YOUR GUIDE IN SAINT-PETERSBURG - TOURS (St. Petersburg) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (original) (raw)

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5.0

5.0 of 5 bubbles

65 reviews

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Dec 2021 • Couples

Roman is a very knowledgeable and motivated guide. We did Kronstadt tour with him and his knowledge by far exceeds that of average guides. If you are interested in history and eager to learn more than folk tales normally fed to foreign tourists, then you should definitely choose him as your guide. He really loves the city and knows a lot about it. Moreover, Roman never ignores questions from his tourists and answers all of them.

Written 21 December 2021

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5.0 of 5 bubbles

Sept 2019

Deluse Visa Free St. Petersburg Tour-MS Princess Anastasia. Take the ferry from Helsink overnight and spend two nights in St. Petersburg at a luxury hotel and then take the ferry back to helsinki or Tallinn. Visa free. Excellent guide Olga Binetskaya (you can book directly with her). Saw the hermitage, optional tour to Catherine Palace and Peterhof's Lower Gardens. Just magnificent. If you go with Select Tours, be sure you upgrade to Commodore status (a must). The hotel was wonderful. Olga at biolst@gmail.ru

Written 10 October 2019

dshuber

Cairo, Egypt114 contributions

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Sept 2018 • Couples

Roman is great. Speaks excellent English and good car. Spent the day with him with him including lunch to Kronstadt primarily to see the famous sailor's cathedral and tour the ships including a very modern destroyer. Stopped along with way to see some WW2 sights and part of the Road of Life. Highly recommend Roman.

Written 14 February 2019

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Aug 2018 • Family

Roman is by far one of the best tour guides I’ve met. We visited Saint Petersburg with another family last summer and had the pleasure to spend time with Roman. He is super knowledgeable, intelligent, calm and fun person to be around. At the end of our 5 day trip we all felt we knew him for very long time and were sad to say goodbye. He is also fluent in English and several other languages.

Written 22 December 2018

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Sept 2018 • Friends

I found Roman while searching through the web. We are from Mexico, so we had very little idea about Russian history and its places. Roman is an excellent and very knowledgeable guide. He knows a lot of history and will make your tour completely interesting by giving you so much information.
Since the first email he was so nice and eager to give information and ask you about your plans or expectations, so he can suggest the best way of doing it.
The visit to Peterhof and Kronstadt wouldn't have been so complete by going on ourselves. Definitely, you should give a try. The best investment (because we didn't spend the money) during our trip.

Written 30 October 2018

Brad A

Closter, NJ28 contributions

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Aug 2018

I am not the biggest fan of Tours By Locals. After several bad experiences with TBL related to our quest for a private guide in St. Petersburg we were lucky enough to find a gem of a guide and an exceptional person in Anna Ponomareva. I am giving her last name because of the many Anna’s on the TBL site.
We spent 3 days with Anna. She was very knowledgeable,extremely personable and made you feel immediately comfortable. She gave us all the detail necessary for a terrific 3 day cruise stopover. We saw and learned about the Russian people as people. In other words, the good the bad and the ugly. If we wanted additional information about anything we saw or heard Anna was like a Wikipedia.
She took us all over St. Petersburg and the surrounding areas. Took a private boat trip on the Nieves, a hydrofoil to the Hermitage, ate lunch in a local restaurant avoiding the tourists and eating excellent food at a reasonable price. Took us on the metro with its stations that were built as palaces for the proletariat, visited the only Jewish Temple in St. Petersburg, when we asked for her to take us to buy souvenirs Anna took us to shops off the beaten track with prices that were substantially less than where you might go on your own or with another guide who might receive a commission for what we bought. In one place she actually told us to negotiate for a better cost. Of course we saw all the usual sights but the unusual is what we liked best. In a few words “ she was awesome”.
BYPASS TOURS BY LOCALS AND BOOK DIRECTLY WITH ANNA. Their guides are all independent contractors. Russia is not an easy place to live or make a living in. She more than deserves the full price of touring.
OUR DRIVER JURI or Yuri ( not sure of spelling) WAS ALSO OUTSANDING. He was polite, a real gentleman who always opened the door for my wife, drove very conservatively, was always there waiting for us when we were ready to move on. His Mercedes was spotless and in perfect working order.
Summary: NO NEED TO LOOK AT ANY OTHER GUIDE WHEN TOURING ST. PETERSBURG.

Written 15 October 2018

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Jul 2018 • Family

Roman organized for us trips to Kronstadt and to Ladoga Lake. Both trips were amazing. Roman is a very good guide, he answered all our questions. Everything was very good.

Written 27 July 2018

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Jun 2018 • Couples

I found the address and the site of Roman Shaposhnik on the internet and I saw the very positive reviews on Trip Advisor. So I booked him for 2 days (June 1 and 3, 2018). Before our arrival we made a plan what to see together and what we could do on our own. Roman waited for us at our hotel with his car, and the first day we saw the most important and interesting sites of the city. Like the Peter and Paul Fortress, The Hermitage, St. Isaac's Cathedral, etc. etc. The second day (June 3) we made a trip to the Peterhof gardens and to Tsarskoe Selo (Catherine Palace). The two days with Roman were for us very worthwile and special. We appreciated very much his great knowledge of the history of St. Petersburg and Russia. That was certainly an important contribution to our journey . We also did like very much the restaurants he chose for lunch. Restaurants you would never find on your own. And in addition: Roman is a perfect driver and it was very comfortable not having to use the public transport and getting around the city by car! So thank you very much Roman, for the two unforgettable days in Saint Petersburg! We absolutely can advise every visitor of Saint Petersburg to book a private guided tour with you! It could not have been better!

Written 20 June 2018

5.0 of 5 bubbles

May 2018 • Friends

We have just spend two days with Kristyna as our guide seeing the sights of St Petersburg. I have never had a guided trip before but as we required a booking with a tourist company in order to obtain a visa it made sense to have a tour over a couple of days. Alex helped us with the necessary paperwork for the visa in advance of our arrival, arranged a car to collect us from the airport, and provided the most fantastic two day tour with Kristyna and Vladimir. Everything has been so easy! Nothing was too much trouble, and Kristyna was unbelievably knowledgeable and friendly. I didn’t ask a question in two days that she couldn’t answer and I found it fascinating to listen to everything she said, whether about the sights we were seeing or life in Russia in general. Thank you for a fabulous two days, we have had the best time and you have made our trip!

Written 20 May 2018

5.0 of 5 bubbles

Dec 2017 • Couples

Roman spent all afternoon giving us a tour of the various forts around Kronstadt, as well as the Naval Cathedral (which included an impressive view of Kotlin Island from one of its bell towers). We were impressed by the breadth of his knowledge and his passion for the history of Kronstadt and each of the surrounding forts, most of which were built centuries ago. Clearly Roman has done a lot of hard work to ensure this history is preserved for future generations, and he is able to give you unrivaled access to many locations around Kotlin Island. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of this incredible place and taking in the natural beauty of the island. We strongly recommend Roman as a tour guide for any site you may wish to visit in the Saint Petersburg area (he tailored his tour to include things we wanted to see, like the view from the top of the Naval Cathedral). On top of that, he's a great conversationalist - as an American, I was eager to hear his thoughts on a variety of topics relating to Russian history and culture. We will definitely be giving Roman a call to arrange another tour the next time we have a chance to visit Saint Petersburg.

Written 2 January 2018

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