AdrienneTB

6 hours ago, Earl Rosebery said:

There seems to be the usual confusion about Visas in SPB.

For the record, if you want to go off on your own, you need a real Visa which is time consuming and expensive.

If you choose either a ship's tour or an independent tour, the tour co. will arrange a visa waiver. They do this routinely. The visa waiver is included in the price of the tour.  You are supposed to stay with the guide.

I recommend a private tour with no more than 6.  That way there is no need for headphones and you will go to the front of every line.  I believe Viatour uses Ulko tours.  We booked directly with Ulko for 2 days ( 6 of us) and were very satisfied.  There are at least a dozen well recognized and recommended tourcos on Trip Advisor.

Totally agree re the info about the visa.  I did a lot of investigating that.  We used Red Sun Tours who are high up in Trip Advisor and would recommend over and over and would use again without hesitation. You can book a private tour or you can do what we did.  There were 12 of us which was perfect actually.  We could choose to use an ear piece or not.  I chose to as when we wanted around the Faberge eggs we could still hear Elena's superb narrative whilst we were looking around all the eggs etc.  Much more freedom in that respect and it was so clear.  We booked directly with Elena at Red Sun Tours and no middle man.  She was very on it with the timings of getting us back to the ship as she did not wish to us to miss it of course.  

On 12/11/2018 at 3:55 AM, Margarita! said:

Hello.  We are cruising the Baltic in May next year and have two days in St Petersburg. The last time we did a Baltic cruise, a few years back, we were able to book an 'excursion' that basically allowed us a free day in the city.For visa reasons, it was classed as an excursion as we had a guided bus trip in and we had to meet at a certain place, a gift shop, for the guided bus trip back to the ship.  This trip, there is no free day excursion available.  However, there is a half-day excursion to the Hermitage with free time to wander the city after.  If we booked this do you think we  would  be allowed to slip away from  the Hermitage tour as we do not want to spend a half-day in a museum?  Any other suggestions would be welcome.  Cheers.

Hi I was on the P&O Britannia this year to the Baltic.  My first ever cruise and I was recommended a local tour guide for St Petersburg rather than use P&O's tours.  I took the plunge and contacted Elena of Red Sun Tours.  She owns the company which is only small which makes it more personal.   I cannot recommend Elena enough.  My daughter and I went on a tour with 10 other people in a very comfortable air conditioned mini bus and we had two really wonderful days in St Petersburg.  Elena tailored the tour to our requests.  None of us wanted a running around all over the place tour, she suggested certain places and we were happy.  We didn't queue once.  In the Hermitage Museum we went in the front door and saw all the poor souls from P&O queuing in the rain in a very long queue.  We didn't spend a half a day in the museum. 

Elena had qualified as a  tour guide herself in the actual places we went to so had so much knowledge it was really interesting.  We all fell in love with St Petersburg and I would go back in a flash and I would ask Elena to be my tour guide again.  

She happily arranged evening entertainment for our group and we all chose something different and she organised it all including pick up and drop off.  Four of us went to Elena's home with her family for a Russian dinner and it was wonderful and I would do the same again if ever invited.  

I cannot recommend Red Sun Tours enough but whomever you go with I hope you love St Petersburg as much as I did.  My favourite place was the Church on the Spilled Blood, the walls and ceiling are beautiful.  

We did not have to get our own visas etc, Elena arranged everything including tickets and entrance fees before we even went on the tour.