Home > St Petersburg > St. Petersburg Shore Excursion: Small-Group 2-Day Visa-Free Tour Including Boat Ride
USD $291.00
St. Petersburg Shore Excursion: Small-Group 2-Day Visa-Free Tour Including Boat Ride
St Petersburg, Russian Federation
Explore St. Petersburg with an English-speaking guide, on this two-day tour. Visit Peter and Paul's Fortress, St. Issac Cathedral, Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood, the Hermitage Museum and more. Ride on the canal, enjoy traditional Russian lunches and immerse yourself in this beautiful city on this small-group shore excursion for ships in port for 2 days.
Day 1 8am Meet at the ship 8:30-9:30am City sightseeing tour & Subway Ride 9:45-10:30am A visit to Peter and Paul's fortress and cathedral, the burial place of the Russian Emperors 11-11:30am Hydrofoil ride to Peterhof 11:30am-1pm Walk in the Peterhof Lower fountain park and the Upper gardens 1:15-2:15pm Lunch at a local café 2:15-3:15pm Drive to the Tsars’ Village (summer residence) 3-5pm visit to the Catherine's palace with the Amber room and a walk in the park 5-6pm Drive back to St. Petersburg 6pm Return to the ship
Day 2 8am Meet at the ship 8:30-9:30am City sightseeing tour by canal boat 9:30am-12pm Special early entrance to the Hermitage Museum 12-1pm Lunch at a local café 1-1:30pm Excursion in the Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood 2-3:30pm A visit to the Yusupovs' Palace 3:45-4:30pm A visit to St.Isaac's cathedral 5pm Return to the ship
EXCELLENT TOUR, GUIDE EVEN ARRANGED FOR ELEVATORS, WHEEL CHARS, EVEN PROVIDED A BIRTHDAY CHAKE FOR MY WIFES BIRTHDAY
Review by: Darwyn H, January 2018
From leaving the ship to boarding the very luxurious bus the experience was amazing. Our guides Maria and Alexi were great both with information and a very friendly attitude. A lot of walking through museums and palaces. The restaurants chosen were amazing both clean and serving very appetising food with pleasant and cheerful staff. We truly loved our time in St.Petersburg and would happily recommend this tour.
Review by: Ccsteu, November 2017
This tour is one of the best we have ever taken. Our tour guide, Maria, was fabulous and spoke perfect English. We saw so much the two days we were in St. Petersburg and Maria gave wonderful explanations regarding all the places we visited. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone going to St. Petersburg. You will see all the best of St. Petersburg and the small group made it very worthwhile. It is well worth the price and was better than any of the ship excursions that we took on our 12 day cruise.
Review by: Dudley R, November 2017
Because of our late start to the tour , particularly on our first day delays at port checkout , not the fault of the company our tour was rushed to the point of running after the guide on occasions._br/_ At Peterhof , in huge crowds and congestion , we were lost by our guide ! She failed to check she had group with her and quickly became out of range on the headset microphone . _br/_ This is very worrying in a country where we had no communication route apart from other guides with other parties , one of whom was able to contact head office for us . We were eventually collected about an hour later . But had spent a very stressful time and missed these wonderful gardens!_br/_ As lengthy delays are not an unusual feature I wouldn't think it impossible to have a plan B for such occasions ! _br/_ Sorry but our experience of St Petersburg was spoilt by our experience early on our first day of the two day tour !
Review by: Edgar C, November 2017
This was the best Shore Excursion that I've been on my last 14 cruises. Hats off to our Tour Guide Maria for doing such a great job with her familiarity with the history behind every place that we have visited. Every question was answered with my utmost satisfaction. Viator,_br/_ great job for putting such a great itinerary. Highly recommended to anyone wishing to join this tour.
