St Petersburg excursions on Aug 30

My wife and I are considering a 1 day excursion on Aug 30 with either TJ Travel or SPB Tours, both are Russian based. They both came highly recommended from friends who used them in the last 18 months. Both companies offer full day private tours beginning 7:30am - 8:00am until 6pm. Cost per person for party of 2 is $290. Cost is much reduced with larger group; e.g. $215 per person with 10 total on the tour.

We would consider joining another group or arranging a group ourselves. Let me know if you are interested,

I see that this is your first Post.

WELCOME TO the Oceania Board!

You will find us a lively bunch.

The Moderators of this Website have established an area, commonly called the Roll Calls, wherein passengers who are presently booked on a particular voyage are encouraged to network.

These Roll Calls are segregated, first by Cruise Line, then by the Ship, and finally by the sailing date.

To find your specific Roll Call, go to the Oceania Section:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=420

Choose your vessel, and then search for your embarkation date.

There, you will be dealing only with those Passengers whowill literally be “in the same boat with you”, so you will have a much better chance of connecting with someone...

Enjoy your cruise, and every minute of the planning-

Getting there IS half the fun

Just to add to above post by J&S - by checking out your roll call you may find that there already are groups formed that you can join or form your own group

May I add my welcome to you for joining Cruise Critic. You will find that the Roll Calls are VERY helpful in setting up private tours ... and also just meeting fellow passengers in advance, even if only online.

My wife and I are considering a 1 day excursion on Aug 30 with either TJ Travel or SPB Tours, both are Russian based. They both came highly recommended from friends who used them in the last 18 months. Both companies offer full day private tours beginning 7:30am - 8:00am until 6pm. Cost per person for party of 2 is $290. Cost is much reduced with larger group; e.g. $215 per person with 10 total on the tour.

 

We would consider joining another group or arranging a group ourselves. Let me know if you are interested,

You can take an excursion with either tour company with equal confidence. Make your choice on the list of destinations (e.g. whether all the destinations are cultural and historic or whether some are life-of-an-everyday resident) and the lunch arrangements.You cannot make a bad choice! Both companies earn high praise from the many posters who hang out on the Northern Europe and Baltic Port of Call Board.

We had SPB Tours before. Our initial quoted price of $290 per person for a party of 2 was for a Two (2) day Deluxe St. Petersburg Tour, not One (1) day. We eventually got a discount for our party of 6.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We are on the same cruise and will be using Alla Tours for all three days in St P. The roll call has many folks on it that are doing various excursions. You'll learn a lot by just starting at page 1 and scrolling through the various posts. In fact, my tour group with Alla was firmed up last November!

When it comes to TJ Tours (who we can also highly recommend) I am not sure you need to form a group. When we used TJ (August 2016) we simply booked one of their tour options (in our case it was a 2 day tour + we added an evening ballet performance) online. I think we even got a discount for mentioning Cruise Critic :). TJ put together our group (there were 10 on our mini-bus). I do know that you can also form your own group...or even arrange a specialized tour for 2...but that was not necessary for their posted tour itineraries.

Hank

TJ put together our group (there were 10 on our mini-bus).

Hank

Hopefully from the same cruise ship.

Hopefully from the same cruise ship.

In our case, all of us were from the same ship. I am not sure if they ever run a tour with a mix from multiple ships.

Hank

In our case, all of us were from the same ship. I am not sure if they ever run a tour with a mix from multiple ships.

 

Hank

That makes sense. With different ships you could run into all sorts of potential problems - different ship arrival/departure times, ship arrival delays, disembarkation delays with ships of 4000+ passengers, some ships are in port only for a day and you have a 2 day tour, etc.

In August 1917 we were on a two day tour with Alla Tours and were the only couple from the Nautica which was docked on the River in down town St Petersburg. The others on the tour were all from a Norwegian Line ship which was docked at the main terminal. We had no problems what so ever, we were last to be picked up & first to be dropped off. We found Alla to be most efficient and very good value for money and had a wonderful time. There were several groups from the Nautica, but they had chosen a tour which had a slightly different itinerary.

In August 1917 we were on a two day tour with Alla Tours and were the only couple from the Nautica which was docked on the River in down town St Petersburg.

Did you see Czar Nicholas II? :D Sorry - I know the year is a typo.

We used Alla in the past and were very happy with her (ditto for SPB on another occasion).

Was your tour the same duration in days as that from the other ship? If not, how did you share the financial part?

We just arrived home last night from the Marina Baltic cruise. We used Alla and couldn't have been happier. Our guide, Alexandra was amazing. She knew everything about everything and always had a smile on her face which I found hard to do after 2 full days of touring. She made sure we saw everything of importance and had us back to the ship every day on time. We also used them in Stockholm and for Berlin as well. One day it rained a bit so we put off going to the fortress. But the next day she added it to our schedule so we wouldn't miss going there. Great experience!

Although it has been several years now, my experience with Alla from booking thru our 2-day tour was very similar to what you described. Wiks

Sent from my iPad using Forums