I am travelling to St. Petersburg via a Scandinavian/St. Petersburg cruise. We will be there for 2 days. Any feedback on excursions/tours would be of great help as there is alot to do. Especially interested in Peterhof and Pushkin palaces.

If you don't find a tour for two days, make sure you book a hotel and a certified tourism guide through an agency before you go. The biggest attraction in St. Pet (the way Russians call it) is the must see Hermitage, and any cab can take you there; the audio tour you get at the entrance is helpful. Peterhof, 50 Km from St. Pet, was one of the most amazing palaces I've visited, but go there with the guide. It is imperative for safety and practical reasons; they charge you only US$10.00 per hour plus the cab (that was in 2002) for a 3 to 4-hour for the Peterhof visit. They have adegree in tourism were they learn to speak English well without ever leaving the country. With Hermitage and Peterhof, you've got yourself one complete day at least. The guide can orient you for a second fascinating day depending when you go there. Have fun!

I am assuming you are staying on the ship or the cruise line has arranged hotel accommodations for you in St Petersburg.
I understand from reading posts on the cruise board that if you are on a cruise ship, you may not have a "regular" tourist visa for Russia, or the visa which the ship obtains for you is good only in conjunction with shore excursions sponsored or offered by the cruise line or special tour companies like Red October. From what I understand, the ship's excursions and Red October's package tours tend to be expensive and quite crammed in for 2 days. i.e., you spend only 2 hours at the Hermitage. I am sure the ship can give you information on their excusions and those or Red October.
If you are interested in doing your own tour, you should first check with the cruise line as to whether they will obtain a regular tourist visa for you which will enable you to enter Russia on your own. If not, you will need to get your own visa.
I assume you are a US citizen. For information concerning visa requirements, contact the Russian Embassy in the US at:
Embassy of Russia
Consular Section
2641 Tunlaw Rd.
NW, Washington, DC 20007
(202) 939-8907
website ? http://russianembassy.org,
or the Russian consulates in New York (tel. 212-348-0926/55), San Francisco (tel. 415-928-6878, 415-929-0862, 415-202-9800/01) or Seattle (tel. 206-728-1910).
Once you have figured out whether you can and want to do a tour on your own, you should get a good guidebook and map to St Petersburg. Most of what you want to see is within an easy walking radius of the Hermitage (other than Peterhof and Pushkin, see below). Then you need to decide if you want to see art or palaces, as with only 2 days you really cannot see both, IMO. Here are some things to consider:

1. The Hermitage is huge and has a vast collection and you could spend the entire 2 days in it alone. You might want to get a guide to give you a initial tour of the highlights; this would last about 2 hours and then you could go off and see other collections in which you are interested. Take a look at the website for the Hermitage Museum (http://www.hermitage.ru) to see what regular and special exhibits are on and what might be closed or travelling. Note that the Hermitage is closed on Mondays, so check to make sure that it will be open on the days you are there.

2. With some initiative, you can find your own guide before your trip and arrange to met him or her at the pier or in town. Skip a tour by taxi or bus. As noted above, IMO the interesting parts of St Petersburg are all within an easy walking radius of the Hermitage, so you won't even need transport, except to and from your ship (I imagine you could take a taxi or the guide could arrange.) If you hire a guide, you might arrange to meet either at the pier or in the lobby of the Grand Europe Hotel, see below, which is a good place to start a walking tour. See item 8 below in suggestions for guides.

3. The Peterhof is really a day in itself, so IMO you would have to give up a day in St Petersburg to see the palace, which has extensive grounds. It is outside of St Petersburg and takes about an hour to reach it. IMO Peterhof can be done yourself by taking the hydrofoil and then getting a guide there or touring it yourself rather than taking a package tour, but if you don't want to organize your own visa, then a package tour may work best for you.

4. Have not seen Pushkin so can't comment, but in two trips to St Petersburg I have never felt the urge to go (so much to see in St Petersburg). I think you should choose between Peterhof and Pushkin as I think you can't do both, or if you do, you won't be able to see the Hermitage, the Peter and Paul Fortress, and the other main sights of St Petersburg.

5. You can find places for lunch and dinner on your own by posting questions here. I would recommend lunch or afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel Europe, it is a few blocks from the Hermitage.

6.. Don't pass up walking around the Field of Mars and surrounding areas. The Russian State Museum of s very good, IMO, especially if you like icons and other religious art. It is smaller than the Hermitage and could be done in a few hours. They have a nice gift shop. It is closed on Tuesdays.

7. Remember that if your trip is anytime from late May to early August the days will be very long, with sunset at around 10 pm and twilight will last even longer. (Take a look at sunrisesunset.com) so you will have lots of time for walking around the charming bits of the city along the river, or taking an evening sunset cruise.

8. I would suggest you post a new question here seeking recommendations for private guides in St Petersburg. You can then contact the guide (e-mail is best, fax is OK too). I recently ran a search on this board and came up with one guide who was recommended, I have reprinted the thread:

"Author: Waverley
Date: 06/04/2003, 07:46 pm
Message: Steve, my parents in law used a great guide that they raved about. I was going to use her on our days when we are in St Petersburg on our cruise but had to cancel her as I had left it too late to organise our visas. If we go on a ship's tour or with companies like Red October than we do not need to organise our own visas.

Her price is very reasonable and as you will already have your visa you won't run into the same problem that I was having.

Her name is Tatiana and her e-mail is [email protected]"

You will find some information with regards to arriving in St Petersburg by cruise ship at:

http://www.russianguidenetwork.com/new_page_58.htm

I have never used their service and I think rates are high.

You should consider either going to Peterhof or Pushkin but not both. I would take Peterhof over Pushkin.

I am also traveling to St. Petersburg by way of a cruise ship. We will be in port for 2 days. We traveled to St. Petersburg in 2001 and spent 3 days touring. This time we just want to shop along the Nevsky Prospect and visit the Hermitage. Can you advise me on the best way to get picked up at the ship and transported to the Nevsky Prospect and then return for 2 days. We have already applied for a visa through the Russian Embassy but we used the tour group number and name of the cruise line so I don't know if we will be issued a visa. Thanks!