Review by: Kaye M, October 2017
Our two day shore excursion was fantastic and so well organised. The driver and guide were fantastic, friendly and knowledgeable. One of the hardest things was to remember all the information they passed on. Entrance to sights was easy ... glad we weren't trying to do it independently as we might still be waiting in line! In two days we covered so many sights and all the ones we needed to see in our limited two days. Meal stops were excellent. We highly recommend this tour.
Review by: Joseph C, October 2017
This was a great tour and I would highly recommend it for Cruisers stopping for two days in St. Petersburg. It hit all the must see sights and the two lunch stops were at very nice venues with very good food and drink. our driver was Dimitri and our guide was Tatyana. They were both excellent and Tatyana was full of local info and told some very entertaining stories. The organization of the local tour company SPB Tours was excellent. The price was right, and all entry fees to the museums and other attractions were covered by the tour. This tour is an excellent value..
Review by: vblezius, October 2017
We did this 2-day tour first week of October. It was superb! Our guide, Luba, was tremendous. We saw all of the major attractions at much less cost than our ship's 2-day excursion. In fact, we spoke with some people who took the ship's tour and they were very disappointed in their tour and guide. We saw Catherine's Palace, Peterhof fountains, the Hermitage, toured the entire city by bus and also a canal ride, St. Isaac's Church, Church of Spilled Blood we went inside as well our ship's tour only did the outside, Yusopov palace which the ship did not tour at all and the subway which the ship did not do ...... I know, you're probably thinking - the subway? really? It is ranked as one of the ten most beautiful subways in the world and it certainly was incredible! It was a highlight!_br/_ This was one of the best tours I have ever taken - and we've taken a lot! I would highly recommend it!
Review by: Robert Alfred S, October 2017
So happy we booked with you small group, outstanding value, friendly knowledgeable guide, it was all it was made out to be. Thank you
Review by: Terry C, October 2017
The worst part was getting through passport control. Get there early as it took us over two hours. The tour that was supposed to start at 9:00 didn't start until 10:30 because of the delay. Maria was excellent and spoke English very well. The sites were interesting as was Russia in general. It was a great educational experience.
Review by: Marco B, October 2017
St. Petersburg was definitely the highlight of our cruise of the Baltics. Everything was organized quite well, there were no long lines to wait to get in anywhere. Our tour Guide Yekaterina was great and the only comment I could make even though she was pregnant it was pretty much always run - run - run. She was not slow by any means. On Catherines Summer Palace with the great gardens, she focused our attention on a squirrel. I was unimpressed. It's a rat with a fancy tail. Strangely enough, she was not the only tour guide, we witnessed several doing the same thing. What's up with that. Imperial Squirrels? The rest was great even though the weather didn't fully cooperate, 50 shades of gray she called it.
Review by: clemenl, October 2017
When we crossed customs at the cruise port, the company seemed to have a mess. Our names were on a list but they told us the group was full so they send us to another one that was supposed to be the same. We discovered that all of the people in the tour paid way less than ourselves between 220-240 and we paid 307. This made me kind of angry, why does viator offers the same tour but charges different prices? The tour is ok, but everything was so quickly. I know that the tour tries to cover a lot of things in 2 days but for example we spent 45 minutes at a gift shop in St Petersburg but we had 5 minutes at Peterhof main fountains. This was kind of disappointing. We didn't use the hydrofoil as well. The city is very pretty.
Review by: xiejane, September 2017
Overall speaking it was a good excursion!
Review by: nmccue, September 2017
This was a very good tour. We certainly visited all the St. P. highlights. There was almost too much to take in - so we were pressed to keep moving all the time._br/_ Our Guide, Irina, was excellent. Very knowledgeable, friendly and solicitous of our needs. A wonderful representative of the Russian people
Review by: James S, September 2017
Absolutely phenomenal 2 day tour. We saw a lot of St Petersburg and the outplaying historical sites. Our guide was a young lady Irina Furman. Her English was excellent, her knowledge about all sites was excellent. I highly recommend tour. If you are on a ship do not book thru them. St Petersburg Tour company is just as good for much less money.
