Alla Tours. St Petersburg.

We have just booked our 1st Marella cruise after being loyal to RCI for many years. We always try to book excursions with local companies as I think they are more knowledgeable and it's good to support local people.

We have booked a 2 day " Must See Tour ". They are a well established local company that have been very easy to book with and very quick to reply to any queries we had. Take a look at their website there is a wide variety of trips.

We used Alla Tours last year - just great. We booked the 2day Grand Tour and well worth the money, we saw just about everything there was to see.

Does the tour company supply visa's or are you doing that yourself?

Does the tour company supply visa's or are you doing that yourself?

If you book a tour through the ship or direct with one of the accredited local tour operators like Alla (there's a dozen others, all very good) you don't need a visa, your visit is visa-free.

You only need a visa if you choose to explore on your own, without a tour. Research the rigmarole you have to go thro' to get a visa, and you'll realise why 99% of folk book tours - and that's besides the language difficulties (it's even a different alphabet) and other disadvantages of DIY such as long queues at places like the Hermitage, queues which are by-passed by tour groups.

You do have to pre-book - the tour ticket e-mailed to you by the tour operator gets you thro' immigration without a visa.

It used to be that you didn't have to pay anything, or even quote a credit card number, in advance - you paid at a convenient moment during your tour. I believe that some local tour operators now require a deposit with booking - but they're established & reputable, no problem.

Be aware that the tour ticket only gets you thro' immigration for the tour - if you book a one-day tour it won't get you thro' immigration on the other day, or even that evening. You need an appropriate tour ticket each time you go thro' immigration.

Almost all the local operators like Alla use 16-seat minibuses. So much quicker, more efficient, more personal, more flexible than ships' tours.

Ships' regular tours are in full-size coaches, with all the attendant disadvantages.

P&O are the only cruise line which also offers minibus tours like those used by local tour operators but I don't think that Marella has visited St Petersburg in recent years so it's worth checking their offerings - if they too offer tours in minibuses that's worth considering because it will be the same as using a local operator but with priority disembarkation and the (unnecessary) confidence that you're on a ship-sponsored tour, though the cost will doubtless be higher.

Here's Alla's website, which tells you amongst other things about their visa-free status.

https://alla-tour.com/

Google for SPB Tours, TJ Travel, Best Guides, Anastasia, DenRus, Red Oktober, and there's half a dozen more that I forget. ALL have excellent reputations.

And check out Cruise Critic's Baltic forum, lots of useful info there.

JB :)

We used SPB tours in St Petersburg from the eclipse a few years back and found them, both very interesting and great value . The two day is a must . Customer service is second to none ( the actual owner welcomed us back from the tour to ask how it went )

Would highly recommend

Thomson/Marella did the Baltic last year "John Bull" read my post on this thread. Alla Tours just first class, small mini bus, with little queueing, although everywhere was very busy. But the good thing is you see lots more than ship excursions offer. If you did DIY the ship docks far from main sights. Again Alla just brilliant.

Thomson/Marella did the Baltic last year "John Bull" read my post on this thread. Alla Tours just first class, small mini bus, with little queueing, although everywhere was very busy. But the good thing is you see lots more than ship excursions offer. If you did DIY the ship docks far from main sights. Again Alla just brilliant.

Hi ormy,

Yes, I saw your post regarding Alla - that's why I mentioned her in particular.

But I didn't connect that your cruise was with Thomson/Marella.

Mebbe I should have done, cos this is the Marella forum :o

Yes, we booked with Alla too, on our P&O Baltic cruise.

As excellent as yours.

And similar plaudits for other local operators from others that I've talked to.

Since you didn't mention it, I'm guessing that your Marella ship didn't offer small-group tours.

JB :)

To be honest JB we just went to independent operators - tried a few but Alla just seemed better,certainly from our email contact, than SPB etc, and it seemed we made the right choice. Just a great two days, oh and the weather was kind to us.

Alla Tours were great when we used them in 2014, I think. Did the 2 day Grand Tour and saw far more than we would have done via Cunard. Efficient, reliable, friendly, new mini bus. Excellent.

We're going to our TA this week to book the Baltic cruise for August 2019 and want to also book the 2 Day Grand Tour with Alla. Do I book this through the Alla website and if so when do I need to book it?

Thanks

We're going to our TA this week to book the Baltic cruise for August 2019 and want to also book the 2 Day Grand Tour with Alla. Do I book this through the Alla website and if so when do I need to book it?

Thanks

We used Alla in St Petersburg, yes go to their website and look under roll calls, enter your dates in SP and it will pull up available group tours, look for your ship on the left. We met up with someone seeking others for a 2 day SP tour here on Cruise Critic and joined them, they included a tour at the Faberge Museum, the entire 2 day tour with Alla was exceptional. I’d do this as soon as you have your dates lined up as you’ll need to book, the tours are in small vans, I think 16 person maximum and so much nicer than the big bus tours.

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Hi, we used Alla a few years ago - excellent. We contacted them through their website giving details of our ship and the required tour and they arranged to collect us from the ship. When we got through security at the port they were waiting for us as arranged and our mini bus had 8 other people from our ship (so 12 people in total). It was the highlight of our cruise.

we used Alla tours May 2017 and they were fantastic. only 8 on our bus and around half the price of the ships offer on tours

We have booked the Must See City tour with Alla tours for July 19th.  They were so easy do do business with and have made the process of tickets, visas etc a dream.  Thank You Alla tours, see you soon