CintiPam Posted February 21, 2011 #51 Share Posted February 21, 2011 - on the other hand on some destinations indeed is it better to take the cruise tours. Friends of mine (faithfull Oceania) found that in St Petersburg the visa for Russia only (!) was nearly as much as the Oceania ships tour. On top in private you have difficulties to enter easily without baksish the places to visit! And I would add that in a lot of cases the bigger organised groups take you to carpet, jewelry or other shops! I again correct your misinformation about St. Petersburg. You do not need to obtain a visa to visit for up to 72 hours with a licensed private tour company, and there are many discussed and recommended on the Northern Europe and Baltics board of this forum. You certainly do not have to bribe anyone to visit the major sights in St. Petersburg, and all of your tickets and entrance times will be prearranged by your tour company. The money you save on not needing a visa goes a long way in paying for your private tour, whether it be with 2 or ten others!:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted February 21, 2011 #52 Share Posted February 21, 2011 I again correct your misinformation about St. Petersburg. You do not need to obtain a visa to visit for up to 72 hours with a licensed private tour company, and there are many discussed and recommended on the Northern Europe and Baltics board of this forum. You certainly do not have to bribe anyone to visit the major sights in St. Petersburg, and all of your tickets and entrance times will be prearranged by your tour company. The money you save on not needing a visa goes a long way in paying for your private tour, whether it be with 2 or ten others!:) I could not agree more with this. We were able to customize our private tour to see ALL the sites we wanted to in 3 days (many of which were not even offered by the ship's tours). That was absolutely out of the question with the ship's tours as the programs are set and inflexible. With 8-10 people in your group you have a smaller group, customized itinerary, a guide you can see and hear b/o the smaller group size and all this for LESS than the ship's tour. In fact, SPB is one of the places I would not even consider doing a ship's tour as it would be impossible to cover as much ground as you can with private tours; and there is much ground to be covered in SPB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted February 21, 2011 #53 Share Posted February 21, 2011 delete - duplicate post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted February 21, 2011 #54 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Another voucher for CintiPam's assessment of tours in St. Petersburg. You absolutely do NOT need a visa if you book through a private tour company. IMO, it's the only way to see the city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tropiclady Posted February 27, 2011 Author #55 Share Posted February 27, 2011 we had a great tour of the highlights of Florence AND saw some of Tuscany, with the lovely town of San Gimgiano(?sp), with Luca of Hills and Roads. We have booked him again for Nov, to take us to see the town of Lucca. Can't wait! Hi tropicalkerry, Can you tell me which tour company that you used, please. Thanks! Tropiclady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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