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Baltic Explorer - Help with St Petersburg please!


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Hi everyone, I am researching the various trips available for St Petersburg. There is a Thomson run Panoramic City Tour for 1/2 day which would suit us perfectly, but can anyone tell me if you get off the bus apart from the one photo stop at the Aurora Battleship? Thanks in advance!

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Hi- it was 2012 when we did this trip so not sure if anything has changed.

It was a good excursion with several stops, notably the Church of Spilled Blood where we had about 15 mins. Also a shopping stop before returning to the ship. We were a bit late back and some people missed their afternoon tours. I should check the actual itinerary with the excursion team onboard though. The only disappointment was that we didn't go close enough to the Hermitage- only snapped it from across the river.

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We are also in St Petersburg in July and have opted for a two day tour with Alla Tours, who get great reviews and are very polite and helpful to deal with. We are very unlikely to visit this beautiful city again so want to see everything. The Thomson tours are not very comprehensive - just short tours, with a two day you get to see just everything, just hope the old legs don't let us down, but who cares, can always relax afterwards. We have always used Thomson excursions in the past with no problems, but St Petersburg is something very special.

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Don't forget when you over night in St Petersburg, they normally do some night excursions to the ballet and folk night. We did the folk night and had a great time. Well worth the trip.

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We did the two day Comfort Tour with Alla Tours which was excellent. There were only two other people from our ship booked on it, so like a private tour.

 

Read the Northern Europe boards for loads of suggestions.

 

 

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Don't forget when you over night in St Petersburg, they normally do some night excursions to the ballet and folk night. We did the folk night and had a great time. Well worth the trip.
When we were there lots of ladies went to the ballet without their partners - it seems to be the accepted norm to do so if in an organised group from a cruise ship. That suited a philistine like me - bodyswerved that visit and left it to the culture vultures !!!

 

Two negative aspects - we were on a Thomson excursion that day and there was very little time allowed for 'er indoors to get back to the ship for a shower, change of dress and have a bite to eat before departing.

 

Secondly the show was not the advertised performance of "Swan Lake" due to the principlal ballerina being indisposed, if memory serves the "Nutcracker Suite" was substituted - I reckon Thomsons staff knew that change before the coaches left but kept it quiet in case people wanted to cancel.

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When we booked our Alla Tour the itinerary really looked full on and it was quite an early morning start on both days.

 

Myself and partner are not interested in ballet or folklore shows, so didn't feel we had missed out. As we were arriving back at the ship the people going to an evening trip were just leaving. However, we would also had booked something else also with Alla, so presumably time schedules would have been synced.

 

Would love to return and I think I read somewhere you can do an evening visit to the Faberge Museum. It opened a few months after we had visited.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi everyone, I am researching the various trips available for St Petersburg. There is a Thomson run Panoramic City Tour for 1/2 day which would suit us perfectly, but can anyone tell me if you get off the bus apart from the one photo stop at the Aurora Battleship? Thanks in advance!

It states on the tour sheet that " All sights are visited externally only with photo-stops with short stops" which means quickly off the bus for photo then straight back on. If you want to look inside any buildings I'd choose another tour. Weve just returned from the Baltic Discovery cruise. In St Petersburg we did 4 trips firstly Peterhof Palace and gardens which involved walking and was wonderful. We had time to eat and get on the next trip round St Petersburg cathedrals in the afternoon. The coach stopped at each one for us to have a guided tour inside. Next morning we visited Catherines Palace, time to eat on our return. In the afternoon we did Spilled Blood Church which involved a bit of walking round the streets. We saw so much of St Petersburg during our trips and they were all interesting. All morning trips are arranged to return in time for afternoon ones and you still have time for evening ones as well. Dont worry if you book a trip and decide to change it, we did this twice and they just change it for you or refund money if you booked it before you travelled. Ours had been refunded on our return home.

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With the local tour operators doing such excellent, comprehensive tours SPB is one destination I'd never consider a ship excursion.

 

When we spoke to our dining companions who had done ship tours, we had done so much more on our Alla Tour.

