CrazyJess

Hi everyone! I haven’t checked this forum for so many months! We had to postpone all our trips and it was a real stress for me. Very much hope we will be able to cruse in spring 2021!

Yes, that’s correct – I also got a mail from Best Guides with the link to the Facebook page. We all enjoyed their Antivirus Sightseeing tour. I very much hoped to see one of our St. Petersburg guides but – sorry!- I’m afraid not. It looks like they have plenty of guides…

We liked this part  … Russian Vodka part 😊 https://www.facebook.com/BestGuides.StPetersburg/videos/179033873137350/

Hi Nok977! Yes, I agree Arts and History tour could be better choice then Best of the Best. I love Faberge museum so much!

Jess 😊

Best of the Best is their most popular itinerary. There is another one “Arts & History Grand Tour” which looks nice to me. It includes Faberge museum and IMHO it’s one of the most interesting museums in St. Petersburg. There are 4 places in St. Petersburg which impressed me most of all: the Hermitage museum, Catherine palace, Peterhof fountains and Faberge museum.

Jess

On 2/2/2020 at 12:09 PM, Romalia said:

 

 

Well, check I did and all is correct. But my concern is why would they ask for passport number and all the details and after I sent them all as required, I see none of it on my tour tickets. Look what I got after all. Is this right?

 

I had also some problems loading them.

 

CCE31012020.pdf 525.91 kB · 5 downloads

 Hi Romalia

Your tour tickets look good for me. As far as I remember we had something very similar to it.

We also provided our passport numbers, date sof birth, & citizenship etc. to Best Guides :) No problems.

Jess

On 2/24/2020 at 9:42 PM, Nok977 said:

Hi Jess

I am curious about vodka and ice-cream tasting.  We are unfortunately just one day in stp but we are also booked with Best Guides and maybe we skip lunch and take this one instead. Where does it take place? I can hardly imagine one can eat ice-cream and drink vodka to it 🙈

Sorry! I don’t know. We signed for Best of the Best Tour.  Just ask Best Guides…. And check their website – you can book Happy Tour with and without lunches…. Russian vodka is great  but I’m not sure it’s a good idea to have vodka  (even with ice cream) instead of a lunch :)))

Jess

Just now, CrazyJess said:

Hi LaPochCka!

 

Sorry for my late replay but better late than never 🙂

 

In 2013 & 2015 we booked private tours as we travelled with a kid of 3/5. When I was preparing for our first cruise   I had a lot of  doubts and fears concerning independent tour operators and was in a long correspondence with different companies. Finally we decided to stay with Best Guides. I already don’t remember why we chose them, probably I just liked the manager I was in correspondence with.  Initially I decided for a mini group tour  Best of the Best, but their manager Natalia convinced us to book a private tour as we had a kid of 3 with us. Yes, it was more expensive in comparison with an open group tour, but it was worth every penny. On that trip we booked regular tours intended for grown-ups. Yes, our itinerary was less intensive, each day we had breaks for lunch, etc. Anyway, the itinerary was adapted to particular needs of our family. Our guide was Sveta, if I remember correctly…. so many years have passed... On the next trip, in 2015, we booked  child friendly tours, as our daughter was already 5 and it’s the best age for such tours. It was fantastic. My daughter still remembers St. Petersburg -– the Hermitage, the secret pass in Peter and Paul fortress where she found a magic key 🙂, Peterhof. She doesn’t remember Stockholm or Tallinn (don’t know why!), but she remembers St. Petersburg…. Our guide was Inna. My daughter fell in love with her. Inna really was very knowledgeable, charming, with excellent English. The main thing - she is excellent with children.  As far as I understand she mostly works with families with kids. When we returned  to St. Petersburg in winter 2019 we asked for her, but she wasn’t available. Our guide was Maria Levina. Excellent choice!  Highly recommended. She speaks English and French. She is a very interesting personality with an unusual biography. For a few years she lived in Europe, later on she worked as interpreter in the Mariinsky theater.   My DH who is crazy about Russian ballet was really happy. Maybe we were just lucky, but all three guides were great. If you want one particular name I would say Maria Levina. Hope she still works for Best Guides.

 

My suggestions concerning particular tours… Of course you shall  go to the Hermitage - make sure it’s early admission! Peterhof - the main place of interest is the gardens. For this place you need good weather.  I don’t know how you can work at it …  maybe just pray for it 🙂. IMHO among all the palaces in Peterhof Monplaisir is the most interesting. Church on Spilled Blood is a must see as well. I also suggest you to visit the Faberge museum. Not too many companies include this museum… You can check Art and History Grand Tour by Best Guides.

 

P.S. If you decide for an evening program I would vote for ballet in Mariinsky theater.

 

Good luck!

Jess

Jess.

 

15 hours ago, mapgirl34 said:

We are booked with City Break Tours for April 26-27. This tour: 2-Day Group Shore Excursion in St Petersburg with Faberge Museum & Boat Cruise. 

  Also, is April really the high season?

