St Petersburg Tours through Spb email re Catherines Palace

Problems with Catherine's Palace in 2018

Dear Kathleen,

St. Petersburg is seeing a record number of visitors this Summer. This is of course great news, and we are certainly happy more people are interested in coming to our beautiful and historical city. However, as a result we have seen an increase in long queues, crowds and waiting times at Catherine’s Palace. This is causing difficulties for tour groups of all sizes, even the cruise ship's. While normally we could enter the palace within 20 minutes of arriving, the waiting time is now closer to 60 minutes. Furthermore, once inside the palace, the massive crowds move slowly through the palace (there is only one path through the palace, and groups must stay in order). This has impacted the rest of the tour program, risking delay to the other sights or to the lunch venue. On certain dates, the palace is completely overbooked and we receive very few tickets, or they withhold confirmation until shortly before the tour date.

After giving it a lot of thought, we have decided that the visit to Catherine’s Palace may be substituted with another top attraction in St. Petersburg, for example Pavlovsk Palace, a smaller palace at Peterhof, or the Faberge Museum. Whether the visit to Catherine’s Palace is possible and what substitute will be chosen will be decided closer to the tour date. Due to the nature of the situation, we unfortunately cannot be more specific than that.

I am sorry for the change of plans, but I believe this will make for a much more pleasant excursion, and I am confident your time in St. Petersburg with us will be the highlight of your cruise.

Warmest regards,

Viktoria Rother

That's a shame . Catherine's Palace was one of the highlights of our recent visit to SPG in last month.

That's a shame . Catherine's Palace was one of the highlights of our recent visit to SPG in last month.

It is, if people didn't use SPB tours the email at least gives them info on how crowded it is, good for Russian economy, not so good for us tourists

Yes, it is a shame! Catherine Palace is definitely one of the highlights of St. Petersburg - it is absolutely over the top gorgeous and I have seen nothing like it in any of my European travels. Furthermore, it contains the fabulous restored amber room. Catherine Palace was very busy last summer - I assume it is the same this season. In any event, after the August cruise ships depart, just like last year, I believe that Catherine Palace will not be as busy as it is/was during the months of June through August. Hopefully, SPB will reconsider for the months of September and October as there are still cruise ships in port.

The cruise ship visitors to the palace are a small minority of the total.

Yes, it is a shame! Catherine Palace is definitely one of the highlights of St. Petersburg - it is absolutely over the top gorgeous and I have seen nothing like it in any of my European travels. Furthermore, it contains the fabulous restored amber room. Catherine Palace was very busy last summer - I assume it is the same this season. In any event, after the August cruise ships depart, just like last year, I believe that Catherine Palace will not be as busy as it is/was during the months of June through August. Hopefully, SPB will reconsider for the months of September and October as there are still cruise ships in port.

In retrospect I wish I had booked this cruise for mid September and not mid August, even if it is a tad chilly then.

The cruise ship visitors to the palace are a small minority of the total.

Very true (Chinese land tours seem to make up the largest contingent of visitors and arrive by the bus load) ... but the number of land visitors also drops down after the height of the tourist season is over. I was last in St. Petersburg during the months of October - November (last year) and I experienced no crowded conditions anywhere that I visited (including the Hermitage which I find to be the most crowded of all venues during the summer months).

So, bottom line, September and October cruise visitors should expect less crowded conditions at the must see tourist venues.

We were just there July 17/18 and it was very crowded at Catherine's Palace......

We had timed tickets but still had to wait to get in and then once in you had to wait to go from room to room.....

Luckily we were a private tour (4 plus Guide) so we were able to slip past some of the larger groups (our Guide would ask)

So I can totally understand the issues they are having....

Disappointing if you can't go but there are many other wonderful places to visit in SPB I'm sure whatever you see instead will be wonderful as well!

I guess the big difference for us was doing a private tour with TJ Travel. It was just the two of us with our guide (driver waited in the car) and she walked us up to the front of the very long line that day ... they nodded and acknowledged her and we walked right in.....this continued to happen whenever we encountered any type of line.

