chives Posted December 25, 2006 #1 Share Posted December 25, 2006 I am cruising the Baltic on HAL in July and wanted to know if anyone had used the private tour agencies. There are only 3 of us and so I would like a packaged tour. I saw that Denrus has a 2 day planned tour. Has anyone done this? Did you feel safe and comfortable not going through the cruise line? I saw that Alla and Red October also have tours but that I would have to gather more people in my group and submit an itinerary. I really don't want to do that and prefer a preplanned tour. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted December 26, 2006 #2 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Many people use those tour operators. Maybe try your "roll call" to get others to join your group...more cost effective. We ended up doing a ships tour and it was fine ....but not for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted December 26, 2006 #3 Share Posted December 26, 2006 We cruised to St. Petersburg about 8 years ago. At the time you need to get a Russian visa in advance if you were getting off the ship on a non-ship excursion. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kindlychap Posted December 26, 2006 #4 Share Posted December 26, 2006 We cruised to St. Petersburg about 8 years ago. At the time you need to get a Russian visa in advance if you were getting off the ship on a non-ship excursion. Paul This certainly applied recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane110 Posted December 26, 2006 #5 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Both Red October and Denrus are really excellent companies. I've never heard of Alla, so can't comment. You will need a Visa and both Denrus and RO will get you tourist Visa's as part of your tour package. To get your own would cost about $100. per person. With Denrus and RO you can have as few or as many people on your tour as you want. Obviously, the more people the le$$ per person it is. To bring down your costs, do a roll call. DH and I wanted only one other couple and we found a terrific couple here on CC. We ended up spending most of our cruise with them. We used RO and they sent us a suggested itinerary which we tweaked a bit. Then, once enroute, we shortened our time in some places and added some other stops. These are things that you can't do with a large group, which is why we kept our group to just four. I've never heard of anyone disappointed with either of these two tour company's. Have a great cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SA Traveler Posted December 26, 2006 #6 Share Posted December 26, 2006 We are using DenRus in May. So far I'm very impressed with their responsiveness and flexibility. Since we haven't actually done the tour yet, I can't comment on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted December 26, 2006 #7 Share Posted December 26, 2006 We cruised to St. Petersburg about 8 years ago. At the time you need to get a Russian visa in advance if you were getting off the ship on a non-ship excursion. Paul If you are only doing a private tour and not wandering off on your own the Tour company will provide you with "group visa" Ship'd tours are gcovered under a "group visa" but you MUST stay with the group. If however you want to go off on your own you do need a visa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpro Posted December 26, 2006 #8 Share Posted December 26, 2006 I am cruising the Baltic on HAL in July and wanted to know if anyone had used the private tour agencies. There are only 3 of us and so I would like a packaged tour. I saw that Denrus has a 2 day planned tour. Has anyone done this? Did you feel safe and comfortable not going through the cruise line? I saw that Alla and Red October also have tours but that I would have to gather more people in my group and submit an itinerary. I really don't want to do that and prefer a preplanned tour. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. We came back from a Princess tour to SP back in September. We used Red October and would highly recommend them. They will provide you with a suggested itinerary if you ask. We changed our itinerary before the cruise to see some sights we wanted, and then even after the tour started. Our guide was Elena, and she was great. When getting off the ship there are two lines to queue up in to get thru customs, the RO/Denrus line went very smoothly, no problems. The ship line was extremely long, and although it moved along, we were in our van and off while most people on the ship's tours were still trying to board the busses. I would highly recommend using Denrus or RO, although I have seen that Alla is recommended as well. If you decide to go with the private tour, have lunch with a Russian family. We did not do that and regret it immensley. We heard nothing but good things about this part of the tour from others who did the Russian lunch. You should have a relatively easy time posting on your rollcall for persons to join you. RO offered to try to help us in forming our group and we had to turn away two couples who wanted to join close to departure. We had 8 in our group and it was just about right. Enjoy your trip, SP was by far our favorite port. If you want to contact me for more details, email to mrqcace@yahoo.com RC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naples queen Posted December 26, 2006 #9 Share Posted December 26, 2006 We would like very much to take a private tour and hopefully join others from our cruise who would like to do the same. We are sailing in August and will look into the tour agencies previously mentioned. Can anyone quote the price of these tours vs the ship's tours which appear to be pretty expensive. I realize that the price is based on the number of people and the itinerary but would like a rough idea of the cost for a good inclusive tour. Thanks in advance for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusin-Suzan Posted December 26, 2006 #10 Share Posted December 26, 2006 Do the private tour. We used RO. Their was 8 of us. We four hooked up with another four on CC roll call. The tour was perfect. Have fun!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naples queen Posted December 27, 2006 #11 Share Posted December 27, 2006 We did private tours in the Med last summer and felt they were far superior and more cost effective than the ship's tours. Do you remember what the cost was with RO??