Denrus St. Petersburg tours -Cutomized tour vs Van rental

[so4]

we are a party of six doing an excursion of St. Petersburg for 2 days.

 

Denrus offers 1) VIP customized tour and 2) rental of a van with guide and driver where the customer can decide on their own itinery.

 

has anyone tried the second option? i'm trying to compare the difference between the 2 options, in terms of cost and value.

 

Would appreciate any advice in clarifying differences between the 2 options or experiences with either.

[Leejnd4]

If I'm reading your post right, it sounds as if you are looking to compare their "value" tours with their "private" tours. Those are actually the only two options they offer. Coincidentally, I'm looking at this same thing right now, as I prepare for my upcoming Baltics cruise.

 

From what I'm gathering, the key difference between the two options with Denrus is that the "value" tour does not actually allow customization. It is a pre-set itinerary, and you don't get to make any changes to it. You also don't know how many people will be with you - it can range from as many as 30 to as few as just your party - although you can get a pretty good idea of how many people will be with you by checking out their cruise calendar, which shows how many ships will be in port with you on those days.

 

The other key difference is the price - the "value" tour is going to be less pp than the private tour. However, since you have six people in your party, the difference will not be substantial - and you will get a MUCH better experience with a private tour. With a private tour, you get to choose everything - itinerary, times, where to eat for lunch, where to shop - the driver/guide is at your disposal.

 

My problem is that there are only two of us, and we haven't yet found enough people on our roll call interested in joining together to do a private tour. But I'm still hopeful we'll find enough, as our cruise isn't until June.

 

You might also want to get some quotes from some of the other popular, well-reviewed tour ops. I've obtained quotes from the following tour ops so far:

 

Denrus

SPB-Tours

Anastasia

Alla

 

All four are well-known, experienced, have received fabulous reviews here in Cruise Critic, and will provide your tourist visa.

[so4]

I was comparing the daily van rental with driver and guide with the VIP customized tour.

 

I did get clarification from Denrus. The VIP customized tours provides the full service package, including planning itineries, pre-booking and purchasing tickets in advance. The van rental includes the driver and the guide, however, NO pre-planning, synchronizations of the visits are provided. The guide provided will only help to purchase the tickets on-the-spot at each venues.

[cherylakers]

We toured with Denrus in 2006 and had Boris as a guide. It was wonderful. We had the private van, driver and our guide Borus. There were 6 of us. It was well worth it as we did not wait in any lines for anything. We booked them for the full 2 days we were there. We saw everything, the Hermitage, Catherine's Palace, Peterhoff, Church of the Spilled Blood, even took a subway ride. It was incredible. They were very open with us and we could stay as long as we liked in each spot. He asked what we liked for lunch and he took us to a really neat authentic Russian restaurant where we had Beef Stroganoff. It was wonderful. I would go in the small group as then you can hear your guide and you can ask all the questions you want. He pointed out lots of interesting sights as we traveled from site to site. I would use Denrus in a heartbeat again.

 

Cheryl

[McMer]

We also toured with Denrus in 2007 and I have to agree that they were excellent and very professional. The two of us had a private car with driver and guide. They were so pleasant and always prepared with all of the necessary tickets and stickers (for cameras). We had them for two days and one evening and saw all of the things that Cherylakers mentioned, had some nice meals and enjoyed a very interesting evening performance. I wouldn't hesitate to use them again - they were great!

[HawaiiCruisers]

There are so many tour agencies offering St. Petersburg tours that it can get confusing. I contacted several companies and obtained pricing/itineraries from each put them into a spread sheet and highlighted the differences. Based on what I wanted it became clear the SPB-Tours was above the others. The communications with SPB-Tours has always been clear not so with the others I compared. We booked SBP-Tours for our upcoming Baltic cruise and don't regret or question any part of our decision. Good luck in your choice of tour companies.

[sharden]

We too have followed the reviews for tour companies in St. Petersburg and have selected Denrus. We are sailing on the Jewel of the Seas on 8/21 out of Harwich.

I posted information on our cruise board back in the fall and had 10 responses right away. We have settled on 17 of us for the custom tour and have 6 people on a waiting list.

I just got an e-mail from our Denrus coordinator Katja telling us that the price has dropped significantly based on the Ruble/USD rate. I was very pleased that they took the initiative to inform us. To me that is the sign of a very reputable organization.

From all of my research on the boards any of the major companies will provide an excellent experience.

Enjoy your adventures.