April is definitely not a high season. Such a situation could happen in the end of May or in June…. but not in April. Just try to get in touch with another company. I’m also  not a big fan of Catherine Palace but it’s a must see place.  

Jess.

Boat tour would be good in case of good weather. Take a small private boat. Afterwards get an outside table in Gastronomika restaurant.  It’s my favorite restaurant in St. Petersburg. It’s not as expensive as restaurants in Grand Hotel Europe, but it’s really great: fantastic view, charming atmosphere and very!!! tasty 😄

Jess

Thank you Twruger for the info! Very useful. Do you have an idea how much time will we need in Aix? We will have 9 hour in the port of Marseille and plan to go to Aix. The question is – will we have enough time to visit one more town - Avignon or Cassis? Or may be Saint-Remy…. I hate to be in a rush but from another side it’s my only chance to see this region.

Thank you! Jess

What do you think about trains from Marseille to Aix? It’s only 12-15 min. 12,8 euro. Of course you still need to get from the port to the train station …. I’ve never been to Marseille. I'm just doing research on the internet

https://travel.b-europe.com/onlytrain/travel/booking?autoactivatestep2=true&origin=FRMSC&dest=FRAIE&traveltype=OneWay&outbound=01%2F02%2F2020&outboundt=9&comfortclass=2&nrofadults=2&nrofyoungsters18=0&nrofyoungsters12=0&nrofseniors=0&nrofkids0=0&nrofkids4=0&nrofkids6=0&maxnroftransfers=&greenpoints=&tcp=&ecp=&icp=&fcp=&usediscount=false&useftpcards=false?utm_source=Onlytrain&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_content=&utm_campaign=WhiteLabelsales#Outbound

Thanks! Jess

Thank you! What will be better for us to use trains or to rent a car? We both are good drivers and enjoy driving, but hate traffic jams…

Jess

Thank you so much! I’ve checked trains from Marseille to Avignon and also found the express train (35 min). Not bad but taking in consideration that we have only 9 hours in Marseille I’m afraid to spend too much time in all those trains, train stations, cars and car rentals…  By the way train to Aix takes only 12-13 min. 😊 Any way please let me know if you find something interesting. Thank you! Jess

We’ve rented  bikes in Copenhagen.   It wasn’t easy  to say the least. On the first day I felt really confused as the bike traffic was too busy for me. There were special streetlights just for bikes and I realized that only at the end of the first day. I still don’t know how I survived on that day. Don’t even think to let kids of 5 or 8 bike in the city. No chance. In a rent shop there were a few bikes with special bicycle seats for kids of different age. I think it’s exactly what you need.

Jess.

You are so lucky! It’s the best port in Stockholm, I mean it has the best location. You won’t have any problems to walk to the historical center (Gamla Stan). We docked in Nynäshamn and had to take a train to the city center. 

Jess

22 hours ago, dogs4fun said:

to the OP - I agree with all of the above with one caveat ...

Only some of the street signs are doubled in English - most are not (especially when you stray from the tourist areas). The signs in the tourist center were updated for last year's World Cup so most are now doubled in English.

Being tourists we probably stayed all the time in tourists areas 😊 Actually St. Petersburg looked for me very navigable. It was as easy as Copenhagen or any other European cities. Any way it’s much more navigable then Beijing. I’ve been to China….. There is one thing I know for sure. If someone manage to navigate in Beijing he wouldn’t have problems in any of European cities… even in St. Petersburg 😊

A year ago we got Russian visas and flew to St. Petersburg from Paris. It was an experience! We both enjoyed it a lot!

Jess

Hi yoolykeme

For me St. Petersburg looks quite navigable and understandable. Names of the streets are doubled in English, central metro stations has English signs, public transport is rather cheap and works perfectly, many young people speak English. At least all staff in all the restaurants, cafes, bars, shops and museums I’ve been to spoke English well enough to understand me.   I’ve visited St. Petersburg three times that’s why it looks so easy for me.

But! Don’t even dream to get inside Catherine Palace or Grand Palace in Petergof without a guided tour. No chance. You will spend a few hours in a line and after that won’t get inside. If you buy tickets to the Hermitage in advance you will probably get inside after  ½ hour of waiting in a line. You have a good chance to  get inside of St. Isaac’s and Spilt Blood. There will be lines… Just be ready to wait 30-40 min at worst.

Private tours are never cheap and couldn’t be cheap. I think for a solo traveler it would be smart to join  one of numerous small group tours organized by local operators. You can check website of All Tours, TJ, Spb tour, Best Guides. The size of the groups are 12 to 16 people. We’ve been to St. Petersburg with Best Guides and were more than happy.

Any way if you managed to navigate in  Beijing St. Petersburg won’t be a problem for you 😊

Good luck!

Jess

On 1/18/2020 at 3:48 PM, CruisingAlong4Now said:

I am interested in a special adult dinner in St. Petersburg. Looking for Michelin star quality restaurant in which to dine

As dogs4fun mentioned St. Petersburg doesn't have any Michelin star restaurants, still they have good restaurants. You can check this link https://en.ginza.ru/spb All these restaurants belong to one group - Ginza group. The restaurants are different - different cuisine, different price level. But simple fact that a restaurant belongs to Ginza gives quality guarantee. We've been to one of these restaurant Gastronomika https://en.ginza.ru/spb/restaurant/gastronomika. We loved it a lot. Cuisine, service, design, fantastic view - all the things were excellent.

