ST PETERSBURG TOURS

Thanks everyone,

We have booked 2 day highlight tour and now 6 for the ballet!

The others may take a different tour as we don't really want to be on the ship when we could be in St Petersburg.

They definitely get great reviews and they have been lots of help already.

We will have to look into visiting Moscow etc ourselves as we would prefer to wander.

Excited now!

Check out SPB Tours. We ha a group of 10. It worked out real well.

I happened to book a 2-day shore tour by https://petersburg.expert/tour/two-day-shore-excursion/, it was fantastic. We visited The Hermitage, the Amber Room, and other unique areas. Very beautiful city. And no Visa needed. The guide spoke English so it added up a few more points!

Thanks everyone for your help. We are a group of 2 families. Adults and teens with a lot of different wishes. I want to visit the famous doughnut shop and part of the Crime and Punishment district. Also any War and Peace sites and Revolution sites. Hubby wants to shop! Would also love to fit in a ballet as does my friend's hubby, we might be on our own!

Did anyone else get the tour extended into the late evening?

thanks

Same here. We got to eat lunch at a really neat out of the way place, and they make sure you get to do some shopping.

One of the conditions for being part of a no visa needed tour is that you have to stay with the authorized guide. Our tour was for a three generation family group, so we could decide what we wanted to do. Our guide was very responsive to our requests for more time at some places and less at others. I would think that if you joined one of their pre planned small group tours you might have more difficulty altering the tour. We did visit a souvenir shop and a market as well as taking a short ride on the subway.

We approached three of the companies before making our choice and we found them all to be very quick to respond to emails.

We used SPB also and really liked them. We had a group of 10. We used them in Talin, too. That was really cool because the ships tour had over 40 people in it.

Thanks smtcan1

Can i just ask, would they have let you shop, just sit about, if you had wanted? I know that sounds silly but we are really wanting to get a feel for the city and not just to run from one place to another. thanks

We booked a two day tour with SPB in St. Petersburg and were very happy with the experience. We had to book ahead, online, and send passport details. The company sent us an authorization letter so we could leave the port without a visa. We did not pay anything until the end of the first day. The more distant places were covered on the first day so we had no worries about missing the ship.

There are several very reputable companies offering tours like this - Alla, Denrus and Red October were others used by people we met on board. Cruise lines do a lot of scaremongering to encourage people to use their expensive tours. We never felt unsafe in any way, and saw a lot more at a lower cost than those who took ship's tours.

Listen to Rick Steve's on this subject: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/russia/how-to-get-a-russian-visa