Guide Guru in St Petersburg

[jotabecu]

Has anybody had experience with this company?

Thanks a million.

[mimie]

Haven't heard of them. We used Red October a few years ago. They were great.

[Talisker92]

Please check with the cruise line. We were on a cruise and if you did not take the ship's excursion, you had to get your own Russian visa. Some folks were stuck on board for 2 days as they did not heed this information.

[jotabecu]

Please check with the cruise line. We were on a cruise and if you did not take the ship's excursion, you had to get your own Russian visa. Some folks were stuck on board for 2 days as they did not heed this information.

 

Thanks for the note.

We are going on Viking Kirov and have our visas already.

[grannyfranny]

We used Alla Tours in St. Petersburg for a 2 day tour. It was great.

She obtained visas for us.

[franski]

Apparently you do not need a visa if you tour with a recognized company in Russia... (this would only be for people on a Baltic Cruise - as you will need a visa to do a river cruise in Russia...). There are a number of "official" Russian tour companies - Red October being one of them.

 

If you did a search, I am sure that there is lots of information about touring in St. Petersburg - given that it is a 2 or 3 day stop over on many Baltic itineraries.

[Go Pack]

We just returned from a cruise that included 2 days in St. Petersburg. we used a private guide. The guides name is Anya and her website is: guidestpetersburgrussia.com I can honestly say that the service and level of professionalism was 1st class. I strongly recommend. as for visas in Russia. If you have a private guide they will provide a visa as part of their fees. If you do not have a private guide or you don't book a cruise with your cruise boat, you must get your own visa approximate cost several hundred dollars. You must have a visa to exit the ship. With Anya she will take care of your visa.

[mike35]

We used Alla Tours in St. Petersburg for a 2 day tour. It was great.

She obtained visas for us.

 

They're the absolute best! Alla and her guides are incredibly knowledgeable, and they will personalize your touring experience to your own interests rather than the large companies that have "fixed itineraries".

[Windley Star]

Has anyone used Guideguru for a tour of St. Petersburg?

[franski]

Has anyone used Guideguru for a tour of St. Petersburg?

 

We used "Tours by Locals" in Moscow... and I am sure they have options in St. Petersburg as well. We also used them in Nuremburg. Happy with the fact you can customize your tour.

 

Fran

[nordski]

Has anybody had experience with this company?

Thanks a million.

 

 

If you haven't already done so, you might try posting this question on the Ports of Call Forum. There is a section dealing with Northern Europe and the Baltics.

 

Doing so will widen the audience to ocean cruisers who may well have heard of that company.

 

We used SPB tours in St. Petersburg, and you have already received other suggestions as well.

 

 

 

 

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[TravelDoc01]

We used Guideguru in St. Petersburg on our cruise last summer. We used them for both days. We were very pleased with the service and the tour. Our guide was excellent!

 

 

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[JohnKen3]

Has anyone used Guideguru for a tour of St. Petersburg?

 

We used Guideguru when our cruise had a three day stop in St Petersburg about 2.5 years ago. There were excellent in all respects.

 

We were very specific in what we wanted to do each day. We did not wish to have a standard tour that most agencies were offering. They were very efficient (in terms of email responses) and helpful (in terms of helping me understand timings/distances and working with me to reschedule the itinerary accordingly).

 

Specific things we did in St Petersburg

- visit the Faberge Museum (strictly controlled by appointment only since one group is in each room on their own at any point in time). The Faberge Museum provided their own guide in Russian and our Guideguru guide translated everything into English.

- ride on the St Petersburg subway. While we had a car take us around, the guide and driver were in contact by cellphone so knew how to meet up at a given spot

- visit a local market (you can literally see every part of cow totally disassembled at the meat counter)

- made reservations for us at restaurants that we specified for lunch. We definitely wanted lunch at the Caviar bar at the Grand Hotel Europe. Just look up which restaurants you are interested in from TripAdvisor

- a drive to Peterhof Palace but a return trip by hydrofoil with the same car meeting up at the hydrofoil terminal to take us back to the ship.

- an early morning entry to the Hermitage Museum for private tours before the general crowds were allowed in.

- we also did not want very long days and be back at our ship for 3 pm every day since we had separate evening events organised by our cruise ship.

 

Our local guide was excellent and was happy to move at the pace we wanted. We wanted a private tour for just the tour of us and so it really felt like a local friend showing us around town.

 

No hesitation is recommending GuideGuru. We found that other local firms tried to encourage to take their standard tours rather than draw one up from scratch with us.

 

Not relevant to river cruises where you would already have Russian visas. GuideGuru is on the approved list of tour firms allowed to take tourist arriving by cruise ships stopping for 72 hours maximum to visit without needing Russian visas. Only applies to cruise ships.

Edited March 10, 2017 by JohnKen3

[Windley Star]

Many thanks for that positive review of GuideGuru. We are in SPB for two days. That caviar bar sounds tempting!

[1492]

We just returned from a Baltic cruise. We used Guide-Guru for the three days in St. Petersburg. I cannot say enough great things about the experience. My husband, who was skeptical, ended up loving every minute. Our tour guide ,Tatiana, was so well informed and made every stop such an education. She met us every morning with her driver and we seem to avoid every crowd. She knew just what time to arrive at every location to make sure we had a pleasant experience. We did go in September and were told that July and August are very crowded. I would not go on a Baltic cruise in the summertime. In addition, when speaking to fellow cruisers, we received a much better price than other tours and less than half of what the cruise ship charges. Also, we were able to save a little more by paying in US dollars. I arranged everything from the states over e-mail, and would never do any tours any other way again. Some tour companies charge extra for the Faberge museum and lunch. It was all included with Guide-Guru. Even our table at lunchtime was already set up and food ordered when we arrived. Using this company really made our trip special.