Review by: Lorraine A, September 2017
Excellent tour n guide even though the weather did not co-operate._br/_ guide quite informative n knowledgeable
Review by: Henry d, September 2017
After waiting almost an hour to get through Immigration we finally found our tour guide. We were the first in the busand waited another hour before the tour gude realised the rest of our group was in another bus waiting for us. I asked if we would get the chance to visit the METRO and was told NO TIME. As the tour progressed i noticed the itinery had been changed. Instead of the HYDROFOIL ride to PETERHOF we travelled by bus for about another hour. I CHOSE THIS TOUR SPECIFICALLY to visit the METRO and do the trip to Peterhof by HYDROFOIL They were deleted from the programme, i guess it was cheaper to take us by bus than them having to pay HYDROFOIL tickets to PETERHOF._br/_ I still dont understand why they didnt load up one bus and send it on tour,then wait until the next bus was full and send that one next._br/_ I will not recommend the tour company PBS i PAID NEARLY 800 FOR THIS TOUR AND FEEL RIPPED OFF. I have done many tours with VIATOR but feel let down this time.
Review by: sheena.ellis, September 2017
Would highly recommend this tour as a great way to see the major sights of St Petersburg in 2 days with a small group._br/_ Our guide, Dascha was fantastic, great personality and very knowledgeable. Our driver, Roman, was also a fun character and always helpful.
Review by: karnofsky, September 2017
This is described as a small-group tour. It starts off in a van full of 20 people, but it turns out that there's a long string of 20-person vans that are brought to each venue. You are herded in huge groups quickly through each venue. The huge masses of people in the tour that are crammed together is overwhelming. Guide was friendly, but mostly repeated a monotonous memorized litany that you could hear other guides from the same company repeating. We had to wait over an hour in a massive line of people waiting to get into the Hermitage on a day that the guide claimed that the museum is only open to her company. It turns out that the company is probably a government affiliated organization that has a hold on most of the tours, so it seemed as though thousands of tourists were amassed in line and there was no way to see anything through the dense thicket of people surrounding you whereever you went. We skipped the second day because we were so disapointed in the first day. We picked this tour because of its positive reviews. Now, I'm wary of their veracity.
Review by: Eric E, September 2017
Absolutely brilliant way to see the brilliance of St Petersburg.
Review by: awoods, September 2017
I am so glad we did this two day guided tour with Dasha and Roman our driver with SPB tours. Dasha's English was impeccable! Her knowledge of Russian history, art history, culture and a mix of politics was fascinating. Roman was able to get us into and out of hectic traffic areas around the major museums and palaces in the blink of an eye. This whirlwind tour around St Petersburg was the best showcase of the city's highlights!
Review by: Nancy J L, September 2017
This tour was excellent. Maria was a great tour guide, a wealth of information and made sure we saw all of the fabulous sites St Petersburg had to offer. The lunchs that were included were delicious.
Review by: Lisa S, September 2017
Excellent tour, we managed to see everything and more. Guides were friendly and knowledgeable. We highly recommend. Picked up from our RC cruise everything ran smoothly and got us back to cruise in plenty of time.
Review by: Tom, August 2017
This tour was excellent as it included the major historical sites and a wonderful tour of St. Petersburg. Our tour guide, Tanya was amazing and Vladimir our driver was exceptional getting through city traffic. Tanya was extremely knowledgeable and logistically planned stops to avoid the high traffic times at sites. The two luncheons included were excellent, at very nice restaurants. We experienced much in two days - St. Petersburg was so impressive beautiful with rich history. The ride on the subway and viewing the city on the boat ride was very enjoyable. We were not disappointed, highly recommend this tour.
Review by: Richard W, August 2017
Super experience. No problems entering Russia with the documentation provided. Long days but worth it. Whish we had more time at each location. Guide was excellent getting us into the Hermitage early to miss some of the crowds. Provided lunches were filling and the food was good. All in all a great experience.
