Land Discoveries vs Private tours in St. Petersburg

[coocooley]

We will be sailing Azamara for the first time in June 2016. (June 11 Baltic) Saint Petersburg is my dream trip and I want to make sure to make the most of our three days there. Does anyone have advice about taking the ship excursions vs private tours? Do you have any recs for tour companies? Many thanks.

[Rabo]

I can't comment on Azamara's excursions, but a few years ago we cruised the Baltic on Celebrity. We had arranged with Red October (http://redoctober.us for North America travelers and http://www.redoctober.ru for others). We had a private "deluxe" van for 10 of us. Service and guide were excellent. I couldn't speak more highly of them. They have a very high review rating on TripAdvisor.

[ellbon]

we are not allowed to mention companies here bit please find st P under Ports of call and you will find a couple of names.. i used one day and night- for 3 days. you will see the same names over and over again

[Wacktle]

We used a local St. Petersburg company in June 2014 when we visited the city on Queen Victoria. We booked their Grand Tour. It was excellent. We saw so much in the (very full) 2 days. The ship's own tours would have cost far more, and the some of the sights would have been duplicated. Our guide was fantastic, and ensured that we arrived at some places ahead of other groups. They used small, modern mini-buses. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Do not be put off by the religious-sounding name; the company is named after its lady-owner. Also, note that your tickets act as your Russian visa (at least they do for UK residents). We printed our tickets at home and had no issues at immigration. Our only problem was trying to get off the ship early on the first morning. Cunard were adamant that we should wait until their tours had left and staff actually tried to block exits! Quite childish, and I'm sure Azamara won't be like that. There were quite a few passengers booked onto private tours though and we eventually won!!

[nordski]

Our only problem was trying to get off the ship early on the first morning. Cunard were adamant that we should wait until their tours had left and staff actually tried to block exits! Quite childish, and I'm sure Azamara won't be like that. There were quite a few passengers booked onto private tours though and we eventually won!!

 

 

You are absolutely correct.

 

Azamara won't be like that; in 2014 we had no problem leaving the ship to meet our guide.

[Leo_On_Geo]

we are not allowed to mention companies here bit please find st P under Ports of call and you will find a couple of names.. i used one day and night- for 3 days. you will see the same names over and over again

 

 

 

I thought the policy was no advertizing from or about particular Travel Agent's, but CC members were allowed to reccommend/rate travel tour providers with the provision that they had personally used their services. I think this is a sound policy. Someone please correct me if I do not understand the policy. Thanks

[Rabo]

Bonnie . . . Andy . . .

 

Please clarify! I certainly don't want to be violating the forum rules.

 

Edit or delete as needed!

[rallydave]

I thought the policy was no advertizing from or about particular Travel Agent's, but CC members were allowed to reccommend/rate travel tour providers with the provision that they had personally used their services. I think this is a sound policy. Someone please correct me if I do not understand the policy. Thanks

 

You are correct, the restriction applies to Travel Agents. Tour Companies are mentioned throughout CC and perfectly acceptable to name them on CC.

[ellbon]

I thought the policy was no advertizing from or about particular Travel Agent's, but CC members were allowed to reccommend/rate travel tour providers with the provision that they had personally used their services. I think this is a sound policy. Someone please correct me if I do not understand the policy. Thanks

 

I wanted to protect myself here. Some of the rules :confused: me. then i used TJ travel. i was alone as i have been before I picked interesting things to me. I had lunch in a private home.. Russian sauna; 2 malls and sushi.. In between was churchs and art. i missed lenin's statue-might if seen in the 80's and LV store-just to say i went. if i knew it was there.. still wearing my dresses from there. i wanted to see how with he wall falling;new city an country name how things had change. .i did an u was happy.

[BBMacLaird]

Bonnie . . . Andy . . .

 

Please clarify! I certainly don't want to be violating the forum rules.

 

Edit or delete as needed!

 

Hi Rabo,

Your prior post is fine. Here's what the CC guidelines say about Tour Operator recommendations:

 

"Tour Guide Recommendations

 

We welcome the legitimate review or recommendation of tour operators, guides, property & business owners in ports of call. You must post your recommendation in response to a request for that specific information or your post will be removed without notice.

 

Cruise Critic considers requests to be E-mailed for additional information as soliciting and will delete those postings by anyone trying to sell or promote themselves on Cruise Critic. Please, abide by our Community Guidelines so that legitimate recommendations by our members regarding guides and tour operators may remain on the forums!

 

From time to time, Cruise Critic management is contacted by Tour Operators/Guides/Business who request removal of negative posts about their company. You should know that Cruise Critic will never remove negative posts from the boards at the request of any tour company, cruise line, store, shop, taxi company, driver, guide, etc.

