Private tours in St.Petersburg

We are traveling on Regent Voyager to St. Petersburg and want to book a private tour 1 of the days we are there. Has anyone done this traveling on Regent and were there any complications not using the Regent excursions?

We are traveling on Regent Voyager to St. Petersburg and want to book a private tour 1 of the days we are there. Has anyone done this traveling on Regent and were there any complications not using the Regent excursions?

You'll have to pre book or get an entry visa for Russia.

I plan on pre booking, and tour company covers our visa needs. We just need to "cram" more into the day than we can do through Regent. Regent doesn't care if we use a private tour company does it? Using Regent other days for "free" excursions.

:)We traveled on Holland America to St. Petersburg and used Alla-Tours.com for a private tour. We had a party of 12 and it worked out perfectly. Alla Tours picked us up right from where the ship docked. All the visas were taken care of. No worries. You just print out what they tell you to do and we were through customs.

We actually were joined by a nice couple from a Regent Ship (they were picked up after we were). They were from the UK, and we are from US. The small tour van was very nice and comfortable. It was very enjoyable and the tour was wonderful. We saw all the sights!

We actually did a two day tour with the company. Worth every penny! We didn't wait in any lines, we were in the Hermitage early and there were no crowds. This was in July, so we were sure it would be busy. I also think RedOctober is a company out of St. Petersburg that does private tours.

Good luck with your decision. I think if you are only there for one day... go with a private tour! You'll see a lot more and the guide will be wonderful.

I would give Alla-Tours 5 Stars! They were wonderful and we saw so much for the short time we were there. (The couple on Regent were so nice, that made us look into using Regent. We are about to take our second cruise in June!!).:)

The most likely "complications" are as follows: (1) something happens to your ship or a passenger on board, throwing off the schedule-- most likely you will lose the cost of your private tour; and (2) something happens during your privately arranged shore excursion causing you to miss a return time cutoff, at which point you will be on your own scrambling to catch the ship in the next port. Neither of these are extremely likely, but they are something to keep in mind when booking.

Back in 2008 we did a private tour with Exeter International on a Celebrity Cruise and absolutely loved it. You can definitely get around faster in a private towncar than on a big bus!

We are using SPB tours in St Petersburg for our cruise this June. They get rave reviews on trip advisor and have been very responsive. I have been on 12 or so cruises and after the first one or two when we didn't know way better I have always booked private tours. During all these years I have never missed the ship and had no trouble at all getting a refund on the 2 occasions when we missed a port ( once was weather- related and once was out of some concern arising from anti american demonstrators in Morroco.) I am pretty sure that any reputable tour company offers refunds if your ship does not make their port!

--------------------

Helen

There will be no complications if you use a company like denies, Alla, Red October to SPB. Do it and don't give it a second thought. Time is precious in St. Petersburg as there is so much to see and so little time to see it. Why waste time in a bus going back and forth to the ship to get different tours. Plus you'll have your own car and driver and guide and can control the agenda. You'll be so glad you did.

I was hesitant to post since it has been some time since we were in St. Petersburg with Regent, but our experience with private tours was seamless. We used Red October. They sent us a letter and tickets to use when we went through Russian immigration at the port. Our guide and driver were waiting for us when we disembarked.

We had two amazing days. Some of the most memorable moments included:

-Arriving at Catherine Palace before it opened to the public. Our guide took us into the gardens through a side gate and we strolled through the amazing gardens for about an hour with not a single other visitor in site. It was quite an experience.

-We wanted to attend a ballet performance one evening, so RO arranged tickets and dinner reservations. Our guide and driver waited outside (I suppose they waited outside) during both so we had a great evening with just my wife and I. (As a side note, we did have lunch with our guide and driver during the day.)

-Our guide studied art history in college so she was able to provide a lot of interesting information about the most important works in the Hermitage.

-We bypassed ALL lines at EVERY place we visited. In fact, a couple of times our driver practically pulled up onto the sidewalk so that we could go directly inside whatever venue we were visiting.

As I said, this was some time ago so not sure if the current experience would be the same.

RO offered a discount for paying in cash USD, so we took that with us, as well as a tip for both guide and driver.

