Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
The cruise line will tell you this to try and push their tours, but if you have a pre-arranged tour with a licensed operator that works as well. It also saved us hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and we had a smaller group, so got to see more stuff.
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Definitely avoid the cruise line's tours whenever possible, but my point was you can't leave the ship and explore on your own. You have to be part of a tour group to avoid getting a visa.
When we went, the private tours were not yet an option IIRC. But now as I understand it, you can do those and you may get a little free time to roam but you're still generally herded around. I just can't stand that. We went to the Winter Palace which was beautiful but the crowds and the lines were awful.