May 5, 2008
If your summer cruise will stop in St. Petersburg, be sure to look up tour arrangements by DenRus and Red October
You book a cruise of the Baltic, which includes a stop in St. Petersburg, Russia, and immediately you are notified that you will be permitted to disembark onto Russian soil only as part of a cruise ship group using a group visa. Naturally, the cost of a land tour to St. Petersburg operated by the cruise line, under such a group visa, is quite substantial, and I don't even want to frighten you by revealing the cost (try $200-$225 and more, per day).
But it isn't true that you don't have alternatives. Two St. Petersburg tour operators -- DenRus, Ltd., and Red October -- operate independent shore excursions of St. Petersburg for far less money, using group visa arrangements which they obtain from the Russian authorities. On a two-day stay in St. Petersburg, which many cruise lines schedule, the price works out to around $250 for the two days. But DenRus also advertises that as many as six passengers can arrange for the rental of a van, driver and guide for a full-day tour of St. Petersburg for a total of $472, bringing the per-person cost down to about $78 a day. For information, go to www.denrus-us.com or to www.redoctober.us; it's a complicated business which requires much advance study and e-mailing, but with these two companies you don't have to apply for your own individual visa, which is a burdensome process.
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But it isn't true that you don't have alternatives. Two St. Petersburg tour operators -- DenRus, Ltd., and Red October -- operate independent shore excursions of St. Petersburg for far less money, using group visa arrangements which they obtain from the Russian authorities. On a two-day stay in St. Petersburg, which many cruise lines schedule, the price works out to around $250 for the two days. But DenRus also advertises that as many as six passengers can arrange for the rental of a van, driver and guide for a full-day tour of St. Petersburg for a total of $472, bringing the per-person cost down to about $78 a day. For information, go to www.denrus-us.com or to www.redoctober.us; it's a complicated business which requires much advance study and e-mailing, but with these two companies you don't have to apply for your own individual visa, which is a burdensome process.
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Labels: russia, st. petersburg
Oct 5, 2007
$999 (plus whopping fees and taxes) can take you to Russia. Though the weather there is frigid, a winter trip is an important cultural experience
In an earlier post this week, I cited a short winter period, from December 1 to 11, when $999 can buy you an air-and-land package to Cairo. For a longer time during the winter, $999 (plus whopping fees and taxes) will buy you a trip to Russia -- and though few people may want to brave the frigid temperatures at that time, those hardy souls who do make the trip spend considerably less than they would at any other time of year. And needless to say, the cultural life of the country (the Bolshoi Ballet, other theater, opera, the un-crowded Hermitage Museum, the un-crowded Kremlin, and other lightly visited attractions) is best viewed and experienced in winter.
The trip is purchased from a long-established Russian specialist, Eastern Tours (tel. 800/339-6967; www.traveltorussia.com), which offers its classic Russian itinerary combining Moscow and St. Petersburg for $999 per person in November through March. The same trip is $1,299 per person in October and April.
That price covers roundtrip airfare from New York and a week in Russia. It begins with three nights' lodging in St. Petersburg, during which time you get an included city tour and visits to the St. Petersburg Ballet and the Hermitage, one of the world's greatest museums, up there with the Louvre, Vatican, and the Met in New York. Following an overnight ride on the "Red Arrow" train from St. Petersburg to Moscow are three days and two nights in the Russian capital, including a guided tour, visits to Red Square and the Kremlin, and a trip to the famed Moscow Circus.
Unfortunately, $999 isn't the final price you pay per person. Even seasoned travelers used to the unavoidable taxes and fees (usually associated with plane tickets) that end up tacking up to $250 onto the price tag of most trips, will be in for a shock by the massive charges -- due largely to high departure taxes and Visa fees -- involved with a trip to Russia: up to an additional $640. That doesn't make this deal any less of a bargain -- you'd have to pay that $640 in governmental and airline fees even if the trip itself were free -- I just wanted you to be prepared for the wallop that comes in the fine print.
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The trip is purchased from a long-established Russian specialist, Eastern Tours (tel. 800/339-6967; www.traveltorussia.com), which offers its classic Russian itinerary combining Moscow and St. Petersburg for $999 per person in November through March. The same trip is $1,299 per person in October and April.
That price covers roundtrip airfare from New York and a week in Russia. It begins with three nights' lodging in St. Petersburg, during which time you get an included city tour and visits to the St. Petersburg Ballet and the Hermitage, one of the world's greatest museums, up there with the Louvre, Vatican, and the Met in New York. Following an overnight ride on the "Red Arrow" train from St. Petersburg to Moscow are three days and two nights in the Russian capital, including a guided tour, visits to Red Square and the Kremlin, and a trip to the famed Moscow Circus.
Unfortunately, $999 isn't the final price you pay per person. Even seasoned travelers used to the unavoidable taxes and fees (usually associated with plane tickets) that end up tacking up to $250 onto the price tag of most trips, will be in for a shock by the massive charges -- due largely to high departure taxes and Visa fees -- involved with a trip to Russia: up to an additional $640. That doesn't make this deal any less of a bargain -- you'd have to pay that $640 in governmental and airline fees even if the trip itself were free -- I just wanted you to be prepared for the wallop that comes in the fine print.
Write and read comments about this post.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
