Early entrance to Catherine Palace in St. P - worth it?

[BVK]

Early entrance to Catherine Palace will cost about $25 per person on our 6 person private tour in mid-June. Does it reduce crowds enough to be worth it? I have not been able to find many postings about this. Thanks!

[RachelG]

Catherine's Palace is VERY crowded. There and Hermitage rival for most crowded in St. Petersburg. If given the option for early entry, you definitely need to take it. We had early entry and still encountered a huge mob at the entrance. But once we got inside, it was fine.

Definitely rec. early entrace at the Hermitage as well.

[Lair Bear]

Early entrance to Catherine Palace will cost about $25 per person on our 6 person private tour in mid-June. Does it reduce crowds enough to be worth it? I have not been able to find many postings about this. Thanks!

 

I have not hear of this added charge. Curious what company would do this. Does your tour company make special arrangements with the ship and Passport Control to have you leave at 7:00am or what ever? Do you want to miss breakfast to be first in line?

 

Personnally I would not be concerned about 'early entrance' because you are leaving the ship at their designated time and it is a long drive to go to Catherine's Palace.

 

Our experience at the Hermitage was to simply go in the afternoon. We were there (per Alla's guide) around 2:00 pm and saw what we wanted to see without the crowds. Perhaps the same applies to Catherine's Palace.

 

You might ask your tour company, but of course, they would rather collect your $150 extra.

[Kingsbridge]

I think that the early admission fee is simply being collected by the tour company and paid to the Palace. The route that tourists must take through the Palace is narrower than at the Hermitage. Visitors can spread out more in the Hermitage and visit different rooms in a different order. Also, if you have a tour planned, rearranging the visit to the Palace to the afternoon may not be a good use of time.

 

I would certainly give it serious consideration.

[shoshona2]

We used Red October in 2003 and didn't have to pay any extra for early entrance to Katherine's Palace. I guess because of the crowds in June the private tours are having to pay more to gain entry early. It does go into someone's pocket!! My husband took wonderful photos of all the rooms WITHOUT any other person in the room. I would pay extra to go in first.

 

Sheila

[BVK]

I have not hear of this added charge. Curious what company would do this. Does your tour company make special arrangements with the ship and Passport Control to have you leave at 7:00am or what ever? Do you want to miss breakfast to be first in line?

We will be going with Anastasia. Early entrance was not included in her initial tour proposal--I asked about it. Early entrance to both Catherine Palace and the Hermitage was included in the Red October proposal, which was what gave me the idea.

 

I am not sure what the schedule will be with Anastasia if we opt for early entrances. As it stands, on the first day we are to meet the guide at the ship at 7:30 am, do the city tour from 7:30 - 9:00 am, drive to Tsarskoye Selo from 9 - 10:00 am, tour Catherine Palace from 10:00 am opening (or whenever we get in!) until noon, eat lunch, then tour Peterhof and St. Isaacs. I expect we would change the order if we decide to enter Catherine Palace early.

 

With Red October, the suggested schedule for the second day was to leave the ship at 7:30 am, touring Catherine Palace (with early entrance) from 8:45 to 10:30 am.

 

You might ask your tour company, but of course, they would rather collect your $150 extra.

I asked Anastasia for her recommendation, and seemed to get a balanced opinion. When I first asked about early entrances, she indicated there were advantages (adding time for other visits by starting earlier on the second day, chance of less crowded venue), and disadvantages (paying extra, some halls in the Hermitage only being open after official opening time, and no confirmation until one month before the tour).

 

When I specifically asked for her recommendation, she said that there is a 50% chance there will be an almost empty palace, and a 50% chance that it will pretty crowded, but less so than during the regular time, so she would recommend it if the price is not too much of an obstacle.

 

Given that, I thought I would find out others' experiences. I saw a lot of early entrance recommendations for the Hermitage in the forum, with seemingly fewer people saying it wasn't worth it, but not too much discussion on the Catherine Palace.

 

Anastasia indicated that early entrance to both the Hermitage and Catherine Palace is equal to the cost of admission (e.g. Hermitage entrance costs ~$19, and early entrance costs an additional $19; Catherine Palace admission is ~$25, and early entrance costs an additional $25). I don't know if a portion of the early entrance fee goes to the tour company, but based on admission fees I can find on the web (~$18 for the Hermitage on its official site), it doesn't seem like a lot of the basic admission fee does.

[GuideDiva]

We will be going with Anastasia. Early entrance was not included in her initial tour proposal--I asked about it. Early entrance to both Catherine Palace and the Hermitage was included in the Red October proposal, which was what gave me the idea.

 

I am not sure what the schedule will be with Anastasia if we opt for early entrances. As it stands, on the first day we are to meet the guide at the ship at 7:30 am, do the city tour from 7:30 - 9:00 am, drive to Tsarskoye Selo from 9 - 10:00 am, tour Catherine Palace from 10:00 am opening (or whenever we get in!) until noon, eat lunch, then tour Peterhof and St. Isaacs. I expect we would change the order if we decide to enter Catherine Palace early.

 

With Red October, the suggested schedule for the second day was to leave the ship at 7:30 am, touring Catherine Palace (with early entrance) from 8:45 to 10:30 am.

 

I asked Anastasia for her recommendation, and seemed to get a balanced opinion. When I first asked about early entrances, she indicated there were advantages (adding time for other visits by starting earlier on the second day, chance of less crowded venue), and disadvantages (paying extra, some halls in the Hermitage only being open after official opening time, and no confirmation until one month before the tour).

 

When I specifically asked for her recommendation, she said that there is a 50% chance there will be an almost empty palace, and a 50% chance that it will pretty crowded, but less so than during the regular time, so she would recommend it if the price is not too much of an obstacle.

 

Given that, I thought I would find out others' experiences. I saw a lot of early entrance recommendations for the Hermitage in the forum, with seemingly fewer people saying it wasn't worth it, but not too much discussion on the Catherine Palace.

 

Anastasia indicated that early entrance to both the Hermitage and Catherine Palace is equal to the cost of admission (e.g. Hermitage entrance costs ~$19, and early entrance costs an additional $19; Catherine Palace admission is ~$25, and early entrance costs an additional $25). I don't know if a portion of the early entrance fee goes to the tour company, but based on admission fees I can find on the web (~$18 for the Hermitage on its official site), it doesn't seem like a lot of the basic admission fee does.

If your tour company has contracts with the palaces and museums they usually do not charge anything for early entrance. It does require application in advance however so it last minute changes are sought it might be too late. Not every day is open to early entrance but most days in the summer are.

The larger more established tour companies have annual contracts with the palaces and museums and some provide vouchers to the small beginning tour companies at a price so that is probably where the extra charge is coming from. The larger ones which have arrangements are those with ship contracts and a few who do not like Red October don't usually charge for that.

DenRus, Baltic Travel, Arctur certainly do because they have ship contracts and need early entrance permission and entry on closed days.

Catherine Palace is very busy, the rooms open are limited, and there is a limited path through the palace so the palace museum administration keeps adding restrictions on entry such that it is hard to visit in the summer on your own.