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St Petersburg - 1 Day tour - help me choose


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My friend and I are cruising on serenade of seas this spring and trying to finalize our St Petersburg excursion.    I've been stuck in analysis paralysis 😞  

 

Hoping this group can help us pick!

 

Option 1 - Alla tours  - includes tours of hermitage and church of spilled blood plus a guided tour of the Peterhoff gardens and a metro ride

Option 2- TJ Travel -  includes hermitage tour, 'stroll' through peterhoff gardens and an hour at Catherine Palace (which adds 2 hours of drive time)

Option 3- Private tour - visit Catherine's Palace, Peterhoff gardens,  Spilt blood, peter and paul cathedral, hydrofoil tour boat (miss hermitage)

 

The other advantage of Alla tours is that we'll get a discount on a tour in stockholm.  All companies have good reviews in  Trip Advisor.

 

I imagine all the tours will be wonderful... but we have to pick one and soon!  

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

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Is the private tour a completely private tour for just your group?  If you only have 24 hours in st. petersburg, I'd honestly say a private tour for just your group is the way to go if you can afford it.  With a completely private tour, you can  research everything ahead of time so you'd know exactly what you want to see.  There are some people who could happily spend 48 hours in the Hermitage, and others who'd rather visit local markets, so a lot of your choices should be guided by your preferences.  And if you only have one day, you don't want to waste time so other people can buy souvenirs if you'd prefer to skip all souvenir stores.

 

For me personally (and a lot of people will disagree with me) I loved the exterior of spilled blood, but because I don't love mosaics I could have skipped the interior (and a ton of people will disagree with that).  I also really liked the Renaissance art at the Hermitage, and was quite happy with the hour I spent there (an hour was my 3 year old's limit, and then we went to the internet cafe.  Since I knew ahead of time exactly what I wanted to see I saw that first, and didn't mind when we were done.  I watched my son while my husband got to see the Impressionists, which was his favorite period).  By the way, if you are reading this and have two days you still need to research the Hermitage.  You could spend weeks there, so you might not get to see what you want if you don't know what to ask for prior to starting the tour.  

 

Catherine's Palace and the gardens of Peterhof were two highlights for me.  The middle rooms of Catherine's palace are not the highlights (the first few rooms, and the Amber room are), so I'd move through the middle quickly if you have a 3 year old in tow, or have only one day in St. Petersburg.

 

The metro ride is very short, and interesting so if time allows I'd keep that.  But it isn't an absolute highlight, just something really interesting that can give you a sense of Soviet values that they made  the subway so beautiful.

 

The canal ride was very nice and a pretty view, but If I were there only one day I'd take the hydrofoil to the Hermitage instead.   You can go on canal rides in Copenhagen and Stockholm, which will also be lovely. 

 

 For me personally, Peter and Paul was very nice, but not as much of a highlight as the other stops.

 

Stolle serves great savory and sweet pies, and is extremely fast.  They're a chain all over st petersburg and would be great for a quick and tasty lunch.

 

But the biggest problem with my personal favorites is that two of them - Catherine's Palace and the gardens of Peterhoff - involve significant travel.  To do that, plus the Hermitage, plus a basic driving tour of st petersburg with a  photo stop of the spilled blood and some other locations would not leave you much time anywhere (and depending on your time docked all of this might not even all be possible, especially since ship tours get first priority disembarkation and it can take a long time to exit the ship in St. Petersburg due to the very slow customs agents).   Running around all over and seeing the highlights of things is my personal travel style, so I would contact the major tour companies and get a sense if they think it would even be possible (and it might not) but you honestly might prefer researching each of the things on this list (they've given you all the major attractions) and deciding exactly what you'd prefer and seeing fewer attractions.  I honestly wound up spending very little time anywhere since I needed to keep my son moving so he didn't get bored, so we wound up also seeing a bunch of more minor locations also.  I was just grateful to have seen all of the major highlights of St. Petersburg, because it was such a spectacular city.  But I think if you look at pictures of all the major highlights you can design a private tour that will let you see exactly what is most important to you.

Edited by kitkat343
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Difficult decision - a shame you have only one day in St. Petersburg. I have visited multiple times and, IMHO, there is absolutely no way that I would miss the Hermitage. If I had to choose between Peterhof and Catherine Palace (difficult decision), I would choose Peterhof - absolutely stunning (think Versailles). 