 

 

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arrived back on 9th july managed 4 trips with thomsons whilst in St Petersburg. did the City tour Yusapov palace and canal tour first day, Catherines palace and Peterhof gardens 2nd day. all tours had excellent guidesand not overpriced. only problem long wait at Yusapov Palace

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  • 4 weeks later...
arrived back on 9th july managed 4 trips with thomsons whilst in St Petersburg. did the City tour Yusapov palace and canal tour first day, Catherines palace and Peterhof gardens 2nd day. all tours had excellent guidesand not overpriced. only problem long wait at Yusapov Palace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hope this is not too late for you. We are back from Baltic with Thomson and we used Alla Tours in St Petersburg, We did the 2 day Grand Tour and it was everything we expected and more, Would strongly recommend Alla Tours from start to finish they were just first class.

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We did Treasures of the Baltic this July. Went on the Panoramic tour on the second day. Leave the ship early morning. We stopped at St Isaacs Cathedral, Aurora battleship and Church of the Spilled Blood. May even have been another before the obligatory souvenior stop. To be fair this was a different one to previous cruises and was quite good with toilets, free coffee and everything marked in euros. I think we were late back to the ship which did not bother us but would have done if we were going straight out again.

 

Last time we were there they provided packed lunches for passengers getting off the morning coach to save them going back to the ship. Basically straight onto the afternoon coach. Not seen or mentioned this year.

 

Peterhof was very good but packed. The evening of Russian Song and Dance was surprisingly very good and there was an interval with champagne served. Free water to take away as well. All the people in the hall were off cruise ships and there were 7 in that day.

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Just returned from a Baltic cruise and booked with Dancing Bear Tours. The tour was outstanding. Tailor made to your needs, great communication with Julia (the owner). Our guide and driver maneuvered around St Petersburg to avoid traffic jams and shifted itinerary to avoid long lines. The company arranged night tours to the ballet, Russian concert and Faberge. A stop not on many tours was the 900 Day Memorial, very moving. Excellent tour, excellent value.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

We are booked on the Baltic Cruise June/July 2018 and after reading all the reviews have booked the Comfort Tour with Alla. I have put it down as a roll call and because we did that they have given us a discount.

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I'd avoid ships tours in St Petersburg. You need to be in a smaller group and have decent time in some of the amazing sights that require more than a quick photo stop. The SPB two day tour we did was outstanding and I think Alla tours do something very similar. I'd choose one of those unless you have serious mobility problems.

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  • 5 months later...
We are booked on the Baltic Cruise June/July 2018 and after reading all the reviews have booked the Comfort Tour with Alla. I have put it down as a roll call and because we did that they have given us a discount.

 

We are booked on this cruise but I can't find the roll call. Can you help please?

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We had the same problem last year - I did many posts to try and find if anyone from the Celebration was thinking of Alla Tours, eventually I found that one other had booked with them. But when we arrived the first morning in St Petersburg there were quite a few from the ship doing the 2 day Grand Tour - two mini buses in fact. Alla Tours really first class, you will see everything there is to see, obviously its not a leisurely two days, but we would not have missed it for the world.

Glad to help with any info if required.

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We had the same problem last year - I did many posts to try and find if anyone from the Celebration was thinking of Alla Tours, eventually I found that one other had booked with them. But when we arrived the first morning in St Petersburg there were quite a few from the ship doing the 2 day Grand Tour - two mini buses in fact. Alla Tours really first class, you will see everything there is to see, obviously its not a leisurely two days, but we would not have missed it for the world.

Glad to help with any info if required.

Hi we have booked Alla for their 2 day must see tour in SPB, can I ask what currency you used for tips for the staff pls.

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JonSchick

 

I have limited mobility and did a 2 day tour with Alla when we went to SPB. The only bit I didn't do was the subway ride and stayed on the bus with the driver.

 

Both guide and driver were extremely helpful. Going again this year, so will book again with Alla Tours.

 

 

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Hi we have booked Alla for their 2 day must see tour in SPB, can I ask what currency you used for tips for the staff pls.

I was going to take Russian money to tip with but unsure how much that should be. We are not overly wealthy, the two day trip to S.P.B is a substantial extra added to the cruise. I have saved for that but do not want to be mean when it comes to the tips.

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