Marivanna, another restaurant of this chain, https://en.ginza.ru/msk/restaurant/marivanna    I haven't been there so no personal experience, but it has excellent reviews on TA. 

I've been to Peterhof three times. The last visit was in winter, to be exact in the beginning of  March. We've got Russian visas and flew to St. Petersburg from Paris.  There was a lot of snow and the gulf was frozen. Of course fountains didn't work and all decorations and sculptures were covered but still the gardens  were extremely beautiful and charming.

Don't hesitate. It's worth seeing even in winter :)

Jess

23 hours ago, christieSF said:

 the girls number one priority is croissants.  Hahahaha. 

Wow! I agree!  I also love croissants! and don’t mind good French wine  😊

We will be in Marseille from 7:00 - 17:00 as well, but it will be in mid-April.  We also  prefer to DIY if we can. We obviously want to visit Aix. It’s place #1 for us. Marseille itself is #2. Now I’m thinking about possibility  to rent a car and get to smaller towns and  wine areas. Thank you for the idea and thank you for the link! Very useful!

I’m very much interested in feedback from those who  had rented a car for  one day DIY trip from Marseille.  Thank you in advance!

Jess

How many hours did your tour take? We will be in Marseille from 8 am till 5 pm. Will it be enough to see all the three?  or shall we limit ourselves with only two - Marseille & Aix en Provence?  Thank you! Jess.

Thank you so much! It sounds great! It looks like small boat cruises have their own charm. I love such thinks! I think I will like it more than big cruise ships. Any way I will keep it in mind. A few days ago we signed for a Mediterranean cruise (France and Italy) so now we can plan Greece only for the summer/autumn  2021

Jess

Thank you all for the info. This time we will cruise on Crown Princess. Hope they are not too strict about wine. We plan  to buy a couple of bottles to drink them on board and another couple… or may be a bit more… to  bring home. I think I can risk and put two bottles in our  checked luggage. I will do by best to pack them appropriately. Thank you marazul for all the info concerning which wine to buy. Very valuable! Thanks! I can’t wait for my cruise!
Jess

13 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

As an American, the only way to do this legally is to get a visa, and not travel on a visa waiver offered by your tour company.  

Absolutely agree.  If you decide to  stay in the city after the tour ends and explore it on your own,  first of all it’s illegal. It’s illegal even if your guide or tour operator allows it. Then as kitkat343 wrote in one of the posts above  if anything happens to you while you are in the city and not accompanied by a guide -  for example your passport gets stolen -  you will have all the problems possible. I couldn't even start to imagine what might happen in such a situation!

Jess

Sorry, I have no access to this table and can’t change anything.  I just posted a link which I hope will be of help to many of you. Yes, it looks like Alla tours has lunches in its Grand tour. That’s correct.

Happy tour is provided by Best Guides as it’s indicated in the table. It’s one of their most popular tours, as the cost of a two day tour is only USD 199. This cost doesn’t include lunches, which you can book at an additional cost of USD 12. A few years ago we were thinking of booking Happy Tour but after all made a choice in favor of a more comprehensive tour Best Of the Best. By the way, Happy Tour doesn’t include lunches but includes vodka and ice-cream tasting 😉 Wow! I think it was the main reason why my DH was so much interested in booking exactly this tour 😁😁😁

Jess

On 12/1/2019 at 2:08 PM, shudie said:

 

was that with a bus or a private tour? 

 

thanks everyone for this thread, we are booked a private tour, with private transfer and trying to decide what to do. we have two children with us and really want to go inside the wall museum but it means letting go of a lot of the SPB tours normal itinerary. 

It was a bus tour booked with Best Guides. We booked tours in  St. Petersburg, Berlin and Tallinn with them and got a package discount.

We were lucky as in Berlin in our bus we had only about 15 people. I don’t remember the exact number but it was much less than it had been announced. Yes, we spent about 6 hours on the bus for a round trip but it was not too bad as we slept almost all the time. We had an excellent guide Boris, a very charming and enthusiastic  person. He told us a lot about Reichstag, Pergamon Museum, Jewish Quarter and other places we passed but couldn’t visit. Yes, I agree we only got a taste of the city  but since that very day I have been dreaming to return back to Berlin and stay there for a few days. I’m sure I will … on one beautiful day 😊

Jess

We are going to spend one day in Marseille in mid  April. It will be our first time in Marseille and in Provence in general. I actually planned to buy a bottle of good local wine. I don't know which wine to buy, but that's another question. I'm a bit surprised that no one on this forum had suggested to buy local wine. Why? Is it because there may be some problems in bringing it on board, or a bottle is just too heavy to carry? I don't think we will take too many suitcases with us, but I'm sure I will always find some space for one bottle of good French wine :).

Jess