St. Petersburg cruise

Last summer we used denrus tours in St. Petersburg. They did a custom trip for a few families. It was just a day tour and fine, no problems.

Rather than get a visa, we chose to book a two-day tour with Alla tours in St. Petersburg. The cost of a two-day, ten-person tour (van, driver, guide, and admissions) was $260 each (we also tipped $40 each) . The cost of a visa is about $150 - I just don't think you can beat it. The tour company put the group together from people on the same ship; they book tours of different sizes and physical capability, depending on your preferences. Larger groups are cheaper, smaller groups are more expensive. The tour company gives you all the information you need. Bring the documents they tell you and you won't need a visa. Your ship is likely to hard-sell their own tours, telling you (often) you won't be able to leave the boat unless you take one of their tours, don't believe it - it's completely untrue. They also said all their tour groups get off the boat first; this was also untrue, we went straight to the ramp and left the boat well before the ship's tours. You pay when you get there, on the second day of the tour, we chose to pay in cash (for a discount). http://www.alla-tour.com/

I booked a cruise from St Pete to Moscow and the visa was included in the fare. I had researched getting a Russian visa on my own (a very difficult and complicated process IMO), and when I saw that this company included the visia, it was an instant no-brainer for me. If you just want a day trip to St Pete, there is a ferry line between Helsinki and St Pete, where a visa is not required. Don't have the details off the top of my head, but I believe I learned about this just by using Google. This is probably similar to what Brad mentions, but the company name of Alla doesn't sound familiar.

Suggest you look at this website: www.stpeterline.com They offer a 72-hour visa-free trip along with overnight ferry from Helsinki and required shuttle bus ticket(?!?). Available also are one or two night hotel packages in St. Petersburg. We plan to do this in June. Note: they have a vendor in Olympia! Have a great trip.

When I was researching, the guided tour companies I saw most often were Alla, Denrus, and Red October. All had good reviews. I'm not sure why we settled on Alla, but we were happy with them.

Use cruisecritic.com Once you have your cruise, find it on the Roll Call section. There is a separate thread for each sailing, where passengers trade information and put together small groups for custom tours. This is usually the most economical way. The cruise line's tours are almost always more expensive and have 2 or 3 times as many people. Also you will find there the names of guides and tour companies if you want to do a private tour just for yourselves. St. P can be challenging. I was there (for 2 days) a couple of years ago, and very few people spoke any English at all - even in the major tourist sites. Also almost none of the exhibits in the museums (Hermitage, for instance) are labeled in English.

I meant to use cruise critic for information - not for getting a visa, just in case there's any confusion.

Unlike the Baltic cruises with Norwegian or Carnival etc, if you do one of the River cruises, the daily tours and excursions are included in the fare.