SPB-Tours St Petersburg

[linetbo]

Looking private tours for next year.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

( top Peterof fountain gardens)


Anastasia in St Petersburg you cannot beat their personal service and their quality guides. I think you have been reading my trip report, they really looked after us Very well and about fifty other DCL cruisers in 2015 all very pleased.

http://anastasia.travel/

If you email them Katherine will come back very promptly to you and run a schedule the way you want it, they were there waiting for us at 8 .30 am even though the ship wasn't scheduled in till 9.30 we were through border control in seconds. I met the CEO Anastasia personally, ( four times) she us there to check everything is fine, we were given bags, St Petersburg guides and snacks and bottled water as gifts as well as a special souvenir gift.

We had a modern brand new van, comfortable and air con, great driver, and they were flexible to do what we wanted. They did offer yes a special of 50% off for pre payment by 31/12/14.

We cut lines at the Hermitage going in a back door, they had a runner who queues up and gets the tickets for you there, and we got in to Catherine's place no lines, they can take you to places the cruise tours can't and never say no just how can we do it.

I promise you, you will not have a better tour at all!







St Petersburg cruise terminal where your met.



Amber room Catherine's palace.



Catherine's place not no queues!



River boat tours through Hermitage We had a boat to ourselves.

 

[ctnurse]

We used SPB tours in St. Petersburg and were very happy with them. I really don't think you can go wrong with any of the "big" players, ( Any of the top rated companies on TA.) I wasn't sure who I was going to use, but I knew that we wouldn't take a DCL excursion. I emailed several of the companies and went with SPB for several reasons. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. You will love St. Petersburg.

 

[joe strummer]

We did a private tour with SPB last year. They had a car seat for our then 2.75 yr old, which was a big plus. We picked one of their "standard" tours, but modified it over the course of two days so we could spend more time at Peterhof, AND include a stop at Varshavsky Railway Station, where there is an INCREDIBLE collection of historic Soviet rail cars (including military/missile launchers). It was the highlight for our son (and in some ways, for me as well). Our guide also found us an excellent out of the way vegetarian place for lunch. Very reasonable, very good food.

 

[TACK]

I booked with SPB and was very happy with them for St Petersburg. We wanted to make sure we utilized the entire day at port and SPB was able to keep us busy from the time we left the ship to when we were driven back via a private driver to the ship around 10:30 p.m. It was a very easy process to disembark and meet up with them at port. I enjoyed the van and the small group. Only thing is that I wished we had 2 days in St Petersburg - so much to do.

I agree that with choosing the tour companies with the higher satisfaction ratings. They do seem to want to help you in whatever way they can. Very accommodating.

 

[linetbo]

I guess a private tour its better, right?

 

[aggiedog]

We had a private tour with TJ. There were 8 in our group, and the cost was very reasonable. Honestly, we had a private tour in Tallinn, and did DCL in Stockholm and Helsinki. We all said we wished we'd done private tours the whole way. Being piled into a bus, waiting in line to use the restroom with 30+ other people, and being given on a few hours out of the total port time was nowhere near as enjoyable as our private tours that began right after we got into port and finished with 45-60 min to spare before all aboard. Nothing against DCL, but with trip advisor, it's not hard to find good tour guides.

 

[Jasrhon]

If you are looking for a unique experience in St Petersburg we loved the DCL excursion to the ball at Catherine's Palace. There were only 2 buses and we had the whole Palace to ourselves. The night started with a reception that included finger sandwiches, pancakes and desserts while we watched folk dancers and opera singers. The busses then took us through the main gates to the front door where they had a marching band to greet us. On our private tour of the palace there were several young talented musicians entertaining us along the way. We were also allowed to take as many pictures in the Amber Room as we liked. Normally they don't allow photos and the Private tours on our sailing were not allowed to (note the photo above that DF labelled as the Amber Room is actually the ball room). When we did enter the ball room they had an orchestra playing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song. Next they had ball room dancers who invited guests to join in plus ballet dancers. It was truly magical.

 

[Jasrhon]

Here are a few photos from our tour at Catherine's Palace: Orchestra in the ball room
[GALLERY=] [/GALLERY] Amber Room

 

[Jasrhon]

I guess a private tour its better, right?

It depends on what you are looking for. Many loved the private tours but the experience we had with our DCL excursions were excellent. Our tour of Catherine's Palace was expensive but we all thought it was worth it and we had an experience that was not offered on any private tour.

 

[aggiedog]

I guess it depends on how much money you are willing to spend and how much of SPB you want to see. The cost of the Catherine's Palace excursion was more expensive than what we paid for an entire day (10:00am to 10:30pm) with our own van, driver, and guide. I think the DCL excursion was just a few hours long? You could even do both, ending early so you could get back to the ship to do the DCL tour. The nice part about a private tour is you can do what you want, when you want, and you could tailor it to be back in time for something like Catherine's Palace. Those pictures look amazing.

