Private tours in St. Petersburg Russia?

[southender]

I am going on the Scandinavian/Baltic cruise summer of 2010. I previously received some great advice from some of you regarding taking a private tour while in St. Petersburg rather than going through Celebrity. That sounded wonderful, but in my online research of these tour companies, I see that they seem to require me to come up with the required amount of people for the tour? Is this correct? or can I just sign up and hope others do also to fill the needed amount of people.

Thanks for your help in advance:D

[hylasgirl]

I am going on the Scandinavian/Baltic cruise summer of 2010. I previously received some great advice from some of you regarding taking a private tour while in St. Petersburg rather than going through Celebrity. That sounded wonderful, but in my online research of these tour companies, I see that they seem to require me to come up with the required amount of people for the tour? Is this correct? or can I just sign up and hope others do also to fill the needed amount of people.

Thanks for your help in advance:D

 

 

Yes, you can just say "6 people" and then try to find them. It is really easy to do on your Roll Call. We have never had a problem filling private tours. We had a great two days with Alla Tours.

[jammer5122]

I am going on the Scandinavian/Baltic cruise summer of 2010. I previously received some great advice from some of you regarding taking a private tour while in St. Petersburg rather than going through Celebrity. That sounded wonderful, but in my online research of these tour companies, I see that they seem to require me to come up with the required amount of people for the tour? Is this correct? or can I just sign up and hope others do also to fill the needed amount of people.

Thanks for your help in advance:D

We also had a wonderful 2 days with Alla Tours. We did not have a group so we just requested to be put with a small group when we booked and they put us with 2 other couples that were also from our ship.

[Gram Cape Cod]

We also had two great days with Alla Tours! I put together a group with 10 people from her website.

[spearmint]

I am going on the Scandinavian/Baltic cruise summer of 2010. I previously received some great advice from some of you regarding taking a private tour while in St. Petersburg rather than going through Celebrity. That sounded wonderful, but in my online research of these tour companies, I see that they seem to require me to come up with the required amount of people for the tour? Is this correct? or can I just sign up and hope others do also to fill the needed amount of people.

Thanks for your help in advance:D

 

Are you single or a couple? We (two) just booked the tour with DenRus, and ended up in a van with at total of 10 of us; all happened to be from our ship, but we did not previously know each other. There was no problem. I do not recall "having to come up with a required number" for the tour. P.S. DenRus was fabulous to deal with.

[Tatka]

Denrus, Red October.

[southender]

Thank you spearmint for your information it is very helpful. It would be my husband and I travelling. Some of the sites do sound as if they want you to get together the required amount of people. The site actually states we do not make up the group. But I will keep in mind your tour company when we actually make these reservations. thanks again

[pinksuit]

We also had a wonderful 2 days with Alla Tours. We did not have a group so we just requested to be put with a small group when we booked and they put us with 2 other couples that were also from our ship.

 

Hi Jammer, Pinkie is looking for you regarding the ride from Port to Rome...please contact me @pinksuitpink@aol.com. Thank You

[Peregrina651]

We toured in 2007 with Alla Tours and loved working with her and our guide Elena. There is a bulletin board on Alla Tours website for tour-shares plus, she helped us make up our group. We ended filling our van (we were 12 in our group) with a combination of roll-call members and Alla's help.

 

BTW, in retrospect, trying to make up a group of 12 people, even 10 people was too many; six would have been better, even if it cost more.

[Albert Ross]

I am going on the Scandinavian/Baltic cruise summer of 2010. I previously received some great advice from some of you regarding taking a private tour while in St. Petersburg rather than going through Celebrity. That sounded wonderful, but in my online research of these tour companies, I see that they seem to require me to come up with the required amount of people for the tour? Is this correct? or can I just sign up and hope others do also to fill the needed amount of people.

Thanks for your help in advance:D

We got our group together via the roll call. Very easy to do.

Also Alla has a facility on her website for people to join tours

[NJGRANNY]

We did DenRus a couple of years ago. It turned out that we were the only people booking those particular days, so we had a private tour - the tour guide (who was wonderful), the driver and us. We had such a wonderful time. And the cost was the same.

[GRBlizz]

One note - if you use a private tour in St. Pete (which you definitely should do), don't fret when you hear that the private tour passengers have to stay on the ship until after all the Celebrity tour passengers have left. First of all, you can just walk off when you want. Second of all, on our cruise, we were "released" as soon as the ship was cleared based on our having reported an early tour departure time. There was no need to even flout the rules, it was fine.

 

You will have a great time.

[irv54]

We did Red October a couple of year ago. They were outstanding and customized the trip for us. We put together a group from the cc ship board.

[Cellen]

Do these recommended tour companies in St Petersburg get booked way in advance? We are travelling in a group of 16 and want to book private tours, so I was wondering how soon to book - we are cruising with Celebrity in June 2010.

[pbr]

Do these recommended tour companies in St Petersburg get booked way in advance? We are travelling in a group of 16 and want to book private tours, so I was wondering how soon to book - we are cruising with Celebrity in June 2010.

 

We booked with Alla about a month before we arrived. It was a great tour.

[sealover155]

One more vote for Alla. We chose to tour privately - Elena was our guide - so that we could have the flexibility to change/adjust as we went along. And we did, choosing to extend our time in the Hermitage. Also, Alla arranged ballet tickets to the Mariinsky (the real deal, not staged for cruise guests) for us and our seats were dead center. One of the most memorable nights of our life. Even if you're not a student of the ballet, it's an experience of a lifetime.

[DMS]

Six of us toured with Den Russ in June 2008. We did not look for others to join us and Den Russ included us with many others on our ship. We had a wonderfull two days, Ludmilla was our guide and she was fabulous. We booked about 3 months prior to our sailing. I would highly recommend the company. As another poster mentioned - you do not have to listen to the ship's warning you may not disembark until all those going on Celebrity tours are off - we just walked off as soon as we were cleared by customes. Den Russ gave us very specific instructions as to how to handle immigration and where to meet them.

[Falcons07]

Do these recommended tour companies in St Petersburg get booked way in advance? We are travelling in a group of 16 and want to book private tours, so I was wondering how soon to book - we are cruising with Celebrity in June 2010.

 

We booked with Alla about a year out. Excellent tour !!! Eleana was wonderful.:)

[GRBlizz]

We found availability for July, 2008 at all of the "big 3" in April, 2008. We chose Denrus. There was a mixup (our sales person at Denrus left, and our reservation got lost), and we scrambled to find a tour two weeks ahead of the cruise. All the Big 3 were full, but we found availability for the same price from two of the smaller tour companies we found on the Baltics CC board.

 

Denrus found our reservation, apologized profusely, and we went with them and had a fabulous visit.

 

Since St. Pete is the highlight of a Baltic cruise for most people, don't wait too long. But a few months out should be fine.

[JoyFrances]

My husband and I want to do the Baltics in 2010. I have walking issues (arthritis) and require a cane. I also have issues getting into the back of a van (I would need the passenger seat). What are you impressions of the tours and the tour guides with respect to persons with disabilities.

 

Thanks

 

Joy

[Peregrina651]

Joy --

 

On our tour, I saw a much older woman carrying a chair with her so that she could sit whenever she needed to. It was a regular folding chair and I am sure that it was more hassle to carry that chair (and I didn't see anyone volunteering to carry it for her) than any benefit she may have gotten but I guess she was not going to miss seeing Katherine's Palace.

 

Your situation is not new to the tour companies and they will be able to tell you exactly what they can and cannot do for you. Tell them what you need and tell them what you want to see and they will help you work it out.