Private Shore-Excursion: 1-Day Fully Flexible St Petersburg Tour

Overall we had a really positive experience during our 2 day visit. Elena was very knowledgeable of Russian history and culture and that made the trip both in the city and countryside informative and enjoyable. She went out of her way to make sure she was showing us a good time.

I scheduled a visit of the Hermitage and the main Cathedrals/Churches in St Petersburgh. The guide had everything planned to ensure that we were back on the ship on time for other commitment. She was very nice, flexible and accommodated the route to fit everything we wanted to do. It was expensive but worthy. I would have like to hear a bit more of the history of the country but maybe next time.

Our guide and driver were wonderful. Very knowledgeable and accommodating for our group of ten, ages 22 to 73. They recommended sites that we had not previously seen, and took us to a marvelous Georgian restaurant for lunch. we were in contact with the company by e-mail from the time we made the reservation, with offers to notebook tickets and suggestions for our itinerary. I highly recommend them.

Our excursion with Ilya and Valentin (the driver) was the most pleasant and enjoyable experience of our entire 14 day trip througout Norther Europe. The 8 hour private tour started in a very comfortable, immaculate Mercedez passanger van. Our tour guide Ilya was friendly, professional, extremely courteous and spoke perfect English. We were a group of 7, incuding my 78 yo mom who has didifculty walking and two kids 9 and 12. We are also a group of Ukraninans who speak and understand Russian and Americans who do not. Ilya went out of his way to make sure that everyone in the group was engaged, accomodated and entertained at all times. When my mom got tired, he procured a wheel chair for her at the Hermitage. He also changed the itinary on the fly to suit our interests. While we never felt rushed we managed to see so much of St Petersburg in one day. This was truly an exceptional tour. Incredible value for the money!!! over 8 hours of personalized, private tour with a fatastic guide -- money well spent! It has now been a couple of months and my family still talks about this tour, the Georgian restaurant that we loved (Phali Hinckali) and our amazing tour guide, Ilya. The phrase that keeps popping up is "it just couldn't have been any better". Thank you, Ulko tours, Ilya and Valentin.

We booked this tour, which was actually with Ulko Tours, because we were traveling with 3 generations of family members and needed extra flexibility with mobility, desired sights to see, and scheduling. The manager of the company, Ksenia, was very informative and helpful arranging the city drive tour, as well as delicious lunches, tours of the Hermitage, including the Diamond Room, the Catherine Palace, the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood and a number of other sights. She was helpful to arrange the 3 wheelchairs that we needed for our family who had difficulties walking. The organizational process was straight forward with lots of instruction and information given to us. Liza, our guide was great. She was extremely knowledgeable, with very good English, prompt in meeting us at the cruise terminal where we exited the cruise ship. Liza answered our many questions about St. Petersburg, the monuments, and Russia in general. She helped us ordering from the menus at the restaurants, and was very cooperative in getting us back to the ship in time for sailing. This private tour enabled us to skip the very long lines waiting for entrance to the Hermitage and Catherine Palace. The private minibus that the 10 of us were driven in was even specially designed for those with mobility issues. We would recommend this tour company to anyone needing a shore excursion especially designed to adapt to personal preferences, and desired sights to see.

Our guide was excellent and very personable. We saved so much money over the prices from the cruise ship and saw much more than we would have seen for the same price. HIGHLY recommended.

Natali our guide was excellent. We had as flexible itinerary that we wanted. We told her what we wanted to see in the allotted time and she made it happen to our complete satisfaction.

Ksenia was an amazing and flexible guide, the tour was incredible, she knew exactly where to take Petersburg newbies like us and took requests and adjusted the tour to our liking. There's a lot to see in St Petersburg on one day so take it slow and don't rush,you won't make everything anyway but whatever you see, enjoy it and take you time.

Liza was an excellent guide, so knowledgeable about the history and background of the area. Great tour.

This company catered to exactly what we wanted for our day trip. We wanted photo stops at beautiful places, rest breaks and lunch outside of the touristy areas, and the ability to maximize our short time on shore to see as much as possible. Marina, our guide, was AWESOME and provided a tremendous amount of knowledge and insight to the many places we visited. Highly recommended!

We visited St Petersburg during a Baltic Cruise and 4 or us booked this tour, we did not want to do all the museums, we just wanted to experience SPB. It was brilliant. UKLO made the arrangements very clear and simple and they met us exactly as they said they would. Our tour guide Violetta was amazing, really friendly, helpful and interesting. It was so much better being in a small group as we were able to avoid the hoards of coaches at the tourist sites and had much more time doing the things that we wanted or that Violetta recommended. I would recommend to anyone it was far better than the large group cruise line tours where you spend most of your time getting on and off the coaches at each site!