 

One-Post Wonders

This phenomenon essentially amounts to single or multiple posts created by a brand-new member which tout tour operators/businesses in ports of call. Posts of this nature will be removed from the boards without notification to the author. Cruise Critic considers these types of postings an attempt to circumvent our rules and may result in that company's name being censored from our forums without notice.

 

Cruise Critic reserves the right to remove any material from our message boards without notification to members, the author or the company being recommended."

[huntersyaya]

We used SPB tours and did the deluxe two day. It was fabulous!!!!!

[roaming_kiwi58]

We had an absolutely brilliant 3 days of tours with TJ Tours last year. Packed in so much and it far exceeded our previous experience in St Petersburg, when we had 3 days as part of a river cruise.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the well known St Petersburg tour companies, as all the guides have to be licensed, and to get that license they have to pass exams which prove their knowledge and expertise.

If you read through some of the CC posts you will see the same tour company names coming up regularly - they are all good. Competition is strong, so they have to keep their standards high.

[upwarduk]

We used SPB tours and did the deluxe two day. It was fabulous!!!!!

 

We used this tour company, who were superb. Our guide Luba trains the other guides in the winter.

We printed off our tour ticket and had 2 emails prior to leaving home, reminding us to take it with us. You need to show it as you disembark, along with your passport, details are matched on the immigration computer, as the tour ticket acts as a visa. We had no problem being allowed off the ship, in fact the tours were guided off together, so we were sent to immigration away from the ship's tours. There were at least 10 agents and we went straight through, no queuing!

As a guide, our 2 day deluxe tour cost $600 for 2 people.

This cost is taken when you first meet your guide, you just hand over a form detailing your credit card details. Another passenger had been to Berlin with SPB earlier in the week, he paid in St Petersburg; our guide called another agent to deal with the currency conversion, as he paid in €.

When we arrived back on our final day, we were given a receipt and when my credit card did the conversion I was pleased to see that the total cost was £360- £90p.p per day. An amazing price IMO, as all entrances were pre paid ( 3 churches, The Hermitage, Summer Palace, Hydrofoil to Peterhof, Canal tour, transport and 2 lunches each. I have special dietary needs and this was also catered for.

We tipped Luba and the driver in $, but they would have accepted €.

I also bought some souvenirs in the port, where they also accepted $.

Edited October 29, 2015 by upwarduk

[Bchtravlr]

We used Azamara Land Discoveries for the 3 day tour in St Petersburg tours in 2014. They were great and very comprehensive. I would not fear using them. As was mentioned before, In St Petersburg all tour guides must be licensed and pass annual tests. If you are touring a specific palace or museum, they all must show you specific sites, and provide information on specific artifacts/artistry. There is no "ad-libing" in what must be covered. They can add opinions where they have more knowledge.

 

That said, we are now using private tour companies much more now to avoid the 40 person busses. I believe you can see more and do more with a group of 6-11, than with a group of 40. The Azamara tour didn't get the Boat trip to Peterhof Palace as did some of the private tours.

[upwarduk]

I forgot to mention that we were also taken to an underground station, to see the murals. We also rode 2 stops on a train, so there were tickets for that.

Unfortunately we were not taken into Peterhof.

[2cruisetravlers]

We are The Quest for the June 23 sailing. We have booked a 3 day tour with ALLA. They have been very good to work with so far and even customized a the tour to include some places we really wanted to see and limited the group to 10 people. Check them out at http://alla-tour.com

[GrumpyOldWesty]

We used SPB tours and did the deluxe two day. It was fabulous!!!!!

 

So did we, and would highly recommend.

 

Peter

[glenneagle]

Private for sure.We used Alla twice.

Ships tours have too many people.If you get one unreliable person like the man who got lost in the Hermitage the entire group is delayed.In Russia all tours work on strict time entry so the hour delay caused the next stop to be cancelled....

[Wacktle]

We used a local St. Petersburg company in June 2014 when we visited the city on Queen Victoria. We booked their Grand Tour. It was excellent. We saw so much in the (very full) 2 days. The ship's own tours would have cost far more, and the some of the sights would have been duplicated. Our guide was fantastic, and ensured that we arrived at some places ahead of other groups. They used small, modern mini-buses. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Do not be put off by the religious-sounding name; the company is named after its lady-owner. Also, note that your tickets act as your Russian visa (at least they do for UK residents). We printed our tickets at home and had no issues at immigration. Our only problem was trying to get off the ship early on the first morning. Cunard were adamant that we should wait until their tours had left and staff actually tried to block exits! Quite childish, and I'm sure Azamara won't be like that. There were quite a few passengers booked onto private tours though and we eventually won!!

