I hate the idea of a group tour/bus travel/slow walking tour members etc. but I don’t see how I could visit Russia independently. I can’t read Cyrillic. I don’t speak Russian and from what I understand, most there don’t speak English.
So I’d like recommendations for tour companies to Russia. I’m interested in history. I’d especially like to see Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo outside St. Petersburg. I’d be bored at a ballet.
Has anyone been on a real education tour of Russia that you would either recommend or not recommend. (I noted on the other thread that some said St. Petersburg was overrated).
Following.
One of our local agencies, East-West Tours, has been in business for quite a long time and has decent reviews. We considered going through them in 2008, but the packages they offered did not fit our timeline, so we went with a private guide recommended to us by one of Mr.'s friends. I just looked for that guide but could not find anything about them… likely got their graduate degree and moved on.
https://www.east-west-tours.com/about-us
I lived in Moscow for a few years and was able to visit St Petersburg a few times and definitely would not consider it overrated. Moscow and St Pete are not that hard to navigate if you have travelled internationally often but if you have not I can see that they would be intimidating.
As far as I recall, all of the metro stops are listed in both English and Russian and the metro is great and an easy way to get around the city.
We did two days in St. Petersburg with a cruise. We hated it. Peterhof was so crowded that we could barely move (early June time frame) and if you lingered looking at art work people working in the rooms screamed at you to keep moving.
We found the city very run down and depressed when you moved outside the tourist sites.
The worst part for me was we could not move around independently at all because our tour was basically acting as our visa. I found that stifling.
If you go, I would definitely take the time to get a visitors visa so you can move around without a guide 24/7.
I’m going next August for 3 days on a Baltic cruise. How far in advance do we need to apply for a visa?
Back in 2008, the city was apparently at the peak of its post-Soviet glory, and from what I hear, it has gone downhill. Definitely recommend a private guide over a giant tour. Peterhof was underwhelming. Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet was outstanding, and the Hermitage was not very crowded to my big surprise, but we thought the Russian Museum was much better. Just looked up the Museum on TripAdvisor, and the recent reviews are all very positive.
Here’s the link @eyemamom: https://www.visatorussia.com/russianvisa.nsf/FaqNew.html#1:
If you plan to stay with your cruise tour you don’t need a visa.
" I am visiting Russia on an international cruise. Do I need a visa?
The regulations for cruise passengers are very specific.
A cruise passenger can get off the ship together with other tourists, in this case no visa is required. The passport control officers just check the list of passengers produced by the cruise company. If you do not want to stay with the group and prefer to make a separate city tour, a visa will be required. To obtain a Russian visa, you need first to be provided with visa support (official letter of invitation). You will then need to take your visa support to the Russian consulate in your country and be issued an actual visa."
If you want to explore on your own, you need a visa. The above link goes through the process. You need an invitation first and then you need to go to the Russian consulate near you.
We didn’t think it was worth the hassle for a few days stop with a cruise but if that was our only destination, it would have been worth it to us.
Sounds worthwhile to get a tourist Visa just to be able to walk around on my own. I would like a tour with free time.