Has anyone *recently* (last couple of seasons) used DenRus Tours in St. Petersburg?

[Turtles06]

Nearly five years ago, we were booked on a Baltics cruise, but unfortunately had to cancel. Before we'd cancelled, I had thoroughly researched the options for a private tour operator in St. Petersburg and concluded that DenRus was the way to go.

 

Next year, we are finally going to take this trip, and I've of course been reading everything I can on here about private tour operators in St. Petersburg. It seems that, most recently (the last few seasons), the most popular operators are SPB, TJ, and Alla. I rarely see the DenRus name mentioned, and when it is (I've done a search), it's by folks who say they had a great time with them several years ago.

 

I'm sure from what I've read that we'd have a great time with SPB, TJ, or Alla, but if you've recently toured St. Petersburg with DenRus, I would love to know what you thought about your experience.

 

Thanks!

[dogs4fun]

Nearly five years ago, we were booked on a Baltics cruise, but unfortunately had to cancel. Before we'd cancelled, I had thoroughly researched the options for a private tour operator in St. Petersburg and concluded that DenRus was the way to go.

 

Next year, we are finally going to take this trip, and I've of course been reading everything I can on here about private tour operators in St. Petersburg. It seems that, most recently (the last few seasons), the most popular operators are SPB, TJ, and Alla. I rarely see the DenRus name mentioned, and when it is (I've done a search), it's by folks who say they had a great time with them several years ago.

 

I'm sure from what I've read that we'd have a great time with SPB, TJ, or Alla, but if you've recently toured St. Petersburg with DenRus, I would love to know what you thought about your experience.

 

Thanks!

There are many recent reviews of DenRus on TripAdvisor. The most recent review is from September 5th, 2013. Can't get much more recent than that. :) They get very good reviews on TripAdvisor.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298507-d1477956-Reviews-DenRus-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html#REVIEWS

Edited September 6, 2013 by dogs4fun

[Turtles06]

There are many recent reviews of DenRus on TripAdvisor. The most recent review is from September 5th, 2013. Can't get much more recent than that. :) They get very good reviews on TripAdvisor.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298507-d1477956-Reviews-DenRus-St_Petersburg_Northwestern_District.html#REVIEWS

 

Thank you. I do look at Trip Advisor, but I trust the reviews here on CC much more as "real." So I would still love feedback from folks on CC. Thanks!

[sddsddean]

A group of 12 of us from our roll call went with them in 2010 (don't know if thats late enough for you) and they were great. I think all the tour companies are fairly similar as they all have to get round the same sights and get you back to the ship. On our cruise, different groups went with different companies and everyone had a good time. I'd go with Denrus again.

 

Simon

[Giantfan13]

When we were doing our research for our tour in St Petersburg, we emailed several of the major players. Most sent back a personal email, Denrus sent us back a sort of form letter. That immediately turned me off from them.

After doing further research we found also found out that they made tours of up to 30 people, opposed to the other groups who limited their groups to about 16.

Now, I don't know if this has changed, as I see sddsddean only had 12 on their tour. Years ago, Denrus and Red Oktober where the major players in St Petersburg, but in the last 5 years, several other groups have formed who just seemed to care more about if you have a great time. Denrus seemed aloof. I hope they have changed their tune.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[msmoger]

I realize 2009 may be going back too far but we had a great tour with Denrus. There were only about 10 of us and we determined the number, not Denrus. Perhaps they offer larger group tours also if you don't have your own small group, but that was not our experience.

[Sdancer]

When we were doing our research for our tour in St Petersburg, we emailed several of the major players. Most sent back a personal email, Denrus sent us back a sort of form letter. That immediately turned me off from them.

After doing further research we found also found out that they made tours of up to 30 people, opposed to the other groups who limited their groups to about 16.

Now, I don't know if this has changed, as I see sddsddean only had 12 on their tour. Years ago, Denrus and Red Oktober where the major players in St Petersburg, but in the last 5 years, several other groups have formed who just seemed to care more about if you have a great time. Denrus seemed aloof. I hope they have changed their tune.

 

Cheers

 

Len

We just got back from 2 days in St. Petersburg.

We went with Denrus the first day and TJ the second day.

We were extremely happy with our day with Denrus and very disappointed with TJ the second day.

Let me give you all the details.

