FAQ

The easiest way to book a group tour is to book it on-line via our safe site. Our site is based on the American platform. Please place your order following detailed instructions on our site. After you place an order, you will receive in individual order number. Please enter your ship and passport information. Our managers confirm your booking at the soonest . As for the private tour – your individual manager will issue a payment link after you confirm the final itinerary and the price.

Special Entry/Exit requirements for international cruise ship passengers

No, you DO NOT need a Russian visa, you are a cruise ship passenger, and all you wish to do is to tour the city under the guidance of DenRus licensed local guide. You do need a Russian Immigration clearance, often referred to as the cruise visa, and for that purpose you must provide DenRus with your personal and passport information. If you book your tour in advance, and prepay in full your St. Petersburg shore excursions with DenRus, we assume total responsibility for your entry to Russian Federation. Important: All the cruise ships, without an exception, have adopted the unfortunate policy of disinformation by telling their passengers that the Russian visa is not required, provided they have purchased and participate only in tours organized by the cruise ship. This is categorically wrong, and all the cruise lines know this well, but they “count on the ignorance and trust of their passengers”, as one of our past customer explained it to us. The cruise ships contract all their shore excursions in St. Petersburg with a local licensed tour operator, just as DenRus, and their chosen company does not have any monopoly status for processing the cruise visas.

For the official statement by the Consulate of the Russian Federation in San Francisco regarding Tourist Visas, for those wishing to enter Russia, independently without booking a tour, visit the Consulate's web page.

The USA Consul General’s Office website in St. Petersburg, Russia. If you have any additional questions about the cruise visa issue, please, contact our office at: denrus@denrus.ru

If you wish to see the city alone, or visit local friends, etc. – without our guide – then you need a Russian Tourist Visa. DenRus is happy to help you to support your application, just tell us about your plans.

After confirmation you will be able to print out the Tour Tickets

Please, do not worry about your visit to St.Petersburg. "DenRus" is the company authorized to organize and handle the private tours for foreign visitors on non-visa basis. That means, we issue the so-called "Russian Cruise visa" for all participants of a tour, previously discussed. The Immigration Control is informed in advance by "DenRus (St.Petersburg)" about number of people, their personal data (including citizenship, which may be any country - US, Australia, UK, China, etc.) and a program of a tour.

After getting the order with the passport data, we post the Tour Tickets in their order history. These Tour Tickets will be your personal permits to pass through the Immigration Control. The Tour Tickets should be presented to the Immigration Officers together with your passports every time you embark and disembark the ship. The Immigration Officers will give you Migration Cards as well. Our company representative will be staying right after the Immigration Control, holding the “DenRus” sign.

The only restriction is that the group cannot go on their own, as according to non-visa-basis the visitors of the country are to be supervised by the company representative.

Throughout all 15 years of DenRus existence, no passenger missed the ship. We bring our clients about 1 hour before the ship departures. We take full responsibility for bringing you to the ship in time.

We always arrange itinerary taking into account the museums' days off. If there is a day off, we shift the visit to the next or previous day. All our programs (Group or Private) are designed, taking into consideration the museums days off.

Yes, this is absolutely true, and quite often these lines already start outside in he court yard of the palaces and museums. However, there are ways and means, how DenRus arrangements will save your limited time. Even for individual passengers DenRus always pre-books a scheduled entry time to the venues. This does not cost you anything extra, and the venues honor these arrangements. However, it sometimes happens that the venues cannot deliver, what they have confirmed, and there may be a delay of 10-30 minutes, which DenRus cannot help. This happens especially on rainy days, and on days when there are more than three cruise ships in the port simultaneously. It is always recommended that the passengers keep up the original schedule as planned, since missing your time slot will move you to the end of the line. Another possibility is to schedule your entry earlier than the official opening hours. This is called “early admission” and the venues may charge an additional fee for this benefit. It must be noted that some local St. Petersburg tour operators promote that they can arrange early openings, giving the impression that the entire museum is empty, and totally reserved for their tourists. If you fall into this trap, you’ll be shocked to see that there are hundreds, if not thousands “early admission tourists” at the same time in the same museum, where you were thinking of being alone. DenRus can always arrange an “early opening” if you request that. DenRus can also arrange a “special opening” (on a day the museum is officially closed), if you request that.

