St Petersburg

[Waju]

Hope this is the right place to ask - we have a Baltics cruise booked next July which will call at St Petersburg.  I am just doing a bit of 'googling' on tours in Russia while Himself watches the football - there are so many companies doing them 😳

 

Can anyone recommend a good one or give me an indication of the sort of prices P&O are likely to charge?  It would be good to see as much as we can over the two days.

 

Thank you

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, Waju said:

Hope this is the right place to ask - we have a Baltics cruise booked next July which will call at St Petersburg.  I am just doing a bit of 'googling' on tours in Russia while Himself watches the football - there are so many companies doing them 😳

 

Can anyone recommend a good one or give me an indication of the sort of prices P&O are likely to charge?  It would be good to see as much as we can over the two days.

 

Thank you

We have only used Alla tours but were well pleased with them. 

[Waju]

18 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

We have only used Alla tours but were well pleased with them. 

Thank you, I'll head off there and have a look.

[Peanut006]

46 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

We have only used Alla tours but were well pleased with them. 

We used Alla tours too, they were fabulous, really well organised 

Michelle

[Ardennais]

We’ve been twice but not with P&O, and we took ship tours both times. You can fit in a day excursion and then an evening one on the first day, and then a full day or morning excursion on the second day. I imagine that most cruiselines offer similar tours.

 

First visit we took a 6 hr tour entitled Catherine’s Estate in Tsar’s Village - a 50 minute drive to Tsarakoye Selo and the wonderful Catherine Palace. Then some free time in St P before returning to the ship. Quick fresh up and off again on the Russian Folklore Extravaganza at the Smolny Concert Hall. We really enjoyed the colourful and energetic show. Next morning. The Hermitage and Spilled Blood.

 

Second visit, with a different cruiseline againl Day One was a City Tour including a cruise on the canals, Yusupov Palace where Rasputin was murdered and the Peter and Paul Fortress. Lunch included. Day two - Panoramic St P which gave us time to visit some different sights and a shopping stop! 
 

No idea of costs but it was quite a lot for the 5 of us! It really is a wonderful place. 

Edited November 15, 2021 by Ardennais

[tring]

1 hour ago, Waju said:

Hope this is the right place to ask - we have a Baltics cruise booked next July which will call at St Petersburg.  I am just doing a bit of 'googling' on tours in Russia while Himself watches the football - there are so many companies doing them 😳

 

Can anyone recommend a good one or give me an indication of the sort of prices P&O are likely to charge?  It would be good to see as much as we can over the two days.

 

Thank you

 

There is a ports of call section to these boards where you will get lots of advice re shore visits.  You will find P&O shore tours are not as expensive as the American Lines charge, so more practical to consider the ship's tours with P&O, but depends what you want.  Best to look at all options and make up your own mind.

 

[Waju]

41 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

We’ve been twice but not with P&O, and we took ship tours both times. You can fit in a day excursion and then an evening one on the first day, and then a full day or morning excursion on the second day. I imagine that most cruiselines offer similar tours.

 

First visit we took a 6 hr tour entitled Catherine’s Estate in Tsar’s Village - a 50 minute drive to Tsarakoye Selo and the wonderful Catherine Palace. Then some free time in St P before returning to the ship. Quick fresh up and off again on the Russian Folklore Extravaganza at the Smolny Concert Hall. We really enjoyed the colourful and energetic show. Next morning. The Hermitage and Spilled Blood.

 

Second visit, with a different cruiseline againl Day One was a City Tour including a cruise on the canals, Yusupov Palace where Rasputin was murdered and the Peter and Paul Fortress. Lunch included. Day two - Panoramic St P which gave us time to visit some different sights and a shopping stop! 
 

No idea of costs but it was quite a lot for the 5 of us! It really is a wonderful place. 

Thank you - we're really looking forward to it!

[Waju]

32 minutes ago, tring said:

 

There is a ports of call section to these boards where you will get lots of advice re shore visits.  You will find P&O shore tours are not as expensive as the American Lines charge, so more practical to consider the ship's tours with P&O, but depends what you want.  Best to look at all options and make up your own mind.

 

Thank you - I've just found the ports of call pages!

 

[Waju]

Just seen the tours are already available on the P&O website, they're expensive but not as bad as I imagined actually!

[bbtablet]

Have you looked on the P&O site, logged in to your personal P&O cruise reference there, and then looked for the tours? - they might already be there as they are appearing up to a year ahead now. Then you can browse all the P&O offerings including the prices.

[brian1]

I might add that some of these companies have branches in other Baltic countries and offer a discount if multiple tours are booked.Having said that there is more freedom in those countries to DIY at a lower cost.

[purplesea]

We visited a few years ago and a group of us from on here used a company call Red Sun Tours, which again were very good. 

[Cathygh]

We used SPB tours. We did the 2 day tour which was cheaper than P&O's and we got into places without having to wait in the long queues. 2 lovely lunches were included. It was very thorough and we would do it again. 

