One Day in St. Petersburg or Two?

[Jay Kat]

We are planning either the 7 day or the 8 day Northern Europe cruise next year. The seven has one day in St. Petersburg. The 8 day is quite a bit more money, but has two days in St. Petersburg. For those of you who have done it, is it worth it for the extra day? Do you need two days there? For those of you on the 7 day, do you wish you had one more day in St. Petersburg? Thanks for thoughts and advice!

 

[GPaLarry]

I would go for the longer cruise. We had two nights in St. Petersburg and filled each day with great DCL excursions. On this cruise we got fast passes or early entry at a number of sites (i.e. Tivoli and museums) that was awesome. Hint: when you take the old roller coaster in Tivoli don't try to film/record your experience...you will lose your recording device. I was going to do it, was told by a recent rider not to and am glad I didn't after getting off. Great cruise!!!

 

[Disneypeach]

I did a one day in St Pete cruise and really wished I’d had a second day there! So much to see and do there!

 

[Marc D]

It’s definitely a two-day city. We just did a 10h/day, 2-days excursion on Celebrity and we didn’t get to see everything even though we were in a 10-person van that could navigate much better than coaches.

 

[jdb in AZ]

You could spend two days at the Hermitage alone. Definitely spend two days in St. Petersburg.

 

[Jay Kat]

Thanks all. My gut is saying two days. And we will probably go with an outside company....we did that in Alaska and it was less expensive and couldn't have been better!!

 

[AngelDisney]

I am sailing the 8-night cruise that you are considering, and had the same struggle as you do on whether to take the longer cruise as the price difference is quite huge for just an extra day. After a bit of researching, I found that it’s better to visit SPB with at least 2 days. 3 days would be even better. So I would suggest taking the longer cruise. We are thinking of taking the the Best of the Best mini group tour with Best Guides at St. Petersburg since DD and I will be sailing, and private tour is too expensive for just 2 people. We will be touring on our own in other ports using public transit or our own feet. Probably a Segway tour or two. If you have a small group and need someone to share cost for a private tour, let me know. We are flexible with any itinerary.

Have fun planning!

 

[Jay Kat]

I am sailing the 8-night cruise that you are considering, and had the same struggle as you do on whether to take the longer cruise as the price difference is quite huge for just an extra day. After a bit of researching, I found that it’s better to visit SPB with at least 2 days. 3 days would be even better. So I would suggest taking the longer cruise. We are thinking of taking the the Best of the Best mini group tour with Best Guides at St. Petersburg since DD and I will be sailing, and private tour is too expensive for just 2 people. We will be touring on our own in other ports using public transit or our own feet. Probably a Segway tour or two. If you have a small group and need someone to share cost for a private tour, let me know. We are flexible with any itinerary.

Have fun planning!

Angel you are just that. I am looking at Anastasia Tours as they can customize, but would also like to go in with others as there are just two of us (husband and me). We teamed up with some others on the Alaska cruise a few years ago and had a great time, while saving costs. I am very much leaning this way.....we can compare notes...we have a little while !!!! THANK YOU for the feedback and offer! We'll talk!

 

[AngelDisney]

Angel you are just that. I am looking at Anastasia Tours as they can customize, but would also like to go in with others as there are just two of us (husband and me). We teamed up with some others on the Alaska cruise a few years ago and had a great time, while saving costs. I am very much leaning this way.....we can compare notes...we have a little while !!!! THANK YOU for the feedback and offer! We'll talk!

 

[Kangarucci]

Definitely take the longer cruise. A minimum of two full days is needed to see the basics.

 

[squirrelgirl]

Angel & Jay - enjoy your upcoming trip! My family did a full day tour with Anastasia a few years ago. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[katellynne]

You wouldn't regret having 2 days there! SPB is a city where you have to go with a guided tour to most things, either through DCL or another tour company so that in itself limits how much you can do. The tours where you get to customize would be ideal and then you can take advantage of one of the DCL signature experiences which are amazing and you can't always fit both in when you have one day! Anastasia has a great reputation, we didn't use them when we went in 2017 we did a DCL excursion but everyone who did had good things to say.

 

[kiford]

You could spend two days at the Hermitage alone. Definitely spend two days in St. Petersburg.

We did 1.5 days at the Hermitage and 1/2 day at Catharine's Palace. I felt like we saw a miniscule percentage of the Hermitage and I'd love to do several more days there. It's absolutely huge and even though we saw a little bit of it twice, I didn't mind that at all as those were some of the rooms I'd be happy to see 10 times. I could have done two days at the Hermitage but then I'd have missed Catharine's Palace which was totally worth the time. And in order to do what we did, we had to sacrifice seeing some other things (although we also did a river boat tour of the Neva canal and river in the evening which was cool. You can't see anything like that if you aren't there overnight).

 

[EllieBride]

Following... we are on the 8-night, as well... just now beginning to think about excursions and pre- and post-trip planning...

 

[ajgardner]

We just returned from a ten day Northern Europe cruise with two days in St Petersburg. It would be very difficult to get more than half of the main sites into one day, it is a large and very spread out city with so many things to see. Our tour was from 9am-10pm on the first day and 9am-4pm on the second day and we still didn’t get to everything (we had a private tour through Anastasia). One day will get you a very quick taste and at least you will have an idea of how the city looks, but if you can do the two days it would be advised. Look up some of the major points of interest and decide how important each one is for your family. If there are a lot that you want to visit, then go for two days. If there are quite a few that do not really interest your family then you may be ok with one day.

 

[Intr3pid]

If you want to visit inside all three of the Hermitage, Catherine Palace, and Peterhof Gardens, you need an overnight stop. They are in three different parts of the city/its suburbs.

If you want flexibility, get a private guide. The shared van tours are on a tight schedule and won't allow you your own itinerary even over the course of two days.

 

[Jay Kat]

This is all great advice and yes, we will probably want to share at least some with another family or so, as we are just 2. Those on the cruise, we can talk! Love this!

 

[Jay Kat]

Ok group thanks! I did it. It is a birthday surprise for my husband in a couple of months, so no one tell him. I am excited. Two nights won! Let's start a group thread for those who are going. And for those who went before us, THANK YOU for your advice. I am sure we will be reaching out for more as we contemplate shore excursions. I am VERY excited.

 

[jrabbit]

We had two FULL (FILLED) days in St. Pete.

• Hermitage
• Catherine's Palace
• Peterhoff (especially the Fountains ("behind" the palace) !! and grounds) Our DCL excursion put us on a hydrofoil for the trip back to St. Petersburg (that was fun too)
• Church of the Spilt Blood

And there's more to see and do there than that, but those were the highlights for us.

 

[AngelDisney]

Ok group thanks! I did it. It is a birthday surprise for my husband in a couple of months, so no one tell him. I am excited. Two nights won! Let's start a group thread for those who are going. And for those who went before us, THANK YOU for your advice. I am sure we will be reaching out for more as we contemplate shore excursions. I am VERY excited.

Congrats on your booking! What a wonderful surprise for your hubby!!