St. Petersburg Excursions

[Skirmisher]

We are booked on the Regal Baltic cruise for early June and wonder if taking the 2 day Best of St. Petersburg excursion is a good idea. It seems very comprehensive but is also quite expensive. Is it too exhausting rushing from place to place? Are there better options? Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has taken this excursion in the past and has recommendations. Thanks much.

[Micahs Grandad]

We used SKB tours last July and found it to be excellent and much cheaper than Princess.. Will be two long and busy days but so worth it

[Cruz-OR]

There are several private tours such as SPB and Alla that are great and can save you some bucks. We used SPB last year and they were exceptional. They provided the passport documents for the time in St Petersburg, picked us up at the ship, provided lunch one day, and got us back on time. The tours hit all the hot spots you will want to see if this is your first time in St Petersburg. You can also book the other itinerary ports with them. The web site is: /https://www.spb-tours.com/

[Garich]

We used Alla Tours, http://www.alla-tour.com/, several years ago for a 2 day St Petersburg tour & thought it was great. Not overly strenuous (they have several choices with different levels of activity), small group of, as I recall, 12 in a van. Excellent guide with very good English & considerably less expensive than the cruise excursion.

[paul929207]

We are booked on the 2 day Comfort tour in St. Petersburg in July. They have been excellent setting everything up

[Skirmisher]

Thanks so much for the swift and helpful replies. I will look at the other tour companies as well.

Do Alla and SPB tours visit the actual Rasputin cellar in the Yusupov Palace?

 

Also, has anyone actually taken the Princess sponsored two day tour?

Edited February 20, 2018 by Skirmisher
omission

[zogrand]

We did the two day tour with Alla this past September. We did visit the Rasputin cellar room. This was not our first visit to St. Petersburg. Alla did an excellent tour. It included the same important sights as the Princess tour but was much more reasonable. Lunch on both days was included, one in a lovely restaurant, the other a box lunch,while traveling.

[SoCalTraveler]

We used Alla. Half the price and more stuff. Well worth it. And there are other private tour guides with 5 star ratings.

[LeeW]

The Princess tour is exhausting, at around 8 hours each day. But has great dining and entertainment including things like caviar, vodka, champagne, chicken kiev and ice cream. Fun watching "gypsies" teaching tourists to dance with them.

 

But we had a few folks that also booked the "Evening with Catherine" tour that had a quick dinner and back out for another four hours. They were almost dead when we boarded the buses at 7 the next morning. Glad we didn't attempt that.

[caribill]

Yes, taking a two day tour of St Pete is worthwhile.

 

I agree with the others that touring with SPB, Alla, or Red October (which we did) is a better alternative than taking the Princess sponsored excursion. Not only does it cost significantly less, but you will be in a smaller group than the Princess tour. Also, usually the private companies will try to be at the various main attractions when the multiple Princess tour buses are not.

 

You may see wording on Princess documents heavily hinting that if you are not on a Princess tour you will have visa problems for the St Pete stop. Definitely not true since, as posted by others, these independent companies will arrange for any documentation you need to get through Russian immigration.

[DougH]

I did a 2 day tour with SPB and it was very good. Expensive but still cheaper than thru Princess and we only had about12 people in our group. A very long two days but saw far more than you could ever do on your own or with a large group.

 

SPB offered discounts if you booked multiple tours in different ports so I booked several others with them also. Was very happy overall with SPB

[Superfragger]

Alla doesn't seem to have any description of the packages on their website?

[paul929207]

Alla doesn't seem to have any description of the packages on their website?

Here is where I found them:

 

https://alla-tour.com/tours/

[travelbug615]

We did the 2 day tour with Alla last year. Highly recommend it.

[manunia]

we bought a package from Alla's tours for our Baltic cruise as well as a lot of people from our Roll Call (buying a package gives you a discount).

All tours were very organized, tour guides were excellent.

[sandyoftheseas]

SPB does include Rasputin's cellar.

[kjg46]

T J Travel also included Rasputin visit as part of their tour. Excellent company that has US phone access.

[hate2shop]

T J Travel also included Rasputin visit as part of their tour. Excellent company that has US phone access.

