Valeria is the most knowledgeable of guides with a passion for all the architecture and treasures that St Petersburg has to offer. She is unbelievably enthusiastic and will help you choose your bespoke tour by email before you even set off on your trip. Once in St Petersburg she is organised and efficient and will whisk you from one site to another in an air-conditioned vehicle, managing to beat the queues and even gain access where others don't seem to be able to go. Her English is perfect and after spending 3 days with her we felt as if we were saying goodbye to a friend. Highly recommended!

We booked our personalised tour online with Valeria - a very easy process - rather than using the cruise operator tours. Our visas were included. What we got exceeded our expectations - the itinerary was arranged to suit our requirements a car with a driver, a very knowledgeable tour guide who spoke excellent English accompanied us through all the venues we had chosen providing a wonderful and detailed commentary on all we saw. We were made to feel that nothing was to much trouble and have no hesitation in recommending them. They will enhance your trip to the beautiful city of St Petersburg.

Very high recommendation:
We found St. Petersburg Guided Tours online.
They seemed to offer what we wanted. We were first time visitors to St Petersburg and we wanted both flexibility and advice on what to see and in what order.
Our first contact was answered by Valeria. It was obvious that she spoke English very well. All my questions were answered. The price was not cheap but it was reasonable. We didn’t realise all the value included until later.
Our cruise line and our travel agent stressed that we could have a big problem arriving without a visa to do an independent tour. They said you must book the ships tour or you could miss seeing St Petersburg and have to stay on the ship. (completely false)
Valeria assured us that she would arrange a short visit visa under the St Petersburg visa-free arrangements for cruise ship passengers that require us to be with the guide at all times. We sent her our passport information and she arranged everything. We had the email with the tour tickets before we left home.
Valeria did not ask us to pay when we booked. Not even a deposit.
When arrived in St Petersburg, we had no trouble at Passport Control using just our passports & the tour tickets. Our guide was waiting for us and our tour began.
The order that we visited places was arranged to suit both the weather and the number of tourists at that time and not once in two days did we have to wait in the very long queues for visit the Hermitage, Peterhof, Katherines Palace, the Cathedral on the Spilt Blood or anywhere else. She had pre-arranged priority access and we walked past a lot of very long queues. When you have a short time, this is very important.
Our guides’ knowledge was excellent. More detail than we could absorb in two days but an absolutely wonderful experience.
The vehicle that picked the four of us up at the port was a luxurious 8 seater van. Very comfortable and our driver was good. We never had to worry about our bags or our jackets. He stayed with the car at all times.
We were dropped off very close to all points of interest and when we had finished our guided tour, there was our car back waiting for us very near the exit.
Some of the attractions have very specific booked appointment entrance times but our guide managed all of this for us so we arrived at just the right time.
Our guide was very ethical, easy to deal with, very polite and friendly. She made our visit to St Petersburg a complete success. I am very happy that we did not take the very expensive ships excursion and that we chose St. Petersburg Guided Tours

Look for the name Valeria in the reviews to be sure you are looking at the right company.

Written by GregB from Australia
21 June 2018