SPB Tours St. Petersburg

[CCKelly]

Has anyone used Viktoria with SPB Tours for a private tour in St. Petersburg. She seems quite responsive to E-mail, but would like some first hand accounts. We are also considering the usual three mentioned here: Alla, Denrus, and Red October. It's hard to determine what company is best to use for a private tour.

 

Thanks for any replies.

[Host Karen]

Welcome to Cruise Critic. You can find lots of advice on tour companies on this forum simply by looking down the page and clicking on any threads that may answer your questions. Here's one to get you started:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=735763

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

[mfanderso]

We have a tour booked for July with Viktoria of SPB Tours. I have read good reviews from others that used her last year. We are also using them in Berlin.

[Impala]

When are you sailing to St. Petersburg?

[ontheweb]

Has anyone used Viktoria with SPB Tours for a private tour in St. Petersburg. She seems quite responsive to E-mail, but would like some first hand accounts. We are also considering the usual three mentioned here: Alla, Denrus, and Red October. It's hard to determine what company is best to use for a private tour.

 

Thanks for any replies.

 

We used Alla tours, but Viktoria was our guide. (She did mention that she was in the process of starting her own agency.)

 

I can confirm that she is wonderful, at least as a guide. I'm sure that she is also very diligent about runnng her business.

[gprigmore]

Review of our SPB Tour – St Petersburg, Russia:

 

Since Cruise Critic was so helpful for us determining logistics, we’d thought we’d give back to the forum and provide our review:

 

Tour Dates: May 30 & 31, 2009

Ship: Emerald Princess

Guide: Luba

Tour Company: SPB Tours (www.spb-tours.com)

Excursion: C Tour – Active

Group size: 14

 

We can’t recommend Viktoria & SPB tours enough. It was simply an awesome experience and a pleasure dealing with Viktoria from day one! I was originally working with Red October, and although I still hear good things about them, nor do I have anything really bad to say about them, their responses were lacking in details, and I was only getting back "generic" form responses back from them. I had logistic questions, but getting them answered adequately was like pulling teeth. Conversely, we had the opposite experience with Viktoria. And... considering we paid about $60-80 less pp than Red October, how can you go wrong!!

 

It was so refreshing to get “real” responses from a perceptive and fun person, who could answer your questions promptly and effectively, and make you feel that you were indeed in good hands. (**I am now reading here about slower responses, and I know Viktoria is swamped. Keep in mind, St. Petersburg season is very, very short, so you need to plan ahead for superior service. When I met up with Viktoria (on our first tour day), it was like meeting a long time friend. She mentioned she was only sleeping a few hours here and there trying to keep up, and I know she’s hiring more people. So be patient, and plan ahead!)

 

We did the Active-C Tour excursion, and everything went smoothly. The only problem we encountered was with Princess, not SPB tours. Although I read you can just get off the ship when you dock, Princess let their own tour groups go first, and they were adamant about it. Just make sure when you get up in the morning, get your passenger passes in the dining room for your entire group as early as possible, as they go in ascending order, 1-50, then 50-100, etc. In the end, it wasn’t a big deal.

 

Our tour guide was Luba, and she was also terrific. Highly recommended! (see last pic of Luba and our skilled driver). Knowledgeable, fun, friendly, unique humor and (like Viktoria) an absolute gem! She is very passionate about her beloved city, and it showed. We loved our Luba! (Luba is holding the flower in the first pic below). If this is your first visit to St. Petersburg, I recommend the Active-C tour. And, see if you add the canal tour to your first day as that made our day perfect. (2nd pic below). Luba even brought us champagne, and we had the entire boat to ourselves. An ideal way to end the day!

 

In the end, I’m so glad I put this group of 14 together (a perfect size). It was a bit more work I had imaged at first, but end the end we made new life-long friends, and it really added to our whole experience. I even arranged a “meet & greet” on our fist day at sea, and we all got along great from the start. In fact, we had dinner with many of them throughout, and it was fun seeing all of them again and again throughout the cruise. It was great. But don’t take my word for it…here are a couple responses I received the last couple of days:

 

"Greg, thanks again for your efforts on the trip to Russia. I’ll repeat myself, but after looking at the Princess Excursions and taking one ourselves, what a difference a private guide gives you in terms of access, volume and stress level.” Kevin & Mariann

 

“Hi Greg, Thanks for the great pictures. The photos definitely put a smile on my face. We had such a wonderful time and cannot thank you enough for your organizational skills” Pat & Rick

 

"It was wonderful meeting all of you. We had such a great time. A special thanks to Greg for all your hard work. Blessings to all" Scott and Nancy

 

 

So in summary, SPB Tours, Viktoria and Luba get 5+ Stars! Enjoy your trip, and I hope this helps you all make the right choice about picking a Russian Tour company. And make sure you tell Viktoria Greg sent you!

