Tours St. Petersburg & Moscow

SPB does city tours in the Baltic capitals, including St. Petersburg. Our 2 day St. Petersburg tour was excellent. Although we took the tours
as we departed from cruise ship, SPB would be worth checking out for price, itinerary, and guide.

It would be helpful to know why you only have 7-8 days. If you are going on some tour that's fine, they will handle the visa requirements for Russia. Getting a visa as an individual is a real goat rope and worse if you want to go to Moscow. We thought about taking the trans-Siberian railroad to Beijing but said screw it after seeing the visa requirements. Every magazine we've ever subscribed to? Really, who can even remember crud like that. All organizations you've ever belonged to? Aunt Luiza's soup kitchen fall into this question or what? Granted this was 3/4 years ago so maybe the message board has more up to date info.

Thanks for the response. My husband is going to Central Europe on a soccer playing trip and we want to add a side trip to St. Peterburg & Moscow to the beginning of the trip. We are considering using Just Go Russia Tours out of Great Britian, has anyone had any experience using them? We are flying in, so the tours from the cruise ships won't work for us. Thanks again for all comments. Leslie

We used Alla Tours (from hotel, not a cruise) and they were fine. Others here have named different tour companies they were pleased with. You might check TripAdvisor for ratings of tour companies. Have a great trip!

I used ULKO tour to visit Catherine's Palace and I was very happy with them. Although...If I had to do it again, I would do it on my own. I just enjoy going at my own speed. AS for the city center of St-Petersburgh, I thought it was very easy to visit by myself and would recommend doing it this way­. It you want (and you should) visit the Hermitage museum, I would suggest buying your tickets online or going early as it can get quite packed. Love St-Petersburgh! Have a wonderful trip!

I also used Alla Tours while on a cruise but you don't have to be on a cruise to use them. I took the two day tour and found Alla Tours to be on time and efficient. We traveled by boat, the metro and hovercraft as well as in their air conditioned van which held about 10 or 15 passengers. The price was reasonable and we did not have to make an advance payment..
it was collected on the morning of the second day of our tour.

Spent a week reading all the reviews of all the travel agencies that do daytrips and escorted tours. I ended up booking with TravelallRussia. Most tour companies have tours for cruise/ferry visitors and land tours.
They have a US office and put together a 7 day trip to Moscow and St Petersburg for us.

We used Alla Tours as well in St. P. Svetlana was our guide. They answered our emails promptly, we paid by credit card the second day. The first day was very busy and thank goodness the seond day was a little lighter. I would use them again. I liked the fact that we did not stop for shopping, we were ahead of the crowds, we had photo ops and then we reboarded the minivan. Lunch was a bit bland but there was enough of it and served in a restaurant with many old pictures.

A few years back we were in Budapest and we took a flight to Moscow for Orthodox Christmas (January 7). Coldest I have ever been in my life. It was 10 degrees below zero (F) and I understand that was not a bad day. We had a blast for just two days. I hired a guide named Daniel Petrov who met us at the airport and then the three of us used the public transport system into town and to the Hotel. Daniel was outstanding http://www.waytomoscow.com/ Since you mentioned Central Europe, my list of favorite guides from over the years includes: Budapest, Andrew Illes http://www.guideinbudapest.com Bulgaria, Pavlina Docheva http://www.easytouristguides.com/ Romania, Daniel Gheorghita http://covinnus.com/

Just back from Moscow. Did the Rick Steves Estonia, Finland and St. Petersburg tour which was great. After the tour ended we went on the Moscow by overnight train which worked out well in maximizing our time for touring. We hike Daniel Petrov mentioned in the prior response. He was outstanding. He met our train, got us to the hotel and spent nearly 12 hours with us. We told him what we wanted to see and do and he structured the day around our interests. Having a personal guide for the Kremlin enabled us to see the important things efficiently. We explored much of the central city and after spending a day with a guide felt we could manage the second day on our own which we did without trouble.

Daniel is a good guy. Glad he worked out well for you.