Evening in St. Petersburg - Doing our own thing

[TheSmashingCruiser]

Hello Fellow Cruisers,

 

I'm struggling to find the answer to this one... we plan to book a two day tour of St. Petersburg through either Alla or SPB. What's the visa situation during the evening/overnight? We don't really fancy the ballet or folk show, are we able to 'do our own thing' on the group visa provided by the tour operator, or would we need a separate tourist visa?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[diane.in.ny]

If you go off without a guide, you will need your own visit.

 

My suggestion is to contact the tour operator you'll be using. Let them know you want to 'do your own thing' and I'm sure they can arrange for someone to accompany you. Probably be a lot easier and less expensive than getting your own tourist visa.

[aldavid18]

While you are with the tour operator you are covered by their visa, you do not need a personal visa. Everywhere you go with them you are covered. If/when you leave their tour you are no longer covered by their visa. You want to go on your own, you need a personal visa. Contact the Russian consulate in your home country and begin process of acquiring one if you want to go it alone. It appears it can be a rather lengthy and expensive journey so give yourself the time. By far the easiest is to just stick with a certified tour.

[judijmn]

last year SPB had a go out like a local night time tour. Our day tour guide dropped us at a restaurant where we eventually met up with about 15 other people from other ships who had signed up for the night tour. We went to a local market place, pub, and did a night time river cruise which was a highlight. The lighted bridges were beautiful.

 

We drank way too much vodka and had a blast but there were people on the trip who didn't drink but wanted to do the river cruise. I think this year they have more options. TJ Travel might as well.

 

We were exhausted on day 2 but it's St. Petersberg! I highly recommend checking with the tour guides and finding a night time one if you don't want to get your own visa.

 

There was a Harley Davidson show in a park that one of my group would have loved to get a t shirt if we had been on our own. good luck!

[TheSmashingCruiser]

last year SPB had a go out like a local night time tour. Our day tour guide dropped us at a restaurant where we eventually met up with about 15 other people from other ships who had signed up for the night tour. We went to a local market place, pub, and did a night time river cruise which was a highlight. The lighted bridges were beautiful.

 

We drank way too much vodka and had a blast but there were people on the trip who didn't drink but wanted to do the river cruise. I think this year they have more options. TJ Travel might as well.

 

We were exhausted on day 2 but it's St. Petersberg! I highly recommend checking with the tour guides and finding a night time one if you don't want to get your own visa.

 

There was a Harley Davidson show in a park that one of my group would have loved to get a t shirt if we had been on our own. good luck!

 

Thanks for the tip. I'm looking at this now. As a matter of interest, what day trip(s) did you do? Was everything well organised?

[judijmn]

I can't remember which 2 day trip with SPB we did. We did not do Faberge and we thought we were getting the hydro foil but we didn't get to do that. On day 2 there was a daytime river cruise which was kind of a yawn after the night time river cruise. Everything was very organized and excellent. I think most of the tour groups do a good job over there. Someone on our ship was really late getting off the ship so SPB sent their group ahead and drove that couple by car to meet up with the group so the rest didn't have to miss anything.

 

They all have the expedited tickets to get into the places faster and you get free wifi in their minivans. We noticed that this cruise had pretty experienced travelers so our small group of 12 didn't keep people waiting.

 

We only did an organized trip in St Petersberg. Some people who used SPB in Berlin were not impressed with the tour guide they had there

 

Our night time Russian guide was very fun and personable. He sat with us for about 20 minutes when we were having some apricot beer before the night river cruise. After being in Estonia the day before we asked him what he thought of the history of the 2 countries. Definitely got to hear both sides of the story.

[dogs4fun]

Hello Fellow Cruisers,

 

I'm struggling to find the answer to this one... we plan to book a two day tour of St. Petersburg through either Alla or SPB. What's the visa situation during the evening/overnight? We don't really fancy the ballet or folk show, are we able to 'do our own thing' on the group visa provided by the tour operator, or would we need a separate tourist visa?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Alla Tours offers an evening option wherein you can do whatever strikes your fancy. It is called St. Petersburg "The Way You Wish". You will not need a Russian visa if you book this option (or an option with other licensed operators).

[Eartha Kitten]

We told our daytime tour operator that we wanted to stay late one evening and to dine in a reastaurant of our own choosing. They said no problem. The tour guide would drop us by the restaurant and a driver would be waiting to bring us back to the ship afterward. We didn't require a "chaperone" while in the restaurant. We're looking forward to it!

 

 

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