How to choose a tour / make a program

We are happy to help you make your stay in St. Petersburg the most memorable experience. White Nights offers you a great variety of tours including 1-3 day ready made programs. For any questions you might have, please contact us. We will design the best tour program that will meet your expectations! If you can not find a museum or thematic excursion/tour that you are looking for on our list please, let us know. We accept requests for any thematic tour and will give excursions in any of most of the museums of St. Petersburg and its surroundings!

Please, note that all the tours, excursions and programs include:

1.     Service of Professional licensed guide

2.     Transportation (as specified in the tours)

3.     Tickets to the museums and parks

4.     Photo and Video Permits (except for the Yusupov Palace)

Your guide will meet you at the lobby of your hotel, or at the place where the tour starts (sea port, airport, train station, or bus station) he/she will be holding a card with your name on it. You will be given the name and phone number of your guide in advance so you can contact them in the event of extraordinary situations.

Here is some advice for you to create a perfect tour program:

Standard Tours

1.     You can choose a standard excursion from the list on our site. There you will find brief description of the tour, cost per person (depending on the size of the group) or per tour. We recommend you to choose one of the standard tours in case if you have limited time for touring in the city, in the description of the tour you will find how long the tour is. The time is calculated from the moment you meet your guide in your hotel/sea port/airport/train station to the time your guide brings you back . When you choose a standard excursion, we will then confirm it, since most of the museums have days off. Please, also give us the time you fish to start the tour.

2.     Standard Tours are also a good idea for people who are willing to spend most of their time in the city visiting museums and sites on their own. You can then choose one or several tours or places you wish to have guide assistance. Please, note that the city center is very large and it is rather hard to walk to all the sites you have planned. Thus if it is your first time in St. Petersburg, a site seeing guided tour will be a perfect choice to help you orient yourself in the city and to give yourself an idea of what you wish to visit . Your guide will inform you about museums’ working hours and tell you how to reach them using public transportation.

Standard tours/excursions last 3-8 hours, thus you can make your own schedule, combining guided tours with activities you would like to do on your own. But if you wish to combine several tours, it might be better to let us know what sites and museums are on your list to visit so that we can design an individual program for you more efficitively. Please then see Individual Guided Tour Programs. If is your first time in the city you might be interested in 1-3 Day Ready Made Program, that already includes all the must-see-places of your first visit.

If you have any questions or concerns, or need any advice about your schedule, timing or itinerary in St. Petersburg, please do not hesitate to let us know!

Shore Guided Tours for Cruise Passengers

If you come to St. Petersburg on a cruise ship, you can choose one of the several versions of our shore tour programs. Most of the Cruise Ships stay in St. Petersburg 1 or 2 days, thus you will find very busy and full programs that include as much as one can possibly see in a limited time or more relaxed itineraries. We can also make a totally different program for you, in case  you have been to St. Petersburg before, or you wish to visit a certain museum or to have a special thematic tour.

All the shore tours include:

1.     Documentary required for Visa-Free Passengers

2.     Guide Service

3.     “Door to door” transportation

4.     Tickets to the museums and parks

5.     Photo/Video Permits (except for the Yusupoff Palace)

Extra expenses you might have:

1.     Lunches in the city

2.     Souvenirs, books, postcards, etc.

Most places accept credit cards; souvenir shops accept rubles, dollars and euros. In case  you need some Russian Cash – your guide can help you to exchange it in the city. Thus there is no need to exchange money on the ship. Even so, we recommend that you research where to exchange your cash before doing so.

There is another thing we unfortunately have to mention. Sometimes while on a cruise ship you can be discourages from going on a private guided tour under the explanation that “nobody will meet you at the port”, etc. That is definitely not true, as well as the announcement that “you should not come down before all the tourists that have bought excursions on board precede through the passport control”. You MAY go down right after the ship arrives, you have the right to exit with the other passengers. Though at the same time, there is no need to come earlier than it is set on your program. Your guide will be there waiting for you, holding the White Nights card with your name listed on it.

As for the payments for the tour, you can pay with your credit card or in cash upon arrival on the second day of the tour. If you pay in cash, you get 5% discount from the cost of the tour (See Bookings & Payments).

Individual Guided Tour Programs

We are always happy to help you make your own individual itinerary, meeting your requirements . If our ready made programs do not fit you, please provide us with the following information we need to know so we can make an individual program for you:

1.     Dates of your stay in St. Petersburg (if you come on a cruise – name of your ship and dates in St. Petersburg)

2.     Details of your arrival and departure

3.     Hotel or any other address you are staying at

4.     What sites and museums you are planning to visit

5.     How much time you wish to spend touring per day

6.     Whether you would like to add evening activities to your schedule (theatre, folk concerts, philharmonic, etc.)

7.     How many people are going to be with you touring

8.     Whether you have children under 12, students, or people who are handicapped in your party