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyIL Posted December 27, 2006 #12 Share Posted December 27, 2006 My family of 6 did a private tour with DenRus in 2005 and loved it. Check the Baltic Ports board for more info about touring St. Petersburg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaylorGirl Posted December 27, 2006 #13 Share Posted December 27, 2006 We obtained our own visa's and went independent of the ship or any tour and had a wonderful time. Since I realize not everyone is comfortable going independently, I would recommend Denrus they are a great group to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare teacherman Posted December 27, 2006 #14 Share Posted December 27, 2006 We did the HAL Baltic this past August It was wonderful. In SP we went with Red October. We joined a group of 8 that was already put together. We found them on this board. Also look on Roll Call for your cruise. We had a good time and saw a lot more than we would have on a ship tour. Before joining this group, we were planning to do a value tour with DenRus. After a while, it starts to become too much information on the tour. To me, the must sees are Peterhof, Catherine's Palace, Hermitage, the big cathedral. After that, it becomes very subjective. Have fun planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chives Posted December 27, 2006 Author #15 Share Posted December 27, 2006 Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. I will email the companies and go on the roll call board and see if I can find anyone else sailing in July. I am new to this site but have been extremely impressed with the responses of group members and the vast knowledge available on the site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliadlf Posted December 27, 2006 #16 Share Posted December 27, 2006 We used Denrus with a group from our roll call in August. Best experience we could have gotten to see as much as we did in the two days. We sailed on the Star Princess and would highly recommend Denrus. Our guide and driver were excellent and went the extra mile to be sure we had seen everything on our "wish list" and then a few extras thrown in. There is a forum here on CC for the Baltics ports which you may want to look at. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192 Lots of information and you can read what others have said about their tour companies they have used. The other two companies, Alla and Red October are also from what we hear, very good companies. Enjoy your cruise. Julia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancingchef Posted December 28, 2006 #17 Share Posted December 28, 2006 We did the Baltic cruise in July and used a company called Travel in Russia. There was just two of us and we had a driver and guide for out 2 days in St. P. It was by far the highlight of our cruise and our guide Marina was fabulous! She's been a guide for 20 years and is a wealth of information. We would highly recommend this complany. They will suggest an itinerary, but are very flexible. They obtained the visa's for us and were very responsive to my many questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roboref Posted December 28, 2006 #18 Share Posted December 28, 2006 I am not sure if you got the info you asked about. I would recommend Denrus (Complete St Petersburg) $265. I chose Denrus due to the promise to run the tour without a full group. I did not have to be responsible to get a group together or if it didn't fill up have it cancelled at the last minute. Ended up with a group of 8 people, my group of 4 and 2 other wonderful couples. Denrus went out of their way to provide a great experinece. From meeting us just outside immigration, to our guide filling time by taking us to on a subway ride and to the grocery market (my request), to being very capable of moving us to the front of the lines and taking care of tickets etc at the various museums. The price included 2 meals all entry fees, camera fees, etc. at a substantial discount over the cruise tours. Another advantage to this tour was use of a 12 passenger bus ather than the huge buses, many times we were dropped off closer to the entrance than the large buses, which allowed us to save energy as well as with the small group we went through the sites much quicker and were able to hear the details given by the guide much easier. The meals were also very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porky113 Posted January 1, 2007 #19 Share Posted January 1, 2007 We too used Red October for 2 days and they set us up with another couple and we had a blast. First in line for everything. You by-passed all the big lines. reserved parking spots. where ever you went you where first. Either company comes highly recommended. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbh62ark Posted January 2, 2007 #20 Share Posted January 2, 2007 Have you checked the Baltics board section of this site? You'll find a lot of great information for your trip there (I'm surprised this thread hasn't been moved there). I have toured with Red October and Denrus on separate trips in 2003 and 2005 and highly recommend Denrus. Have a great trip, Donna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelingmcmahans Posted January 3, 2007 #21 Share Posted January 3, 2007 We used Palladium for a two-person private tour 2 years ago - they were wonderful. We had to get visas, but they helped with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Host Karen Posted January 4, 2007 #22 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I agree with the suggestions that you should also check out the Baltics Port of Call board for the information you seek. However, since you are receiving so many responses to your questions, I'm inclined to leave this thread here for the time being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
virgenia Posted January 4, 2007 #23 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Unless you are a very experienced traveler, I would never consider doing a tour of SP on my own. It is defintely a different country. When we did the Baltic cruise last year we booked the Denrus Value Tour. This is an excellent value and does not require you to put together a large group of people. They handle the visa issue. We saw everything we could possible want to see in St. Pete. Our guide, Ludmilla, has received mixed reviews on cruise critic. However, I think she has received unfair criticism. She is very plain-spoken, has definite views of men in general and Russian men in particular, and is not afraid to express her opinions. However, she is a lecturer at the university and is so knowledgeable about Russian history, particularly art history. Her English is impeccable. You can book this Value tour on the denrus.ru website and it is very easy. I highly recommend this company. I have read many good things about Red October and Alla Tours, so you are probably fine with any of these companies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.