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Not only did we learn of the history (which you can read in books) but Kate was a wealth of information regarding the culture and lives of Russians on a day to day basis and how that may differ based on the location within the country. Each guest is given a rain poncho, bottle of water daily, and a speaker on a lanyard with earphones to better hear while you're visiting the sites and walking from place to place. One of my favorite stops was down to the subway. Our group size was perfect and ages ranged from toddler stroller to senior with walker and Igor took care of it all getting on and off the bus and Kate was fast to jump ahead to assure a smooth entry to the sites. We learned not only the history but culture, folklore an fairy tales, a song and some Russian words. Our first day wasn't the greatest weather wise but it was hard to notice with the sites and the ball of energy known as Kate.
#Spb tours st.petersburg driver#
We had the pleasure of spending two days with Kate, an AMAZING St Petersburg native,as our phenomenal guide and Igor as the best driver ever. As promised, SPB reps are there with the orange flag to meet and direct you to your guide and driver. As private tour takers we left the ship about an hour later than did the others on our first day only. Do NOT believe the cruiseline hype about visa requirements being impossible to meet with independent tours and being unable to disembark timely. Communication with reps is fast and easy. (We also added Warnemund / Berlin and Copenhagen tours from SPB as well.) We spent for three of us on two day tours what the cruiseline wanted for ONE passenger on a somewhat comparable experience. So I spent hours reading reviews of tour companies on Trip Advisor and settled in on SPB Tours in St Petersburg.
![spb tours st.petersburg spb tours st.petersburg](https://spb-tours.com/media/gallery/brugestourheader.png)
Additionally we did not want to experience the sites as a herd of cattle being moved from one location to another without much understanding of what we were seeing. While planning our two week Baltic / Scandanavia cruise for May 2019 I was in a bit of sticker shock from the cost of the cruiseline's excursions.