 

Highly recommend TJ we went to Yusupov and saw the cellar and also went to Faberge

[lois1112]

Does any one know is SPB or ALLA tours does the Faberge museum. I've booked the Baltic cruise for August of 2019 and would want to do that (I heard someone did it a an additional evening tour)

This will be my first- possibly only trip to St. Peterberg and I want to see it all

[paul929207]

Does any one know is SPB or ALLA tours does the Faberge museum. I've booked the Baltic cruise for August of 2019 and would want to do that (I heard someone did it a an additional evening tour)

This will be my first- possibly only trip to St. Peterberg and I want to see it all

Have you checked their websites?

[InkByte]

We went to St. Petersburg on The Princess Baltic cruise and used Natalya at tsar-travel.com. Absolutely excellent in every way and much cheaper than the Princess excursion. The Faberge museum was not on the usual agenda but I let her know we wanted to go and she fit it in the intinerary very smoothly and we got see all the other sites as well. She arranged superb seats at the ballet as well. Our driver was safe and knew the best way around town to avoid traffic and was also there waiting for us at the conclusion of the ballet to take us back to the ship. We saw much more in 2 days with her yet it was done so expertly we were not frazzled at the end. We are planning to return and engage her tour guiding service again. Tell her Allison sent you. :) Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you have. You are going to LOVE St. Petersburg and, quite frankly, the whole cruise!

 

 

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[InkByte]

We went to St. Petersburg on The Princess Baltic cruise and used Natalya at tsar-travel.com. Absolutely excellent in every way and much cheaper than the Princess excursion. The Faberge museum was not on the usual agenda but I let her know we wanted to go and she fit it in the intinerary very smoothly and we got see all the other sites as well. She arranged superb seats at the ballet as well. Our driver was safe and knew the best way around town to avoid traffic and was also there waiting for us at the conclusion of the ballet to take us back to the ship. We saw much more in 2 days with her yet it was done so expertly we were not frazzled at the end. We are planning to return and engage her tour guiding service again. Tell her Allison sent you. :) Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you have. You are going to LOVE St. Petersburg and, quite frankly, the whole cruise!

 

 

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I also wanted to add that I got her name from the Rick Steve’s Northern European Cruise Ports Book. She came very highly recommended and lived up to that recommendation.

 

 

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[HRPro]

Does any one know is SPB or ALLA tours does the Faberge museum. I've booked the Baltic cruise for August of 2019 and would want to do that (I heard someone did it a an additional evening tour)

This will be my first- possibly only trip to St. Peterberg and I want to see it all

 

We are booked with Alla for our June Baltic cruise, and we also considered SPB. Both offer the Faberge as an evening tour on the first day in St. Petersburg, and we are planning to do that. If you book a private tour with either company, they will customize the itinerary and likely add the Faberge museum to your regular tour day. We were fine adding it as an evening tour as the museum is small and doesn't take alot of time to visit; price is very reasonable too.

[ontheweb]

Does any one know is SPB or ALLA tours does the Faberge museum. I've booked the Baltic cruise for August of 2019 and would want to do that (I heard someone did it a an additional evening tour)

This will be my first- possibly only trip to St. Peterberg and I want to see it all

 

We used Alla back in 2007, and the future owner of SPB was our guide. One thing about the tour was that it could be customized. One of the members of our group (put together by me when I asked in our roll call if anyone was interested) wanted to visit a synagogue. When no one objected, Alla added it to our tour. When we first started, our guide Viktoria asked if there was anything else not on the tour we wanted to see. I said that I had read that the subway stations were interesting. She took us on the subway and told our driver where to meet us.

 

So unless things have changed, you can add a place to your tour that is not listed as being on it.

[newfiecruiser1]

We are booked on the Regal Baltic cruise for early June and wonder if taking the 2 day Best of St. Petersburg excursion is a good idea. It seems very comprehensive but is also quite expensive. Is it too exhausting rushing from place to place? Are there better options? Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has taken this excursion in the past and has recommendations. Thanks much.

 

I have also booked for Regal in June..departing June 12. I have been looking at tour companies that rank high on trip advisor like SPB Tours. Prices are about half that of the cruise line.