 

Now that I can name the company, it was Alla Tours. We did the 2 day Grand Tour. It included an early morning trip on the underground (subway), lunch in a local restaurant on day 1, a picnic lunch that we ate on a hydrofoil on day 2, visits to to Yusopov Palace (where we arrived just as it opened), the Hermitage, etc etc. It really was great value. One point of interest - we didn't have to pay until the end of the first day, or maybe it was the start of day 2. However, they made sure we were totally happy before we had to pay a cent.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Wacktle
Added a note about payment

[anniecat]

Hi...I am on the same cruise and I am working to set a small group of compatible folks to do 3 days of tours. I have used TJ tours in the past ....they were great dealing with traffic issues, weather and a group with varied interests. As of now i have 4 in the group (2 for sure and 2 probable) if you are interested (or anyone else) let me know...

magill1242 at gmail dot com

[upwarduk]

SPB tours will group you, without you having to go to the effort, you just let them know who you would like to travel with. A number of us on our Roll call emailed them with the list of people that we wished to travel with.

They also grouped passengers who had special dietary needs.

[scorpio123456]

Now that I can name the company, it was Alla Tours. We did the 2 day Grand Tour. It included an early morning trip on the underground (subway), lunch in a local restaurant on day 1, a picnic lunch that we ate on a hydrofoil on day 2, visits to to Yusopov Palace (where we arrived just as it opened), the Hermitage, etc etc. It really was great value. One point of interest - we didn't have to pay until the end of the first day, or maybe it was the start of day 2. However, they made sure we were totally happy before we had to pay a cent.

 

 

Also used Alla. Was very satisfied. We paid at start of second day. Our guide made sure we saw as much as possible. We jumped the queues, ropes were held aside, road blocks moved. She knew how to work the system. We saw so much I was embarrassed to tell people on other tour as they hadn't done half as much. On second day she asked if we wanted to go to restaurant again or have a packed lunch and see more. We opted for later, driver went off and purchased and we had it in St Petershoff watching parade and daylight fireworks going off. Highly recommend them. The tour was in a new mini bus with six of us.

[wally_bushy]

I can't comment on Azamara's excursions, but a few years ago we cruised the Baltic on Celebrity. We had arranged with Red October (http://redoctober.us for North America travelers and http://www.redoctober.ru for others). We had a private "deluxe" van for 10 of us. Service and guide were excellent. I couldn't speak more highly of them. They have a very high review rating on TripAdvisor.

 

We also used Red October (2012)and have recommended them to friends who also were pleased with them (2013 and 2014)

[Wacktle]

Also used Alla. Was very satisfied. We paid at start of second day. Our guide made sure we saw as much as possible. We jumped the queues, ropes were held aside, road blocks moved. She knew how to work the system. We saw so much I was embarrassed to tell people on other tour as they hadn't done half as much. On second day she asked if we wanted to go to restaurant again or have a packed lunch and see more. We opted for later, driver went off and purchased and we had it in St Petershoff watching parade and daylight fireworks going off. Highly recommend them. The tour was in a new mini bus with six of us.

 

Your comment made me smile. I wonder is you had the same guide as us - Julia? On our tour, Julia swept other guides and groups aside and led us through crowds. At the Peterhof Palace, she even went with the ladies to the loo and guided us (and others) into cubicles as they were vacated, saying that ladies often didn't realise that there were cubicles around a corner. Amazing service that still makes me giggle!!

[Darya26]

We will be sailing Azamara for the first time in June 2016. (June 11 Baltic) Saint Petersburg is my dream trip and I want to make sure to make the most of our three days there. Does anyone have advice about taking the ship excursions vs private tours? Do you have any recs for tour companies? Many thanks.

Hello,

I agree that even on a wonderful and very personalized line like Seabourn and others, there is a large amount of “pressure” from both the cruise company and very often from Travel Agent to (only in Saint-Petersburg) use the ship’s tours. They really stress the lack of a visa and how disappointed the passenger will be if the tour they arrange does not work out. But after doing a lot of research we have decided to put ourselves in the hands of the private company in Saint-Petersburg! My husband and I used Tourpetersburg (tourpetersburg.com) for three full days last August during our Baltic cruise. Their guide met us promptly at the ship each day, spoke perfect English and did everything we could ask… This company customized our visit with exactly what we wanted The car was very comfortable and the driver was terrific as well, every detail was very well prepared. The price was very reasonable, and thanks to the attitude of the company towards us we felt as VIPs all the time. We highly recommend the services of Tourpetersburg and assure you that you won’t regret it.