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St. Petersburg tour questions


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Looking forward to our Navigator Baltic cruise and planning to pre-book our St. Petersburg tours on line. Two questions that I wonder if anyone can answer. 1. What is cancellation policy...how late can we cancel/change our tours? 2. Tours are only listed as AM or PM, no specific times...can I assume that the timings are done so that you can do both a morning and afternoon tour without a problem?

 

Thanks

nearly

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I have never booked a tour on line, but I assume the cancellation policy is the same as on board ship...24 hours in advance (except Moscow, which is non refundable after booking). Yes, they do time them so that you can do a morning and afternoon. Basically just watch the length of a tour. Most mornings start at 830-9AM and the afternoon at 1P. The main problem is that there is so much to see. Do not miss Peterhof, and Catherine's Palace.

Enjoy

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Thanks for your reply. I'm pleased you think Peterhof is worth a visit as it's the only option (other than shopping) for the AM tour on the first day and we want to keep the afternoon for the "experience daily life" tour. We decided to go with ship tours for simplicity's sake, but they've arranged them in a way that makes it difficult to combine and see the things we really want to see.

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If you are thinking of lacquer boxes or Matroyskas, the best shop (selection and price wise) I have found is across the side street from St. Issacs, down toward the statue. I can not remember the name, but it is something like Art Treasures. (I thought it was paintings). They have a wonderful selection of boxes by village, and all price ranges. I highly recommend it. Baltic travel (the tour company Regent uses) has it's own shop that they will probably take you to and it is nice and reputable, but not nearly the selection of boxes and Matroyskas. However, they do have other types of Russian goods.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi, I am sailing on the 8/5 Voyager out of Stockholm. I am considering getting my own visas for Russia, and striking out on my own with my wife and two college age daughters. Does anyone have any input on this? It seems to me that the planned excursions are rather limiting, especially with the timing restrictions (both duration and "report back" times).

 

Does anyone know of a good way to book some independent excursions, perhaps with a van for 8-10 people? And, if so, how do I go about finding other passengers interested in joining me/us?

 

Thanks.

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oakie,

I always get an individual visa, but you are running out of time to get it in a timely manner. With your documents, you will get a form if you wish to book through the ship. Regent's cost for a minivan which seats 3-10 guests is $750.00 for 4 hours and $990 for 8 hours.

Three years ago I used ost-west for a 'walking" tour and was very happy. Other posters have recommended Red October. Both companies have web sites in English. They are less money than the ship's company.

If you are going to Catherine's Palace or Peteroff, I would recommend taking the ship's tour because you pay so much for a guide and driver, and it is a long drive to each of those Palaces (They are well worth the rip.

Hope this helps

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Oakie - If you are a confident traveler, spending one day in the city on your own with your private visas is great fun. We did that and had a fine time. You are indeed getting a bit short on time to get private visas, unless you are near a city with a Russian consulate (we got our visas here in Seattle in exactly one week by taking the applications into the office in person and then picking them up in person a week later). I also speak some Russian (however rusty it may be from my days many years ago as a Russian intercept operator in the Army Security Agency), which made us less concerned about getting around St. P. on our own. If you do go on your own, a very pleasant hour may be spent on a canal tour (the boats leave from the quai close to the Church of the Spilled Blood). The best arts and crafts market (with a couple of dozen booths) in St. P. is across the street from the same magnificent church, the inside of which is entirely covered with mosaics - quite amazing.

 

We emphatically recommend using a private car or van rather than taking a bus tour. We found that for a private car and driver the ship's price was quite comparable to that of Red October. It isn't cheap by any means; but when one considers how precious your time in St. P. is, the advantage of having control over your schedule (YOU, not your bus guide, decide where to go and how long or short a time to spend there), as the MasterCard commercial says, is "something that money can't buy". And, in fact, we've found repeatedly all over the world that once one has four or more people in the little private group, the price of a private car/van and driver/guide is usually in the same ballpark per person as the dreadful bus tours. We used the private car and guide to go to Peterhof and Catherine's Palace on the same day, in addition to visiting a wonderful farmer's market in the city. It is much more efficient to use a private car/van than to use the bus because you are not waiting on the pace of 35-50 people on the bus, several of whom are invariably late getting back on board. Further, you can set your own plans for such things as lunch (we had a delightful quick lunch at Peterhof in the little cafeteria in the garden, of solyanka - meat & vegetable soup - and piroshki). This is much better than being trapped into the lunch schedule for the bus tour, which usually takes twice as long as we would like to spend.

 

You may find that you will be happy to just use private vans for the four of you; but if you want to try to share the expense with a few others, you can post your request for companions on this board (I think) and on the other board which has a lot of Regent activity. On that board, a number of people on our recent Voyager cruise from Monte Carlo to Dover found people to share the vans.

 

Have a marvelous time in St. P. It is a magnificent city. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at fvs98282@wavecable.com. I'll be happy to give you whatever info I can.

 

Cheers, Fred

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Hi, I am looking to book an 8-10 passenger multi-day tour with DenRus at a much better rate and, I am hoping, much more flexibility than through the ship. We are on the Aug 5 sailing.

 

Is anyone else on this sailing interested? Does anyone have any input on this approach? I have already received some and appreciate the advice greatly.

 

oakie4@aol.com

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Oakie - We think you are quite wise to do the private tours. Two things that you should check carefully, however, are whether DenRus can cover you with a group visa and whether they can enter the terminal to meet you at your ship. Depending on where the ship docks, it can be a long ways from the ship to the terminal gate building. Fortunately, Navigator is smaller and may be able to dock along the Neva in town (as Voyager did last week). On our visit to St. P., Voyager docked right in front of the terminal gate building; but the previous cruise, the ship docked more than a mile from the gate. Good luck. St. P. is a wonderful city. Cheers, Fred

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Just returned from the Voyager June 19th. We used Red October for our tours. They were great. They supply all of the documents for a Visa and will take you where you want to tour. You set in up with Laura in Russia and she will send you all of the necessary documents. The Voyager tours are large and on a bus. There is alot of waiting time involved and sometimes it is hard to hear the tour guide. The Red October tours can be small (2 People) to large (8 or 10). Much better then 35 people plus you decide what you want to see. We did go to Moscow on the 2nd day and it was great. The only bad comment is that is was very hard to hear the tour guide in the Armory Museum because there were so many people in our group (each bus is a group). The rest of the Moscow trip was great. We had free time in Red Square in the late afternoon. Next to Red Square is a shopping center but it is mostly designer shops, but also some souviner stores.

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Thanks to everyone for your input on going it independently in St Petersburgh. I am most definitely adventurous and like to have some freedom/input on what I'm doing and where I'm going. I know this will be WAY different from my last trip to Leningrad in 1977 with a college trip!

 

Cakamhi, do you have any contact info for Laura with Red October?

 

Also, I am sailing with my family on the August 5 on the Voyager out of Stockholm.

 

Does anyone have any idea on how to connect with other passengers on this sailing?

 

You can contact me directly on oakie4@aol.com or call @ 508-328-5146.

 

Thanks, again. And, happy summer to all!

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