St. Petersburg Shore Excursion
 

We (active 60's couple) are going on a Royal Caribbean Baltic cruise at the end of August 2018. We want to use a local company/guide for the two days in St. Petersburg. How early should we arrange this? We may want to join a small group but we may also choose to have a private guide so we can go at our own pace.
Thanks.

We were totally delighted with our 2 days touring with Red October.

I have read good reports about:
Red October.
Denrus.
Anastasia.

How far in advance did you book?

Our traveling companions preferred using the ships tours so we went with that. I would have gone with any one of the three but can’t say how far in advance you need to book.

We used SPB when we cruised into St. Petersburg in 2012. I checked ahead of the trip by a few months on Cruise Critic Roll Calls and was able to book with passengers from our ship. Looked up our ship name, sailing dates and located a chat about finding an alternative to the cruise line buses. I booked ahead of time with a cc. The owner of SPB met us at the dock, helped us through customs, introduced us to our guide (fabulous) and driver (excellent). Twelve of us zipped around the sights in a minibus for 2 days, moving around much more easily in a small group. A few of our group had used SPB in our previous cruise stop, Estonia. and were already comfortable with one another. We visited the major sites, enjoyed local restaurants and even had a half hour to take the underground (deep underground!!) train for a short ride. On the big bus, that subway adventure would have probably been spent waiting for the end of the large bus group to come out of a gift shop. Booking an alternative was a great decision, would definitely use SPB again. Very responsive, friendly and attentive. https://www.spb-tours.com/ TA reviews:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti..._District.html

I, too, used SPB and had a fantastic experience. The tour we were on was for two days with the same group, same guide, and there were 15 people. The size of the group was manageble, and our guide was very knowledgeable. We had to seniors in our group with limited mobility, and she always found places for them to rest. She managed to make sure they didn't get exhausted while ensuring the rest of us didn't get held back.

We used Anastasia. We had six people on our tour. Excellent experience.

We did 3 days in St Pete with Alla tours. Wonderful coverage small mini bus with about, there was 4 of us of the
16 people total. Lunch included all days, great guide who answered all questions, even arranged a last minute trip to the ballet one night.
Had great communication arrangements on their website to answer all pre cruise questions, etc.

Does anybody have experience with TJ Travel tours?