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My husband and I will be visiting a number of Baltic countries beginning next week. As part of our travel plans we will be taking a short cruise from Finland to Russia. I believe we do not need a visa if we are taking a pre-arranged cruise tour from the ship. But if we plan to get off the boat to independently explore we need a visa. I was recently told that a passport and ship's boarding pass are considered legal documentation if the visit is less than 72 hours and a visa is not needed. Does anyone know if this is true or not? I'm getting conflicting information on this. Thanks.

I believe you are correct, that you need a visa if you are not part of a paid shore excursion from the ship.

This is from a Visit Russia website:

We are going to Saint Petersburg, on our own, at the end of August. We are flying to Helsinki, and then taking the train. It took a little over 3 weeks to get our visas. Our application was held up, because I did not put our full middle names on the visa application. You can get a visa quicker, but you will pay a lot extra for expedited processing. Good luck. Jim

Instead of our cruise ship's shore excursions, we booked a 2-day private tour for four people with SPB Tours. It is a licensed tour company and it is outstanding. We had a private driver and tour guide and it was cheaper than if we had booked separate tours through the ship.
Here's a link:
http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en/node

I booked with SPB after reading numerous positive reports online.

Karen