Needless to say it was an amazing VIP tour unlike we have ever experienced before :hearteyes:

I guess the big difference for us was doing a private tour with TJ Travel. It was just the two of us with our guide (driver waited in the car) and she walked us up to the front of the very long line that day ... they nodded and acknowledged her and we walked right in.....this continued to happen whenever we encountered any type of line.

Needless to say it was an amazing VIP tour unlike we have ever experienced before :hearteyes:

The number of Saint Petersburg visitors has increased dramatically since your visit which, I believe, was over 8 years ago. Things have changed.

I first visited St. Pete in 2011 and toured with Alla Tours - the difference in crowd sizes from 2011 to 2017 (last visit) is huge. I think that Saint Petersburg has become a victim of its own success. Same for Moscow - especially the Kremlin & Red Square.

we were in Catherines palace last Thursday and had a similar experience with TJ tours for our small group of 5-whizzed past crowds and my husband was in a wheelchair

Peterhof palace on the other hand was a nightmare with crowds and my husband and I chose to sit out the guided tour and watch a dvd of the place

however we entered the palace via the entrance for tour guides

we saw the queue for general public through windows and it was huge!

apparently the previous week there was a 7 hour wait to get in and 500 people were turned away

there were angry scenes so police was patrolling the line!

SPB tours tend to do larger groups[but still smaller than ships tours] so a smaller tour for just your group may help

also after taking an hour to get off the ship[because people disregarded their allocated exit times]

and another hour to get through Russian Immigration[made worse by a large family group posting one member across several lines and then merging them into the line they thought shortest-ours!! ]

My advice would be to arrange a later start on day 1 say 10am and extend time into evening as should be much quicker then

You won’t enjoy it if it’s mobbed and you need to wait. Trust SPBs judgement, they want you to have a great experience.

You won’t enjoy it if it’s mobbed and you need to wait. Trust SPBs judgement, they want you to have a great experience.

Very much this. The Palace is nice, but not worth a mob scene when there are so many other interesting alternatives in St.P. We were there 2 years ago and the crowds were borderline annoying -- we had only a short wait outside but were then shuffled from room to room en masse. If the crowds were worse (as I understand they are now), I would have been willing to skip it.

we were in Catherines palace last Thursday and had a similar experience with TJ tours for our small group of 5-whizzed past crowds and my husband was in a wheelchair

Peterhof palace on the other hand was a nightmare with crowds and my husband and I chose to sit out the guided tour and watch a dvd of the place

 

however we entered the palace via the entrance for tour guides

we saw the queue for general public through windows and it was huge!

 

apparently the previous week there was a 7 hour wait to get in and 500 people were turned away

there were angry scenes so police was patrolling the line!

 

SPB tours tend to do larger groups[but still smaller than ships tours] so a smaller tour for just your group may help

 

also after taking an hour to get off the ship[because people disregarded their allocated exit times]

and another hour to get through Russian Immigration[made worse by a large family group posting one member across several lines and then merging them into the line they thought shortest-ours!! ]

My advice would be to arrange a later start on day 1 say 10am and extend time into evening as should be much quicker then

That’s exactly what SPB is doing for our upcoming tour in a few weeks. We meet them at 10:30AM and get back to the ship at 8

The number of Saint Petersburg visitors has increased dramatically since your visit which, I believe, was over 8 years ago. Things have changed.

I first visited St. Pete in 2011 and toured with Alla Tours - the difference in crowd sizes from 2011 to 2017 (last visit) is huge. I think that Saint Petersburg has become a victim of its own success. Same for Moscow - especially the Kremlin & Red Square.

Hmmm...Seems like fabnfortysomething had a similar experience that we had 8 years ago ;)...A small private group of probably 5 or less obviously has a much different experience.

We just went to Catherine's Palace hthis past week, we had a private tour (our family of 4) with TJ and had no trouble at Catherine's. we went 1st thing in the AM, and our guide was able to get us in in front of the lines. it was crowded but not as crowded as Hermitage was

I guess the big difference for us was doing a private tour with TJ Travel. It was just the two of us with our guide (driver waited in the car) and she walked us up to the front of the very long line that day ... they nodded and acknowledged her and we walked right in.....this continued to happen whenever we encountered any type of line.