The only difficulty we have had with Regent and private tours was in tender ports. On a different cruise, they gave preference to guests on their tours for the tenders, so if you were doing your own thing or a private tour they expected you to wait until all of the tour participants had tendered over. We managed to squeeze into an earlier tender so that we wouldn't be late for our private tour and miss part of our day. I don't think the Regent people were happy with us for doing that and we were not happy with them for making it so difficult.

Thanks for all the input. Has anyone had experience with DenRus? They have been very responsive and have planned an excellent itinerary to suit our needs. My husband is hesitant to use a tour group not associated with our TA or th ship in St. Petersburg. From all you say, I think it will be fine. DenRus users anyone?

Agree with wripro - no complications! We used Alla Tours and were very pleased. Reports in the "Ports" section indicate that all of the major tour operators in St. Petersburg do a great job. Here is a link to the St. Petersburg portion of the "Northern Europe and Baltics" section of CC http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=87546515

GrannyZZ,

I have had experience with Denrus and they are absolutely terrific. You can't go wrong with them.

Hi Granny ZZ,

We used DenRus last June for 2 days while in St. Petersburg and they were excellent. We did not have to pay for the tours ahead of time. Payment was at the end of the 2nd tour. We were able to use US dollars for payment as well as for tips to the guide and driver. You and your husband should feel very comfortable booking with them.

For what it's worth, we found the Regent offerings in St Petersburg to be very good. We did some of the included excursions as well as at least one upgraded one (Evening with the Czars, I think it was) and that one was superb.

I even left my camera bag on one of the buses the first day (had my camera but had chargers, lenses, and other goodies in the bag) and figured it was gone forever, but the second day when we went out to meet the buses, I asked one of the tour guides if they'd found a camera bag, and they had it! Made my entire day. Made my week, actually.

I know you can do a lot more with a private tour company, but I guess my point was that you can have a good experience with the Regent excursions as well.

Either way, enjoy!

We have done both Regent excursions and private excursions in St. Petersburg (two different trips - both on the Voyager). The Regent excursions were confusing. Let me give you an example.

We were led onto to the wrong excursion by Regent. It ended up being better than the one we actually booked. However, they had us board a boat, eat snacks and champagne upon boarding only to learn that we had been led onto the wrong vessel. The "right" vessel did not have snacks or champagne. The tour was fine.

When we had two half-day private tours booked with Alla, we went where we wanted to go and spent the amount of time that we wanted to spend at each location.

IMO, there is no comparison between Regent tours and private (or shared) tours using an approved tour operator (Red October, Denrus, Alla, etc., are amongst the tour operators that do not require a Russian visa). Admittedly, the cost of these tours is more.....but, how many times will you be in St. Petersburg?

We have done both Regent excursions and private excursions in St. Petersburg (two different trips - both on the Voyager).

But, how many times will you be in St. Petersburg?

At least twice, apparently... :D

At least twice, apparently... :D

Very true. We didn't plan on returning to Russia but our Scandinavian cruise stopped there. It is sort of like Barcelona ....... we did not necessarily want to go there again but it is on most of our future cruises.:rolleyes:

For what it's worth, we found the Regent offerings in St Petersburg to be very good. We did some of the included excursions as well as at least one upgraded one (Evening with the Czars, I think it was) and that one was superb.

 

I know you can do a lot more with a private tour company, but I guess my point was that you can have a good experience with the Regent excursions as well.

 

Either way, enjoy!

We agree

During our 2013 visit to St Petersburg on Voyager we found the Regent tours to be well organised and extremely enjoyable, with excellent guides

Attending an evening ballet performance in the small Hermitage theatre was a magical highlight

The most likely "complications" are as follows: (1) something happens to your ship or a passenger on board, throwing off the schedule-- most likely you will lose the cost of your private tour; and (2) something happens during your privately arranged shore excursion causing you to miss a return time cutoff, at which point you will be on your own scrambling to catch the ship in the next port. Neither of these are extremely likely, but they are something to keep in mind when booking.

My wife and I and my parents just did a 2-day private tour for the 4 of us in St. Petersburg last week with TJ Travel. All of the tour companies I am aware of do not require any payment until you are there, not even a deposit. In fact with TJ we did not pay until the 2nd morning. Very pleased with our tour.