Tailored Tours - St. Petersburg

[John Bull]

Hmmmm, seems you have been kinda "used" to get the ball rolling.;)

I guess the same for us, though we were under no misapprehensions & were just happy to have gotten enough numbers together. We might have taken a different view if for instance she'd thrown in a bunch of Italians & turned the thing into a multi-lingual experience.

 

Without knowing exactly what was in your correspondence I wouldn't worry too much about an "aggressive" reply because written words have no intonation or body-language - often a problem for instance on forums (hence the value of smileys ;) ), Russians do seem to be quite blunt in business dealings, and they're reading & writing in a second language which may convey an unintended attitude from you to them or vice-versa.

 

I can think of three choices.

 

1. Accept the situation. After all you're not a "group", you probably don't know much about the folk you've drawn together & mebbe the add-ons will be more fun than those already booked through you. The experience in a diverse group of 16 will be very little different to a similar group of 10. And since yours appears to be the "Grand" tour none of your existing group or any add-ons are likely to be slow or infirm - such folk will have plumped for the "Comfort" tour.

 

2. Get quotes from other operators for a private tour for ten, using a standard itinerary. But bear in mind you'd need to get agreement from the others.

 

3. It's hardly likely that the operator will have a total of exactly 16 or 32 or 48 or 64 etc. So politely explain that you'd mis-understood that you would have the van to yourselves, & that if total numbers work out could she please arrange that just your booking go in one van if possible.

 

If it's going to be more than just your 10 in the van, it's also worth asking for contact details of others, so that you can all meet up on the ship & go ashore mob-handed. This will avoid the tour being held up waiting for someone who leaves the ship just ten minutes later than the others & gets snarled up by another 20 to 30 minutes in the immigration line.

That's what we did with Alla & she was very obliging with their e-mail addresses. We all swapped cabin numbers, arranged a convivial little get-together on a sea-day, and on St Pete's morning we met up at an agreed convenient place & early time to go ashore together.

Straight thro immigration ahead of the masses & into our vans before ship's excursion groups had even assembled in their meeting places on the ship.

 

Just my thoughts ;)

 

JB :)

[Vineyard View]

Great input JB. I do recognize the language barrier, and appreciate how interpretations can get sideways. But it really did get pretty bad.

That said, this morning I have a response from another company that will guarantee the max of 10 people - they are well known and well reputed - for the same or lesser pricing. It is the direction I am now looking at going.

I really do appreciate your thinking around pre-meeting and going through imigrations together! Makes total sense!

thank you!

[parmen123]

We used Timofey of Tailored Tours when we traveled to St. Petersburg when we took a Baltic Cruise this past summer.

 

 

 

We can’t stop thinking and talking about the incredible 3 days we spent with Timofey in St. Petersburg. We were a group of 6 and Timofey provided us with a wonderful introduction to the history, art and culture of St. Petersburg. He shared his knowledge with passion and enthusiasm, and was patient with all our questions.

 

 

 

We appreciated how flexible he was with our itinerary and kept adding very moving and unforgettable sites, like the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad and the personal cathedral of Nicholas II near Catherine’s Palace. When we arrived, he suggested changing the itinerary so that we could visit The Hermitage while it rained and were able to visit Peterhof with its wonderful parks and fountains when it was sunny.

 

 

 

We loved all the interesting explanations, stories and anecdotes he shared with us, and we wish we could have spent more time with him exploring St. Petersburg.

 

 

 

Timofey had efficiently arranged our visas, and always responded promptly to our emails with helpful and thoughtful suggestions and comments. We would love to return to St. Petersburg one day, but before we book our trip, we shall check with Timofey to make sure that he will be available.

 

 

Thanks and do you have a contact email for him?

[spbstan]

If you have 10 people why are you bothering with arguing over group tours? Just book a private tour for 10, it will be close to the same price with the larger companies and probably a lot lower with the smaller companies. Figure on $200-240 a person for a comprehensive 2 day tour this year.

Do you really want to deal with anyone who will not guarantee the price?

[Vineyard View]

There are 6 of us - so I wanted a max guarantee of 10 - which I have been provided with a reduced rate. So I am happy with where we ended up. TJ has been great to work with. That said,methane you - I do appreciate your advice and local experience.

[Jan3]

I've just reached out to Tim for a Celebrity Silhouette cruise in 2016 and am eagerly waiting to hear back from him.

 

Can someone tell me how it works to book a two day tour with Tim or a similar sized company in St Petersburg, do we still return to the ship at night? I notice on the website it makes mention of hotel stays but perhaps that is for non cruise ship clients?

 

In any case, he certainly gets good reviews. I'm hoping it works out.[/quote

]

We recently booked a two day tour with Tailored Tours and were very disappointed.

We were promised early entrance (9:30am) at the Hermitage and Catherine's Palace but we're not admitted until 11;00. We were then rushed around to the other sites with less time to view the art and architecture we were looking forward to seeing The two lunches were of very poor quality even though we specifically asked for authentic Russian food.

 

We were assured that we would be provided headsets but a representative from Tailored Tours would show up and collect them after a few hours which left us struggling to hear the guide For the remainder of the day. I observed other tour groups who had headsets at all times.

 

Overall our tour with this company was not a good experience and I would advise looking at other companies that have a strong reputation

[spbstan]

You would probably get a better answer by writing directly to them. Apparently they are a small company, one person, working out of their apartment in the city center, so quite likely they would be flexible that the large companies would not bother with. They all started making customized tours by as they started making a lot of money from 16 passenger group tours it is not as profitable to devote limited staff time creating custom programs.

There is a lot to do in the city for teens, rent a canal river boat, have catered and hire a DJ and sound system, invite some local kids to make it more interesting they would have a ball. If they are interested in activities, they could have a sky-diving party....without even leaving the safety of the ground at the vertical wind tunnels for static flying. It is Skydiving but without jumping from a plane, in a large wind tunnel pointed up and down. A night party would be more fun for older teens, held in one of the smaller dance clubs....they would have a great time and meet so many new friends.

How old of kids and how many?