Baltic Cruise - Reviews of HAL Excursions

[oshawa]

I would appreciate hearing any reviews of the HAL excursions of (Germany) Rostock by River and Rail, and Rostock's Top Ten. Also any reviews of St. Petersburg Russia. I hope this is the correct forum for those passengers who may have cruised the Baltics in 2010 and can provide opinions.

 

Thank you.

[RuthC]

I took a couple of HAL tours my last time in St. Petersburg, and went with Red October the first time.

Last time I took the HAL tour out to Catherine's Summer Palace because I wanted to go through the palace again. It was a nice tour; I don't recall going anywhere else on the tour. We had to wait in a line that seemed to go on forever before we were admitted.

I also did the HAL river ride on the Neva, that included some touring around town. Good for what it was.

Red October, however---there was a tour! I saw absolutely everything that was on every single HAL tour. We went to the front of the lines. We had our own guide and stood right next to her while she was explaining things. In HAL tours, you might be bringing up the rear. We could ask questions as we went along.

We went at our own pace.

I highly recommend a private tour in St. Petersburg. I've never read a bad word about Red October, Alla Tours, or Denrus. Either get your own group (usually 6) together, or join up with others on your Roll Call.

Prepare to be exhausted, but it's worth it.

[ginger and professor]

Took the family on the Baltic cruise a couple of years ago. Everyone loved it. We only took one HAL excursion and that was in Oslo due to a short visit and the need to see as much as possible. That worked out great. IN St. Petersburg we set up a two tour with a Russian agency, Denruss tours, the guide was knowledgable and the entire tour ran like clockwork. I would strongly recommend Denruss. We had a copy of Rick Steves' text and followed the walking tour of Tallin, Estonia. We toured Helsinki and Copenhagen on our own also. I am sure you will enjoy this cruise.:)

[Cruizer Bill]

That is excellent advice Ruth, thanks much! We will be in St. Petersburg in late May and appreciate the feedback!

Bill

[taxmantoo]

I highly recommend a private tour in St. Petersburg. I've never read a bad word about Red October, Alla Tours, or Denrus. Either get your own group (usually 6) together, or join up with others on your Roll Call.

 

Prepare to be exhausted, but it's worth it.

 

Totally agree. A private tour is the way to go in St. Petersburg. There is so much to see and you don't want to waste your time waiting in extremeley long and slow-moving lines everywhere you go. Any of the agencies mentioned by RuthC are well reviewed on the Northern Europe & Baltics Board and all have received good reviews. We chose Anastasia Travel for our group and were totally pleased with the experience. It's amazing what we saw compared to the people on ship-sponsored tours. And the organization part was a breeze...just a few e-mails.

[lazey1]

We are in the minority that much prefer HAL tours to private tours. In St. Petersburg we took the following:

Evening Folkloric Spectacular (our fav. not to be missed)

St. Petersburg Waterways & Church of the Spilled Blood

Pushkin: Catherines Palace

Peterhof: Summer residence of Peter the Great

The Hermitage Museum.

These are half day tours as we were not sure we would have the stamina needed for full day tours. All were very good and we would definitely recommend all of them. BUT all were crowded and the traffic congestion in St. Petersburg is beyond description.

[DSLibrarian]

We highly recommend SPb Tours. We toured 2 days with Viktoria's SPb Tours in July last year - Elena was our guide. There were 15 in our group and we were able to make adjustments to the "Baltic Pearl" tour based on what we preferred to see. It was fantastic - even though St. Petersburg was suffering through abnormally high temperatures.

[oshawa]

Thanks to all for responding - much appreciated.