Joppy48 Posted February 21, 2012 #1 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Going to Baltic on the Marina 7/22 sailing. Would like a great non cruise ship line excursion for two. Anyone with information would appreciate a note back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 21, 2012 #2 Share Posted February 21, 2012 There are several private guide for SPB or join the roll call for your cruise maybe others have room on their tours I see Viktoria of http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en/ she does more Baltic cities & I did have good communications with her for SPB but unfortunately did not do the cruise after all Check out the Baltic forums in the Ports of Call section Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare DOJO466 Posted February 21, 2012 #3 Share Posted February 21, 2012 There are several private guide for SPB or join the roll call for your cruise maybe others have room on their tours I see Viktoria of http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en/ she does more Baltic cities & I did have good communications with her for SPB but unfortunately did not do the cruise after all Check out the Baltic forums in the Ports of Call section You deserve "O" points for answering this ? Lyn. And you were one of the first to evr answer my questions...how far we have come..... Deb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbwex Posted February 21, 2012 #4 Share Posted February 21, 2012 A tour for just two can be pricey! That may or may not be a major concern. We opted to put together a small group 6 or 8, and had private tours in most places in the Baltic. We worked through shoretrips.com, and they have operators that they have checked out in each port. With that somewhat larger, but still very intimate, group we had a great time and did lots of extra stuff. In St. Petersburg, ask to see some subway stations. They are incredibly ornate. We parked, went down into one station, rode to the next station, and then rode back. Do watch for pickpockets in the subway however! We were told about (but nobody in our group wanted to go) the caviar bar at the Grand Europe Hotel. Also the statue of Peter the Great in front of the Admiralty. We also stopped for lunch at a "pie shop" which had pies for main courses and dessert. In Berlin, we added the Pergamon Museum. It is an absolute MUST. The materials brought back from Mesopotamia and rebuilt were undoubtedly the most outstanding sight of the entire cruise! An hour there should be enough, and don't miss the other big sights, but it is definitely worth adding on!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted February 21, 2012 #5 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Check out Denrus. They are one of the two or three best tour operators in St. Petersburg. They also do tours of Berlin and if you book both cities they offer a discount. It's not cheap but worth every penny and if you had to pay for ships excursions for two people to see the same amount of sights you'd pay about the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted February 21, 2012 #6 Share Posted February 21, 2012 On our most recent Baltic Cruise, we used SPB in both St. Petersburg and Berlin...they have offices in both. My sister used them in both the prior year...Three of those four tours were outstanding... Just make it a point that in Berlin, you DO NOT get Terry as your guide. Terry is an older British ex-pat who was absolutely a disaster as a guide--all the way down to somehow losing the driver--miscommunication on a pick-up spot, then had NO CELL PHONE or method of contacting the driver! That said, the rest of the operation in both Berlin and St. Pete was first rate. They met the ship in Warnemunde with a large bus to pick up several groups from the ship and brought us to Berlin where we were met by the guides and drivers...Well thought out, well organized. Everyone else on our ship who used them had an outstanding experience...well, stuff happens...After we complained, they di refund us a major portion of our cost. The St. Petersburg tours were perfectly timed, very inclusive, customized for our desires...Outstanding guide named Yelena... Prior Baltic, we used Red October--very good tour company as well... I would recommend either. Also, I agree with Ben and Susan above...Touring for two can be pricey...I recommend going to the Roll Call for your cruise and see if you can connect with a group or organize a group. No matter who you use, 6 to 8 people seems to be optimal for price point and comfort...You can be taken around in a van and move quickly...Make sure to find a group whose needs and style matches your own--in terms of mobility, pace and desired itinerary. Different tours may emphasize different sights, depending on the wishes of those in your party. For example, in Berlin, you might want to visit general sights, or sights more connected to WWII and the Jewish Experience...Though most tours will be designed to get you to a bit of everything...In St. Pete, it's usually a case of how much you wish to jam into your days there...Also, there are options for touring at night that are typically "add-ons"...One cruise, we did the Ballet (not my favorite)...this last trip we did the night "Fun" Canal boat tour with SPB--which I really enjoyed... Good luck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacheco18 Posted February 21, 2012 #7 