Tour guide suggestions for St Petersburg

[zebra]

We will be in St Petersburg next May, on the Brilliance of the seas. What I would like help on is finding a great tour guide for St. Petersburg. Who would you suggest and why. Many thanks.

[CruiserBruce]

If you look down the board there are MANY threads discussing the standard tour agencies, like Alla, Den Rus, TJ Travel, etc. They are get god recommendations here.

[Giantfan13]

We will be in St Petersburg next May, on the Brilliance of the seas. What I would like help on is finding a great tour guide for St. Petersburg. Who would you suggest and why. Many thanks.

 

Everyone who has used a private tour company to see St Petersburg, comes back saying that their tour company was the best. Most only do this trip once so we really do not have anything to compare our tour to.

That said, ALL the major players do a fantastic job, but each has it's own little differences. price wise they are all about the same, but YOU have to do your homework and simply cannot have people here pick a guide for you. we can suggest, but you need to email several companies, tell them what you want and see how it plays out. After a few emails you will find one that you will feel most comfortable with, and that is the key.

OR you could see what people on your Roll Call are doing and possibly join a group that is already forming.

 

You must do the legwork.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[Cindy]

We will be in St Petersburg next May, on the Brilliance of the seas. What I would like help on is finding a great tour guide for St. Petersburg. Who would you suggest and why. Many thanks.

 

I chose by researching here first, and also reading recent reviews on Trip Advisor. Since the reviews are overwhelmingly positive for all the tour companies in St. Petersburg, I paid particular attention to the poor reviews. I wanted to know what the problems were and how they were resolved. I didn't read anything that caused me to rule anyone out.

 

I then started corresponding with TJ, SPB, and Alla. I ended up choosing TJ because of the speed and personalization in their responses, and set up a customized tour for a small group from my roll call. Part of my decision was a very unscientific "gut reaction" when I heard back from the companies!:o Did my method work? I'll know in two weeks!:D

[zebra]

Thanks Len and Cindy!

 

Cindy if you don't mind - please come back on this thread after your experience and let me know the status ….. good, bad and indifferent. I would appreciate it. How much did TJ charge and what size is your group?

[Giantfan13]

I chose by researching here first, and also reading recent reviews on Trip Advisor. Since the reviews are overwhelmingly positive for all the tour companies in St. Petersburg, I paid particular attention to the poor reviews. I wanted to know what the problems were and how they were resolved. I didn't read anything that caused me to rule anyone out.

 

I then started corresponding with TJ, SPB, and Alla. I ended up choosing TJ because of the speed and personalization in their responses, and set up a customized tour for a small group from my roll call. Part of my decision was a very unscientific "gut reaction" when I heard back from the companies!:o Did my method work? I'll know in two weeks!:D

 

Cindy

 

That is exactly how most of us did it. As I said in a previous post, you need to go with the one YOU feel most comfortable with and it has to be a 'gut' thing.

 

We went with SPB Tours because of the very personal emails we received from Viktoria. She made us feel so comfortable in a situation where we knew nothing. I was in a service industry for over 30 years and I value customer service over price any day. And that is exactly what we got from Viktoria and SPB tours.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[nybumpkin]

E

That said, ALL the major players do a fantastic job, but each has it's own little differences. price wise they are all about the same, but YOU have to do your homework and simply cannot have people here pick a guide for you. we can suggest, but you need to email several companies, tell them what you want and see how it plays out. After a few emails you will find one that you will feel most comfortable with, and that is the key.

OR you could see what people on your Roll Call are doing and possibly join a group that is already forming.

Exactly my thoughts! We started researching the tour operators, then saw a roll call post from someone on our cruise who was looking for families with teens for a tour. It matched our plans perfectly and we booked a group with Alla. We had a number of teens/young adults in our group along with parents and it was a really nice mix.:cool:

[Cindy]

Thanks Len and Cindy!

 

Cindy if you don't mind - please come back on this thread after your experience and let me know the status ….. good, bad and indifferent. I would appreciate it. How much did TJ charge and what size is your group?

 

There are 11 of us, and we're paying just over $300/person, which includes a sit-down lunch both days. They've been very good so far about answering my ENDLESS questions!

[sayaguru]

We booked SPB after a friend recommended them. But they said people who used the others said there's were great also.

I will report back i August when I return. We originally booked the 2 day but changed cruises so changed to the 3 day. Viktoria was great. Good communication etc.

[CrazyJess]

We will be in St Petersburg next May, on the Brilliance of the seas. What I would like help on is finding a great tour guide for St. Petersburg. Who would you suggest and why. Many thanks.

 

I had exactly the same problem a year ago. I really didn’t know which company to choose. So, I sent letters to 5 different companies TJ, SPB, Alla, Best Guides and one more (don’t remember the name). In a few hours I got 4 answers. For a while I was in correspondence with 4 companies. I also checked reviews on Tripadvisor. I ended up choosing Best Guides. I was traveling with a kid of 3 and I need a company which is ready to work with children. Our guide was Svetlana Starkova and she was fantastic. She was just excellent! She is so knowledgeable and charming! She is very good with children. As far as I know she can provide tours for grown-ups as well. By the way she is a free lancer but she mostly works for the Best Guides.

good luck! Jess:)

[KirkNC]

Everyone who has used a private tour company to see St Petersburg, comes back saying that their tour company was the best. Most only do this trip once so we really do not have anything to compare our tour to.

That said, ALL the major players do a fantastic job, but each has it's own little differences. price wise they are all about the same, but YOU have to do your homework and simply cannot have people here pick a guide for you. we can suggest, but you need to email several companies, tell them what you want and see how it plays out. After a few emails you will find one that you will feel most comfortable with, and that is the key.

OR you could see what people on your Roll Call are doing and possibly join a group that is already forming.

 

You must do the legwork.

 

Cheers

 

Len

 

Well said, I believe all the major players do a good job. We used SPB and were quite pleased.

[shoreham01]

Well said, I believe all the major players do a good job. We used SPB and were quite pleased.

 

We used SPB a couple of years ago and they were fantastic. Now we have booked them again for this year.