Info > Frequently Asked Questions

In all our years of service, we have ALWAYS returned our clients to their port on time. We understand this is a huge concern for passengers booking a private shore excursion for the first time. Your safe and timely return to the ship is a top priority of our utmost concern. Our drivers have many years of experience working with the cruise ship passengers.
Additionally, SPB-Tours is prepared for the unexpected. We are insured and it is our duty to provide our clients with another bus, taxis, or whatever means necessary to return you to your ship at the appointed time.  All of our itineraries are cushioned to take into account the unforeseen circumstances which may arise on the way back to the port. Our tours are strategized so the last museum on it is the one nearest to the port.

Group Tours
Some of our one-, two- and three-day tours are available as group tours. Booking a group tour means we may place you with other passengers from your ship to create a full group, and you are guaranteed the lowest price. Group tours are booked at a flat-rate price and will never go up or down based on the group size. Standard group size is maximum 16 pax. The two- and three-day Deluxe Tour are always available as group tours, and other tours can be as well. Contact us at mail@spb-tours.com or vika.rother@gmx.de to find out what group tours are available from your ship.

Private Tours
If you want a smaller, more intimate group size (less than 16 pax) or wish to tour with just your party, you may select any one of our itineraries to be customized. The scaled price for a private or small group tour depends on how many people are in your group. Price scales can be found under the sample itineraries on the tour pages listed above. Private tours are an excellent option for people with mobility restrictions, special interests, or just want more control over their sight-seeing experience.
For those with special historical and cultural interests, we offer both our Jewish Heritage Tours as well as our Grand Historical Tour as private tour options.

CruiseCritic.com is a website that many cruise ship passengers use to find information about their cruises. They have a very popular message board called Roll Calls that are specifically for people to "meet" online beforehand to get to know each other and provide an opportunity to plan shore excursions and other activities together.

Here’s how to join:
Click here to go to Cruise Critic’s “getting started” page where you will find instructions for creating a free account with them.

Once you have created a username, you will need to find your ship’s roll call. Click here to go to the Roll Call page.

On your ship’s roll call page, the different threads are organized by sailing date. If you don't see your sailing date, you can always start a new thread. The “new thread” button can be found at the top left of the page, just above the announcements.

When posting on the roll call, be sure to introduce yourself, as well as provide the relevant information about your shore excursion(s).

Be sure to check back in from time to time and engage in the discussion. A single post about a tour is seldom enough to get people interested, and people will be more likely to join your tour if they get to know you a little bit.

Here is a link to our Trip Advisor page, our Cruise Critic reviews, and our personal testimonials that we have received via email.

Yes! Always! SPB-Tours is always offering special discounts to reward our clients for booking with us.

Some of our permanent discounts include

• CruiseCritic.com booking discounts. Gather members for your tour by posting on cruise critic for a discount.
• Decisive Discount. Lighten our email load by booking on our website for a discount.

We are also usually offering seasonal discounts. Just ask in an email to us.

Not if you come with a cruise ship. Cruise ship passengers who stay in St. Petersburg up to 72 hours are eligible to go ashore with our official Tour Tickets. The price of this tour ticket is included in all of our listed prices. Tourists coming to St. Petersburg with other means of transportation should contact us to apply for a visa-support (official invitation).

We guarantee that you will be able to disembark in St. Petersburg in order to join an SPB-Tours excursion. Regardless of what misleading information the rumor mills churn out, so long as all documentation is in order, all passengers will be allowed to enter Russia with a valid Tour Ticket. The only required documentation is a valid passport, a photo copy of your passport, and a Tour Ticket – a proof of your participation in an escorted tour arranged by a licensed and authorized operator, which we will provide for you. You do not need to wait to leave the ship and the entire disembarkation process should only take 20-30 minutes – despite what the cruise line will lead you to believe.

Yes. Our register number at the Federal Agency of Tourism of the Russian Federation is MBT 003341. SPB-Tours is authorized to issue tour tickets (blanket visas) for the cruise ship passengers and the official invitation (visa-support) for getting a Russian visa for the land tourists. Only fully licensed companies like SPB-Tours can do it. SPB-Tours has an official agreement with the St.Petersburg sea port “Marine Facade.” Benefits are: our clients are covered by the tour tickets, we can meet our guests directly at the ship (on the other side of the Russian immigration) and bring our vehicles to the territory of the port. Not every agency has this advantage.

Yes. Children 6 years and under on the day of the tour are free of charge. A $15 discount per day is offered to children from 7-17 years old on the day of the tour and for students with a valid International Student Identity Card (ISIC).

No deposit is required.
1. You can pay in cash (USD, EUR or RUB) on the morning of the second tour day. Please be aware that we will not be able to accept foreign currency (EUR or USD) in bad condition; bills should be clean (have no writings, stamps of any kind), crisp and new (have not even the slightest defects/damages). It is the requirement of Russian banks to charge us 10 % of the value for bills in poor condition. We appreciate your understanding.

2. You can pay by credit card (Visa or Mastercard) on the first tour day. Other types of credit cards are not accepted. We will charge the sum of payment for the tour from your credit card in Rubles. The currency exchange rate will be established according to the current rates of the Russian State Central Bank. Please note: No Credit card fees!

