kareninco

We are taking the HAL cruise in August and are looking at the two day excursions with DenRus tours in St. Petersburg. Has anyone tried this outfit? Can someone recommend another reputable tour group?

traveller69

yes there are a couple of reputable tour companies but Alla Tours is excellent. I am sure Percy will reply to this and give you more information on contacting them. You should register with cruisecritic.com and then go to roll calls. I am sure you will find a thread there for your particular cruise and perhaps fellow passengers looking for someone to join their group. The private tours are very expensive if there are just two of you but if you can get a larger group (and Alla can put you together with others) it is much more affordable.

boom_boom

We used Red October for a party of 4 for 3 days while sailing on Oceania's Insigna and loved the guide, driver and the whole experience.

abram

I corresponded with both DenRus and Red October. We chose Red October because they were willing to tailor their standard two day itinerary to our interests and wishes. DenRus was not.

Our two days with a van, driver, and guide were wonderful; I can't recommend them highly enough.

Percy

Hi traveller69 and karenico

Alla is very very good and she will tailor your tour if there are certain places you want to see.

If not then she has several private tours outlines that you can do.
if you contact Alla then she will give you the choices of tours.


Take the "Strenuous Tour "... no it is not a hard tour but rather you just see more.

Here is her e-mail:

Alla Ushakova

[email protected]

Please mention my name to her as she knows me very well.

If you e-mail her and do not get a reply within a week..then e-mail me at [email protected]

and I will track her down for you

And <B> Hurry Up it is July already !!!</B>

Percy

patandhank

I'll let you know. We're using Denrus for a three day tour this month - 7/16. In fact out the three mentioned, Denrus was the only one that was responsive to my e-mail requests for info. So my experiences were just the opposite of the above. Anyway, all three companies have been recommended by several people. I'll let you know about our experience. Leaving a week from tomorrow on our cruise! Can't wait!!!

Percy

Good Luck patandhank...have a nice trip.

I wish I was going to St.Petersburg again !!

It is unfortunate that Alla did not get back to you.

She has more than one e-mail address, and I know she gets swamped with bookings from cruises.

have a great time

Katie2

We used Denrus several years ago on our Baltic cruise and were very pleased with them. We were very specific about the sights we wanted to see in St. Petersburg and they were very accommodating.

patandhank

As promised, here's the follow-up on Denrus. They were excellent!!!! The cruise lines are really playing hardball on independent touring now. We were on the Azamara Journey and they distributed (as did other ships) a letter was distributed saying that new rules from Russian Passport control had gone into effect 07/05/09 and that independent excursion passengers must exit after ship's tours. We had been warned about these letters by Denrus before we left the U.S. and told they were bogus. So our 6 person group met at an area and started for the gangway at 8:15 a.m. The Journey (and other ships I'm now hearing) actually had a staff member physically bar our exit from the ship. He stood in the doorway and refused to allow us (and others booked with Alla or any other independent group) to pass. As a result, we didn't get off the ship until 9:00 a.m. It gets worse, a Fred Olsen ship was also going through passport control and by the time we met our Denrus guide, it was 10:00 a.m. Ekaterina was already on top of revising our itinerary to make some adjustments to our schedule. As a result, we still got to see everything we had requested - just in a different order. It was great to be able to jump to the head of long lines (ship's tours) at museums too. She was very knowledable about every sight. So to sum up, yes yes yes I would recommend Denrus.

TerryMcCarthy27

We were in St Petersburg 25/26th june.
Den Rus were truly excellent. Our guide Daniil was extremely knowledgeable, spoke perfect English and was good company.
They were waiting at 7.30am when we left the ship and kept to a perfect timetable throughout.
We saw much more of St. Petersburg than many of the others on the ship tours.
We had just 4 of us, a driver and the guide. We never queued as our guide went straight to the front of every queue with priority entrance.
The lunches they arranged were in good class restaurants and were excellent.
I cannot recommend Den Rus highly enough.
Also, good value for money.
Terry M

abram

Terry, the OP's trip was 4 years ago

Eschew

Percy, Alla Tour is also on Facebook and their are videos and pictures. We used Alla Tours on our Baltic cruise and they were very good.

Percy

Thanks Eschew

Yes I know Alla is on Facebook, she used a couple of mu pictures on her Facebook page for over a month.

Alla Tours are very good and I highly recommend their tour also.