Russia, St. Petersburg
scapel
have had a guide service that was exceptional and at a
reasonable price.
Here are the particulars.
July 21, 2000 Friday and July 22, 2000 Saturday
St. Petersburg, Russia. Our traveling couple along with
ourselves had planned ahead and each had a Russian Visa. We had
mad previous arrangements for two full days of tours in and
around St.Petersburg not connected with the ship’s shore tour
office. Our English friends had found the company called Nota
Bene Co. Ltd. Manager Nikita A. Zonin e-
mail “k...@travel.spb.ru"
“www.travel.spb.ru"
Address is: Russia, St.Petersburg Griboedova, 34 office 323
Tel.(812) 939-06-98 tel/fax (812) 313-87-37.
Our Russian Visas cost $70/person through the Russian Embassy in
NY. The Celebrity Visa service was more expensive as was the
Russian tourist agency. Nota Bene usually requires a deposit
but we did not make one somehow. If a deposit is made it could
be lost if the ship for some reason did not make the port. I
think the Nota Bene company should refund the deposit if the
ship did not make the port, but this should be agreed upon.
A one-day tour in St.Petersburg through the shore excursion
office was $148 pr person. For two days we paid $470 which was
$117per person plus $70/person visa equal $187/person for the
two days, as opposed to the $296/person for two days via the
ship’s shore excursion. An additional plus is that with just
four people a driver and an English-speaking guide, we were able
to see more with much better personal attention. For an
additional $22.50/person we attended a wonderful folk show in an
old 1800’s building that was beautiful inside and we had
champagne ,caviar ,vodka and juices and cokes during the
intermission, which was not furnished by the ship’s folk show
tour. I think we also saw the better Russian Folk show Friday
night. Our fee included our transportation in our Red Van. We
could easily have shared this with another couple had we known
in advance, which could have possibly decreased the price per
person.
On our tours we visited the outside of St.Isaac’s Cathedral, and
the Church of the Spilled Blood . We visited the Hermitage
entering through a back door without any crowd and hit all three
Hermitage buildings at a record pace including the Winter
Palace. We made the visit to Pushkin previously known as the
Czar’s Village (Tsarkoe Selo – mentioned in book Nickolas and
Alexandria) . We visited Pavlovsk palace and grounds and were
also able to visit Peter and Paul Fortress and the Peter and
Paul Cathedral with the tombs of the Czars. In the back are
stones on the wall for Nicholas II, his wife Alexandria and the
children Olga, Tatiana, Maria , Anastasia and Alexi (the
hemophiliac). The other Czars have large tombstones in the
church but Nicholas II and his family were originally not
welcomed to be buried in the church. Later the bones were moved
into the church and wall stones placed in the back of the
church. The last of the Romanov’s who died in France in 1992
is also buried in the church.
I would certainly recommend the above method for visiting
St.Petersburg, not only because it was cheaper but because the
convenience of not having a bus load of people and more personal
attention from a guide for four people.
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