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All the “‘main” tour groups provide discounts if you book additional tours in other ports. I’m sailing with my family this summer - so I can’t comment directly. Really boils down on what interests you. I would personally go with the private tour. You can adjust as necessary, spending more time at a place vs less and you most likely can move much faster. Sometimes if you’re with a larger group you may be waiting for immigration in the beginning for the others to join you, or again waiting for others at a particular sight, or going at the “pace” of the group. If it’s just 2 of you, you’re going to have a lot more freedom. Good luck!

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If you only have 24 hours - I'd do the private tour. You will want to get as much in as you possibly can. We used Anastasia's Travel for our private tour, and our day was packed, but it was well worth it. And if you do the private tours, you usually get to skip the lines because of your smaller group. You get to spend your time actually touring, instead of standing in line.

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34 minutes ago, angie7911922 said:

And if you do the private tours, you usually get to skip the lines because of your smaller group. You get to spend your time actually touring, instead of standing in line.

Most  independent tour companies purchase your tickets well before your arrival - you will NOT waste time queuing with any of the top companies regardless of whether you book their group or private tours.

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we were fortunate to have 2 days in St Petersburg, that said I would suggest a private tour. Years ago you could book a private tour and add 2 more people. This is what we did once on the ship you may meet someone you enjoy and won't mind spending the day with. It's all interesting, and requires some discipline to say to yourself let's move on to the next stop. We loved it all.

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15 minutes ago, traveler55g said:

we were fortunate to have 2 days in St Petersburg, that said I would suggest a private tour. Years ago you could book a private tour and add 2 more people. This is what we did once on the ship you may meet someone you enjoy and won't mind spending the day with. It's all interesting, and requires some discipline to say to yourself let's move on to the next stop. We loved it all.

A consideration point: Russian immigration requires the passport data for all cruise passengers arriving visa free. So, to your point above, if you meet someone aboard ship that wants to join your visa free tour, the information has to be given to Russian immigration by the tour provider a full 72 hours before arrival. You would need to make certain that the tour tickets for Russia are acquired well in advance (to be on the safe side, I would say 4-5 days minimum) to ensure that a independent operator can provide the necessary permits for late bookers.

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Best plan is to sabotage the ship's engines so that it stays in port for another day or two :classic_biggrin:

Failing that, it depends on your interests.........

 

I don't think that joining a standard tour would give you the flexibility to spend your time where you want, but of course would be much cheaper.

 

Hermitage, Peterhof and Catherine Palace are the three places which will cost you a lot more time than the others.

Striking all three would seem a bit strange, but would give you ample time for all the other sights and activities. 

 

The Hermitage is bucket-list for most people, but if art etc aren't your scene it's a waste of a lot of your valuable time, & you'll doubtless drive past it at some point.

Peterhof and Catherine Palace are out of the city and involve a lot of travel time, though Peterhof is accessible by hydrofoil (a particularly ugly but interesting craft designed during the Soviet-era) and apparently a new road completed since we were there has shortened the journey-time by road. 

 

To fit in as much as possible, I'd be inclined to strike Peterhof and Catherine Palace and concentrate on the city centre - you'd have time for many more sights & drive-bys, metro etc..

 

Or strike Hermitage  - and since you're already considering striking Hermitage, perhaps that's the one to go for.

 

The suggested private tour includes Peter and Paul, and being a private tour you can choose to rush thro' sights or shorten the list and tour at a slower pace.

I'm one of the ton of people who disagree with kitkat about the interior of the Church on Spilt Blood but that & the metro are things you can include / exclude depending on your interests, your mood and how well you're keeping up with the clock.

If you go for a private tour you can agree a basic itinerary and thro' your RollCall seek like-minded sharers to share the cost, but that comes with consideration for them if you want to significantly change things.

 

Decisions, decisions :classic_wacko:

 

JB :classic_smile: 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

For just one day I would recommend minimum travel time. Start with the Peter & Paul fortress, Church of the Spilled blood, Rasputin house ( not sure of correct name ! ) and finish with Faberge Museum. Along the way stop atthe Grand Hotel with an outside table, make sure to visit the main bar inside the Hotel.

Finally a meal in the Kempinski Hotel top floor restaurant for the terrific views.

Best done using a rented Black Mercedes, dark glasses optional.

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It really is a shame to have only one day in St.Petersburg. Hopefully you will get a chance to go back, since there are so many things to do and see and in order to enjoy it with your own pace, it takes more than 2 days really. We did a customized tour in 2015 with Anastasia.travel, and we were lucky that no one wanted to go to the Hermitage (we decided that we are going back one day to spend more time in the the second-largest art museum in he world), so Anastasia's team was flexible enough to let us change the tour to our needs. Peterhof gardens is a must. I would go with your third option, no doubt. Good luck!

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