Two-Day Package Including Jewish Immersion

Two-Day Package Including Jewish Immersion Photo #1 of 2 Photo copyright ShoreTrips.com.

Overview

This tour focuses one day on Jewish culture and history and the other on St. Pete's.

One day of your package will focus on the Jewish history and the current community that exists in St. Petersburg today. You will stop at one of the organizations that run social, educational, and welfare programs in the city, either Eva, Adain Lo or Yesod. Connected to these organizations is the second largest synagogue in Europe, the Choral Synagogue, which is the heart of the religious life here. Located in the neighborhood called Kolomna, it is where you will visit this property and meet with the Rabbi, the Cantor or a local Jew to understand life here today for the Jewish population.

You will find yourself touring inside the Hermitage for a 2-hour guided tour where you will visit a series of rooms containing over 3,000,000 artworks including paintings by Da Vinci, Rafael, Monet, Rembrandt and Renoir. The Baroque Winter Palace is a background of patterned parquet floors, ornate staircases, molded, decorated ceilings. The Winter Palace is exquisite and it is suggested that though you may see paintings by some of the artists in the collection in other cities, you are unlikely to see a building such as this.

A second day of touring highlights the general sightseeing that everyone craves.

Enjoy a narrated drive to the suburbs of St. Petersburg: to the south to see the Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin) and to the west to Peterhof, passing Stalinera buildings, modern residential apartments and dachas (country houses). This comprehensive full day tour gives you a unique opportunity to admire the most splendid palace and park ensembles of the 18th century that belonged to the Russian tsars.

On the way to the Summer Palace stop by the Holocaust Memorial to pay tribute to thousands of Jews killed in the town of Pushkin by the nazi during the WWII. Catherine Palace – Designed by Rastrelli, the ornate Baroque Palace is over 1,000 feet long and features an ornate blue facade. Gold onion domes crown the palace’s north end, and the site of the chapel. Your tour visits the White Vestibule, Grand Hall, the Amber Room, the Portrait Hall, the Crimson Pilaster Room and more. Alternatively, you will visit Palace of Paul (Pavlovsk), another masterpiece of the 18 c. located nearby. The ensemble’s fame rests on the splendor of its interiors and great art collection as well as on the beauty of one of the largest landscape parks in Europe. Admire elegant rooms of the Emperor Paul I and charming, rather than grand, rooms of his wife Maria.

On the way to Peterhof you will have a chance to try traditional Russian cuisine in a local restaurant. Peterhof Park – Travel to another former summer Imperial residence. Set in magnificent parks, Peterhof is reminiscent of Versailles. It was almost completely destroyed by the Nazis in World War II, but has been restored to its full splendor. The parks are dotted with countless fountains, charming pavilions and summer houses.

If the weather permits we provide a complimentary Hydrofoil trip to/from Peterhof. The hydrofoil is a safe and fast boat which rises above the surface of the water. The trip takes 30 minutes.

This excursion is a non-visa tour for cruise ship passengers. According to Russian Federation law, visas are not required for shore excursions if you book through companies that are officially licensed and authorized by the Russian government to receive foreign cruise passengers and to operate inside St. Petersburg port areas. We will supply you with the tour ticket, called a blanket visa or booking confirmation, which you will pass to the customs/immigration offices. Due to the length of time needed to acquire these tour tickets, we ask that you please MAKE YOUR BOOKING NO LESS THAN 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE DAY YOU LEAVE HOME. Thank you.

We will need the following information at the time of booking: Each passenger's full name as it appears in their passport; Citizenship; Date of birth; Passport number; Passport issue date; Passport expiration date; Arrival date into St. Petersburg; Departure date from St. Petersburg.

Any information forwarded to ShoreTrips that is necessary to obtain a visa must be exact. We will pass on a $10 processing fee if corrections are necessary after we receive the visa. This is a per person fee, charged for each visa that requires changes.

This tour includes standard admission to all museums listed in the itinerary, guide's services for 2 days, driver's services for 2 days, car or minivan (Mercedes), permit for photo and/or video use in palaces and museums, and all port fees.

Lunch is included on day 2 only.

Gratuity is not included. We suggest a 10% gratuity to your guide and 5% to your driver.

- Museums are closed one day a week, usually Monday, Wednesday or Friday. The days of touring will accommodate those restrictions. Therefore you may do the Highlights Tour on the first day, the Jewish Immersion on the second day.
- VERY IMPORTANT: YOU MUST BRING YOUR RUSSIAN TOURIST TICKETS (BLANKET VISA) WITH YOU AS WELL AS YOUR SHORETRIPS TRAVEL VOUCHER OR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROGRAM. IF YOU FAIL TO BRING THESE THERE ARE NO REFUNDS.

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU OPEN YOUR RUSSIAN TOURIST TICKETS ON A LAPTOP OR REGULAR COMPUTER AS MOST SMART PHONES OR TABLETS DO NOT SUPPORT PDF FORMAT AND YOU WILL SEE THEM BLANK.

You are not able to move around St. Petersburg alone. Your blanket visa requires you to travel only with a guide.

SHORETRIPS WILL SEND YOUR BLANKET VISA AFTER THE BOOKING IS CONFIRMED. THIS IS A DIFFERENT DOCUMENT THAN YOUR PRE-PAID VOUCHER, AND YOU MUST HAVE A PRINTOUT OF YOUR TRAVEL TICKET/BLANKET VISA BEFORE YOU DEPART. If you cancel your trip after the travel tickets have been issued, a $75 per person fee will be charged.

Some of the museums may be closed on certain days. We will substitute another appropriate venue when this happens. The Hermitage Museum is closed on Mondays, Catherine Palace and the Amber Room are closed on Tuesdays, and The Church of Spilt Blood is closed on Wednesdays.

The Treasure Gallery, has 2 sections. The first, called the Gold Rooms has works from Eurasia, the Black Sea Littoral in antiquity, and the Orient. It consists of around 1,500 works made from gold and dating from the 7th century B.C. to the 19th century A.D. The main idea of the second section, which is called the Diamond Rooms, is to show the development of the jeweler's craft over the course of mankind's many centuries of history from the third millennium B.C. to the start of the 20th century. THE DURATION OF EACH OPTIONAL ADD ON IS 1 HOUR. THIS MEANS THAT IF YOU BOOK THE GOLD ROOM OR THE DIAMOND ROOM, YOU WILL SPEND LESS TIME AT THE HERMITAGE MUSEUM SEEING PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES, ETC.

If you would like to visit the Gold or Diamond Room, please book it during check out. Please note that it is the same price if there is one person in your party or 9 people, as it is a charter rate, not per person. If you are unsure of how to book it please contact ShoreTrips. This extra fee is charged by the museum for a pre-arranged visit.

RESERVATIONS FOR THE GOLD ROOM AND/OR DIAMOND ROOM IN THE HERMITAGE MUST be booked by the 15th of the month PREVIOUS to your visit. No reservations will be accepted after that date.

If you wish to add an evening activity, such as a theater performance, a folkloric show, a boat trip, or even a typical Russian dinner experience, please choose one from the add-on options.

Days offered: 7 days a week

Departures:

• 09:00 AM, duration: 16 hours