For a second visit, we avoided the cruise coach a took a private tour with Ulko. Guide Elena was knowledgable and obliging. Driver Sergei drove us smoothly round the city in his Toyota Camry, easing us into some tight spaces. My interest is in city transport, and I wanted to see trams on the streets. Elena took us on a tram ride and visited the tram museum, sadly closed for this one weekend, for a parade of old buses, which we did see. Having seen most of the famous buildings, we visited a food market and finished with a drink in a local craft beer bar. Intersting and alittl e unusual. I would thogoughly recommend this persaonal and fully flexible tour.

Our family of 4 was on a cruise that stopped in St. Petersburg and decided to book a private tour. UlKO Tours was wonderful and Marina K. was the best tour guide imaginable! I was a bit apprehensive to book a private tour since the cruise ship expressed safety concerns, VISA difficulties and the possibility of a private tour running late, but nothing could have been further from the truth. I did extensive research and found that private tours are the best way to experience a new city and they go out of their way to ensure safety. ULKO tours was great at emailing and answering all of my family's questions before we departed. They even helped us with purchasing Hermitage tickets securely, which saved us time and money. No lines for our family! Marina K. met us immediately outside of customs and was holding a sign with our family name. She introduced us to our driver and we were seated in a comfortable, air conditioned Mercedes van. We felt like VIPs! ULKO tours and Marina K thought of everything, including bottled water. We were able to make the tour our own, and stopped when and where we wanted. Marina showed us the best photo ops and even took pics of our family as our driver secured and watched our bags inside the car. No worries or heavy bags to carry. Along our stops, we saw other people from our cruise and felt sorry that they were part of a crowded group that was herded from one location to the next. Marina impressed us with her knowledge and answered all of our questions. She walked us past the long lines at the Hermitage and was able to show us all of the important parts of the Hermitage that we could never have seen on our own. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with so much to see. The eight hours flew by so quickly. I would definitely recommend ULKO tours and Marina K.

If you want to learn the history of St Petersburg then this is the tour for you. We had an excellent guide, Liza, who we spent two days with. I can't say enough about how wonderful she was. She was so knowledgeable and made sure that we saw all the important sights. She was accompanied by Sergei' who was the driver and worked as a team to get us to see all of St. Petersburg in comfort and a controlled pace that made this visit to Russia the trip of a lifetime. We would love to return to Russia and have Liza show us Moscow. She made everything so interesting even my 15 year old son cant wait to return.

This was a fantastic private tour, the guide took me everywhere I wanted to go and more. Very knowledgeable, Friendly and chatty

Excellent! Friendly, knowledgeable guide and excellent driver. Had expedited access to venues, away from the maddening crowds. Also, Russia visa was included, which saved us more than the cost of obtaining separate visas. Tour started about 1 hour late due to driver being held up in traffic, but this was understandable.

Our very own guide and driver and provides flexibility on where we wanted to go. Booked out own Hermitage tickets and took us to a very nice Russian restaurant for lunch with wonderful local food, the staff just wouldn't pose for selfies with us which would have completed the Russian experience.

This was a wonderful 8 hr tour of St Petersburg with Ksenia as our guide and Archie as our driver. We rode in a clean, beautiful Toyota Camry anywhere we wanted to go. Ksenia was a wonderful, knowledgeable guide who was SO helpful with my husband who uses a wheelchair for tours. They took us to a wonderful Russian restaurant for lunch and showed us the highlights of the city. Very nice tour and very nice guides!

It was an excellent tour. The tour guide took us exactly where we wanted and planned out our day according to our wishes. We would definitely make us of viator and ulko tours again!

Our tour guide made all the difference in this tour being just right for us. She made sure she knew our interests and tailored the tour so we were able to see all that we requested. She was friendly and provided commentary on how the average Russian lives. Our driver was courteous and drove safely.

This was a great tour. Nadia not how she spelled it was fantastic. Her English was impeccable and her knowledge of the sites was outstanding. She gave us great insights into Russian history and the people and places we visited. The vehicle that we traveled in was new and comfortable. The extras of water and a book about St Petersburg made the tour even better, I would recommend this tour to anyone and I recommend Nadia for any tour!!!!

Four of us traveling together. We avoided the NCL excursions in St Petersburg because of the costs and crowd. The private tour was a perfect replacement. Valentina met us at the terminal, took us to our picks of what we wanted to see. She was great. Spoke perfect English and knows her history. Took rides in subway and visited the cathedrals. Visited the fortress of Peter and Paul where we ran into a pickpocket. BEWARE. He runs the souvenir stand just to the right of the church. He lifted my iPhone out of my pocket and I had gone about 100 yards before I realized it. I returned and told him to give me my phone but he denied it until we called the phone and his souvenir stand started to vibrate. He meekly reached into a cabinet and handed me my phone. Take the tour peoples advice. Be alert. My fault entirely, I let my guard down. Other than that, it was great, highly recommend ULKOtours.