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TOURS IN ST.PETERSBURG
VISA-FREE SERVICES FOR CRUISE PASSENGERS.
ATTRACTIVE RATES FOR INDIVIDUALS AND SMALL GROUPS
SERVICES FOR SEA CRUISE PASSENGERS
According to the Russian law passengers of cruise ships are subject to 72-hour visa-free status in Russia provided they have got confirmed tour services on the shore. I can arrange it like any wholesale cruise tour operator – with minimum formalities for my clients.
Among my clients of previous years – tourists from Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA.
Payments can be done via a bank transfer (in advance) or in cash – according to exact services.
Preliminary bookings are needed only for several museums…
Minimal cancellation fee if any is being applied only for really purchased tickets and vouchers.
So far – not a single sea cruise tour has ever been cancelled in my practice.
Since recently Israeli citizens enjoy visa-free entry into the Russian Federation – which makes it easier for them.
VISA-FREE ARRANGEMENTS
I need to inform Russian border guards’ service about arrival of my clients giving them names, passport details, dates, name of a ship and approximate programme. The only paper you need to receive from me is a voucher (sent by e-mail and printed out) to be shown at the passport control counter… A representative of the company should be exactly after the border guards’ booth as sometimes they may check his presence at the pier. For visiting Moscow – Russian visas are obligatory.
VISA ARRANGEMENTS
In case you are frightened by some rumours or would like to be more independent, not dependent on the preliminary programme – we can arrange papers for application for Russian visas for you but you should remember that so far most of the ships arriving in St.Petersburg are docked in the commercial harbour or at the new passenger port – both being guarded territories with no free entrance cars from the city (limited taxi service is available at the new passenger port), piers being 2.5 miles from the entrance gate and with a very complicated procedure of entering for passengers not coming with pre-arranged transport (please, believe my experience)…
PROGRAMMES.
Usually cruise ships arrive for 2-3 days – definitely not enough to see everything in St.Petersburg. A programme should follow your preferences – and physical abilities to walk, watch, absorb – which are limited (to individual extent).
Regarding locations of piers – it is usually not worth returning back during day programme (which – due to formalities – is 6-8 hours) – and I can offer you some examples that I have used during previous seasons. Days of visit are limited by days off in museums – so sequence may differ… 2-day programme, see below. 3-day programme, see below.
2-DAY PROGRAMME
Easy
Day 1st:
8.00 – meeting at the pier, city sights featuring main architectural ensembles, monuments, squares (see at…)
11.00 – the Hermitage (including the Golden treasury rooms)
15.30 – back to the ship
Day 2nd:
9.00 – departure for a suburban tour
10.00 – Catherine’s palace in Pushkin – the former summer Imperial residence (with the Amber room)
12.00 – leaving for Peterhof
13.00 – the Lower park of Petehof with its famous fountains (possible lunch at the gallery of the Grand Palace)
16.00 – back to the ship
Full swing
Day 1st:
7.30 – meeting at the pier, city sights featuring main architectural ensembles, monuments, squares (see at…)
10.00 – Peter & Paul fortress, including entrance to Ss Peter & Paul cathedral, a burial vault of the Romanov dynasty
11.30 – the Hermitage (including the Golden treasury rooms)
15.30 – St.Isaac’s cathedral, the most decorative Orthodox church built in mid-19th century
17.00 – back to the ship
Day 2nd:
8.00 – departure
8.30 – tour of canals (private boat)
9.30 – departure for Pushkin
10.30 – Catherine’s palace in Pushkin – the former summer Imperial residence (with the Amber room)
12.00 – leaving for Peterhof
13.00 – the Cottage palace, a private residence of the tsar Nicholas I
14.00 - the Lower park of Peterhof with its famous fountains (possible lunch at the gallery of the Grand Palace)
17.30 – back to the ship
3-DAY PROGRAMME
Easy
Day 1st.
8.00 - meeting at the pier, city sights featuring main architectural ensembles, monuments, squares (see at …)
11.00 - The Hermitage museum (including the Golden treasury rooms)
15.30 – back to the ship
Day 2nd.
8.30 – meeting at the pier
9.00 - Peter and Paul fortress, including entrance to Ss Peter & Paul cathedral, a burial vault of the Romanov dynasty
11.00 - St.Isaac's cathedral, the most decorative Orthodox church built in mid-19th century
12.00 - a tour of the canals in a private boat
13.30 – Church on the Spilt Blood (Russian style, about 7000 sq m of mosaics)
15.00 – back to the ship
Day 3rd.
9.00 – departure for a suburban tour
10.00 – Catherine’s palace in Pushkin – the former summer Imperial residence (with the Amber room)
12.00 – leaving for Peterhof
13.00 – the Lower park of Peterhof with its famous fountains (possible lunch at the gallery of the Grand Palace)
16.00 – back to the ship
Full swing
Day 1st.
7.30 - meeting at the pier, city sights featuring main architectural ensembles, monuments, squares (see at …)
10.00 – Peter & Paul fortress, including entrance to Ss Peter & Paul cathedral, a burial vault of the Romanov dynasty
11.30 - The Hermitage museum (including the Golden treasury rooms)
15.30 – St.Isaac’s cathedral, the most decorative Orthodox church built in mid-19th century
17.00 – back to the ship
Day 2nd.
8.30 – meeting at the pier
9.00 - a tour of the canals in a private boat
10.30 – Church on the Spilt Blood (Russian style, about 7000 sq m of mosaics)
11.30 – Russian museum featuring Russian fine arts from 12th century icons to 20th century vanguard
13.30 – St.Nicholas cathedral, functioning 18th century church
14.30 – Yusupov palace, 18th century aristocratic residence once owned by one of the richest Russian families
16.30 – back to the ship
Day 3rd.
