to contacting several of the tour companies discussed on these boards. The majority of them were responsive, but we did get a feel pretty quickly for the company most suited for us.

As I just said in a prior post, why do people love to find these start up companies, who throw some advertising on the internet, get some friends to put up great reviews on Trip Advisor, and think that they must book with them.

What is the fascination with these companies, when you know booking with SPB Tours, ALLA Tours, TJ Tours, Best Guides, you will get excellent service, excellent tours and you will be assured of doing and seeing exactly what you want. I just do not understand why some feel the need to go elsewhere for some unknown reasons.

We also used SPB Tours. As I have said for several years, we booked with them because of exceptional customer service, just glowing reviews from everyone, and the owner, Viktoria just making us feel so at ease, we felt it was a no brainer. I'm sure all those who used other groups on my list felt the same way.

Why chance the trip of a lifetime to people who are new in that department and do not have the same experience as the major players there.

Cheers

Len

As I just said in a prior post, why do people love to find these start up companies, who throw some advertising on the internet, get some friends to put up great reviews on Trip Advisor, and think that they must book with them.

 

What is the fascination with these companies, when you know booking with SPB Tours, ALLA Tours, TJ Tours, Best Guides, you will get excellent service, excellent tours and you will be assured of doing and seeing exactly what you want. I just do not understand why some feel the need to go elsewhere for some unknown reasons.

 

We also used SPB Tours. As I have said for several years, we booked with them because of exceptional customer service, just glowing reviews from everyone, and the owner, Viktoria just making us feel so at ease, we felt it was a no brainer. I'm sure all those who used other groups on my list felt the same way.

 

Why chance the trip of a lifetime to people who are new in that department and do not have the same experience as the major players there.

 

Cheers

 

Len

We booked with SBP Tours for the same reason you did. Also, I put more risk on Russia than I do for Italy or countries in western Europe. There are definitely good reasons for booking with independents. One of the reasons is the one mentioned in OP of this thread gets outstanding reviews and you know she will be your guide for that day. With the big companies, you really don't know if you will be getting a rookie or one of their top guides. While we are going with SPB, I would have had no problem selecting this company.

Len has been here for years and has posted on dozens of subjects (if not more), which makes it nearly impossible for him to be an employee or friend of a site.

You have been here for hours and have posted in favor of one company, which makes it very likely that you are an employee or friend of that site.

Meanwhile, we have reports about Private Tours being given by all the companies you listed: my wife and I had a wonderful tour from TJ, and other long time posters here have raved about their private tours from Alla, SPB and Denrus.

If you aren't a "shill", then I'm glad you had a great tour with Dancing Bear, and we appreciate the information. But showing up here and making outrageous claims about respected posters is not going to earn you respect.

And it's interesting to me that as someone in Russia that you took a cruiseship to St. Petersburg and used a tourguide. We don't get many Russians posting here, so I wish you dobroye utro.

Dealing with cruise pax is a different genre than a land based tour. So unless a cruise passenger utilized Dancing Bear it is impossible to make a true recommendation to a cruise pax

Furthermore Cruise Critic is run differently than Trip Advisor. This is a community based on honesty and respect. Personally I don't think you are doing the Dancing Bear company any favors with your rude attitude towards cruise critic members

Len has been here for years and has posted on dozens of subjects (if not more), which makes it nearly impossible for him to be an employee or friend of a site.

 

You have been here for hours and have posted in favor of one company, which makes it very likely that you are an employee or friend of that site.

 

Meanwhile, we have reports about Private Tours being given by all the companies you listed: my wife and I had a wonderful tour from TJ, and other long time posters here have raved about their private tours from Alla, SPB and Denrus.

 

If you aren't a "shill", then I'm glad you had a great tour with Dancing Bear, and we appreciate the information. But showing up here and making outrageous claims about respected posters is not going to earn you respect.

 

 

And it's interesting to me that as someone in Russia that you took a cruiseship to St. Petersburg and used a tourguide. We don't get many Russians posting here, so I wish you dobroye utro.

I've been to St. Petersburg twice. The first time we went with a large, established company (Denrus) and were extremely underwhelmed by the guide. The second time we used Dancing Bear and had a wonderful tour. I don't normally post reviews (on either TA or CC), but I think you're making a mistake when you assume a poster is a shill for the company on what I consider flimsy evidence.

We used Dancing Bear tours in 2014 when we were in St Petersburg. Highly recommended. We have kids who were aged 5 & 8 at the time, nothing was too much trouble for our guides. Hope to return again one day.

Oh my goodness. You're absolutely right. I was looking at the reviews this last weekend. That negative post must have come in yesterday. Thank you for pointing it out to me.

 

I was also wondering why I didn't see more on CC. One CCr was very positive, but I couldn't find anyone else.

 

I was going to use SPB, but then I read some rather bad reviews from this summer. It looks like there may have been one or two bad guides, but I'm not sure.

 

There are other groups, but most seem to have the same issue - mostly great guides, but a few substandard guides, which leaves me with a big unknown. Dancing Bear appealed to me because it seemed to offer certainty with only a husband and wife team. If they were indeed good, this would be a nice situation.

I booked with Dancing Bears for my cruise in May. A couple we cruised with recently raved about them. They only book no more than 12. Julia is very easy to work with. They seem good to me.

We used dancing bear tours and had a great time over 2 days. Julia the owner let me add and remove whatever I wanted to customize our tour for 3 people. We had a full size van with guide and driver. I wouldn’t hesitate using them again