St Petersburg Shore Excursions

[docmsf]

At what point can you book shore excursions prior to embarkation? We are planning to be on a Baltic Cruise with Seabourn this July and would like to see Moscow on one of our days in St Petersburg. Any Advice?

[AngieS]

We did a Regent Cruise years ago and I have not looked at what shore excursions you are thinking about on this trip. We were docked in St Petersburg for 3 full days. Moscow was offered and we thought about it but there was so much to do in St. Petersburg that we didn't do it as it would have taken up a full day. I highly recommend St. Catherine's Palace and Peterhof and we did a 7 hour tour of the Hermitage including the gold room (that almost did my poor husband in!). We did the Church of the Spilled blood which is not on the list but is a must too. We decided against the ballet in the evening. Some folks who went said it was warm in the theatre and they were all so exhausted by the day tours that a lot of them fell asleep! Do as much as you can and you will be exhausted but it is a fabulous city!

[wripro]

May I suggest that you seriously look into hiring a private guide/car for the entire three days in St. Petersburg. It is so much more convenient, you can set your own agenda and the cost turns out to be the same as seeing all those places with ship's tours. Three companies that are excellent are Denrus, Red October and Alla.

[docmsf]

Thx for your replies. How soon does Seabourn open up shore excursion reservations?

[docmsf]

WE have booked Moscow. We also have booked a private guide in SPB for two full days. THAT SHOULD DO IT! Looking forward to a great trip. Is there is any reason we should secure visas? Is there any opportunity to leave the ship without a guide-shopping, etc in the evenings?

[bzv143]

WRIPRO, we are on the same page here. When we visited St. Petersburg, we hired Red October, and they tailored 2 days of sightseeing to our desires. We dined with a former ballerina at her home, visited an artist in his rickety 4th floor garret, and ate Borscht at a well-known restaurant...along with visiting the regular tourist Must-Sees. At Catherine's Palace, we were able to go to the front of the long line because Red October had sent someone ahead to save a place for us! TOTALLY impressed!!!! :eek:

[docmsf]

Wripro-

 

Did you need a visa? My TA says no. But I gotta say "what if?"!

[Honorine]

Does going to Moscow (on a non Seabourn tour) instead of staying in St. Petersburg the entire time change the need for a visa?

[wripro]

docmsf,

 

As long as you are on tour you do not need a visa. The only "what if" is if you want to get off the ship on your own. And if you book tours for the whole time you are there you will not have the time or energy to get off at other times. These private tour companies are truly the best way to see St. Petersburg from a cruise ship, imo.

[Chairsin]

Good luck trying to get a visa -- we looked into this when we went there with two other couple in June 2009 -- much too complicated. You need to get an 'invitation" to get a visa. If you book with a private tour guide as we did for 2 1/2 days of touring they get the visa.

[docmsf]

Chairsin- my TA arranged a private 2 day tour in SPB. The quote was $1400 per person. Does that sound reasonable? I am clueless.

[Bocca]

docmsf

We are also investigating 2 or 3 day private tours in St Petersburg Sept 6-8 off the Seabourn Pride again ( having done the ship bus tours previously ... albeit they were fine but larger crowds everywhere)

Your TA quote appears high to me at $1400 per pax (2 people)

Quotes I have from "DENRUS" @ #610 per.... ALLA TOURS @ $617 per ....MARINA S WILSON @$600 per... RED OCTOBER was higher..... All the above receive good crits on "Trip Adviser" and all offer considerable reduced rates if you can share for eg ALLA @417 per (4 people).... have a look at their web sites

Hope this helps

cheers Barry

[docmsf]

Thanks Barry! That's what I am seeing too! I have emailed my TA and asked her to check it out. For this prices I could get Seabourn to arrange the tours. I think this quote is too high for what they are offering. Mark

[wripro]

Think about it this way. In order to see with ships' tours somewhere in the neighborhood of what you will see in two days of private tours you would have to take two to three excursions a day. If they average $150 each and some cost more, that's between six and nine hundreds dollars a day for two, times two days. And this is in a bus with so many other people instead of a Mercedes with your own guide and driver who will arrange any itinerary you want. It's a no brainer imo.