No deposit is required.
1. You can pay in cash (USD, EUR or RUB) on the morning of the second tour day. Please be aware that we will not be able to accept foreign currency (EUR or USD) in bad condition; bills should be clean (have no writings, stamps of any kind), crisp and new (have not even the slightest defects/damages). It is the requirement of Russian banks to charge us 10% of the value for bills in poor condition. We appreciate your understanding.

2. You can pay by credit card (Visa or Mastercard) on the first tour day. Other types of credit cards are not accepted. We will charge the sum of payment for the tour from your credit card in Rubles. The currency exchange rate will be established according to the current rates of the Russian State Central Bank. Please note: No Credit card fees!

Gratuities to the guide and driver are not included in the tour price. The amounts you wish to give to your guide and driver after a job well-done should be in line with the western standards. We recommend 10 % (of the tour cost) to the guide and 5% to the driver, to be given separately. We will not include gratuities on the credit card. Please have some cash with you (USD, EUR or RUB) for this purpose.

You can bring in up to 10 000 USD in cash without declaring it. ART: Anything resembling art should be cleared before departure at the Ministry of Culture: Malaya Morskaya ul., 17. tel: 571 5106. For more Info about Russia read our More About Traveling to Russia page.

The Tour Ticket operates in place of a Visa for cruise ship passengers who book tours with us. This service is included in your tour price. We will issue you the after receiving the following information from you.

*Please note: You should never email confidential information like passport information or credit card numbers. All of your private information is submitted through our secure servers to protect your identity information.

1. Your last/first/middle names exactly like they are written in your passport
2. DOB (day/month/year)
3. Passport number
4. Citizenship
5. Name of your ship
6. Dates in St. Petersburg

After your information is submitted on our secure server, we will email your Tour Ticket to you before you leave for your cruise. You will print it and bring it with you.

A. You can cancel your reservation confirmation in written form two weeks (14 days)  prior to your tour without any cancellation fee.

B. Cancellations received on the 13th day or less prior to your tour will be levied a fee equal to 25% of the total cost of your excursion program.

C. Cancellations received on the 5th day or less  prior to your tour or in the case of a “no-show” (no-show is a person who never cancelled, and never reported to our waiting agents at the port after the ship arrived) will be levied a 50% charge of the total cost of the excursion program.
Concert and theater tickets: There are no refunds for Mariinski Theatre, Russian Folkloric, Ballet, or any other theatre performances, if cancelled less than 5 days prior to your arrival in St. Petersburg.

If you do not receive a response from us within one business day please let us know or check your junk mail folder and please resend your original e-mail to us.

On your Reservation Confirmation you should have the telephone number of the director of SPB-Tours Viktoria Rother. If you have a problem ashore, you can call her for assistance. You can also ask your guide to call her. You can reach Viktoria on her cell phone 24 hours a day.

Multiple day tours are adjusted, when possible, to work around museum closings so that you can get the most out of your visit to St. Petersburg

Monday   
Hermitage
Grand Palace in Peterhof
Menshikov Palace

Tuesday
Catherine’s Palace in Tzsars’ Village/Pushkin
Russian Museum

Wednesday
Church on the Spilled Blood
St. Isaac’s cathedral

Early Entrance is a new feature we have added to almost all of our St. Petersburg itineraries for 2013. Early Entrance will allow you to get into certain sites before they become packed during the common entry hours. Our knowledgeable guides have a great deal of experience getting our passengers the best possible museum experiences, whether the entrance is early or not.

SPB-Tours is run by Viktoria Rother, a guide herself, with 20 years of experience and she understands how much of the tour depends upon an excellent guide. All our guides are University graduates and speak excellent English. They are highly professional with many years of experience and knowledge. We only work with guides who have a passion for their profession, and view it as such. We know our guides very well. They have great personalities and are superior entertainers. They have a depth of knowledge about about the politics, history, economy, and culture just waiting to be shared with you.

Yes you can. There are numerous options including the Mariinsky theatre, the Michailovsky theatre, the Hermitage theatre, a folklore show at Nicholas palace, a Canal Boat Ride or a dinner at a Russian restaurant. If you do a reservation using the form submitted on our website, be sure to include a request for the evening activities, including the desired schedule, and we will provide you with additional information.

We know you prefer to have an authentic experience. In St. Petersburg, we recommend our guests have lunch at two local places: “Stolle” (Russian piroggis – pies – and a nice choice of soups; the meal costs about $8-12) and “Shocoladnitza” (soups, pancakes; business lunch for $15 including a drink).  

In the countryside it is more difficult to find an inexpensive cafe/restaurant with good food, but we are happy to recommend options to you once you are there.

ALL our vehicles are air-conditioned, comfortable, foreign-made vans, fully covered by  insurance. We have sedan cars, small vans for 6 people and bigger ones with 14, 16 and 20 or more passenger seats. We will always try to get you a van with a few extra seats.
The drivers are professional and polite. No driver will smoke in your presence.

Yes. In all of our tours there is absolutely some time allotted so you can buy souvenirs.