Doing St.Petersburg independently- anyone with experience?

[more from les]

A year ago, when I was researching ports for a Baltic cruise, I remember some "brave" people recommended doing St. Petersburg independently.... more fun. more adventures, less expensive.

My subsequent research has turned up the Hermitage website, and there it informs me that it is possible to avoid the line of people at the front entrance by ordering tickets on-line, payng by credit card, receiving vouchers by e-mail, and these vouchers can be taken to a separate entrance which is described in the website.

I have a vision of more people using on-line booking and e-mail vouchers, thus making the alternative entrance a longer line for cashing vouchers than the front entrance.

Has anyone used the e-mail vouchers for entering the Hermitage - if so, what is the extent of the line compared to the front door?

Any advice is welcome.

Les

[GACRUISER456]

I did lots of independant travel in the Med by using the on-line reservation system and it worked great. It save hours of standing in lines. However, I just wanted to make sure you were aware that to do St. Petersburg on your own, you will need to get a Visa. If you take a ships tour or use a company like DenRus or Red October, they will get a visa for you. From what I have read on this board, those are the primary tour companies. I would think it would be very difficult to navigate Russia on your own unless you speak some of the language. I will be doing this itinerary this summer and plan on using one of the 2 companies I just mentioned (there is a third on here that people talk about too - Ala or something).

[more from les]

Thanks - yep I am aware that we will need visas but our travel agent has experience in securing these for us.

The other tour group is Alla, and we have already had e-mail contact with her, with Denrus and with Red October. We have different drummer needs for St. Petersburg and hope we can accomplish our goals "on our own".

Les

[dbh62ark]

To avoid lines altogether, the best thing is to go on a private tour individually - the guide would know how to do it.

I agree. I've been on private tours in St. Petersburg with both Red October and Denrus (and liked Denrus better if anyone is choosing between those two), and the private tour guides took us straight to the front of the lines for our timed reservations.

 

Donna

[dog]

I agree. I've been on private tours in St. Petersburg with both Red October and Denrus (and liked Denrus better if anyone is choosing between those two), and the private tour guides took us straight to the front of the lines for our timed reservations.

 

Donna

 

Donna, I am about to book and wondered why you liked Denrus better? J.

[dbh62ark]

I toured with Red October for 2 days in 2003 and with Denrus for 2 days in 2005. After our 2003 tour, I felt that we could have visited some additional venues if the itinerary for the 2 days had been planned better. But I was pleased overall with Red October, so I contacted both companies when I began planning in 2005. I found Denrus to be much more flexible and accomodating with changes to their standard itinerary. I ended up organizing 3 vans with 25 passengers (we had separate drivers and guides for each van because I think a max of 8-10 is ideal), and I think everyone loved the itinerary. Red October did not want to add or discouraged us from adding the subway, hydrofoil, canal boat ride, and other options that were important to us. Also, Red October said that they would not take a group smaller than 10 into the Gold Rooms at the Hermitage, so we would have to work around the schedules with the other groups. We didn't want to do that because time is so critical in St. Petersburg. Denrus said that they would take as few as two passengers into the Gold Rooms but of course the cost would be higher. I didn't like the fact that Red October insists on taking passengers to their stores while we were able to shop at a number of different stores with Denrus (we really enjoyed the variety). Also, this is a minor point in the overall cost of the trip, but Red October was charging major mark-ups as much as 4 times the cost of a photo permit at the venues for "convenience" while Denrus was simply charging the cost that you would pay individually at the venue with no mark-up. Overall, our price with Denrus was 10-15% less than Red October, but that was not the determining factor (although I did feel that Red October nickled and dimed their clients unlike Denrus, and I thought some of Red October's practices were tacky.)