Review by: Vivian J, August 2017
Cannot recommend this trip highly enough..our guide Elena was superb. An excellent trip, the only way to see St Petersburg.
Review by: Michelle M, August 2017
So happy we booked this tour! Great driver let us use his WiFi.....excellent tour guide Sylvana or for short Lana was so knowledgable and had such passion for her country. We all felt like we made new friends and when we got back to our cruise ship we met for dinner the last night on board. Learnt so much !
Review by: traveller59, August 2017
So glad I went with this small group tour with SPB. This excursion was half the cost of the ship's excursion and we got to see so much more. Being a group of only 16 we were able to zip into and out of places quickly and were even able to ride the subway. Guide and driver were both good. Lunch on the second day surprised me as it was in a very nice Russian restaurant in a private room. Going through Russian customs and immigration was slow because of long lineups on the first day but a breeze on the second. Once outside the cruise terminal SPB tours waited till everyone in our group was cleared before leaving which was about 9 am the first day. E-mails I had with the company were answered promptly. I was a little concerned about doing this tour on my own but presenting the tour ticket was all that I needed to get into Russia. I would highly recommend doing this tour.
Review by: Gary L, August 2017
We hit most of the high spots of St. Petersburg in the two day SPB tour. Our guide, Anna, was superb. Her knowledge of SP and of the American English language ie: euphemism's was extraordinary. She definitely was huge reason for our enjoyable visit to SP. The two ethnic lunches were a nice way to give us a flavor of Russian cuisine. Our cruise ship was in SP for only 2 days so this tour was a perfect choice. The only small, and we mean small, negative was the visit to the Yusupov Palace, although somewhat interesting we would have preferred an extended time at the Hermitage. The Hermitage is vast and the 2 hours or so was very limiting. For example we would have like to have seen the Crown Jewels. BUT, again, for a brief two day visit we were very pleased with the tour and highly recommend it.
Review by: Josephine W, August 2017
Would recomment this excursionhigly. We were a group of 12 and the small size meant we could get around quickly and had a more personal experience. Our guide was excellent, very knowledgeable with excellent English.
Review by: Veronika W, August 2017
Our tour guide Elena did a great job! We were on a cruise and booked this tour independently. It was nice to have a smaller group. There were six of us and we were grouped together with others for a total of 12. Very manageable and our tour guide Elena knew how to get us in and out of attractions ahead of the crowd. She also did a great job giving us historical information without overwhelming us. The only issue was getting off the cruise ship on the first day. Viator sent us an email about making sure we get off early, but not every one in the group heeded the advice so we were delayed.
Review by: phillip n, August 2017
amazing , guide was fantastic , such a busy 2 days , so much information , totally enjoyed the tour
Review by: Jay G, August 2017
Loved St. Petersburg. Our tour guide Maria M. was great and our driver Igor was great as well. So much history and beautiful sites. Highly recommend the tour. Jay and Barb
Review by: Lin S, August 2017
There is a lot to see in and around St Petersburg, especially if trying to fit it into just two days, and this excursion ticked all the boxes with a perfect balance of breadth and depth. For example, instead of spending hours wandering around the Hermitage, which would have been perfectly possible, our wonderful guide Alexander made a good selection of highlights for us to look at and have explained to us. It was in fact Alexander who turned what would in any case have been an enjoyable two days into the absolute highlight of our cruise. He combined an encyclopaedic knowledge of St Petersburg and of Russian history with perfect English and a very quirky sense of humour. The tour arrangements made by SPB meant that we 'jumped' long queues at the main tourist destinations notably the Hermitage and Catherine's Palace, both of them riveting and our minibus, with excellent driver Vladimir, was always waiting for us within a few yards when we needed it. The Yousupov Palace, with its Rasputin associations, was also well worth a visit and it is a shame that SPB is, according to Alexander, planning to drop it from its itinerary next year because it is rather inflexible in its arrangements for tour parties. Another bonus was our small group size SPB says maximum sixteen but we were in fact only twelve and, although SPB can't take the credit for this, it also helped that they were a very pleasant bunch. It turned out that another couple live within five miles of us and we have mutual friends. The included lunches, if not exactly gourmet banquets and with no choices offered, were of acceptable quality and in fact better than I might have expected. Overall, a very big thumbs up.