 

Sincerely,

 

Greg Prigmore & Steve Reegler

San Francisco, California

 

 

 

 

 

[Giantfan13]

We have also booked with Viktoria for our Jewel cruise in August. In fact, from our roll call, most of us have booked with her. Why, mainly because her Baltic Pearl tours which is the regular tours, included everything all the other tour companies had plus they had the hydrofoil ride AND a canal boat ride. That was what sold me. Her prices are about the same as all the other groups also. But the real deciding factor was Viktoria herself. Every email I sent her, every email anyone in our group sent her, was always answered the next day, ALWAYS. Sure, now during the hecktic time, she is a bit slower in responding, but she does and always apologizing for being slow. I cannot wait to meet her and I am positive our tours will be as expected or above. I'm sure all the tour companies are great, it's just an individual thing as to which one we want to book. But SPB tours were top of our list.

[ontheweb]

Review of our SPB Tour – St Petersburg, Russia:

 

Since Cruise Critic was so helpful for us determining logistics, we’d thought we’d give back to the forum and provide our review:

 

Tour Dates: May 30 & 31, 2009

Ship: Emerald Princess

Guide: Luba

Tour Company: SPB Tours (www.spb-tours.com)

Excursion: C Tour – Active

Group size: 14

 

We can’t recommend Viktoria & SPB tours enough. It was simply an awesome experience and a pleasure dealing with Viktoria from day one! I was originally working with Red October, and although I still hear good things about them, nor do I have anything really bad to say about them, their responses were lacking in details, and I was only getting back "generic" form responses back from them. I had logistic questions, but getting them answered adequately was like pulling teeth. Conversely, we had the opposite experience with Viktoria. And... considering we paid about $60-80 less pp than Red October, how can you go wrong!!

 

It was so refreshing to get “real” responses from a perceptive and fun person, who could answer your questions promptly and effectively, and make you feel that you were indeed in good hands. (**I am now reading here about slower responses, and I know Viktoria is swamped. Keep in mind, St. Petersburg season is very, very short, so you need to plan ahead for superior service. When I met up with Viktoria (on our first tour day), it was like meeting a long time friend. She mentioned she was only sleeping a few hours here and there trying to keep up, and I know she’s hiring more people. So be patient, and plan ahead!)

 

We did the Active-C Tour excursion, and everything went smoothly. The only problem we encountered was with Princess, not SPB tours. Although I read you can just get off the ship when you dock, Princess let their own tour groups go first, and they were adamant about it. Just make sure when you get up in the morning, get your passenger passes in the dining room for your entire group as early as possible, as they go in ascending order, 1-50, then 50-100, etc. In the end, it wasn’t a big deal.

 

Our tour guide was Luba, and she was also terrific. Highly recommended! (see last pic of Luba and our skilled driver). Knowledgeable, fun, friendly, unique humor and (like Viktoria) an absolute gem! She is very passionate about her beloved city, and it showed. We loved our Luba! (Luba is holding the flower in the first pic below). If this is your first visit to St. Petersburg, I recommend the Active-C tour. And, see if you add the canal tour to your first day as that made our day perfect. (2nd pic below). Luba even brought us champagne, and we had the entire boat to ourselves. An ideal way to end the day!

 

In the end, I’m so glad I put this group of 14 together (a perfect size). It was a bit more work I had imaged at first, but end the end we made new life-long friends, and it really added to our whole experience. I even arranged a “meet & greet” on our fist day at sea, and we all got along great from the start. In fact, we had dinner with many of them throughout, and it was fun seeing all of them again and again throughout the cruise. It was great. But don’t take my word for it…here are a couple responses I received the last couple of days:

 

"Greg, thanks again for your efforts on the trip to Russia. I’ll repeat myself, but after looking at the Princess Excursions and taking one ourselves, what a difference a private guide gives you in terms of access, volume and stress level.” Kevin & Mariann

 

“Hi Greg, Thanks for the great pictures. The photos definitely put a smile on my face. We had such a wonderful time and cannot thank you enough for your organizational skills” Pat & Rick

 

"It was wonderful meeting all of you. We had such a great time. A special thanks to Greg for all your hard work. Blessings to all" Scott and Nancy

 

 

So in summary, SPB Tours, Viktoria and Luba get 5+ Stars! Enjoy your trip, and I hope this helps you all make the right choice about picking a Russian Tour company. And make sure you tell Viktoria Greg sent you!

 

Sincerely,

 

Greg Prigmore & Steve Reegler

San Francisco, California

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used Alla in August 2007, and Viktoria was our guide. She confided in us that she had just got her last approvals from the Russian bureacracy and was about to go in business for herself.

 

She was truly wonderful. I am glad to hear her business is doing well. I am not surprised.

 

We were also on Princess. However, we (our group was 10) just walked off the shup and through Russian immigration. We were among the first off, and no one made any attempt to stop us. This is not like when the ship controls tenders, and reserves the earliest times for their excursions. The rules are set by Russian immigration laws. And they do not care whether you are on a ship's tour, a private tour, or your own visa. I am surprised the cruise lines are doing this again.

[memawree]

Greg and Steve: Thank you for the great review on Viktoria's SPB tours. We too have booked with her for August 27 & 28, 2009. She has been the most cooperative person I have ever delt with and look forward to meeting her and who ever she plans to use as our tour guide and driver.

The pictures were great too.

Marie :)