Azura Baltic Cruise- advice on St Petersburg tour.

[kevinyork]

We are off on Azura to the Baltic in May. Ive found loads of info in the ports section re St Petersburg and have a few local recommended tour companies in mind and know their costings which all seem to be around $300 for a two day tour.

 

I was just wondering if anyone who has done the Baltic with P&O know the ships cost for excursions in St Petersburg. Everyone seems to discuss local tours, is this because the ships tours are that much more expensive in St Petersburg than the local tours?

[Pobman]

Can't say anything about tours as I have never been on one.. BUT I found the Hermitage one of the most dull places on earth, and I know that is going against the general trend. It just was not for me, not a huge art person.

 

I much preferred Kunstkamera (over the river) ... yes it does have some pickled babies (only a very small part of the museum) and yes parts of it are probably 'racist' my modern western standards... but you have to consider the age and times this collection came from.

 

You will have to get your own visa if you do your own tour, but getting a Russian visa is so easy these days...

[marylizcat]

Pobman - you do not have to get a Russian visa if you do a local tour. it is included.

 

Kevinyork - I think people favour private tours not to save money but because it is a better experience. You travel faster in a smaller group and thus see more. We used www.spb-tours.com and they were great!

[coralsmum]

We used Alla tours last year and had a great time. I think the private tour companies pack much more in than the ship's tours but they are quite tiring. Sue

[C at Sea]

The first time we went to St. Petersburg, we went on a P&O Tour to the Yusapov Palace - not sure if thats how you spell it! But its where Rasputin was murdered. It was fascinating and though we also did the Hermitage which we enjoyed, we found the other very interesting. Don't think P&O offer the trip anymore but if you are doing an independent one its worth seeing!

[dorsetlad]

We did a 3 day tour with TJ Travel whilst in St P with Fred Olsen, and it was truly inspiring. I think the great advantage of using a local travel agent is that you are out all day, whereas with ships tours it is usually a trip in the morning and another in the afternoon. In that case you waste a lot of time travelling back and forth to the ship, and as marylizcat said, the tour operator will issue a blanket visa for the whole group travelling with them.

 

Brian

[Cosmic Rays]

We used Alla tours last year and had a great time. I think the private tour companies pack much more in than the ship's tours but they are quite tiring. Sue

 

We used Alla Tours several years ago (I did much research about the tour companies believe me!!) and she was brilliant from beginning to end. I got a party of eight together from our ship - Star Princess - and she looked after everything for me. Although she didn't personally guide us on the two day tour - she was pregnant - it is action packed and exhausting. She did however come to the ship at the end and gave all of us gifts.

 

I recommend her............

[Wavebreakers]

We did the Baltics last year on Azura and used a local company Alla Tours, they were oustanding and will tailor the tours to suit, we added on the Church of the Spilled Blood to one of the tours, it was pennies more, have to agree the Hermitage is great for an hour, then rather boring, a very short tour of this is okay, but thats just us. Our Alla guide was great, she took us on a Subway ride and boat ride, lovely to see the city from the water.

Alla sort out all Visa's etc, the distance between the sights is vast and the traffic heavy at times, a guided tour is a must. We pulled together a group of 12 from Cruise Critic, just put a message on the Roll Call asking if anyone was interested. Plus payment is made on the last day of the tour, no money needed upfront. :)

[marylizcat]

We are off on Azura to the Baltic in May. Ive found loads of info in the ports section re St Petersburg and have a few local recommended tour companies in mind and know their costings which all seem to be around $300 for a two day tour.

 

I was just wondering if anyone who has done the Baltic with P&O know the ships cost for excursions in St Petersburg. Everyone seems to discuss local tours, is this because the ships tours are that much more expensive in St Petersburg than the local tours?

If you are going in May, then the P & O excursions should appear on your Cruise Personaliser very soon now, which will give you their prices to compare.

[bazzaw]

I recall seeing somewhere the figure of $440 US for a 2 day ship's tour of St Petersbug. BUT - it did not go to all the places that the private operators go to - in particular it did not go to St Isaac's Cathedral and Church of Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood.

 

Barry

[Cosmic Rays]

We did the Baltics last year on Azura and used a local company Alla Tours, they were oustanding and will tailor the tours to suit, we added on the Church of the Spilled Blood to one of the tours, it was pennies more, have to agree the Hermitage is great for an hour, then rather boring, a very short tour of this is okay, but thats just us. Our Alla guide was great, she took us on a Subway ride and boat ride, lovely to see the city from the water.

