St.Petersburg, Russia on Private Tour
Odyssey Gold Tour
Dear Cruise Ship Passenger, thank you for your wish to explore
St.Petersburg with Odyssey Gold Tour!
You may know there is a lot to see in St.Petersburg. Probably two
days is just a very short time to do it. But it is possible. Tours
conducted by Odyssey Gold Tour are designed to give you an
overview of all major sights and interesting places in the city.
Within two days of your stay you will have at your own disposal a
western car with personal driver and an English speaking guide. Your
tour crew will show you around all the major highlights of the city: you
will visit the Hermitage, stroll along the main street of the city Nevsky
Prospect, enjoy a spare minute in the Summer Gardens, visit the maginificent
Royal Summer Palaces and do much more. You will also get an introspective
view of Russian life waching people on the streets or talking to your guide.
Also, we should note this there are no musts on our tours. You can
change your itinerary simply telling about your ideas to your guide.
Our staff is very carefully selected; guides and drivers are nice and
very polite people of interesting personality. Meeting them also will
become a unique opportunity to communicate with Russian people.
We offer you two general options of the tour that you may consider.
CLASSIC TWO-DAY TOUR of St.Petersburg will present the whole sightseeing
program. This tour will not include an evening performance; first
day lunch will be served in a standard city restaurant;
GOLD TWO-DAY TOUR of St.Petersburg covers all city highlights and
includes visiting the best evening performance available in
the city at your choice; also, the first day lunch will be served in
one of the finest first-class restaurants of the city located in
a private club;
Here is the tour description. But first please meet your guide and
personal driver at 9:00 a.m. right after you pass the port customs
terminal exit. Your guide will be holding a YELLOW sign with your name
on it.
TWO DAY TOUR OF ST.PETERSBURG
DAY ONE
This day your ship arrives in St.Petersburg in the early morning. As soon
as you go ashore you will be met by your guide and right after you can leave
for an overview city tour.
You start from the place that provides the best panoramic view of
the city - the Tip of Vasilievski Island. It is the best photo stop
and we will have enough time to take good pictures. Then just
after a short drive the next stop comes where you may go to visit the
Peter & Paul Fortress.
This fortification is the birthplace of St.Petersburg. The date when this
fort was founded, May 26, 1703 is considered to be the date of the city's
foundation. Walking alone the thick fortress walls, visiting
Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral where every one of the Russian Tsars
after Peter the Great till last Romanovs rest in peace, and entering
the obscure prison where political prisoners were kept during
hundreds of years you will penetrate into the spirit of the 18th century,
when the fortress was built.
After the tour of the fort you'll go on towards the Aurora battle ship
to come to know more about the Revolution of 1917 when Bolsheviks came
to power. The blank shot of the prow gun of this ship heralded the
October Revolution. It is now mocked by some as "the world's deadliest
weapon - with one shot, it ruined the entire country for 75 years". Now it
functions as a museum.
Field of Mars and Summer Gardens are just on the opposite side of the
Neva from Aurora cruiser. We will cross the Neva by Trinity Bridge, an
exact copy of Pont du Alexandro Trua in Paris. After a short walk
though the Summer Gardens, as a great Russian poet Pushkin used to do,
we will depart for Smolny Convent.
Blue and white Smolny Cathedral is an unbelievably beautiful
Baroque-style structure with a long history over a few hundred years.
After another picture stop by the Smolny you may want to head towards
Alexander Nevskij Monastery to visit the graveyard with tombs of famous
Russians. Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Musorgsky and some others who
were buried here last century.
The main street of St.Petersburg, Nevskij Prospect, begins from the
monastery. This is a four-mile long avenue that spans the Neva river.
The Winter Palace - Hermitage and the Palace Square are on the other end
of the Nevskij Prospect.
Nevskij Prospect is the most crowded street in the city. Also, the
most significant as to perform the recent changes in whole Russia.
There are no state owned shops, restaurants or bars on the Nevskij any
more. All of them are private, as it was recently reported by the
Governor's Office. Notice Baskin-Robbins, Reebok and Lancome shops,
the pioneers in westernizing of Russia. We may stop on Nevskij for a short
stroll and will visit here luxurious last century Eliseev delystore,
and walk around the only monument to the great Russian Tsarina
Catherine the Great.
Our next stop is just off Nevskij - the Church on the Spilled Blood.
The most colorful facade in the city. It was decorated with
600 square meters of mosaic and more than 10 kilos of gold.
