2 Day Private City Tour of St. Petersburg

Hi!

We are sailing on the Breakaway and have two days in St. Petersburg on September 9-10. The NCL tours are pricey and we’d prefer a private tour so we booked this private excursion through Viator:

https://m.viator.com/tours/St-Petersburg/2-day-Private-City-Tour-of-St-Petersburg/d908-7692P6

I’ve emailed for information about our “visa free” paperwork and questions about customizing the tour but haven’t heard back except for an auto reply that Viator is checking with the tour operator.

There’s still some time before we sail, but I’m getting a little nervous that we haven’t heard anything from the operator. If we are going to cancel and book something else we’ll want to do it relatively soon.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Book directly with an operator rather than a third party like viator and communicate directly

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(y)

Book directly with an operator rather than a third party like viator and communicate directly

 

 

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Agree wholeheartedly! Viator is simply a consolidator - the actual tour company can answer all of your questions.

Indeed, leave Viator and book direct. This board and Trip Advisor will have recommendations for private operators. You'll probably save money as well because you aren't paying the Viator mark-up.

Thanks, everyone. Sounds like good advice... for the future. We already booked with Viator. Should I try to cancel and re-book directly with the company? It looks like it’s VJ Services. Anyone toured with them before?

https://vj-services.com/

Haven't used them. Many people on this board have used Alla, Spb, DenRus or Best Guides successfully. I'd contact all of them and ask for price quotes and see if you like their tours.

We just returned from our Baltic Cruise. We did a private 2 day tour with Alla Tours and were able to customize the itinerary. I highly recommend them!

Is it tj tours?

Not vj

We are booked with tj for next week

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Thanks, everyone. Sounds like good advice... for the future. We already booked with Viator. Should I try to cancel and re-book directly with the company? It looks like it’s VJ Services. Anyone toured with them before?

 

https://vj-services.com/

I have never heard of VJ services. TJ is one of the top rated independent tour operators - they are currently rated #4 on TripAdvisor and routinely receive great reviews here on Cruise Critic. Are you sure it is not TJ?

And, yes, if in your shoes, I would cancel with Viator and book directly with the vendor.

Yes...cancel and book directly...absolutely no reason for a 3rd party to be involved.

We (just the two of us with a driver and guide) booked a private 2 day tour with TJ Travel...just amazing at how much we saw and did and the flexibility we had to change things up and add a few things of interest at a moments notice. One of the best private tours we have ever done.....Thanks to Tatyana & Julia of TJ Travel :hearteyes:

It was my understanding that Viatour used Ulko tours. We booked directly with Ulko last June. (6 person private tour). It was superb.

Try to find out who Viatour are using and then contact that company. Or cancel if you can and book with Ulko or one of the other 10 or so top rated companies. When they say ‘private’’. it might mean upto 16 people as that is the capacity of the minivans they use. (16 is too many in my opinion)

We did a private tour just the 6 of us last week with TJ Travel. Absolutely fantastic! Was able to customize the tour to our liking. I requested a quote from several operators. TJ was very responsive via email and answered all of our questions prior to the tour. I highly recommend them.

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Another good outfit to check out is Dancing Bear Tours. They tailored our days there based on what we said were our interests. They were also a reasonable price. You will have a great time whoever you use.

We booked a 2-day private tour with Best Guides and LOVED it! It included all sights we wanted to see. Visa free paperwork was done promptly. Best Guides were flexible and customized the tour every way we wanted. The guide was very knowledgeable, charming, and funny.

Seeing St.Petersburg was a dream of mine and Best Guides made it a dream come true :).

Enjoy your cruise.

Jess

We just returned from our Baltic Cruise, and we used Tzarina Tours, a smaller company I wanted to support. Nina was our guide for our private 3 day tour. I believe she used to work for one of the larger companies and then decided to start her own several years ago. You can email via her website, and she will give you her Whatsapp account, so you can text for even quicker replies. We were a group of 6: 2 grandparents, 2 parents, and 2 tweens. She is kind, professional, and very hard working. Her driver, Sergey, was also a pleasure. He drove a new Mercedes mini bus, which can seat 16(?), so we had a lot of room. I heard about her through reading through the replies here on CC and Trip Advisor. I remember someone saying that she was flexible about plans, and she was. As I researched different places to visit, our itinerary changed many times. When my daughter mentioned she liked stationary stores, Nina fit a stop at her favorite stationary store.

Her fees are considerably lower than the more famous companies. She got along so well with my whole family. We all had a fantastic time with her, including my kids. I did have inital reservations going through a smaller outfit vs a bigger company, but we're so glad we chose Nina. We got to know her during these three days, so the tour became more intimate and meaningful. Nina brought homemade snacks and vodka for us to try and little gifts for my kids.

On 8/11/2018 at 4:52 PM, stpie said:

We just returned from our Baltic Cruise, and we used Tzarina Tours, a smaller company I wanted to support. Nina was our guide for our private 3 day tour. I believe she used to work for one of the larger companies and then decided to start her own several years ago. You can email via her website, and she will give you her Whatsapp account, so you can text for even quicker replies. We were a group of 6: 2 grandparents, 2 parents, and 2 tweens. She is kind, professional, and very hard working. Her driver, Sergey, was also a pleasure. He drove a new Mercedes mini bus, which can seat 16(?), so we had a lot of room. I heard about her through reading through the replies here on CC and Trip Advisor. I remember someone saying that she was flexible about plans, and she was. As I researched different places to visit, our itinerary changed many times. When my daughter mentioned she liked stationary stores, Nina fit a stop at her favorite stationary store.

 

Her fees are considerably lower than the more famous companies. She got along so well with my whole family. We all had a fantastic time with her, including my kids. I did have inital reservations going through a smaller outfit vs a bigger company, but we're so glad we chose Nina. We got to know her during these three days, so the tour became more intimate and meaningful. Nina brought homemade snacks and vodka for us to try and little gifts for my kids.

Agreed...

We recently visited St. Petersburg with another couple and booked private tours through Tzarina tours (w/ Nina).  We did 2 days with her and her husband Valentine.  A comfortable van was provided with a great driver (Sergei) who was very professional and made us feel safe to just watch the sights and not worry about traffic, cars, etc.  Valentine took over 500 photos and videos of us enjoying all the sights and shared them with us via WhatsApp.  Nina was a wonderful guide, spoke very good English and was extremely knowledgable.  We customize the tour and she brought us to every place that we requested with her in advance.

Very soon into the first day, it felt more like we were hanging out with our Russian friends than a private tour / excursion.

Her tour was less money than the ship's tours and I'm guessing our experience was way better seeing as how we got a tour with just our group instead of being lumped with many other groups.  The advantage of the small group was obvious the first day at the Hermitage when we were able to scoot in front of a larger tour group at the group entrance because they were still assembling and preparing to enter.

I wouldn't hesitate to book another tour with Tzarina Tours on any future visits to St. Petersburg.