St Petersburg 2-day excursion?

[debeni]

St Petersburg 2-day excursion?

 

We are thinking of taking the Bestof St.Petersburg 2-day excursion. Has anybody taking this excursion? I do not see any reviews.

 

Weare taking the NCL Getaway 9-day Baltic Cruise this August.

[easyboy]

We have taken the SPB Tour's 2 day Deluxe Package. A lot cheaper than ship's excursipn, very professipnal, pay in full only on 2nd day with cash, or 1st day if credit card, tour voucher serves as entry permit (visa). Totally enjoyed the tour and service.

 

 

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[Huntingdon1701]

I can also recommend Alla Tours as an alternative. If you check out my review thread elsewhere you'll get a sense of some of the things we did. I booked Alla for each of the ports, and their total price came to less than the price of NCL tours for just the St Petersburg days.

[dexddd]

Is the excursion you mention through NCL? If so, I'd find a private company and do it that way. Much smaller groups and better experience especially for Russia.

[dixieagle]

There are a number of highly recommended private tour companies in St. Petersburg, all of them much less expensive and with far fewer people than the ship's tours. Best Guides, Alla, SPB, Red October, Denrus... it seems you can't go wrong. We chose to do a customized two-day private tour with Best Guides for the 7th and 8th of June, as my husband is very interested in WWII history, Soviet history, and we both want to see the Mariinsky Ballet. They have been great to work with and came up with wonderful tickets to the Mariinsky at a fair price (for visitors, at least; I understand locals pay less.) This will be more expensive than the private tours with about 16 folks, but as it may be our one and only trip to St. Petersburg, worth it for us.

 

I just wouldn't even consider the ship's tour. Too expensive, too many people.

[debeni]

Thanks all for your input.

 

You have all convinced us to go with a private tour. We were a little apprehensive but you have quelled our fears.

 

Huntingdon1701,

 

That is an excellent review of the Baltic Cruise on the NCL Getaway. We are scheduled for the same cruise this August and will benefit from your experience. I found the Alla Tours of St Petersburg on Trip Advisor and the reviews are mostly excellent.

 

Any other advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

NorCalBeni

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Definitely go with a private vendor! As was mentioned, you'll have much smaller tour groups. We toured with Alla and it was a great experience. The two-day tour was far less than the ship's excursion for only one day. One of the benefits was early entry to the Hermitage. We walked past hundreds of people on the ship's tour and right in the door while they waited for the museum to open. It was great to have that time before they opened and it was ridiculously crowded!

[Huntingdon1701]

 

Huntingdon1701,

 

That is an excellent review of the Baltic Cruise on the NCL Getaway. We are scheduled for the same cruise this August and will benefit from your experience. I found the Alla Tours of St Petersburg on Trip Advisor and the reviews are mostly excellent.

 

Thanks,

NorCalBeni

 

That's great to hear. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time. :)

[nikkiml]

We have taken the SPB Tour's 2 day Deluxe Package. A lot cheaper than ship's excursipn, very professipnal, pay in full only on 2nd day with cash, or 1st day if credit card, tour voucher serves as entry permit (visa). Totally enjoyed the tour and service.

 

 

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We also booked our tour with them and loved them. Luba, our guide, was unbelievable and our driver was perfect (very smooth, no speeding). I recommand them.

[sprint180]

We used S PB. My sister in law used Alla? Both were excellent.

 

 

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[trivia addict]

Hired Alla Tours last June for our trip to St Petersburg.

Could not have been more satisfied. My email contact was a pleasure to work with. Together we made a customized tour with what I wanted to see.

 

We were promptly picked up from the ship each morning in a new Mercedes van with a driver and tour guide. Even on the tour, we were able to change our minds and were easily accommodated.

We saw every important sight with our benefit of passing through the long lines because we were on a private tour.

 

We were 2 couples traveling with 3 other couples. The other 3 were apprehensive of a private tour and selected the ship's tours. We saw twice as much with a much lower price!

We booked with a small deposit and did not have to pay the balance until the tour was completed.

Do not be afraid to take a private tour. At all times we felt perfectly safe.

[cml4958]

If you post on your roll call, you may be able to add others on your sailing to your group and lower costs somewhat. You'll still be in the Mercedes van and most, I think, have wifi in the vans and bottled water.

[debenson0723]

You might want to also check the Ports of Call Baltic forum on this board for tips and ideas on your cruise.

 

I just got back from the Getaway Baltic cruise and used TJ Tours in SPB. I arranged a private tour for 9 and it was great. Part of our group got off the ship late (it takes about 45 minutes to get thru passport control on the first day) so we left later than planned but our tour guide, Eleana, constantly rearranged our day so that we saw everything on our list for the 2 days. Our driver, Ivan, was incredible; it was fun to use their wi-fi in the van to immediately post photos to our social media (especially since I did not have an internet package on the ship). We also did an evening tour with TJ to see the beautiful buildings lit up at night...truly incredible. I highly recommend TJ Tours...have a wonderful time in SPB.

[BostonGal35]

we did the two day tour of St. Pete that included the Faberge Museum with TJ Travel.

When we talked to folks that did the ship tour, we learned we saw way more with less crowds. For example, our group was 3rd in line at the Hermitage. we saw EVERYTHING up close. folks that went via the ship showed up there much later and couldnt get close to anything.

[goldie099]

I'll echo what someone else said - connect with your Roll Call, and see if anyone is willing to join your group and set up a (semi) private tour with that group of people. That's what we did on our upcoming trip (June 30 sailing) - economically, it's WAY cheaper than the NCL excursion plus the group will be smaller, which I have read is better for jumping lines.

[mskaufman]

We have taken the SPB Tour's 2 day Deluxe Package. A lot cheaper than ship's excursipn, very professipnal, pay in full only on 2nd day with cash, or 1st day if credit card, tour voucher serves as entry permit (visa). Totally enjoyed the tour and service.

 

 

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Totally agree

[JohnIreland]

We used http://shorex.ru and paid about 50% of the similar Ship tour.

[tidygirl]

We used Best Guides the end of May. Much cheaper than ship excursions and with us being a small group our guide got us around much quicker and catered to what we were interested in! Very happy with their services!