 

Basically, every request I made of Red October for customization, which is after all the point of a private tour, was met with resistance while Denrus was very gracious and accomodating. Most passengers are pleased with Red October, and I think that's great, but most passengers have not compared the two companies like we have, and we found Denrus to be much better. We ended up with an AWESOME itinerary and were thrilled with Denrus. I do think that regardless of the company you choose, the private tours in St. Petersburg offer a much better experience overall as compared to ship's tours.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[dog]

Thanks for the quick reply. I have contacted Denrus, Alla & Red October.

There have been some changes with the Red October company, as they offered the canal tour (which we omitted), we will go on the hydrofoil and the Gold Room (no promises) they will try to get us in ( extra $15), but we won't know until closer to the time. We shortened the RO store time since there are only 6 of us and specified Russian restaurant Day 1 and Hermitage Cafe ( to save time ) Day 2. They are offering us early admission to avoid big lineups both mornings.

I listed the comparison for prices on my roll call: Star Princess 9/9/07, if you are interested. Alla and Red October did not require deposit or even a credit card to hold the booking. Denrus did.

Emails to my inquiry were prompt from all 3 companies but Red October offered a 19 hour tour for less. ( 6 people in an air conditioned van ).

 

Thanks again, J.

[dbh62ark]

Dog, if you have not considered the subway ride, you might want to add that option. It doesn't take long, and it's amazing to see the stations that are as opulent as many palaces. We ate in the van one day to give us an extra hour at the Hermitage. Those examples that I listed were just some of the ways that Red October was not accomodating in itinerary changes, and please note that we also found that Denrus was better on the ground too and not just in the planning stages. There are so many options in St. Petersburg, so obviously it's impossible to see everything in just two or three days. I don't know anything about Alla but read good things about her tours. I'm sure the company that you choose will provide you with a great tour.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[dog]

Thanks again Donna. Interesting to hear about the 2 companies. I started out thinking we'd go with Denrus - like the info. on site and easy to access it. Then Alla was next on my mind with no deposit required. Next Red October was recommended. So I emailed them in Russia since I couldn't find out much from their website.

The big thing that came across was the price difference for the same program ( or with RO offering more ). For 6 people in an a/c van with 17 hour program offered ( RO offered 19 hours): Denrus & Alla was $400 U.S. per person and RO was $314 US. per person.

I like the idea that we have a small group, got to pick where we will go and we decided how much time we'd spend in each place. There is no way we'll see it all, so I hope this works out. Thanks again. J.

[dbh62ark]

I like the idea that we have a small group, got to pick where we will go and we decided how much time we'd spend in each place. There is no way we'll see it all, so I hope this works out. Thanks again. J.

Yes, I think this is ideal for your time in St. Petersburg. My husband and I are very independent and usually don't prefer organized tours, but we had a lot of flexibility in our private tours. Our decision was to choose between another private tour for our return visit or to get visas to go on our own. The deciding factor for us was that I couldn't figure out a way to get us to Catherine's Palace and Peterhof (both palaces are not located near the other sites that we visited) as well as all the other sites on our own without a guide.

 

Donna

[dog]

Donna, we are the same in wanting to be independent. We have driven in Greece, Italy, France on land vacations.

On Med. cruises we were able to hire taxi drivers right at the pier for the day and go where we wanted, but for this Baltics cruise I think this organized private tour is best for us.

I read somewhere that it is difficult to rent a car in Russia(?) and the Visa issue is taken care of with these tour companies we've mentioned. Thanks again for your input. J.

[dbh62ark]

I read somewhere that it is difficult to rent a car in Russia(?) and the Visa issue is taken care of with these tour companies we've mentioned. Thanks again for your input. J.

Yes, I don't know how difficult it is to rent a car in Russia but from what I saw, I wouldn't want to drive in St. Petersburg. :) And yes, the private tour companies like Red October and Denrus obtain your passport information in advance to obtain a group visa using their special licenses (available by law only to passengers staying in Russia for less than 72 hours or something like that). So you don't need an individual visa to go with RO or Denrus, contrary to some of the literature sent out by the cruise lines to try to strongarm passengers into going on ship's excursions.

 

Donna