 

[KashasMom]

We are in SPB for 3 days - yay! Based on all of the excellent reviews we booked with TJ Travels. They offer 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, and night time options as well. We're thinking of doing the dinner with a Russian family one night.

 

[linetbo]

Just one day in there from 8:15am-11:30pm

 

[Chirple]

My husband and I used Anastasia as well for our one day in St. Petersburg. We customized our day (12 hours) using part of their one-day and two-day tours. We would have stuck with our original DCL excursion had Anastasia not offered a 50% discount on the tour price through the third week in February. We also met Anastasia at Peterhof. She was there with her photographer so I'm sure she setup a base camp there to meet her clients when she knew they would come through. Our guide and driver were very nice, and our guide Julia was enthusiastic and knowledgeable in the city's history.

Our St. Petersburg day fell on a Tuesday. Private tours are unable to enter Catherine's Palace on Tuesdays, but the DCL tour is permitted to go. It was something I really wanted to do, but we sacrificed it for the amount of touring and pricing we got with Anastasia.

 

[Jasrhon]

I guess it depends on how much money you are willing to spend and how much of SPB you want to see. The cost of the Catherine's Palace excursion was more expensive than what we paid for an entire day (10:00am to 10:30pm) with our own van, driver, and guide. I think the DCL excursion was just a few hours long? You could even do both, ending early so you could get back to the ship to do the DCL tour. The nice part about a private tour is you can do what you want, when you want, and you could tailor it to be back in time for something like Catherine's Palace. Those pictures look amazing.

Yes it certainly was expensive but we thought it was worth it. You can certainly fit in something else on the same day. The tour was originally scheduled for 4:30pm but after we boarded we got replacement tickets for a 5pm start. We returned to the ship around 11 pm. We did do an intro tour earlier in the day that got back on the ship around 1:30pm. We used the down time in between to do laundry since the ship was fairly empty.

 

[TACK]

I guess a private tour its better, right?

We did the day tour on SPB, followed by a private tour. Because it was just the two of us it made sense money-wise. Again, we wanted to maximize our time. What they did for the private tour was provide a driver for us and we met up with him at the end of the day tour (around 7:00 pm). Then we walked the shops, met up with him at the designated place and followed it by a canal boat tour for just the two of us. After we met up with the driver again, and he took us back to the cruise ship.

 

[EllinK]

We did a 2 day tour with SPB, putting together a group from Disboards and FB. We specifically selected options that would appeal to tweens -- since we had a number of kids between 10-14-- a subway tour, canal boat tour, painting matryoshkas. It was a fantastic experience.

 

[linetbo]

If you are looking for a unique experience in St Petersburg we loved the DCL excursion to the ball at Catherine's Palace. There were only 2 buses and we had the whole Palace to ourselves. The night started with a reception that included finger sandwiches, pancakes and desserts while we watched folk dancers and opera singers. The busses then took us through the main gates to the front door where they had a marching band to greet us. On our private tour of the palace there were several young talented musicians entertaining us along the way. We were also allowed to take as many pictures in the Amber Room as we liked. Normally they don't allow photos and the Private tours on our sailing were not allowed to (note the photo above that DF labelled as the Amber Room is actually the ball room). When we did enter the ball room they had an orchestra playing the Mickey Mouse Club theme song. Next they had ball room dancers who invited guests to join in plus ballet dancers. It was truly magical.

I still have about 2 months before my port adventures window open, but my 16yo daughter want to do this tour. It's only me and her, I was wondering if someone would asked her to dance, but I saw your photos. Which tour you did during the day?

 

[krisinparis]

Based on Disney Fantasy's recommendation, we booked a 2-day private tour with Anastasia Tours last summer. A big group from our FB page also organized a private group. We had an amazing time and were able to fit in a lot in 2 days: subway ride, hydrofoil to Peterhof, tour of the gardens at Peterhof, St. Catherine's Palace and a tour of the amber workshop, Peter and Paul Fortress/ Cathedral, The Hermitage, Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood, St. Isaacs (including a walk to the top of the tower!) and a quick peek inside St. Nicholas- which tour groups aren't allowed to enter, but since there were only 2 of us, our guide took us in. We also did some shopping. We also took advantage of the 50% prices for paying in advance and I think our total for the 2 days was around $800-- quite a bargain for all that we did!!!! Our guide Irina was excellent and was good with the kids. I'm sure the Disney excursions are also good, you just can't see as much and will have to focus on 1-2 things a day. Oh- we also did an evening canal boat tour with our FB group-- it was great fun! It was originally included on our private tour, but we took it off so we could go with a group.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I used SPB in 2010 and will be using them again in 2016 (not with DCL). Previous was a group tour of 17; this one will be a private tour for a group of 4. We are throwing in a visit to the vodka museum and caviar lunch (which we will pay for ourselves but they'll take us there). There are numerous reputable companies though. Contact some, and go with the one you feel the most comfortable with.

Cruise line excursions are fine if you have just a few highlights you want to hit, but to see the most, you need a private tour company.