Boating on the Neva and the Gulf of Finland is a romantic, safe and relatively inexpensive holiday, especially if you rent a boat for the whole company…
Petersburg is riddled with dozens of water arteries, moving along which you can view the sights from unusual angles. That is why excursions on motor ships are popular in the Northern capital. Such trips are very comfortable, but they also have disadvantages. Perhaps the main one is that you have to look at the city through windows, which hides the brightness of impressions. This minus is deprived of walks on boats. They allow you to feel movement and fresh wind, to see architectural masterpieces not through glass, but live. Today, boat rental in St. Petersburg is experiencing rapid development. Below we present a brief overview of the types of recreation in the Northern capital on small boats.
Rental prices: https://www.sputnik8.com/en/st-petersburg/category/arenda-katera
Classic boat trips
This category includes group trips on small boats along generally accepted excursion routes. If you go hiking with a company of 3-6 people, the cost of renting a boat will be noticeably less. An hour walk along the Neva starts from 7-8 thousand rubles, respectively, the costs for each participant of the tour will be 1.5-2 thousand rubles. The most popular routes are cruises along the Neva from the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island to the Winter Palace, trips along the Moika and Fontanka rivers, as well as evening walks to watch the bridges being raised. There are also long-distance water routes, for example, to Kronstadt and along the picturesque corners of the Gulf of Finland. Such trips take 6 hours or even more, but when renting a boat for a long time, travel agencies give discounts.
Riding on a speed boat
Fans of fast driving prefer trips along the Neva on swift bowriders. We are talking about high-speed boats with open areas for passengers at the bow or stern. Depending on the model, it can accommodate from 6 to 9 people. Traveling on a bowrider is in no small measure an attraction that causes an adrenaline rush from speed, turns and powerful splashes. At the same time, at intermediate points on the route, the boat slows down and tourists can safely see the sights at a slow pace. Renting a speed boat costs one and a half or even two times more than usual, since an experienced captain must be at the helm, and a powerful motor consumes much more fuel than a standard one.
Hiking on individual routes
Many travel agencies offer tourists trips on a free program. In this case, the route points are chosen by the passengers themselves. Of course, it is necessary to go on such a trip as a close-knit company in which there are no disagreements. But the advantages of cruises on individual routes are obvious. At the request of the passengers, the captain will send the boat to any point in St. Petersburg where there are water arteries and where boats running along standard lines usually do not go. Most of the captains who take tourists on personal routes willingly offer tourists unusual routes. Therefore, even if passengers do not know St. Petersburg, they will definitely see something unusual on individual cruises.
Rent a boat without a captain
Perhaps the most interesting option boat trips on St. Petersburg reservoirs is an independent management of a rented watercraft. It is noteworthy that to rent a boat without a captain, you do not need to complete navigation courses at all. The instructor can teach the basics of controlling a motor boat during the excursion itself. If someone from the company already has experience in driving a boat, you can safely rent it and hit the road along an arbitrary route. To do this, you will have to present your passport and leave the travel agency a certain amount of collateral (about 10 thousand rubles). The cost of an hour and a half rental of a boat in the “without a captain” mode starts from 5 thousand rubles.