We have been in St. Petersburg years ago (called Leningrad then) for a whole week and knew exactly what we wanted to see this time.

I have contacted Red October, SPB, Denrus and TJ looking for a private tour for two people.

Denrus:

-------

I was very impressed with DenRus communication. The same person, Katja, handled end-to-end the design of our tour. She was very professional, very helpful and made valuable suggestions about the itinerary. I also liked that we could pay in advance and their cancellation policy was excellent. Other companies bring you in a crowded souvenir shops where they rent a table to pay for a trip. You get stuck there for a long time waiting in line to pay for a trip, using your valuable tour time in St. Petersburg for that.

Katja matched us with the best guide we've ever had in our many years of travels. Our guide was Lena Toporets.

I would highly advise to use DenRus and ask for Lena as your guide! Lena is highly intelligent, a professional with a great attention to detail and so very pleasant. She made our tour very memorable. We are very grateful to her for a wonderful day in St. Peterburg and Katja for a well-designed custom tour.

 

TJ:

----

Our preliminary communication with the company was good. We were assured that if we bring exact cash for our tour, we could pay our guide at the end of the tour and do not waste our time paying at the shop.

Well, it turned out not to be the case :(. Our guide insisted that we have to pay at the souvenir shop where TJ rents a table. We had to stay in line to pay there. Than our guide could not be found for a long time. It took about an hour of our limited time in St. Petersburg.

Our guide, Yulia (Julia?) was terrible, as a guide and as a person. She works as a guide in summer to supplement her income (she is a teacher). She was unpleasant. It also did not help that she had a grudge against US.

My second day in St. Petersburg was ruined.

A few days after the tour I contacted TJ by email asking Tatiana who is in charge of guides, to contact me about my suggestions on matching guides with tourists from US.

She never did. I would not recommend TJ.

 

Red October:

---------------

I contacted their office in NY. Very inflexible attitude and not service-oriented.

 

SPB:

--------

SPB is very disorganized. I do not know about group tours, but they are not equipped to handle custom tours. Every time it was a different person answering our email. It led to repeated mistakes in our itinerary. One of the major mistakes was taking away one hour from our tour after the price was already agreed upon. The owner of the company called this mistake was "minor". Really?

 

To sum it up: I would advise to go with DenRus and ask for Lena Toporets

as your guide. Have a great time in St. Petersburg!

[vered4]

I was surely unhappy to read about your experience with TJ Travel! I am leaving on a Baltic Cruise on July 8th and we have booked tours in every city with TJ including the 2 days in St. Petersburg!

 

We have had STELLAR communication with Katya from TJ Travel. I hope we don't end up with Julia....as I don't want to start changing things around 2 days before leaving the country.

 

Besides Julia being grumpy...how was the TOUR??

 

Thanks for any and all info. vered4@aol.com

[Sdancer]

I was surely unhappy to read about your experience with TJ Travel! I am leaving on a Baltic Cruise on July 8th and we have booked tours in every city with TJ including the 2 days in St. Petersburg!

 

We have had STELLAR communication with Katya from TJ Travel. I hope we don't end up with Julia....as I don't want to start changing things around 2 days before leaving the country.

 

Besides Julia being grumpy...how was the TOUR??

 

Thanks for any and all info. vered4@aol.com

 

We had one day with them visiting Petergof and a couple of metro stations. We were pretty much self-led :(.

I hope that you have a great weather and enjoy Petersburg!

[Sdancer]

I was surely unhappy to read about your experience with TJ Travel! I am leaving on a Baltic Cruise on July 8th and we have booked tours in every city with TJ including the 2 days in St. Petersburg!

 

We have had STELLAR communication with Katya from TJ Travel. I hope we don't end up with Julia....as I don't want to start changing things around 2 days before leaving the country.

 

Besides Julia being grumpy...how was the TOUR??

 

Thanks for any and all info. vered4@aol.com

 

After I posted my short reply, I wanted to end on a more positive note.

I am sure that you'll have good time on tours and better guides. You could always request their best guides via email.

St. Petersburg is beautiful and lots to see. Enjoy!

