Eeyoredagreat
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Posts posted by Eeyoredagreat
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I thought CC readers who are planning a Baltic cruise might be interested in my latest post on Copenhagen. It was an easy city to do everything on our own, and two days – one in a hotel and one on the ship – was a nice amount of time to cover the major attractions. I will be following up with Copenhagen Part 2 and also a post on Tallinn, Estonia.
http://www.themodernpostcard.com/?p=857
Mary
Travel Blog: http://www.themodernpostcard.com
Thank you Mary. I'll be there in August and can't wait!
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The Town hall square is only a few minutes away from the central station so its still duable.
Thank you! You really are the Danish Rick Steves!
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While it is possible to head for Rosenborg first you will have a tight schedule.
At best you will have to leave around 10:30 and 10:40 in order to be at the pick up point at 11:00 and I´m guessing you need to be there 5 minutes before or so.
But they open at 09:00 and 90 minutes should be enough.
Rejseplanen.dk says that it takes 13 minutes from you walk from Rosenborg to Nørreport, taking the train to the central station and walk to Baresso.
The pick up point is here
A canal tour would be a nice relaxing trip after the walk.
Where does the trip end ?
I am so sorry - our meeting point is at the Dragon Fountain at Town Hall square. Honestly I don't know where we will end. I am assuming at the same point?
If the scehdule is too tight to go to Rosenborg first thing in the morning, then Rosenborg after the walking tour then the canal tour after to rest our feet.
Yes the Canal tour would really be nice then a nice restaurant after that. Wonderful way to end your last day in Copenhagen before we go to the port for our cruise the next day.
We won't be able to see Amalienborg but I thought Rosenborg is a much better choice. My group would be at this point may have too much castle tours since we are going to Kronborg and Federicksborg already.
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1)
There are some good suggestions on this website.
http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/gastronomy/eat-drink
I think CPH Street Food is the better option as Torvehallerne is more like a market place with seating. :D
From your hotel to Street Food
Take the metro from Forum to Christianshavn (direction Vestamager or Lufthavnen)
From Christianshavn you take bus 9A towards Operaen, Holmen and get off at Arsenaløen where CPH Street Food is located.
In order to get to Tivoli you just take bus 9A in the other direction and get off at the central station, Tivoli is just next door.
In order to get back to your hotel you just take bus 250S towards Buddinge or bus 2A towards Tingbjerg and get off at Forum.
The trip to the Palace and castle.
Just take the metro from Forum to Nørreport (same as to Christianshavn) and take S-train line A to Hillerød.
When you get back from Helsingør and Kronborg Castle with the Øresundstog train you simply just get off at Nørreport and take the metro towards Vanløse and get off at Forum.
3)
Where is the meeting point?
Meeting point is at Baresso Coffee across Central station
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Hi Danish Viking
I have a lot of questions to ask you. This is the itinerary my group plans to do:
Our Cruise is still in August starting at Copenhagen. Somebody recommended that we make restaurant reservations already.
1. We arrive two days before our Cruise, Saturday night. our hotel is Cabinn Scandinavia. Best reasonable place to eat? And what toe eat in that restaurant?
2. Next day, we plan to go to Kronborg Palace and Frederiksborg Palace. We leave around 9:00 am for the train. Reasonable to be back around 5:00 PM? is the Street Food Market far or is it better to go to Torvehallerne. Or another suggested place? We will stop first at our Hotel before searching for food. After Dinner, we want to go to to Tivoli. Can you create route for us, please?
3. Monday - we have a free walking tour at 11:00 AM with Sandeman - need direction on the meeting pint by the way. Is it better to see Rosenborg before the walking tour or after the walking tour. what else do you suggest to see? Canal boat tour? Dinner at a good restaurant. Somebody suggested Petite Pate but we need to make reservation.
Can you create a route for us please.
much much appreciated
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I came across Tours by Locals on the roll call for my cruise. It appears that they work the same as Uber does for taxis, or Air BnB does for accommodation.
Personally I wouldn't be comfortable using them for a shore excursion on a sailing day, as you're going to be shown around by a local person, not necessarily an experienced tour guide. That means you can't be as confident they're going to manage your time properly and get you back to the ship on time! I'm also not sure whether they offer a guarantee like the bigger companies (i.e. that they'll pay to get you to the next port if you miss the sailing time).
However it does sound like a good option for the first day, when there's no worries about getting back to the ship for a specific time.
