Russian Tour Operators for Independent Travelers
 

We are planning a trip for May of 2014. We have our air arrangements, and will most likely make our hotel reservations on our own. We do need assistance (local guides, small tour groups) when we arrive in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I'm looking for recommendations for from experienced independent travelers. Any advice would be much appreciated.

http://www.stans-tours.com and http://www.denrus.ru are both good for St Petersburg.

I think the Stan of Stan's tours used to work for Den Rus and there may still be a link. So if one doesn't have what you want the other might.

I used Alla when I did a cruise. Not sure if they do independent. They were VERY good.

Travel-All-Russia and Exeter International do both individual and small group tours.

we booked accommodation here in syd OZ but when we go back i think ill do it independently through cityrealty//at least i know they exist..have been to their offices in both moscow and st petersburg

at the time ( 2009) they did offer guide services..pick up etc
we stayed in apartments in both cities in excellent central locations

in moscow..close to the old arbat area and not far from nevsky propekt in st petes

We used Red October for a 2 day tour in St Petersburg when 4 of us were on a cruise. They were wonderful.

I used SPB Tours last year when I cruised. They were amazing and my husband and I had so much fun! I only wish we had the chance to go to Moscow, but our ship was only in port for 2 days and this did not allow us the time to get there :( I would highly recommend checking with SPB and see if they can provide you with a tour :)

We are starting to plan our Russia trip for June and have come upon the problem that most of the tours offered are private and very expensive. We will be traveling on land only and the tour companies that seem to supply tours for cruise passengers only offer private tours if you are not on a cruise. But I did find Patriarshy Dom Tours at www.tourrussia.com in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. On their website they only have their schedule for one month ahead. Another option is the Moscow Greeter program at www.moscowgreeter.ru. It's a free program that matches you up with a local and you can choose where you would like to go. It sounds as though they are for half-days. There's also a Greeter program in St. Petersburg. We used the Greeter program when we were in Tokyo and it was wonderful to meet a local who would show us around rather than a professional tour guide. You have a private tour with the greeters. Hope this helps.

We used Moscow Free Tours and did their Free Tour first, we thought their Free tour was very good (although group size may vary day to day. Ours was about 15 people). That tour ends at the start point for their next (paid) tour, the Krelim tour, and we continue into the Krelim Tour after a short lunch break. http://moscowfreetour.com/

We booked airport transfers and a private guide through the St. Petersburg Free Tour site. We didn't do their actual "free" tour. http://petersburgfreetour.com/. The transfers worked out great. For the tours, our St. Petersburg guide was a bit quirky, and I'm not sure if I would book a private tour with them again. It could be worth doing the free tour with them and if it's good, continuing onto some of their other tours.

Thanks, dreaming, for your information about the free tours. I noticed on Tripadvisor that people like them for their free tours but sometimes for the paid tours the guide is a no-show.
We might try the free tour, though.

Not sure why anyone needs an organised tour esp for St Petersburg. The Moscow Kremlin is easy to do by yourself, buy the tickets outside and if you feel you need a guide, there are several that stand outside the Kremlin which you can take. Some applies for most major tourist sites. If you are limited for time or going somewhere hard to get to, I guess a tour is worthwhile. You can even hire a driver with car for the day to take you out and about.

For our day with the guide in St. Petersburg, we went out to Catherine Palace, plus covered some of St. Petersburg back in town... It worked out very well for us. We spent other days going to the Hermitage, Peterhof, etc. without a guide. So I'd agree that a guide isn't required in St. Petersburg, but can be helpful if you want to go further afield or if you need to move a little faster.

I agree with Odin that the Kremlin doesn't require a guide. We liked our guide from the free tour and had the option of continuing with her... So we did. If it had been a choice of an unknown guide or no guide, we would have gone alone. The Kremlin tour didn't go into the Armoury though, so we broke off at the end to go to the Armoury.

As Odin indicated, you really don't need to join a tour unless that is your preference.