Alla sort out all Visa's etc, the distance between the sights is vast and the traffic heavy at times, a guided tour is a must. We pulled together a group of 12 from Cruise Critic, just put a message on the Roll Call asking if anyone was interested. Plus payment is made on the last day of the tour, no money needed upfront. :)

 

Yes.................we saw the same............excellent!!

[Pobman]

Pobman - you do not have to get a Russian visa if you do a local tour. it is included.

 

Kevinyork - I think people favour private tours not to save money but because it is a better experience. You travel faster in a smaller group and thus see more. We used www.spb-tours.com and they were great!

 

No I said if you do your own tour, as I said I have never used a tour agency in St P.

[suesie]

We used Denrus as a private tour and as others have said we saw so much

more than the P&O tours. Long days but very good.

They organised the visas and meals - the Russian Club by the Church of the Spilled blood was excellent.

They put the group together and it was about 12 of us.

Can highly recommend them.

susan

[Pobman]

If I am ever there again I would track down one of the rooftop tours, get to see something a bit different. However from what I know most of those are not licensed :)

 

If you get a chance 10 mins on the metro will take your out of the tourist areas and you can pop your head up in to something that's a bit more like real Russia, only a bit though. There is a huge difference between the lovely old touristy areas and the concrete gloom of the Soviet era surrounding it. Worth seeing if only for 30 mins of your time, somebody above mentioned going on the metro with a tour so I am sure it could be done quite easily.

[chiapetti]

I think the private tour companies pack much more in than the ship's tours but they are quite tiring.

[kevinyork]

Wow thanks so much to everyone for all this info. It does look like whichever local operator people have chosen people have had a great time and for less than the ships tours. I think Ive narrowed it down to Alla, Spb or Denrus.

[Britchic4]

We used TJ tours last summer and they were great. I think the main tour companies swap guides between them so you are getting a pretty similar experience from all of them and they all seem to get good reviews. We are a family of 4 and shared a minibus with another family of 5 - perfect for us as we could tailor it a bit more around the kids. We didn't want to spend ages in the Hermitage so we just went to the famous bits and spent time looking at the Eqyptian artefacts which is what the kids (and DH who studied Egyptology at Oxford!) wanted to do. It was definitely cheaper than the ship's tours and much much better as you weren't dependant on all those other people getting back to the coach on time for a start. Very very tiring though. in fact by the time I got back to the ship on the 1st day I could barely walk.

If you do a private tour for 2 days, as well as the famous pie place we went to a fast food type pancake place - the guide said her daughter loved it there - and the food was really delicious. That's the thing, if there are just a few of you and there's something you'd like to do, they will try to accomodate you.

[marylizcat]

No I said if you do your own tour, as I said I have never used a tour agency in St P.

Sorry I misunderstood you. We are divided by a common language! To me, 'do your own tour' meant 'do a private tour', whereas you obviously meant 'if you don't do a tour at all, but just go and look round by yourself'! In that case, you would indeed have to get your own visa, which is apparently not cheap and quite complicated. The price is different depending on your country of origin.

 

 

I would also recommend a ride on the Metro to see the amazing stations. SPB also took us round an indoor food market, which was interesting. And it helps to get the hydrofoil back from Peterhof. Speeds things up and interesting too. We stopped at the pie shop too, which was good.

[Zordon]

I had no idea that Visa’s were also included on private tours.

 

We are going to St Petersburg on Aurora also in May this year. I have already booked the following:

 

Panorama of St. Petersburg LED002A

10 May 2012

08:45 - 12:30

£39

The Hermitage LED004A

10 May 2012

14:00 - 17:45

£47

The Palaces of Catherine and Peterhof LED028B

11 May 2012

08:00 - 17:15

£126

 

I believe we go past the Church of the Spilled Blood on the Panorama of St. Petersburg.

 

I will have a look at spb tours later and see what they offer, thanks for the info.

[Cosmic Rays]

Wow thanks so much to everyone for all this info. It does look like whichever local operator people have chosen people have had a great time and for less than the ships tours. I think Ive narrowed it down to Alla, Spb or Denrus.

 

Denrus were big I recall and far more expensive than Alla..............

[kevinyork]

Denrus were big I recall and far more expensive than Alla..............

 

No they seem to be about the same price and say that it is all inclusive, i.e. lunch on both days with wine.

[Cosmic Rays]

No they seem to be about the same price and say that it is all inclusive, i.e. lunch on both days with wine.

 

Things appear to have changed then in the last few years which is good I guess!!