9.00 – departure for a suburban tour
10.00 – Catherine’s palace in Pushkin – the former summer Imperial residence (with the Amber room)
11.30 – leaving for Peterhof
12.30 – the Cottage palace, a private residence of the tsar Nicholas I
14.00 - the Lower park of Peterhof with its famous fountains (possible lunch at the gallery of the Grand Palace)
16.00 – some of the decorative stations of the underground
17.30 - back to the ship
All the programmes are subject to specification according to your actual preferences and working days of museums!
VARIATIONS
According to your interests and desires programmes can be transformed with the addition or substitution of different items, regarding your advice as per:
- more (or less) fine arts
- more (or less) churches
- more (or less) gardens and parks
- more(or less) water transportations
- more (or less) historical places
- more (or less or no) shopping
- Moscow rush
Examples – see below
- WWII memorials – Piskaryovskoye cemetery where victims of the siege were buried in 1941-44 (about 0.5 mln), memorial at Victory square (this one – to be seen from outside, inside – being a piece of old-time Soviet propaganda)
- Revolution of 1917 – the Political history museum at Kshesinskaya mansion, the Aurora cruiser, the Smolny institute with Lenin’s study and living room preserved since early 1918
- a hydrofoil journey to or from Peterhof to a pier in front of the Hermitage (30 minutes)
- walking in the city centre – Arts’ square, Grand hotel Europe, Nevsky prospect, Singer company building (now – a bookstore with a coffee shop), catholique St.Catherine’s church, Orthodox Kazan cathedral
- Shopping – just for souvenirs, antiquity, food, supermarkets etc (no flea market available, alas!)
- Day or evening in town – a van and a guide without museum plans and appointment – probably just for eating out
2-DAY HERMITAGE PROGRAMME
For those who would like to have a deeper immersion in the space of the Hermitage museum, one of the biggest fine arts museum in the world, we can offer the following draft – divided between two days (about 5 hours total).
Today the Hermitage is a huge complex embracing the space of at least 7 buildings in St.Petersburg…
Day 1.
- Golden Treasury rooms
- State rooms of the Winter palace – the former winter Imperial residence since 1750ies
- Collection of Impressionists and their successors in art of early XXth century (Renoir, Monet, Pisarro, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso)
Day 2.
- Pavilion hall with the peacock clock and Italian mosaic tabletops
- Italian masters (Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Titian, Caravaggio, Canaletto, Tiepolo)
- Spanish masters (El Greco, Murillo, Velasquez, Ribera, Goya)
- Rembrandt (above 20 paintings0
- 17th century Dutch masters (Hals, Steen, ter Borch, Hooch, Metsu)
- Flemish masters (Rubens, van Dyck)
- Etc…
EVENING PROGRAMMES
- Just a ballet performance (up to 5 Swan Lakes nightly in summer!!!)
- Performances at the Mariinsky theatre and concert hall (the Stars of the White Nights annual festival) – for those looking for something other than usual tourist stuff
- Folklore (Feel Yourself Russian show at the Nikolayevsky palace – or more intimate show for a small group)
- Jazz night at a local club
- Jazz on board a Neva cruise boat
JEWISH CONNECTIONS
First of all – the Synagogue, the second biggest in Europe; but – not only it…
Places connected with outstanding Jewish persons and special events (to be specified according to the time available) – baron Ginzburg mansion and Stieglitz museum, place of incarceration of the Chassidic rabbi in 1800 and Zionist congress in 1917… Where did Moses Montefiore stay in St.Petersburg? Where ORT was founded? Who were the best sculptors of Russia in 1870 – 1910? Even a monument to Peter I would fit the theme.
I need to leave some questions without answers – preserving a copyright
Also - the Russian museum (featuring works by Levitan, Antokolsky, Bakst)…
It may be not a special programme – but just an extra topic, to provide certain angle of viewing some city sights, may be making a short diversion from a route (like to see the monument to Jewish victims in Pushkin – the Formula of Grief).
MEALS
It is a very individual part of the programme – depending on individual requirements and tours’ length…
It can be according to our experience:
- nothing (too much on the cruise)
- just coffee some place
- lunch boxes from the ship
- quick something – like sandwiches or baguettes at the Hermitage cafeteria
- 1-2 course menu – be it Russian, European, kosher, vegetarian etc – according to availability
- Full day meal – never
- Evening eating out
MOSCOW
I can arrange for you a one-day trip to Moscow looking like follows:
07.00 – meeting at the pier, transfer to the airport
08.50 – flight to Moscow together with me accompanying you on the trip
10.00 – landing at the Sheremetyevo airport, transfer to Moscow centre
12.00 – tour of the Kremlin grounds
14.00 – the Armoury museum in the Kremlin – the treasury of the court
15.30 – Red square and GUM department store
16.30 – lunch at a special place of my choice
18.00 – a short tour of the underground
18.30 – transfer to the airport
20.20 – flight to St.Petersburg
21.40 – landing in St.Petersburg
22.30 – back on board
For this tour you should have Russian visas and all arrangements should be done at least 30 days in advance.
To contact – e-mail to veresch@mail.lanck.net
Fax to +7 812 369 34 76
Call to +7 921 744 90 17
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SOME REVIEWS:
• Dear Andrej, Upon our safe return home, we would like to thank you most heartily for our extremely interesting visit to St. Petersburg. Your expert guidance and personal care made our visit an experience we shall always remember...
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