Independent Tour Companies in Northern Europe

[doriemg]

We're cruising the Baltic region this coming summer and are trying to figure out if we'll do Disney tours in port or arrange our tours with independent companies. I'm looking for some advice from others who have cruised the Baltic region. Here's a few of my questions:

1. When we sailed Alaska a few years ago there were booths set up near the docks for several private tour companies and they were all trying to sell their tours. Is it the same way in the Baltic?

2. Does anyone have any recommendations for private tour companies they used on their cruise? We figured we'd do a Disney port adventure in St. Petersburg so we wouldn't have to go through the hassle of getting a Russian visa but in the other ports we're waffling back and forth on doing Disney or not.

Would appreciate any advice and/or recommendations you can give. Thanks.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

There are less booths and in Russia you must pre book.

For Russia contact Anastasia travel in st Petersburg, You do NOT need a Russian visa, that is incorrect.

If you book with Anastasia they organise visa free entry, thry just need your passport. And rather than get off in a queue of 55 at a time DCL trips that cause immigration delays, we were off in seconds thought border control and met our guide and hone in ten minutes before the DCL tours had finished meeting up on the ship.

Lots of detail here, http://torussiawithmickeybars.blogspot.co.uk/
Navigators, photos, who we booked with, menus, etc.

Loads of cruisers in 2015 had a wonderful concierge style trip with http://anastasia.travel/ they did maybe thirty odd groups, all felt it brilliant, I recall a DCL St Petersburg trip report one person said he spent eleven hours looking st the inside of the bus. Anastasia the CEO herself was at the cruise port on arrival and departure to make sure everyone had a fantastic time.

We in 2010 and 2015 went with them, last year two days one evening, no going to/from the ship on day and evening tours loosing an hour and having border control four times, and Anastasia got us in the back VIP entrance to the Hermitage no queueing up outside in groups of 55 and we went a different way around to avoid tour groups, we eat local us and a guide in true Russain restaurants.

Organise everything in advance, it's not like Alaska and doing it on arrival, we have private tours in Coprnhagen, Stocholm, Hrldinki, St Petersburg and Tallinn, we saw more, did more, and often were cheaper for our family than DCL.

There are videos in my trip report including a rare helicopter flight over St Petersburg.

 

[TACK]

My daughter and I went with SPB tours in St Petersburg and really enjoyed it. All the information is on the website and any question I had, they got back to me right away. Even when I asked about the transportation, they sent a picture of what the vans look like. So much better than a big bus. We did the one day tour followed by a private tour to max out our day. We got back to the boat just around 11:00 pm. It was the only organized tour I booked because I found that we were able to just enjoy the port days wandering around on our own. And, Disney provided buses at every port. We did the Hop on Hop off in Sweden, and got off at the Skansen Zoo/Museum which is also a short distance from the ABBA museum. I was on tight budget so the idea was to do more on our own than just spend money on tours. We ended up having a wonderful time.

 

[doriemg]

Thanks to you both for the very useful info. I've already contacted the tour companies and am waiting to hear back but I think we'll end up using one of them rather than waiting in the queue with 50 million other Disney passengers who are doing the Disney port adventures.

Disney Fantasy - THANK YOU SO MUCH for the tip about not needing a visa in St. Petersburg. DCL's web site is worded in such a way that they make you think you need a visa for anything other than Disney's port adventures.