[scubacruiserx2]

We have used DenRus 4 times. In 2006 we used them on a Baltic cruise. They made us feel like esteemed guests and were (and are) professional in all respects. They have helped to become independent visitors when we returned to stay in 2009 , 2011 and 2013. We currently have plans to use their services again in 2015. Our communications with them have been excellent . We just dial a 7 digit phone number (same area code as ours) to speak to a tour adviser Live . They are the only tour company that are American owned and licensed in the U.S. They are also licensed in Russia (see the bottom of this link).

 

http://denrus.ru/

 

 

And communications with DenRus just got easier ! We have used 4 other guide companies in our visits for different venues , but DenRus has always been there for us when we need them.

 

 

 

http://www.denrus.ru/blog/

__________________

[worryfreecruising]

Hi I am happy you had a good experience with Denrus. We will be taking the Holland America Cruise to the Baltics Aug 26 2015. I have been literally working full time researching our tour guide options. One friend who did the same cruise chose SPB (loved them) - another friend chose Denrus (loved them). Both are pretty equal in cost so that is not a deciding factor. In St. Petersburg we are going to choose one of them and just go ourselves (my husband and I). In Berlin and Stockholm we will most likely go with whichever one we choose but we are fine to go on their "private" tours which I guess are up to 16 people.

Let me know which guide you had in St. Petersburg with Denrus if you remember and please provide any other comments you might think would be helpful. Thanks so much!

[TeaBag]

I guess this is an old thread so the OP has long ago made their decision.

 

I am happy to say that we used DenRus just last month. I have to admit I was a bit worried since there were little or no reviews past 2013. The reason, maybe, was that the company has been sold and is now operated by Russians. The older man who started it and ran it for years, retired at 70 last year.

 

We were picked up promptly and our guide Lana was wonderful. Lana is a long time employee of the company. There were only 10 of us and we went to several places that other tours didn't go as well as all the usual places. DH and I also opted to attend Swan Lake ballet in the evening. We were left back to the ship after the day tour and had time for a bite to eat and to change. We were promptly picked up for the ballet as well. I can't say enough about our time in St P. I would go again in the morning! I hope you have as good a time as we had and I'm sure you will. I think most of the tours do a good job. We paid $300pp for the 2 day tour and $119pp for the ballet. HTH.

Edited July 15, 2015 by TeaBag

[Giantfan13]

Like everything else in this world, you need to adapt or die. Seems that Denrus has adopted to the 'new' wave of touring St Petersburg.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[Sdancer]

Hi I am happy you had a good experience with Denrus. We will be taking the Holland America Cruise to the Baltics Aug 26 2015. I have been literally working full time researching our tour guide options. One friend who did the same cruise chose SPB (loved them) - another friend chose Denrus (loved them). Both are pretty equal in cost so that is not a deciding factor. In St. Petersburg we are going to choose one of them and just go ourselves (my husband and I). In Berlin and Stockholm we will most likely go with whichever one we choose but we are fine to go on their "private" tours which I guess are up to 16 people.

Let me know which guide you had in St. Petersburg with Denrus if you remember and please provide any other comments you might think would be helpful. Thanks so much!

 

I have the highest recommendation for Lena Toporets as your guide (DenRus)!

She was our guide in June 2014.

Her English is impeccable, she is highly knowledgeable, intelligent, tactful and a pleasure all around. She is a true Russian Intelligentsia. My husband and I had a private tour with her.

We had a different company and different guide next day and regret it that it was not Lena Toporets for all two days. Russian customer service in general is not at the same level as American, not even close. It is more important who your guide is than the company she works for.

Someone from the Trip Advisor asked me for her name and had her in September 2014. Here is a partial quote from their message to me after the trip:

"Wow, we had a fabulous time in St Petersburg!!! We were very lucky and the weather could not have been better when we were there, 17-18 September.

Lena was a marvelous guide - we had such a good time with her. Our driver, Vladimir, aka/Vova, could not have been better."

"...We had traditional Russian dinner before the show at the Russian Vodka Room #1 (Lena's choice and outstanding!). Lunch the next day at another of Lena's choices - no tourists, just locals - and very good.

 

All-in-all a GREAT time. We could not have been happier with the private, custom tour through DenRus. Because of the heavy traffic we stayed in the city without returning to the ship before the ballet and were able to do the nice dinner with Lena. We expected a small boat for our private canal boat tour, but the boat would have held 100+ people. Just us and Lena, and believe it added only $90 to our tour price for the private boat.

 

Thanks again for posting your review and helpful advice!! "