Tours by Locals is a tour company. The one I was talking about was Tour like a local - an evening option offered by SPB. I booked my Tallinn shore excursion thru tTours by Local because they came out cheaper than SPB. Their 6 hour tour was $455 per group. I have a big group, so it came out like $45.00/person. I did not choose them for ST. Petersburg because they wanted us to pay now, while others you pay at St. Petersburg. I checked them and they have good reviews at Trip Advisor and Better Business Bureau. Yes - I checked all the tour companies and read their reviews before any decision.
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Hi Eeyoredagreat! What do you mean by tours with Locals? I’ve never heard about it. Does it include a visit to a Russian Family? Thanks.
Jess :)
Hi Jess sorry for the late response
SPB is offering this evening option of Tour like Local - see below their description
Go Out Like a Local information $60.00
The Go Out Like a Local tour begins with a vehicle pickup at around 7:00pm at the port, where you will meet your evening tour guide. During this tour you'll get to drink three unique varieties of Russian Vodka, do some shopping, see the city of St. Petersburg in the beautiful evening twilight, and enjoy a canal boat ride on a private boat. Non-alcoholic beverages are also available as well as some light snacks.
We opted to do the Vodka museum instead. Visit Museum have vodka tasting after. Reserved at the restaurant attached at the museum, have Russian dinner (we are paying for the dinner) then go city driving after. $45.00. We thought after a long day trekking most of St. Petersburg, having a Russian dinner will energize us!
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Overall, they are all basically the same as to showing you all the sights in St Petersburg. They all will have a set plan or you can draw up your own, to your liking. They all will accommodate you. price wise, I also think they are all in the same ballpark.
But they all do have their little 'quirks' that separate one from the other. Like some include lunches and some include the canal boat ride.
Customer service is also a big factor. Big outfits, like Denrus and Red October, do not have that intimacy between host and tourist that you will find with some of the other tour groups.
We toured almost 3 years ago with SPB Tours. We used them because, at that time, they did not charge extra for the canal boat tour which we really wanted to do, they also included 2 lunches, one which was a sit down at a real Russian restaurant, which we also wanted to do. But the main reason why we went with SPB was because of the tremendous customer service we received from Viktoria, the owner. She was calm when we needed calming. She suggested things to us, and she never failed to respond to every email we sent her, by the very next day.
Now that they have expanded their tours to other ports, it makes it more accommodating and you can save some money at the same time.
Cheers
Len
I totally agree with you. I check all websites fro Alla to Tj Travel, Best Guides, White nights and can't remember the other ones. Why did I choose SPB? Customer Service!
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I'm seeing two different SPB tours when I search the internet. SPB-tours dot com and SPBtours dot com. Does anyone know the difference? On the surface SPB-tours appears to be highly rated by Trip Advisor but I'm not able to locate any details on SPBtours. Appreciate your input.
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I'm seeing two different SPB tours when I search the internet. SPB-tours dot com and SPBtours dot com. Does anyone know the difference? On the surface SPB-tours appears to be highly rated by Trip Advisor but I'm not able to locate any details on SPBtours. Appreciate your input.
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Just a thought - I am thinking that you should be able to beat the price of $260 if you have a large group. I would check with both Alla Tours and Tj Tours (both highly rated) - both offer the same itinerary as the 2 day Deluxe tour and both companies offer phone numbers on their websites that you can call from the US/Canada (toll free) for information. IMHO, it pays to shop around as most of the major companies will match or beat the prices of their competitors.
Thank you for the advice. They will only match what SPB has to offer. I did call all all of these Tour groups before deciding on SPB. It was my comfort level with them and their customer service was excellent.
By the way I was able to arrange with them that some of my group will go to Vodka Museum instead of Faberge for evening option. The Vodka museum has a restaurant attached to it and we decided to meet and eat there after our museum trek. The vodka museum has a vodka tasting after the tour, like wine tasting in Napa Valley. it's not as intense as Tour with Local where they give you all the vodka for 4 hours evening option.
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Eeyoredagreat,
We paid 285 $ per adults (not before arrival in St Pete) and 30 $ less for the kids last summer (see post # 154 here). Found it very good value for money.
Okay that makes sense. I am booked right now at SPB Tour for $260 (we are a big group) but when Best Guides offered a tour for $176 I thought it was a good deal until lunch, hydrofoil boat, canal boat tour, Yusupov Palace were not included as my SPB tour itinerary does. Best guides told me those are extras which they can include. So I'm thinking if I ask for those it will reach same price as yours.