Review by: Michael C, August 2017
Excellent tour guide Svetlana. We had a very intensive 2 day tour and were given lots of useful information and taken to first class restaurants for local food.
Review by: James M, August 2017
Good tour but too many things going on. Great Hydro-foil ride to Peterhof and the Palace grounds were beautiful but hardly had any time to take pictures and never went in the Palace. Both days we had lunch and both days it was excellent food. The first day we went to the Hermitage and maybe spent a little too much time, meaning the place is huge and what we saw was beautiful and definitely interesting but you can only take in so much. It was also July so it was very crowed.
Review by: James M, August 2017
Good tour but too many things going on. Great Hydro-foil ride to Peterhof and the Palace grounds were beautiful but hardly had any time to take pictures and never went in the Palace. Both days we had lunch and both days it was excellent food. The first day we went to the Hermitage and maybe spent a little too much time, meaning the place is huge and what we saw was beautiful and definitely interesting but you can only take in so much. It was also July so it was very crowed.
Review by: vire, October 2016
An absolutely wonderful experience of St Petersburg. Our guide was a proud Russian lady and very knowledeable.
Review by: Gregory B, October 2016
Excellent 2-day tour and price competitive to what is on offer. Great Tour Guide also and venues visited are a must for visitors. being on time and reliable was a worry for me but we had no issues there. Would recommend for sure
Review by: Judith F, October 2016
Our tour guide, Victoria, and driver, Igor, were both excellent. Victoria was very informative, organised and paid particular attention to detail while Igor drove carefully and helped out wherever he could always with a smile on his face.The itinerary was perfect for the 2 day tour.
Review by: whiston.gail, September 2016
The St Petersburgh tour was very good. Very rushed. There was wasted time on the second day in the morning where they took you on a boat ride before going to the Hermitage. We had seen and heard all of it the day before. Time would have been better spent seeing something else._br/_ If you want to stop and buy anything at Catherine's palace or the Hermitage forget it they won't let you. If you want to do some shopping this is not the tour for you.
Review by: Rosanna T, September 2016
Our tour guide Luba was very informative and amazing!! Would do this tour again!
Review by: Carol Anne B, September 2016
This tour fitted a lot into a limited time. Our guide, Victoria, was excellent. She was very knowledgeable and accommodating. This tour was very good value and very professional.
Review by: David W P, September 2016
This is a great tour, we really enjoyed our first trip to Russia. Not for anyone with mobility problems, as there is a lot of walking, but that gets you close up to all the fantastic sights in and around St Petersburg. Our guide Tatyana was very knowledgeable and kept the small group well informed. There is a lot to see in 2 days and Tatyana always got our group in the right place for viewing and taking pictures, avoiding the crowds and long queues. The traditional lunches on both days were excellent._br/_ I would highly recommend this tour.
Review by: ugoformigoni, September 2016
Great city,remarkable history, magnificent tour and very knowledgeable guide
Review by: jt37cord, September 2016
Fantastic, could not have been better. Maria was the best tour guide we have ever had.
Review by: cindychow2002, September 2016
Good. But make sure you ask if you will be visiting the inside of Peterhof as we did not get to go in.
Review by: ANDREW M, September 2016
Alexander, our guide, was fantastic..beyond expectations. He was waiting for us after Russian passport control, which was easier than expected. The 2-day deluxe tour was well planned out. All St. Petersburg highlights were visited and thanks to Alexander, we even saw more!! O, by the way, the lunches were also delicious and tasty!
Review by: Kevin C, September 2016
Excellent tour! Elena V. was the perfect guide- she knew everything!
RSS Feed