After seeing this religious edifice we will go onward to visit
the inside of another great Russian Orthodox Cathedral. St. Isaac's
was built to become Russian St.Peter of Rome. There were spent 40 years
just to built it. The construction had cost four times more than
the Winter Palace of the Royal Family.
St.Isaac's is dedicated to the founder of the city - Peter the Great.
The building is huge, more than 100 meters in height; fourth largest
domed church in the world; 14 000 prayers used to come to this main
Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Being inside you will appreciate malachite
and lapis-lazuli columns, and understand how they could spent over 100
kilos of gold just to cover the dome.
You might be getting hungry by this time.
With Gold Tour the lunch will be served in the most exquisitee
St.Petersburg private club located in the palace of Mr.Eliseev, the
man who owned the dely store we've seen before. We will have a special
lunch served with a glass of wine here and after it we can go and see
the palace reception rooms.
Classic Tour will present lunch in a small privately owned restaurant
just off the Palace Square. This is a quiet place with quick
and pleasant service. Full course lunch will be served for us here.
The rest of the time after lunch till about 5.30 p.m. you may want to spend
in the Hermitage.
The grandest museum in the world deserves you attention. You guide will
give you a personal overview museum tour. You will move here at your own
pace and there will be time to see long time favorites as long as you
would wish.
Tonight evening activity is optional. Performance at the Kirov (now
Maryinskij) Theater. If there are no performances this night at the
Kirov we will offer you to choose the same level performance in
another venue.
After the performance your driver will take you back to the ship.
DAY TWO
Today we go to the suburbs of the city to visit some of the grandest
palaces in Europe: Catherine's Palace in Tsar's Village (Tsarsko Selo
also known as the town of Pushkin) and Grand Palace and fountains in
Peterhoff. Both of these Palaces were Summer Royal Residences. The
Throne Hall and Gilded anfilade in Catherine's Palace are astonishing.
Royal Rooms of the Grand Palace contrasted by a walk through the vast
park with 150 fountains are beyond comparison. Your impressions of
these two noble sites will be the highlight of the day.
The whole morning we will spent in Tsarsko Selo. Then after an hour drive
through picturesque Russian farmlands we will arrive in Peterhoff.
Today's lunch will be waiting for us there in a cozy family owned
restaurant called Trapeza (The Meal in English). After the meal we
will go to watch the famous fountains and enjoy the park walks.
Then as we drive back to the city it could be interesting to jump
down to the famous Soviet subway, called Metro by locals. There are
some stations especially those on our route from Peterhoff
which commemorate the pretentiously ritzy Soviet period.
We can ride a few stops on the metro and than meet our driver.
Your guide will assist you in getting this Russian underground
experience.
After you return to the city there will be some time for shopping. Your
guide may introduce you to a gift shop like one in the Museum of
Art History in the College of Industrial Design or the best in the
city gift shop 'The North Way'. These shops have a good supply of traditional
souvenirs to complete your long lasting good memoirs of two days in
Russia.
SERVICES INCLUDED
COMFORTABLE WESTERN CAR/MINI-VAN WITH PERSONAL DRIVER at your service
during your stay in St.Petersburg. English-speaking GUIDE daily. (9:00
a.m. till 6:00 p.m.).
PORT PASS for the vehicle.
MEALS two lunches in a good local restaurants.
ENTRY TICKETS to museums listed above.
TICKETS to the best evening performance in one of St.Petersburg
theaters or Folklore performance. (With a Gold Tour)
Pricing:
Classic Two Day Tour for TWO PERSONS USD 600
Gold Two Day Tour for TWO PERSONS USD 800
Classic Two Day Tour for FOUR PERSONS USD 1000
Gold Two Day Tour for FOUR PERSONS USD 1500
PAYMENT is in US dollars or in rubles to Odyssey Gold Tour manager
in Grand Hotel Europe where you may stop by during the tour. Also, you
can pay on a daily basis at the end of the day program.
Please keep in mind that you will need personal Russian visa to go on this
tour. Your travel agent may assist you in getting visa using cruise
Tourist Reference Number from a cruise brochure.
--
Odyssey Gold Tour
St.Petersburg, Russia
__________________________________________
E-mail: ody...@sky2.spb.ru
Mobile +7 (812) 961 9496
Telephone +7 (812) 233 5557
Facsimile +7 (812) 233 5557 or 275 2154
Russia
St.Petersburg 191025
P.O.box 152
Kolya Blotski
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Our web site WWW.ODYSSEYGOLD.RCOM.RU is up and running
but still undergoing changes.