Which to book...Seabourn Tours or Private Tours?

[Chairsin]

Wrong! You are getting bad info from your TA. If you book with a private tour company they will arrange for everything.I and countless others on CC can tell you about our great experiences with a private tour. Shame on your TA.

 

 

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[DrScrimmy]

With the private company I'm booked with (SPB for St Petersburg) they send an email confirmation voucher for the trip that you present at passport control. Just ask them when you're booking. All the worthwhile ones will engage with your plentiful queries before you book - Victoria at SPB usually replies within the working day

 

 

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[wripro]

Easybay,

 

Three words for you......change travel agents. Yours has no idea what she is talking about. All the private tour companies provide you with the necessary visa for use during your tours.

[Aussie Cruise Nuts]

Easybay. Listen to the experienced posters on cruise critic.

 

We visited St Petersburg on Sojourn last year and arranged 2 full days of private touring with Insider Tours. Great service from Alexandra with prompt email replies, very willing to amend the tours to our needs and proved to be very reliable. our tickets, visas, entry fees to sites all organised and we only had to prepay the entry fees for sites. Paid the remainder on arrival in St Petersburg.

 

Our tour guide was excellent. Very knowledgeable and quite willing to adjust the daily timetable as the tour progressed. Eg she advised my wife she would slow the pace, as she noticed I was very busy with my photography and wanted to allow me more time for this. Could not ask for more,

 

Our TA also told us the same story re visas. Whe I cut, pasted and forwarded the relevant visa section on Insider Tours web site, her reply was "that's interesting " !!!!

 

Check out the review of these private tours on Trip Advisor. You will not be disappointed.

[easybay]

How far in advance do I need to book the private tours to get the visas? My only concern with booking something private this far in advance is if the port gets cancelled. Maybe I'm over thinking this, but with the situation with Russia and Ukraine, I'd hate for things to escalate and for the US to impose travel restrictions to Russia. Now maybe this seems far fetched, but I had booked myself on a cruise to Isreal and Eqypt back in th '80's that was cancelled because of the high jacking of the Achilles Lauro. I wonder if our travel insurance would cover the cost of the tour if the port is cancelled?

[wripro]

The further in advance you book the better. These tours are usually refundable so if a port gets cancelled you'll get your money back. This is the ONLY way to tour St. Petersburg.

[jenidallas]

With SPB last year, we paid the guide on the first day of the tour.

[Sunny429]

We did the Baltic cruise aboard the Sojourn last summer - LOVED IT!!! - and booked three full days of tours with 4th Century Company. Tatiana was the best! Read the reviews on trip advisor. We cannot wait to go back and book with her again.

[La Jolla Lass]

This may be redundant but would definitely go Private. We are avid Seabourn cruisers and just as avid Private Tour aficionados. Triangulate your reviews with Trip Advisor and whatever company is advertising the private tour. After 99 days at sea (5 cruises) you will seldom go wrong. Go for it....especially in St. Petersburg where a private tour guide will be able to cut through the lines and save a lot of time. All the best

[dulzo]

Hi Patrinka,

Sorry it has taken me so long to notice your reply to my original post. I haven't looked at this website for quite some time. Are you still looking for another couple to share a St. P'burg tour? My husband and I may be very interested in doing that. I've looked online at several of the local tour groups and read various reviews on this website and also on Trip Advisor. Let's compare which sites we'd like to visit and see how well we align. Jo

[jenidallas]

We can not find anyone to share a tour for St Petersburg - the roll call for July 13, 2014 Legend is only two people! Anyone know of another site where there may be a roll call category?

 

Our request last year went unanswered until about three months before the cruise. We had decided on the company we wanted (SPB) and told them ideally which size we were hoping for - they also know of others from our ship looking for a group to join. We ended up with two separate groups - our group of 10 and their group of 8 (on slightly different itineraries based on each groups preferred package) but saw them at several points across the three days.

 

We did find in our conversations with other folks at dinner that most of the major companies (like SPB and Red October) do end up following the same "route" - we often saw the same people each day at different venues around town.

 

The one thing to prepare yourself for - whether with a big bus group or smaller private group is that once you pick your agenda, there isn't 100% flexibility as some entrance times are set up in advance for your group. We also managed to make restroom stops and/or vodka tastings each day that were "conveniently" located at a shop. It got to the point that it became an annoyance but it's how the guides earn some of their money.

 

Reminded me of the "beryozka" (dollar stores) during the '80s in the old USSR. They'd drive us there every day so we could hand over US dollars. :D

[La Jolla Lass]

Here are some notes from our 5/12 Sojourn trip to St. P that may be helpful. We had a fabulous private tour. The tour company was thru:

timkruglikov@rambler.ru

 

The tour manger or owner?? Timofey (above email) arranged for us a former Hermitage licensed guide who studied a lot of art and architecture in order to get the license. Beyond this, she has been a tour guide for 6 years and has a Ph.D. degree from St Petersburg University in 19th and 20th Century American and Russian history. She was fabulous! With 6 people the cost was $300 USD p/p – no meals included

Tour Ticket or Blanket Visa was considered Russian Visa equivalent (check on this, our trip was back in May, 2012). Our guide told us the following and it proved to be correct: “You will pass the border control in St.Petersburg with this document, your passport and photocopy of your passport., a Russian Visa is not required.”