Thank you for the price information, it makes my decision on which tour group I should use easier.
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Actually the better known companies don't engage in self promotion, but they do encourage and make life easier for satisfied customers to express their enthusiasm, at least on Trip Advisor. Many of the more popular companies provide a link on their web sites for clients to post on there. I've read UK posters who think this isn't cricket (or kosher as we'd say in the US). I have a slightly different point of view. Just because a guide asks me to write a review doesn't mean I'm going to do so! And, frankly, my own experience posting about White Nights Travel illustrates the benefit of a company making life easier for its clients.
I was the first client to post about White Nights on this board and, to the best of my knowledge, I'm still the only one to mention their name when appropriate. I knew the company was relatively new, a spin off by employees of SPB when one of the women got pregnant but wanted to keep working from home. Knowing that White Nights was a newish company, I wasn't surprised to see White Nights at position 86 in the Trip Advisor list when I went to post my positive review. All the reviews were positive, but I think I would have been posting review number four. (Now, it is at position 93 with only eight reviews -- all highly positive.)
Shortly after I posted on Trip Advisor, I had reason to contact Irina at White Nights to thank her. I mentioned my review and she came back with a big "What review?" Turns out I had posted my review to a different company that was obviously trying to trick clients by choosing a very, very similar name. The real White Nights Travel -- Day Tours was then in position #10. It is now in position number #6.
As a result of this discovery, I had to write to Trip Advisor, explain my confusion, and ask them to delete my original review. The second time, I posted the review to the correct tour company.
I tend to write my reviews shortly after returning home and I'm always somewhat jet lagged so I'll take all the help I can get. If a tour company wants to put a link to Trip Advisor on its web page, I say, "Thanks!"
How much was your tour?
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Eeyoredagreat,
We toured St Pete in August 2016. We went to Peterhof by hydrofoil, had a boat ride on canals and rivers, and two lunches included in the package.
Are we talking about one and the same tour company?
After I read the story shared by Pet Nit Noy (post # 165), I wouldn’t be surprised if we weren’t.
The White Nights tour wasn’t free but came complementary to the folk performance, which we saw after the day tour.
We didn’t visit the Yusupov Palace because we opted for a less intensive tour. I believe that less is better if you want to enjoy magnificent St Petersburg.
We didn’t look for the cheapest tour but for a very good tour, and we got it from Best Guides .
What you are saying about your group of thirteen being divided into two sounds incomprehensible to me. Why would that be?
I’m afraid there’s a big miscommunication going on between you and the tour company.
If you don't mind, how much did you pay for that tour?
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Hi! One moment I also had a problem with correspondence. I sent two letters and didn’t get a response. I was really surprised and left a message on Facebook. They answered me within one hour or so. After all they resend me all original replays from a different address and in a few days my DH found all the missing messages in my SPAM:D:D:D I know I’m not a great PC user:(
Any way if you have problems with communication Facebook can help.
Good luck! Jess:):)
Thank you. I do check my junk mail and it's not there. Okay I will try messaging in the Facebook.
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Gee- We have private tour booked with Best Guides and have no problem getting a response. When we set the tour up back in January we emailed back and forth almost daily. Once everything was set we didn't email for awhile but have recently been in touch with them to change something. Natalie is our contact and she always gets back to us promptly. In this case she is waiting for a call back from a museum but hasn't heard back yet. She has kept us informed about the lack of contact and said she will keep trying. What more could you ask. I should mention that this is not the "standard" tour. We are going to Novgorod on the first day and doing a walking tour in St Petersburg on the second day. This is our third time there. We used Alla the first time and SPB the second. Both companies were contacted and never got back to us as to whether they could do this type of tour. Best Guides did and gave us a very reasonable price.
Enough said.
<<<Karen>>>
Thanks - we have Kira as our contact. Maybe that is the reason?
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Eeyoredagreat,
I entirely agree with you. Peace of mind is an absolute must-have in any travel. If there is something you don’t like about Best Guides, don’t book with them.
No doubt you will have a great tour with SPB.
Our experience was different. We toured with Best Guides in August 2015 and couldn’t have been satisfied more. The pre-trip communications were always informative and prompt.
You can try talking to them on Skype if you want.
Thank you. I just discovered why they are cheaper. Lunch is extra, No Canal Boat tour, No Yusupov Palace or hydrofoil boat ride. But they have this Whit Nights Tour for free. Has everyone experienced that? is that worth it? Does all other Tour group do that too?