[docmsf]

I have been working with SPB Tours. Lovely. The have great evening excursion called "Relax and Have Fun"! Evening canal tour, vodka, and shopping! Sounds like a blast!

[wripro]

I hope the shopping comes before the vodka or you may come home with a lot of souvenirs you don't want or need.

[BrentC]

On the issue of visas in St. Petersburg, if you book a cruise line excursion, you do not need to get a separate visa. If you plan to book tours through a third-party operator (as we did and highly recommend it! Used DenRus.), you will need to get a visa in advance. (Note: At the main port, there are two lines at immigration. One for the cruise line excursion people which goes much more quickly, and one for the rest of us that took longer because the immigration people actually have to look at your passport and visa. But, it was worth the wait.)

 

If you live in a large city with a Russian consulate as I do (Houston), don't be alarmed by the warnings of how hard visas are to get. You need a host, which will be your private tour operator, and they'll email you the necessary paperwork. I took that, and our passports, to the consulate and got everything back in about five days. No headache at all. If you don't live in a large city, then it's probably a different story. :confused: Besides, it's way cool to have a Russian visa in your passport. Your name is in Cyrillic and everything.

 

Enjoy the trip whichever route you go on the excursions!! St. Pete is awesome!

 

BrentC

[ozecruiser]

Docmsf

You will probably find that your shore excursions are already opened for booking on the Seabourn website. Go to "Already booked" and login with your cruise booking number and details, then click on Shore Excursions on the left hand column, your itinerary should be displayed and on the right side of every port listed it will have the icon to click on to see the shore excursions available to you and can be reserved. We are going on a SB cruise in October and our excursions are already listed and I have already reserved some trips. We were in St Petersburg on an Oceania cruise in 2009, we also did private tours with a company called Travel in Russia - they are now called Inside-tours.com. We did not need to pre arrange a visa it was done by the tour company prior to our arrival, the only drawback of the visa's issued for cruise tours either by the cruiseline or private is that it does not allow you to travel on your own, you must be on your tour or with your guide at all times, but after 2 full days in St Petersburg all we wanted to do was lie down.

Enjoy St Petersburg it is an amazing city

[3418ahl]

Almost all the third party tours we looked at (we finally settled on Insider Tours) offered the visas as part of the tour price. You just send them the info in advance.

[wripro]

BrentC,

 

If you book tours through Denrus or any other major tour company you most certainly do NOT need to get your own visa. They will send you tickets which you show to Immigration as you disembark that will serve as your visa. The officers are very used to that.

[docmsf]

Thanks for your comments. We booked two days in SPB with SPB-Tours. We booked the Moscow excursion through Seabourn. SPB-Tours stated we don't need private visas.

 

Does anyone know if the Moscow Excursions ever get cancelled bc not enough participation. We are really looking forward to that side trip and don't want to be disappointed.

[wripro]

I did the Moscow trip a few years back and it was a highlight of my entire cruise.

[CarolSWM]

Good luck trying to get a visa -- we looked into this when we went there with two other couple in June 2009 -- much too complicated. You need to get an 'invitation" to get a visa. If you book with a private tour guide as we did for 2 1/2 days of touring they get the visa.

 

We shall be there in July. Is it true that if you book a tour with a private company they will get you the visa? I thought that in order to get off the ship one could only do so if one was on one of the ship's tours?

TIA,

Carol

[wzwjon]

Will be in port in St Petersburg for 3 days in early June, but only plan to do a 2 day group tour. Have contacted a few companies (Denrus, Red October, Alla) but none seem to offer a 2 day tour for a 3 day stopover.

 

Any suggestions on a good tour company that would do that?

[MRFCO]

My wife and I are taking a Princess Baltic cruise from Copenhagen to St Petersburg arriving St Petersburg 6:30 AM on 9/4.

 

There are two of us and we are looking for a small group to join to take the two day tour. I have been told that there are several good tour companies and I am open to suggestions.

 

Is there anyone else traveling on the Emerald Princess on these dates that would like to link up for touring St Petersburg?