Handicapped cruise passengers are welcomed to participate in all the Private Custom Tours, for instance evening Ballet and Folkloric Shows, private Car Rental, but unfortunately we cannot accommodate handicapped passengers on our Deluxe Group Tours. We at DenRus pay a special attention to our handicapped guests, and we have accumulated a huge collection of thank you letters fr om our handicapped tourists. We can arrange any kind of a special transportation needed to accommodate for instance wheel chairs. Some of the venues have lifts, some do not, some have ramps, some do not, in certain places the toilets are too narrow and do not allow wheelchairs to enter, in some places this problem has been corrected. DenRus is the specialist in our city, and we know all these problem areas, and we create the programs accordingly. If you are handicapped and you ask DenRus to create your special program, all these details, related to your final itinerary, are explained, negotiated and decided during the preceding correspondence between our staff and our passengers.

You don't need to obtain Russian rubles in advance – as it is difficult to know how much you would need, most probably you will not need them at all! The thing is that all the souvenir shops, as well as the street vendors are happy to accept USD or other foreign currency (although unofficially!). You may need Russian rubles only to pay for a soft drink/ice cream (many souvenir shops also accept credit cards). But certainly your guide will be most helpful - she will take you to one of the ATM if needed.

Multiport Discounts:

• Book group tours in the Baltic Region with one of the St. Petersburg’s tours - get a special price for group tours in the Baltic Region.
• Book private tours in the Baltic Region with one of the St. Petersburg’s tours - get a 5% discount for the second port.

Children Discounts

• For children from 5 to 12 years DenRus provides 10% discount.

If you know the name of your ship and the dates of you ships stay, then you are very welcome to place an order for one of our Group Tours or our Custom Tours Manager will send you an individual payment link. If you have your passport ready – please enter the passport information according to the instructions You may also place an order without passport information and enter it later. But please note that we can issue your Tour Tickets only after you entered you passport information.

It all depends on

• A) what St. Petersburg sites do you wish to see, your own selection of special venues, or the seven most famous and popular “must” sites;
• B) do you want to travel only with your own family and friends, or would you mind being a member in a small group of maximum 30, but quite often substantially less people?

The difference is that Custom Tour is totally your own individual VIP-type touring opportunity including a program which you have personally created and approved. The “Complete St. Petersburg” is a limited size group tour, created by DenRus experts, which includes all the major sites of St. Petersburg (you do not need to think nor worry about what to include). It has a preset itinerary and you cannot request any additions, nor modifications to it.

Cancellations received more than 5th business days before your scheduled arrival in the Baltic cities, where you hold a DenRus tour reservation: For all cancellations received not later than 5th business days prior to your scheduled arrival in any of the Baltic cities, where you are holding a reservation on a DenRus tour, will have no cancellation charge at all. You shall receive a 100% refund in full.

After you book and pay the tour we will get a link with your tour ticket. Following the link you can print the ticket. Please kindly advise us if you have any difficulties to print the tickets out.

Our website is based on the American platform and is very secure to place the order. On our website we have an american payment system called Sage that is very save. The charge will show on your credit card account as having been made by RAHIM Group, Inc. our Florida based American parent company. This way we guarantee that there will be no foreign currency exchange rates, and the charge will be exactly the same amount in USA dollars as originally quoted.

DenRus payments are all processed through American bank, based in Florida, USA. Security of personal data is provided by American system, related to the bank. This is the way to guarantee, there are no any currency exchange rates or additional fees to the originally quoted price in US dollars. You pay exactly the same amount as you see while booking any DenRus tour. 

Many people prefer paying for their tours in advance, prior to their arrival to St Petersburg. That can be done in several ways:

A. PAYMENT BY CREDIT CARD ON-LINE (VIA THE WEBSITE SHOPPING CART):

We do except different credit cards:

•  Visa; 
  
•  MasterCard; 
  
•  American Express;

After the booking your tour you will be forwarded to the Sage payment system and will be charged immidiatly. 

B. PAYMENT BY CHECK DRAWN ON A USA BANK:

•  By Personal Check: You may make a payment by a personal check, provided the check has been received minimum of 10 days prior to your scheduled cruise departure;
•  By Certified Check or Bank Draft: In case the payment will be made by a Bank Draft, or a Certified Check, the check should be received not later than 10 days prior to your cruise departure.

All checks must be mailed to our American Parent Company and to be made payable to them:

DENRUS TOURS Inc
43 BURNING BUSH DRIVE
PALM COAST,
FL 32137
   
Note: Make the check payable to: DENRUS TOURS, Inc.

