Anyone done Petropavlovsk on their own?

[Jana White]

My husband and I are thinking of getting a visa and trying Petropavlovsk on our own? Has anyone out there done that?

[trooper 1]

My husband and I are thinking of getting a visa and trying Petropavlovsk on our own? Has anyone out there done that?

 

Been there twice. There is little to see in town. We take the ship's tour with an English speaking tour guide. It would be too far for us to walk around on our own and really doubt if there are any taxi drivers who speak English.

[Jana White]

Thank you so much. What kind of tours have you taken?

[trooper 1]

Thank you so much. What kind of tours have you taken?

 

I must apologize. We have not been to Vladivostok. I got that mixed up with Petropavlosk. Sorry. (I looked at Shore Tours in the Princess home page. The only tours they had listed in Vladivostok were in 2007???)

[trooper 1]

I must apologize. We have not been to Vladivostok. I got that mixed up with Petropavlosk. Sorry. (I looked at Shore Tours in the Princess home page. The only tours they had listed in Vladivostok were in 2007???)

 

OK. I will be checking into the old folks home soon. You asked about Petro and somehow I mixed it up with Vladivostok.

[Jana White]

No problem trooper 1, easy to get the two confused. We are going on HAL next May and I am just beginning to research the ports.

[bra1nchild]

Check out the Amsterdam's Sept 19 Grand Asia etc. board for a discussion of Petro. One of the participants -- Foxpaw -- did the front half of the cruise last year and has pertinent comments about Petro. My understanding/memory is that you can not leave the ship unless you are on a ship's tour; it may be a condition of the blanket visa granted by the government.

[Jana White]

Thank you brainchild, I will check it out.

[Sandy R]

We stopped in Petropavlosk 2 years ago. We opted for the ship's city tour. It's an amazing place... thoroughly Russian in feel and appearance, with beautiful snow-capped mountains as a backdrop. The last stop was the market place... where we were able to walk around among the locals. Wouldn't have missed the tour! Those that just took the tender and walked around a bit, missed the flavor of area.

[Jana White]

Thank you so much, we will take a tour

[Atomica]

I'm looking at a cruise on HAL's Rotterdam that goes to Petropavlovsk - the itinerary says it requires a visa. Any comments on how difficult/easy it was to acquire that?? Thanks!

[RvMay]

We were in Petro three years ago on HAL's Asia Pacific cruise. Researching the port prior to departure informed us that college students (mostly girls) who want to practice their English (and they are quite good at it!) will give you a free walking tour around the town in exchange for the conversation. They were gathered in a group where you disembarked from the tenders. Had I not known about them, I would have walked on by. Instead, I approached the group and asked "are you the gals who want to do the walking tour?" They excitedly said yes! There were 4 of us, so we had two girls who were friends. It was awesome! They took us all over, including to the museum (no US$), and up some hillsides for some gorgeous views. We had such a good time. After a couple of hours they even invited us to join them for lunch at their homes, to show us how they lived. We passed on that, because it would have been too tight with the ships tender schedule. We tipped them (they did not want to take it), and had one of our most fond memories of the cruise that day.

[slotl]

My husband and I are thinking of getting a visa and trying Petropavlovsk on our own? Has anyone out there done that?

 

We just returned from the HAL Amsterdam Grand Asia and Australia cruise Nov 23rd.

 

Our stop in Petropavlovsk was cancelled by the cruise line and Amori, Japan was substituted instead.

 

We had booked the "river cruise" tour in Petropavlovsk. We were told by people who had already been there that we didn't miss anything. Amori, Japan was wonderful!!

 

Check with your cruise line to see if Petropavlovsk is still on the itinerary. HAL cancelled because a Princess ship had been "harassed" by Russian customs and immigration checking the passenger list, the passenger tours were detained by the delays, then had problems leaving the port.

 

Here is copy/paste of the incident:

Passport check holds up cruise passengers

 

About 1600 Australian cruise ship passengers were forced to wait in a Russian port for five hours today, as local authorities took hours to make a series of passport inspections.

 

The Sun Princess, which left Sydney on July 14 carrying 2000 passengers - mostly Australians - was held in the port of Petropavlovsk on Russia's east coast as the Russian navy checked and re-checked every passport.

 

Fairfax Media understands the cruise ship was blocked from leaving the port by two naval frigates.

 

"We were meant to leave at 4.30pm, but they didn't let us go until 9.30," one passenger, Ellie Fitz-Gerald from Sydney said.

 

"It was very frustrating. They came on to collect the passports at 5.30am - all they had to do was stamp them. But they took forever to process them. Some people couldn't even get off the boat because the authorities wouldn't give their passports back. They were just stuck on the boat. Then they insisted on checking them all again. The captain was furious."

 

Local authorities did not explain why they had kept the boat so long.

 

However, the port of Petropavlovsk has played a role in the stoush between Russia and NATO over the decision of the former to send troops in Georgia.

[Daneboy]

Has anyone lately been to PK and is a Visa necessary if you aren't on a ship tour. We will be there this Sept and would like to go into town on our own and don't know if we need a Visa. Some say yes and some say no.