Day 1 - Tues

8-10am city sightseeing

and canal boat

10.30-1.30pm Hermitage

1.30-2pm lunch (at the H) Cost abt $8 per person - soup and sandwich

2-3pm Church of Spilled Blood (Could be 30-40 minutes instead)

3-4pm Peter and Paul fortress

Peter & Paul cathedral

4-4.30 tea and cake break/shopping

4.30-6pm political history museum - would skip this...not well done

 

Day 2 - Wed

8.30-9.30 city sightseeing

9.30- 10 hydrofoil to Peterhof

10-11.30am Peterhof park/gardens

11.30-12.30 drive to Tsars village

12.30-1.30 lunch

1.30-3pm Catherines palace

3-3.45 drive to St Petersburg

3.45 - 4.45 St Isaacs cathedral

5pm return to ship

 

All fees, camera passes, admission prices to museums, transportation costs were included. Everything but lunches was included

 

Hope this helps

[jenidallas]

That one looks a lot like ours. Two thoughts from the research we did with different tour companies (compared to actual experience)...

 

1. Early admission to Peterhof is worth it to see the fountains start for the day. (You can actually see them all day, but it's really gorgeous to get a good vantage point to see them start up with the music, etc.)

 

2. Early admission to the Hermitage did not seem to be worth it. We were with hundreds of others who also had "early admission" and still had to be herded into sequence.

 

Something to note too - big group or private tour, you'll still have limitations on what you can see or how long you can linger at certain places. The staff at the more popular sites keep the guides moving along at a pretty decent pace. The biggest advantage is being nimble enough to see more because you aren't having to load tons of people on/off a bus and waiting for busses to get to your rally point. With a car or van, you do save time.

[Emperor Norton]

That one looks a lot like ours. Two thoughts from the research we did with different tour companies (compared to actual experience)...

 

1. Early admission to Peterhof is worth it to see the fountains start for the day. (You can actually see them all day, but it's really gorgeous to get a good vantage point to see them start up with the music, etc.)

 

2. Early admission to the Hermitage did not seem to be worth it. We were with hundreds of others who also had "early admission" and still had to be herded into sequence.

 

Something to note too - big group or private tour, you'll still have limitations on what you can see or how long you can linger at certain places. The staff at the more popular sites keep the guides moving along at a pretty decent pace. The biggest advantage is being nimble enough to see more because you aren't having to load tons of people on/off a bus and waiting for busses to get to your rally point. With a car or van, you do save time.

 

Oh, me, me me!

 

I can answer this. While in St. Petersburg I did ONLY SB tours. We had early access to the Hermitage (along with every other cruise line and private tour - lulz for that) and early access to Peterhof. Guess what, early access at Peterhof is USELESS unless you skip the tour(s) and run straight to the fountains to queue early.

 

While private tours may equate to a smaller group at some places (Eg: Hermitage, Peterhof) you're still with the crowded masses. The one exception was the evening tour of Catherines Palace. That was just us (er those on tour from the Pride).

[jenidallas]

The fun "game" to play at Peterhof is Spot the Pickpocket. They are everywhere.

 

St Petersburg is beautiful but the touring is mentally exhausting because there is so much to see in a short time. It's a visual firehose.

 

Next time I will do a few select custom things - but the first visitid always worth figuring out what to do next time.

[Emperor Norton]

The fun "game" to play at Peterhof is Spot the Pickpocket. They are everywhere.

 

St Petersburg is beautiful but the touring is mentally exhausting because there is so much to see in a short time. It's a visual firehose.

 

Next time I will do a few select custom things - but the first visitid always worth figuring out what to do next time.

 

I found one ;)

 

[secoma4]

We (group of 4) arranged a car (van) with driver and guide by booking online. The price for 3 days was very good and no prepayment or deposit was sought. They were there to meet us (which was our main worry) and had others at each venue getting tickets so we had very little waiting.

 

Our tour covered everything the ship tour did and some eg lunch where the locals eat, visit the subway stations and ride the train for a few stops, visit a book shop.

 

The amazing part was when we arrived back at the ship on the last day, Alex (the owner), was there to meet us, asked if we had enjoyed the experience, then said just pay what we thought it was worth when we asked what was owing (which we knew). Good way of getting a good tip when you have enthused about the tour. Then, to cap it off, when we asked about form of payment he said if we preferred we could transfer funds to his account later if we didn't have the cash!!!

 

This guide service was recommended by others and we have also recommended them to friends who were all very happy with the service.

[easybay]

:cool: So, after 2 months of research, I've decided on a private tour in SPB - so far the group is at 6 and maxs out at 12, and taking a Seabourn tour in Amsterdam to go see the Anne Frank museum. All the other ports we will DIY. We really want to see the Anne Frank house, and I didn't want to mess around with buying tickets on line - and taking cabs etc. I'm going to try to get our charges for the tour refunded once on board and see if we can use our ship credits. Just a little over a month now till we sail!