Needless to say it was an amazing VIP tour unlike we have ever experienced before :hearteyes:

we had the same experience with our private tour...she got us ahead of the lines everywhere, even the bathroom lines!!

we had the same experience with our private tour...she got us ahead of the lines everywhere, even the bathroom lines!!

HaHaHa...our's even knew the best bathrooms to go to.....One was even in an amazing hotel that many celebrities and dignitaries stay at when in St Petersburg....we considered that stop just beautiful.

We just went to Catherine's Palace hthis past week, we had a private tour (our family of 4) with TJ and had no trouble at Catherine's. we went 1st thing in the AM, and our guide was able to get us in in front of the lines. it was crowded but not as crowded as Hermitage was

A private tour is extremely important if you are traveling with small children, since the ability to stop whenever they get tired and feed them and the ability control the itinerary meant that our son really was able to love all of St. Petersburg, and made this trip enjoyable. We DIY in all the other ports so overall the cost of a private tour here seemed quite reasonable considering we didn't book tours anywhere else.

Check and see if your ship offers the "Evening at Catherine's Palace" excursion. We took it from the Pacific Princess last month. It was magical. The palace was closed to all other visitors. I actually had the Amber Room all to myself for several minutes! We also had a private guide during the days for the 2 of us. She was fantastic as well. (Margarita from Tours by Locals.) My husband said it was like touring SPG with a cousin who knew everything.)

You won’t enjoy it if it’s mobbed and you need to wait. Trust SPBs judgement, they want you to have a great experience.

I do trust them, I expected crowds but would rather see something else then waste time standing in line for over an hour.

I may do this sailing again, if I do, it will be late Sept, early Oct, don't care if it's chilly

Check and see if your ship offers the "Evening at Catherine's Palace" excursion. We took it from the Pacific Princess last month. It was magical. The palace was closed to all other visitors. I actually had the Amber Room all to myself for several minutes! We also had a private guide during the days for the 2 of us. She was fantastic as well. (Margarita from Tours by Locals.) My husband said it was like touring SPG with a cousin who knew everything.)

We did this as well. We heard about (and saw) the crowds at Catherine's Palace and Hermitage, so we visited these two places via the ship's tours in the evening (two separate evenings). Both were quite expensive, and fortunately we used our OBC to pay. This also allowed us to have more time in the daytime to see the many other sights. The evening tour also allowed us to take photos in the Amber Room. Apparently, photos are not allowed in the daytime.

This is a copy of a review we posted on CC for Alla Tours including Catherine's Palace no line what so ever and we were on the the non crowded side! When speaking to other people that had taken the ship tours they stood in line for 1 1/2 hours!

I wish to thank everyone for their posts about Alla

Tours this is our review of two wonderful days in St. Petersburg.

Second seating

We used Alla Tours for our two days in St. Petersburg, Russia during our recent cruise with Windstar Tours. We provided Alla Tours with a list of the places we wanted to see, including five hours in the Hermitage. They sent us an itinerary and price for two days with a private guide and driver. Everything was included (tour tickets, water, tourist visa). They provided precise instructions for getting through immigration and finding our guide.

Kate was our guide and Andrei was our driver. We saw everything we wanted to see and never stood in line at any of our stops. Kate had timed tickets for the major stops and used the time very efficiently! She quickly grasped what did and did not interest us. I am a very efficient person and was impressed with every aspect of Alla Tours.

It's funny, like some of the cruisers who toured a few years back, most never had a problem entering Catherine's Palace. We toured with SPB then and we basically walked right in as there were no lines. In fact, they had a small band playing Russian music to entertain us as we were entering. Don't know if they still have that, but since the lines are so long, they should.

Cheers

Len

We were at Catherine's Palace on August 12 of this year. It was crowded, but we didn't wait that long to get in. We were with Guide Guru. I know that they kept us on a schedule to keep us a head of the lines. I would not want to miss Catherine's Palace. It was a highlight and I don't know that I'll ever get back to St. Petersburg again.