Uber or Russian Company
May 2nd, 2019, 07:03 AM
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Uber or Russian Company
What is the best way to get from St. Petersburg’s central district to the cruise ship port? Should I download the Uber app or is there a Russian equivalent to Uber? Can I download the app in English?
May 2nd, 2019, 07:35 AM
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It doesn't help you to download the Uber app when there is no service. You can easily lookup where Uber operates. https://www.uber.com/cities/ No need to assume.
May 3rd, 2019, 09:48 AM
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Uber is still one of the leading rideshare providers in big Russian cities, BUT it has sold its Russian division to Yandex (its main competitor) about a year ago, and now your need to install a Russia-specific app, your US one won't work.
imo, it effectively kills the only competitive advantage Uber ever had over Yandex. So stick to Yandex, Gett, or, in SPB, Taxovichkoff. The former two are in English if your phone systems settings are set to English. Not sure about Taxovichkoff - I don't have it installed now.
All leading providers offer similar functionality, level of safety and comfort, and pricing.
imo, it effectively kills the only competitive advantage Uber ever had over Yandex. So stick to Yandex, Gett, or, in SPB, Taxovichkoff. The former two are in English if your phone systems settings are set to English. Not sure about Taxovichkoff - I don't have it installed now.
All leading providers offer similar functionality, level of safety and comfort, and pricing.
May 4th, 2019, 10:28 AM
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The fastest and cheapest way is taking the metro to Primorskaya Metro station and then bus 158 directly to your terminal. Regular taxis can't enter the port security area but the bus goes to each of the 4 terminals. You could take a taxi to the security gate, there are 2, 1 for terminal 1 and 2 and the other gate going to terminal 3 and 4. Which ship and date?
There is an official taxi company for both sides of the port, but they are expensive. An alternative is to get to the gate and call the free gate-to-ship taxi that was set up after the confusion of blocking city taxis. The security officers will give that number, I am not going to post it publically.
About the only ship that starts cruises in St Petersburg is one of the Princess ships but there are a lot of riverboats that use the river ports down the Neva River. Are you on an international cruise ship or an inland waters river cruise?
If you are heading to the River Ports for the River cruises, it is closer to the airport than the cruise ship port. A city taxi would be able to drive up close to the ship if on the Viking River boats which have their own docks on the opposite side of the river from the other riverboat docks. I use GETT but sometimes Yandex. Yandex is pretty good with all their divisions except their taxi service which is probably the worst for drivers who know where are going. The last 4 times I used Yandex, twice, the driver was very late because they could not find common pickup locations. That is ironic because they have the best mapping system. Yandex has a very good web search engine, food order/delivery service, maps, retail and wholesale shopping, translator etc. Uber failed in Russia because the competition was well established and they had poor policies. They just were not competitive and had low standards for drivers/cars. Typical GETT charge, going home at 3am a distance if 7 miles into the city center was $2.60
There is an official taxi company for both sides of the port, but they are expensive. An alternative is to get to the gate and call the free gate-to-ship taxi that was set up after the confusion of blocking city taxis. The security officers will give that number, I am not going to post it publically.
About the only ship that starts cruises in St Petersburg is one of the Princess ships but there are a lot of riverboats that use the river ports down the Neva River. Are you on an international cruise ship or an inland waters river cruise?
If you are heading to the River Ports for the River cruises, it is closer to the airport than the cruise ship port. A city taxi would be able to drive up close to the ship if on the Viking River boats which have their own docks on the opposite side of the river from the other riverboat docks. I use GETT but sometimes Yandex. Yandex is pretty good with all their divisions except their taxi service which is probably the worst for drivers who know where are going. The last 4 times I used Yandex, twice, the driver was very late because they could not find common pickup locations. That is ironic because they have the best mapping system. Yandex has a very good web search engine, food order/delivery service, maps, retail and wholesale shopping, translator etc. Uber failed in Russia because the competition was well established and they had poor policies. They just were not competitive and had low standards for drivers/cars. Typical GETT charge, going home at 3am a distance if 7 miles into the city center was $2.60
Last edited by spbstan; May 4th, 2019 at 10:42 AM.
Jun 20th, 2019, 12:54 AM
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One is most welcome to try and use any of the newer or boutique providers, especially if there are signup incentives to be had - but the big 3 in SPB are Yandex/Uber, Gett, and, perhaps, Taxovichkoff.
I don't think individual differences among the vehicle fleets, driver vetting procedures, or app usability and features are big enough to recommend one over the other two.
I don't think individual differences among the vehicle fleets, driver vetting procedures, or app usability and features are big enough to recommend one over the other two.
