If you are on a cruise and have a stop in Saint-Petersburg you do not need to go to the Russian Consulate in your own country beforehand. Book your shore excursion with us and we will provide you with a special type of a visa, a tour ticket.
Cruise passengers may disembark from the ship without a tourist visa only if they participate on tours organized by a local company authorized for issuing a special "tour ticket" valid for the disembarking!!! Lentina Travel Company is fully authorized for that.
Surely on cruise there are some tours on sale but the prices are really high especially if you want to buy an individual tour. Don't hesitate to contact us and we'll be happy to work out a shore tour according to your request and it will be a lot cheaper then the tours they offer on the ship.
If you choose to book your shore tour with us you don't need visas, we will prepare them for you free of charge! We will provide you with special tour tickets which allow you to pass through the immigration control without any problems. To prepare the tour tickets we need the following information:
- Full name as stated in passport
- Date of birth stated as dd/mm/yyyy
- Passport number
- Citizenship
- Passport expiration date
At the immigration office in St. Petersburg port you have to show:
- passport
- tour ticket which we provide you with
We will meet you as soon as you pass the passport control. Your guide will be waiting for you inside the cruise port terminal holding a sign with a logo of Lentina Travel and your name so it should be easy to find us. Your car or tour bus will be parked just outside the port terminal.
If you can't find your tour guide inside the port terminal please contact us immediately by cell +7 921 7477815 or whatsapp or skype: lentina.travel and we'll help you right away!
Limitations of the special cruise visas:
The tour tickets that we provide are limited compared to regular Russian visas
- you can stay in St. Petersburg for no longer than 72 hours
- they only let you be in St. Petersburg following a confirmed tour itinerary that has to be approved by the port's passport control office. This means you can return to the ship earlier than planned if you like but it might not be possible to arrange an evening activity if you decide you want to do it on the tour day. The tour tickets that we provide you with contain the information about the start time and end time of your tour itinerary for each day in St. Petersburg. If the tour ticket states that you start at 9.00 am and return at 5.00 pm, the passport control won't let you off the ship after your return so if you decide to go to a folk show or a ballet performance, we have to put in your tour tickets that you are going to disembark the ship twice in one day. We prepare the tour tickets well in advance, the passport control approves the tour itineraries about 4-6 days prior to the ships arrival to port. We can't change any information in your tour tickets after it has been approved by the port's immigration office.
- you have to be accompanied by a tour guide or local tour company's representative at all times while in St. Petersburg. That is why special cruise visas don't allow you to wonder in the city on your own, even if you have been to St. Petersburg before and know it well.
- you have to get back to the ship at night. In general you have to be back on board of the ship around 11.00 pm or 12.00 am if you return from a theater. You can't stay in a hotel while your ship is docked in St. Petersburg.
Please keep in mind, that local taxi companies do not have permission to get into the passenger cruise port, there is only one company that has special agreement with the port and it charges a lot. Usually people get to the passenger terminal by a public bus, which is cheap, but it is an option only if you are accompanied by our tour guide or have regular Russian tourist visa.
Note, that in 7 years that we operate, our tourists never had a single problem disembarking the ship or groing through immigration. No one was ever late back to their ship either. We take our responsibilities very seriously and always arrange the tour itinerary according to your ship's arrival and departure schedule.
Special visas for passengers of ferry boats (Princess Anastasia)
If you come to St. Petersburg on a ferry, they will provide you with the special visas on board of the ferry. The service is not free, they require some fee for it (25 euros per person in 2020), but since local tour companies are not allowed to provide special visas to the passengers of ferry boats, it is the only option.
If you come to St. Petersburg on a ferry, you don't need to send us your passport information, only the name of the hotel where you have decided to stay.
Tourists who come to St. Petersburg on a ferry have to find an accommodation in the city. We can include hotel accommodation in the tour package for you if you like. You may also save a lot of time on planning and research if you book our visa-free Helsinki to St. Petersburg all inclusive tour package.
Countries that have visa-free regime with Russia
If you are a citizen of one of the countries you see below, you don't need any visa to come to St. Petersburg at all! Therefore special cruise visas' limitation do not apply to you. The countries are:
Azerbaijan, Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Venezuela, Guatemala, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Colombia, Cuba, Macedonia, Moldova, Nicaragua, Peru, Serbia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Uruguay, Montenegro, Chile, Ecuador
