St. Petersburg tours

Hi everyone

Reg & Kaye from Sydney, Australia.

We are both retired and relatively new to cruising this being our 5th.

We are interested in doing the 2 day tour of St Petersburg and wondered if anyone had space for two more in their group?

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

Per board rules, tour shares are arranged on your roll call. You didn't state what ship or date you are going to be in SPB, so here is the master list:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34

Select your cruise line, then ship, then sailing date and join in.

Did you have specific interests for just a general tour? General tours for cruisers have evolved to include the same 7-8 destinations which covers a lot but might not be what you are most interested in. There are lots of museums and activities that would be interest to limited numbers of people, say, based on their hobbies or professions. With a group tour you would not have that choice but some like to be in a social group and prefer group tours. Other than the ship sold bus tours which are 45-50 members the normal group tours in St Petersburg are 12-15 maximum in a van. The full itinerary 2 day tours range from $199-350 for the same basic tours in group tours and $280-650 per person in a 2 person private tour of the same destinations. So, my advice is to think of what you would like to do and see before deciding on joining someone's group and select based on your interests.

Most companies offer an abbreviated "relaxed tour" with fewer activities, mostly as a loss-leader to attract click on banner ads but those are not popular because of fewer destinations.

Make up a list of those activities you are interested in as a base itinerary and have companies propose additionals activities to fill in the rest of the time. Don't get hung up on micromanaging the order or timing of each thing because you and few people on this forum understand the complexity of traffic patterns, venues entry restrictions, distances etc. You decide what you want to do and leave it to the designer of your program to schedule and arrange the order so it is doable. Cramming 4-5 days of touring into 16 hours off the ship requires a bit of planning experience. Then go shopping for the best deal. The guides and vehicles are the same, the guides are independent contractors who work with all the companies, and the vehicles are owned by independent owner/drivers or larger transportation companies so the main difference is how much effort you put into choosing the activities you would enjoy most. There are hundreds of museums, most are seldom if ever visited by foreign tourists, most of them specialized so almost any interest or hobby would probably mean there is a museum focused on it.

thank you cruiser Bruce for your help