1) The Ship’s Practices upon arrival in St. Petersburg.
Everything we are reporting below is related only to the arrival in St. Petersburg (not in the other Baltic ports), and it is based on the reports and feedback received from our past arriving passengers. We also update the information as soon as it changes. First of all, needless to say, all cruise lines have different practices. We have been told that some ships do, some do not, make any public announcements about the fact, that the ship has been cleared by the local authorities, and the passengers are now free to disembark. So, please, do not sit in your cabin, or stare through the window of the breakfast room, waiting for this announcement, since it may never come. As mentioned above, you are recommended to have an early breakfast, and then get ready for disembarkation as soon as you are allowed, normally about 1h 30 minutes after the ship’s official scheduled arrival time.

2) For All Custom Tour participants.
If you have requested an early morning tour starting time, as most of our guests do, it is our strong recommendation, that you would gather all the members of your family or private party/group inside the ship, ready to go, and then disembark together, as a group, when you are allowed to disembark. If you have personally requested a specific later starting time (many wheelchair passengers often do so, so do families with elderly or children), for instance your Custom Tour to start at 09:00 AM, or 10:00 AM, then you could have it more relaxed, since all the ship’s tours have normally been dispatched by 9:00 AM, and there should be less crowding inside the terminal. Based on our years of experience, if your starting time is for instance, 9:00 AM we would recommend that you’d disembark at 8:40 AM. Now, Custom Tour members can ignore the section 3) below, and go directly to: 4) All Passengers Must Present the Following Documents at the Immigration".

3) For All “DeLuxe Group Tour” participants for instance “2-days Complete St. Petersburg”, "2-days Explore St. Petersburg", “3-days Complete St. Petersburg”, and others. “Complete St. Petersburg” is a Deluxe group tour which has an official starting time of about 1 hour after the scheduled arrival time of your ship, but it can start earlier for those who disembark first. DenRus vans are filled and depart first come, first depart as tour members disembark. Those disembarking later will be assigned to later vans, which will depart as soon as filled.

Each person, husband and wife separately, and all others as well, should carry and present their own documents independently and separately unless a small child accompanying a parent. Holding and presenting your own documents speeds up the processing. Every cruise passenger is expected to present these 2 documents:
— Your valid Passport. Your identity will be checked. The passport will be stamped usually on the last page, and then returned to you.
— DenRus Tour Ticket. You will show it only as a proof of having prepaid, and pre-purchased a confirmed space in a guided shore excursions program operated by DenRus. Important: Please, if you have printed your tickets on a large page, cut them out and distribute them so that each person has his/her own to hold and to present. It happens too often that the group leader with the tickets goes through the inspection first, and then other members will follow without tickets. A passenger without a ticket will not be allowed through the passport inspection. It happens too often that a group leader, already comfortably sitting in the van, has been called back to the Immigration to prove that there was a sufficient number of tickets for each member of the family or a group.

It is understood that the guides and drivers are pleased to receive tips in whatever currency they are given. In brief - and needless to say, they appreciate any tips, in USD, even in Euros or English Sterling Pounds. The currency does not matter at all. What matters is naturally the amount. The average basic for a full day (8 hour tour) has been $15-20 per person per each day for the guide, and about $8-10 per person for the driver. These have been average standards, and if the passenger appreciated their service they paid more, or less if they were not pleased. The tipping is normally done at the end of the entire program. Again - all this is naturally subject to the good service rather than charity. You should be totally satisfied before you tip, and even then use a scale to show your satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The driver's tipping is normally 50% of the guide's tips.

As soon as you have passed through the Passport Control booth, and entered the arrivals hall of the terminal building, you shall find our DenRus port representative team holding large size signs, and waiting for you in the arrivals hall of the terminal. They may be wearing blue jackets. As soon as you have announced your presence, identified yourself and your entire party to our agent, you will be escorted to your waiting car, introduced to your local guide and driver, and without any further delay your tour shall start. If you have your own Private Custom Tour, it is recommended that your entire group would check-in and report together to our representative. If you are participating in any of our Deluxe Group Tour, you may be asked to wait for a few minutes until the your van has reached its minimum number of participants. For ships docking on the Neva River embankment there is no actual terminal building, just a floating small hut, housing the Passport Control booths. You will walk to this house along a long pier, and after the clearance you must continue along a short bridge to the embankment, where our DenRus agents will receive you. You shall see their DenRus signs from far away.

DenRus tours follow the internationally accepted scheduling of comfort stops at maximum of three (3) hours intervals. However, our guides at the service of their guests, and they arrange restroom stops whenever requested.