We tipped in US dollars. We also tipped our onboard guide. We had a local guide in each city we visi

Planning to take the newly refurbed Pakhomov on Viking from St. Petersburg to Moscow May 2012. I'm considering private guides in St. P and Moscow vs the ship's telephone directory united kingdom busses and guides for a more personalized and flexible tour. Your experience having taken this option? Private guide recommendations?
We are taking this cruise telephone directory united kingdom in early October telephone directory united kingdom of this year. We got a reduced rate of $1999/per person (not yet advertised) for the best available telephone directory united kingdom cabin - which was the Deluxe cabin "A" on a refurbished ship.
We are thinking about private tour guides as well. Ones I've looked up are quite expensive. So also thinking of doing things on our own instead, on those days that we have free. I've learned the Cyrillic alphabet - took two weeks. Heard that you can get to the Metro from the docks in St. Pete's and Moscow.
Did the trip and if you do a private guide it would be for Moscow, but they will leave you in town and you can take the metro back on your own from town. I found the private tours go to the exact same places and say the exact same thing. Your group on the bus isn't that large. Is there something special that you want to see that isn't covered in the regular tour? You can also go in early a couple of days and do your own thing before you get on the ship. Many folks did.
What did you think of the cruise? Did you go on your own? I wouldn't sign up with a private tour that covers the same things that our tours through Viking already will be covering. But there's obviously a lot more to see in these two cities.
The guides we had on our Viking telephone directory united kingdom Russian cruise were excellent. All had Master's Degrees in English, should have been teaching, but made more money as guides. Sometimes we left the group and went off on our own, but I don't see any reason to hire a private guide. The guides also mingled with us onboard the boat.
We were passengers on the Pakhomov in July 2007, from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Since most shore tours were included we saw no reason to hire private guides and we were not disappointed telephone directory united kingdom with our choice. In Moscow we went to the circus, Red Square (with some time on our own to visit Gum or whatever we wished to do), The Kremlin, touring the Armory telephone directory united kingdom Museum, and visiting one of the five cathedrals (an optional tour to the Tretyakov Gallery was available).
We particularly liked Yaroslavl and the guide there spoke excellent English, telephone directory united kingdom had a great sense of humor and taught us a great deal about the city. Another favorite was the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. We stayed with the group for a museum tour and then explored on our own. We never felt stifled or confined telephone directory united kingdom by our tours.
In St. Petersburg we toured the Catherine Palace, Peter Paul Fortress and St. Paul Cathedral, the Hermitage (on our second day there). We also saw the Cathedral of Kazan, Smolny Convent, Resurrection Church, St. Isaac's Cathedral. We had stops at most places for picture taking. Peterhof and Yusupov Palaces, and a canal ride were optional tours. Ballet that evening.
We have never taken an escorted trip; only escorted day trips occasionally, but as noted above we were very comfortable with all of our shore excursions and local guides, and felt all were well planned, educational and allowed us free time. We considered this one of our best trips and look forward to another Viking river cruise, hopefully in the near future!
In both cities the river ports are some distance from the centre. In Moscow the metro station is a 15 minute walk away, but in St. Petersburg it is necessary to take a bus from where the ships berth to the nearest metro.
We did attend a ballet telephone directory united kingdom performance at the Mariinsky in St Petersburg on our own one evening and the ship arranged for a taxi to bring us back after the performance, while in Moscow we stayed in town after a morning tour and returned at the end of the afternoon by metro.
Our guide on the Kirov was Nadezhda (Nadya) and she was very knowledgeable. She has been a guide with Viking for 11 years and is a university professor of English during the rest of the year. She put together a chorus of passengers for the talent night and taught us Russian songs to sing!
I thought that the Mariinsky ballet (Swan Lake)was very good indeed. We had bought tickets online before the cruise, and were surprised to find out that the free excursion the night before was a performance of Swan Lake at the Hermitage Theatre--it was a small company with a pick-up orchestra and although it was a good performance, it couldn't compare with the Mariinsky.
I saw the travelling company when they came to town this past February (La Bayadere) telephone directory united kingdom and it confirmed for me what a magnificent company they are. You must have hit them on an off night with a mediocre work.
Next day is Pushkin - Catherine's Palace. Yes, after that the itinerary says back to the ship for lunch and then "rest of the day is at leisure". Night time ballet telephone directory united kingdom performance. If ballet telephone directory united kingdom performance is in the city, we won't choose to take the time to go back to the ship for lunch.
July of 2007. Our days in Moscow were pretty well filled with tours, so we didn't adventure out on our own. However, some passengers did. Percy has given you good advice I think and whatever you decide, have a wonderful time. We sure did!
Since all our meals were open seating, we didn't have a regular waiter and asst. waiter like we do on cruise ships, but there were three young women we particularly liked and got to be friendly with. We tried to always sit in their area if we could. We had an envelope for each of them and for our room stewardess. There was also a small keg with a slot on top in the dining room toward the end of the cruise, where you could put money that was to be divided among the crew. I honestly don't recall how much we gave each young woman, but I imagine telephone directory united kingdom it was probably around $20 or so. We also put some money in the keg.
We tipped in US dollars. We also tipped our onboard guide. We had a local guide in each city we visited, except St. Petersburg (our onboard telephone directory united kingdom guide lives there and directed the tours). We tipped each local guide, as well as a few dollars to the bus driver.
I just remembered a couple of little telephone directory united kingdom booklets we bought prior to the trip: "Russia by River - The Moscow-St.Petersburg Cruise." by Howard Shernoff; River Cruise Phrasebook also by Howard Shernoff with Sergey Salivanov. I'm sorry I can't remember where online we bought them, but if you can find a source I think you'll find them helpful.
I remember seeing several gift shops in the Hermitage. Also at the Catherine Palace. There were some lovely pieces of jewelery in both. Amber is in abundance and very beautiful, alone or combined with other stones. A lady on our cruise telephone directory united kingdom bought a gorgeous necklace of amber and pearls at the Catherine Palace. I bought several bracelets telephone directory united kingdom and even a hair barrette. Also some Faberge mini egg pendants. telephone directory united kingdom I bought one in Moscow with the double headed eagle on it that opens and my husband surprised me with one he bought for me at the Hermitage.
Am also looking at some clothing stores which have Russian designed wear. Trying to find out if the price would be way too high for me. Considering how expensive I've heard Moscow is. I'll probably have to skip this. (Although I found a Russian sports clothing/gear store. Good for t-shirts.)
Got an offer from Viking telephone directory united kingdom about this trip for July. Got it via email. We wanted to go then, but realized we couldn't. telephone directory united kingdom So I called the customer service and spoke to "Barb" and told her that we were very interested, couldn't do July, but if anything came up at that price for Sept or Oct, to let us know.
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