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I also highly recommend SPB for Berlin and St. Petersburg. We had amazing guides in both places. We also had Yelena in St. Petersburg. Fabulous. In Berlin, our guide was Robin, a young man had a degree in history and had lived in the US for a while so his English was perfect. He was one of the best guides I have ever had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadreamer Posted February 25, 2012 #8 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I would like to suggest the company we toured with in St. Petersburg - Alla-tour.com. We had a fabulous experience and have actually used her service more than once. She also arranged for us to go to Moscow one of the three days we were there. We highly recommend her. She has many options from which to chose. She is extremely accommodating and flexible. She also offers tours in Berlin but we have not taken them. As you will find she is one of the several recommended tour sevices in St. Petersburg. Here is a picture of the Fountains at Peterhof. This is my first attempt to share a picture on CC(but I did successfully do it as a test). Here goes -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lalique Posted February 29, 2012 #9 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Going to Baltic on the Marina 7/22 sailing. Would like a great non cruise ship line excursion for two. Anyone with information would appreciate a note back. In 2009 we used Alla-tours for St. Petersburg and our guide, Elena, was wonderful. Alla was a pleasure to deal with and we really got to see alll the important sights in our 3 days there. They even arranged for us to go to the Swan Lake Ballet one evening and to a folkloric show one evening. Our guide got us into every sight without any waiting in line - she just took us around the long lines and right in to the Hermitage, Catherines Palace, Peterhof, etc. For Berlin, we had a great guide, Heather, who is with Original Berlin Walks. Well worth the ride into Berlin!! Enjoy . It is a fantastic trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andee Posted February 29, 2012 #10 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We loved our two days with Red October is St. Petersburg. With four of us, it ws less expensive than using the ship's shore excursions--don't know how the numbers crunch for two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted February 29, 2012 #11 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We too used Alla and had the wonderful Julia as our guide. Rec'd both highly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexfolkart Posted February 29, 2012 #12 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We used SPB tours in St. Petersburg for our 3 day stay last year..they were fabulous! They knew when everything was happening and we did it all. We were a group of 7 who we had recruited from the Roll Call and it was perfect. Best thing we did was get early admission to the Hermitage and then asked her to have us at the Impressionist section for when it opened and we were the only 7 in that whole area for like 30-40 minutes..and then the hordes arrived! Cannot recommend them any more highly! Sherry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
festing Posted February 29, 2012 #13 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We used TJ Travel ( http://www.st-petersburg-tours.ru ) Tehy were brilliant! What was go good was that the more that travelled the cheaper it became! We posted on this site and got 18 people, which was just right! Definitely worth a peek at their website! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giraffelt Posted February 29, 2012 #14 Share Posted February 29, 2012 First suggestion is post under Ports of Call; lots of advice there. Also, post on your Roll Call, someone may be looking for people to join an already planned excursion. Third and most importantly, both St. Petersburg and Berlin are fantastic cities with much to offer, be it history, culture, food, architecture, art, etc. Having said that my advice is do your research, decide what you want to see and do, then "shop" for an excursion. That is what I did when planning our Baltic tour and it was very enlightening getting responses from some of the better known companies. Most were touting their standard tours as private/custom, some tried to consolidate groups into a bigger group, and one even outright lied about a museum exhibit. For what its worth we used Best Guides and they were terrific. enjoy the planning Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJRVancouver Posted February 29, 2012 #15 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We used Alla Tours in 2008 for St. Petes and highly recommend them. Alla very efficent to deal with, tour guide very knowlegeable and her English was excellent , very flexible with schedule to deal with the wishes of group and reasonably priced. In fact we didn't pay a cent until the entire 3 day tour was finished. Didn't even supply a credit card number to hold. A few days before leaving for cruise went to Alla's web site where she had a roll call. Joined a group with 2 other couples ... we were all strangers but have since developed a very warm friendship ... in fact taking our 3rd O cruise together with 1 couple this coming June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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