[tring]

13 hours ago, Waju said:

Just seen the tours are already available on the P&O website, they're expensive but not as bad as I imagined actually!

 

Thanks for that we are booked on an Aurora Baltic cruise next May and just seen our excursions are there as well. I see they are still offering SPB Explorer, which we have done previously and is basically an SPB on your own tour with three stop locations.  Good for us as we have seen virtually all the main tourist venues on a SPB to Moscow river cruise and hotel stay.  The price of to that has doubled since we last went on Arcadia in 2019 though. It is a lovely city to just stroll around and pop into the odd church, museum, cafe etc. that is not filled with crowds of tourists.

 

Can anyone tell me if we get our Peninsula Club discount on shore tours if booked pre cruise? 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by tring

[jaydee6969]

9 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Thanks for that we are booked on an Aurora Baltic cruise next May and just seen our excursions are there as well.

 

Can anyone tell me if we get our Peninsula Club discount on shore tours if booked pre cruise? 

 

 

Yes you do.  If you do a dummy booking and add the excursion to your basket and look at the basket after, it will show your discount.  Then remove item from basket.

 

We have booked a 2 day P&O tour for St Petersburg next year.  After currency conversion rates and Peninsular club discount we found little difference in price between them, but chose P&O for peace of mind if the tour is delayed etc.

Edited November 16, 2021 by jaydee6969

[tring]

1 minute ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

Yes you do.  If you do a dummy booking and add the excursion to your basket and look at the basket after, it will show your discount.  Then remove item from basket.

 

We have booked a 2 day P&O tour for St Petersburg next year.  After currency conversion rates and Peninsular club discount we found little difference in price between them, but chose P&O for peace of mind if the tour is delayed etc.

 

Thanks, I thought that may be the case with discount. 

 

I hope you enjoy your visit, it is a beautiful city.  Last time we asked Alla and SPB what the cost would be for a private tour to our own requirements and it was incredibly expensive.

[Son of Bare]

1 hour ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

Yes you do.  If you do a dummy booking and add the excursion to your basket and look at the basket after, it will show your discount.  Then remove item from basket.

 

We have booked a 2 day P&O tour for St Petersburg next year.  After currency conversion rates and Peninsular club discount we found little difference in price between them, but chose P&O for peace of mind if the tour is delayed etc.

I think you've done right. We used PO for the two day tour 3/4 years ago. It's full on and and from what I can remember, very good value for money at circa £250. The itinerary is extensive.

We are also booked on Aurora next July back to the Baltic where we will be tying the knot the day after we leave St Petersburg.

[Adawn47]

2 hours ago, jaydee6969 said:

  If you do a dummy booking and add the excursion to your basket and look at the basket after, it will show your discount.  Then remove item from basket.

It's much easier and less faff to just use a calculator.

Avril

[Waju]

2 hours ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

Yes you do.  If you do a dummy booking and add the excursion to your basket and look at the basket after, it will show your discount.  Then remove item from basket.

 

We have booked a 2 day P&O tour for St Petersburg next year.  After currency conversion rates and Peninsular club discount we found little difference in price between them, but chose P&O for peace of mind if the tour is delayed etc.

That's exactly what we thought!  The price isn't too bad at all when you take Peninsular club discount into account.  Our friends are coming over later and we're going to book 🙂

 

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply - you can always be relied on to provide really useful information.

[Waju]

23 minutes ago, Son of Bare said:

I think you've done right. We used PO for the two day tour 3/4 years ago. It's full on and and from what I can remember, very good value for money at circa £250. The itinerary is extensive.

We are also booked on Aurora next July back to the Baltic where we will be tying the knot the day after we leave St Petersburg.

I think we're on the same cruise, do we get an invite? 🙂

[Son of Bare]

Only if you are definitely on the cruise!!!

[jaydee6969]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

It's much easier and less faff to just use a calculator.

Avril

 

If you are already on the page looking at the excursion, how hard is it to just add to the basket to check the price, with out looking for your calculator or opening another app on your device?

 

It will also confirm your loyalty discount level with out looking that up if you are unsure.

[wowzz]

29 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

If you are already on the page looking at the excursion, how hard is it to just add to the basket to check the price, with out looking for your calculator or opening another app on your device?

 

It will also confirm your loyalty discount level with out looking that up if you are unsure.

Perhaps I'm old school, but it's not that difficult to calculate the discount using good old mental arithmetic ?

5% of, say, £280, is not exactly difficult! 

[Adawn47]

13 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Perhaps I'm old school, but it's not that difficult to calculate the discount using good old mental arithmetic ?

5% of, say, £280, is not exactly difficult! 

Gets a bit more complicated when it's 8.5% though wowzz.

At least it is for me🙄

Avril

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Gets a bit more complicated when it's 8.5% though wowzz.

At least it is for me🙄

Avril

I'd just knock off 10% off, and then add 1% back on. Close enough  for me !