We are scheduled to cruise on Regent -Baltic itinerary which includes 3 days in St Petersburgh. As they include shore excursions, it is tempting to take the ship's tours...yet many are recommending private . Does anyone have experience with Regent tours ? Thanks

I don't know what your other ports of call will be, but I encourage you to use a private tour such as Alla, Red October or Denrus. All of these have great reviews here and other places, can be found on the internet, and it is surprisingly easy to put a group together or join a group being formed by others. Go to Cruise Critic dot com, register and check out the roll call for your ship and date.
We used Alla in 2006, and like many here, were thrilled with the results.
Check out my trip report at
http://www.fodors.com/community/crui...m#last-comment
for comments on St Pete and the other ports we called on.
You will love St Pete.

I agree with BillJ on a private tour in St. Petersburg, the guides can get you to the front of the lines, and the lines can be VERY long, and give you the personalized, custom tour you just can't get with the ship execusions. We used Red October and loved them, but had heard many good commetns about Alla and Denrus as well.

Noriboating, in fact if you have FREE Regent tours, you don't have to order tours from Denrus, Alla or Shorex.Ru - the quality of ships tour, especially small ones, seems to be the same, so you don't have any risk. And keep in mind you have already paid for Regens "free" tours

I just posted on another thread here about our experience, including the 5 we took in St. Petersburg. We thought the Regent excursions were terrific. I'm sure you can't beat private excursions in terms of doing exactly what you want when you want, especially if you use an outfit such as Red October. However, personally we waste the money.