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I think its the swedish one :D
You are so right! My apology:o
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All the zones are here.
http://www.dinoffentligetransport.dk/media/2057/zonetavler-h-samlet-pdf.pdf
Lufthavnen means airport and is in zone 4.
The cruiseport is in zone 1 where it says Østerbro.
City, well that explains itself.
I was talking about the 24 hour City Pass, not bus. but there are night busses if you need info about that one.
City Pass cost 80 kroners and covers zone 1, 2, 3 and 4 in 24 hours, there is also a 72 hour version for 200 kroner.
If you are going to Kronborg Castle (Hamlet), Frederiksborg Palace, The Viking Ship Museum, OPen Air Museum, Louisiana arts museum, etc you either need the Copenhagen Card or the 24 hour transportation card.
Copenhagen Card gives you free entrance to most places + free transportation in all zones.
24 hour for 379 kroner
48 hour for 529 kroner
72 hour for 629 kroner
120 hour for 839 kroner
24 hour ticket costs 130 kroner but gives only transportation but in all zones.
There is info about the City Pass, 24 hour tickets, timetable for busses, metro and trains in english on this website.
Thank You Danish Viking and congratulation to the new addition of the Royal Family.
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GradUT gave some good advice so I only have very few things to add.
Copenhagen Card has a calculator on the website so yoy can see how much the things you want to see cost´s.
Just a small note. In this calculator they use the price for the 24 hour transportation card that cost 130 kroner but in reality you only need the city pass that costs 80 Kroner for the same 24 hours but only in zone 1 to 4. (without the suburbs but with the airport)
http://www.copenhagencard.com/
There are no such thing as "public transport tours", perhaps you think about the harbour busses but they are not the same as the canal tours.
But it is possible to book a private tour with either Stromma´s canal tours or Netto Bådene but it´s expensive.
Hi Danish Viking
Can I have the website for the 24 hour city bus? I just want to compare the Copenhagen card with that. Also when you say Zone 1 - 4 is that most of the city and where the attractions are located?
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fOne other issue about early planning is costs of tours. As the Ruble has been unstable, the price in USD has gone down. Last August we paid USD 285 for out two-day tour with Best Guides. The same tour is worth USD 245 today.Best Guide is now offering us $206.00 for a party of 13. They will divide us into two vans. My concern is communicating with them. They do not respond right away regarding my questions. It takes days for their response. I even have to follow up before they respond. My cruise is still in August 2016. I do have enough time. I am currently booked with SPB but we will save $54.00 each if we take Best Guides.
But I think I will pay for that $54.00 for peace of mind. I do not want to be stranded when we are at st. Petersburg.
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ok it was a misunderstanding from my part.
No worries! The fact that you directed me to these taxi companies is a big help.
So a big Thank You!
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Eeyoredagreat, 900SEK from Port to Vasa with Taxi Stockholm doesn't sound right. It should have been around one third of that price.
Are you really sure that it was Taxi Stockholm? There are imposters that try to make their cars look like they are from one of the reputable companies.
Here is what they quoted me for party of 11:
Stadsgårdskajen kajplats 167 à Vasamueum
- For the smaller car will a fixed price at 200 SEK be put in the car and for the bigger car will approximately the price be 250 SEK be put in the car.
Vasamuseum à Gamla stan; subway station at Munkbrogatan 6 - the beginning of the old town.
- For the smaller car will a fixed price at 155 SEK be put in the car and for the bigger car will approximately the price be 250 SEK be put in the car.
Gamla stan; subway station at Munkbrogatan 6 - the beginning of the old town à Stadsgårdskajen kajplats 167
- For the smaller car will a fixed price at 150 SEK be put in the car and for the bigger car will approximately the price be 250 SEK be put in the car.
I think it was pretty reasonable. I wouldn't take the taxi if it was just party of two but since we are a big group it makes sense.
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Do you know that Pandora is a danish company and they have the flagship store at Strøget (Amagertorv 18).
So you can use your precious time not looking around the marvelous Sankt Petersborg for a Pandora shop.
That is off course if your ship stops in Copenhagen :-)
Nooo! I don't to hear that! I collect pandora charms of the places I have been. This is perfect now I can complete the ones I coudln't find.
Thank you!
Funds in Sweden
in Northern Europe & Baltic Sea
Posted
How about attractions like Vasa Museum? do you have to pay for public restroom?