Hello,

It was my first time visiting Russia. I traveled with my girlfriend, who grew up there. Before the trip she warned me that things might not go well in Russia but, to her own surprise, everything went amazingly smoothly. Russia Travel Group made us feel very comfortable from the moment they picked us up to when they dropped us off at the airport. At every turn : at the hotels, train stations, during the guided tours, RTG people were helpful, attentive, informative and friendly. They were very flexible with our schedule, quickly adapting to whatever we chose to do.
Natasha, our tour coordinator, checked-in with us every step of the way to ensure that our needs were cared for. My girlfriend especially enjoyed the trip to Suzdal. She was also amazed by the luxurious train ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow. As for myself, I was most impressed by Peterhof, with its gardens and fountains.

Thank you so much, Natasha. We will use RTG again, as we plan to go back next year.

Brett and Lena
January 2007

Natalia

Just a quick email to thank you very much for planning such a wonderful trip - we all absolutely loved St Petersburg and Tatiana and Julia were both very helpful and nice! I particularly enjoyed the Hermitage, the Church of the Spilt Blood and the Yusupov Palace!

Hope you had a lovely New Year and are looking forward to Christmas. I will be in touch re planning a summer holiday in the Caucasus / Odessa / etc.

Many, many thanks

Megan Newhouse
December 2006 - January 2007

Hi Olga,

I would like to thank you for all your help and I am sorry we could not book more tours with you. However, I will certainly recommend you to all people who are travelling to Russia and let them know about the services you provide.

Andy
December 2006

Dear Natalia!

Thank you for your service! It was excellent! I haven’t seen the group yet, our reunion will be in December, but I know from Anastasia it all went very well. Thank you very much and thank you for the chocolate! I am sure I will like it as long as it is from Russia!

Best regards,

Olga Batova
November 2006

Hello,
thank you for everything, we had a fantastic time. Of course Sergey was our favorite driver and Natasha in Moscow was our favorite guide. Everything was as planned and we all loved it. We wished we had more time in Moscow. Tell Sergey that strong beer was very good as was the vodka.  I will keep in touch with you and if you ever want to visit the
States please let me know and perhaps you could stay with us. Thanks again for all,

Love,

Patrick, Dawn and Ceili
July 2006

Hi Natalya --- we did really enjoy our trip to Moscow --- I have just sent your contact to my daughter-in-law's sister in London, who will be visiting Moscow and St. Petersberg in late August with her husband --- Cherie and Trem. Our guide Olga was excellent as was Serg our driver, and we were very pleased that they were both nonsmokers --- a small thing but we hadn't thought of it before we left. We were a little disappointed with the tour to Kolomenske -- I particularly wanted to see the replica of the wooden building with all the many dome's and was very unhappy that the replica was only a model and not a full size building.The City tour was excellent as was the Kremlin and Armoury. As it is a long time travelling for us -- two days -- it would have been better with a day to recover before starting the tours, but that is something I can orgnize better the next time. On the whole we were pleased and would probably use your company again.
 
Regards, Margaret
July 2006

Hi Natalya
 
we just got back from our holiday yesterday. Just wanted to write a quick note to say thank you for organising some fantastic days trips for us. It was great having the pick up from the airport and would strongly advise it to anyone thinking of visiting Russia. Our guide in Moscow was particularly good. Very mature and she knew all her stuff.
 
Thanks, Georgina

July 2006

Maria,

Just wanted to let you know that we are back at home. We had a fantastic vacation - your company planned everything very well, and the entire trip ran very smoothly. We were able to see a great deal of both Moscow and St Petersburg, and we enjoyed the time we spent with our guides and drivers.

Thank you for arranging the Mariinsky tickets - Swan Lake was great! Also, all of our drivers were on time (or early) for everything - very impressive.

Hotel Peking was nice - the renovated double was clean, had a spacious bathroom, and a tv with 2 English speaking channels (BBC and Discovery). Also, the room was soundproof - we did not hear any street or hallway noise. The bed was fine.

Hotel Sovetskaya was ok. We had a little problem checking in initially - they said we had to wait until 2pm (we arrived about 1230pm). When we persisted, they assigned us to a room with 2 twin beds. We asked to be reassigned, and eventually (around 2pm) checked into the business double. Then we found out that the hot water was off until 5pm! We later learned that it is common for areas of the city to be without hot water for periods of time, and after 5pm that day we did not have any more problems with hot water. The room at the Sovetskaya was ok - clean, less space than Peking. TV had BBC and German TV (sometimes in English). There was occassional hall noise, but not too much. The bed was fine. The curtains of the room did not block out the white nights, but we had sleeping masks so we were able to sleep well. The included breakfast was great - lots of food, lots of variety.

All of the guides were very knowledgable and spoke English very well. (I learned a few Russian words, but it was helpful to communicate in English).

Most surprising to me (after reading several guide books), we had no problems at all with Russian customs or immigration - it took us about 25 minutes to enter Russia, and about 5-10 minutes when leaving Russia. Also, (despite what guide books say), during our entire stay we had no problems with any people, police, military, pickpockets, etc. I was pleasantly surprised when a store clerk recognized that an item I was buying rang up too costly - she corrected the mistake and asked for proper amount.

Thank you again for arranging such a wonderful experience for us! We had a fantastic vacation and look forward to telling our friends and family about the wonders of Russia!

Shelly and David Stultz
May - June 2006

Dear Natalia,

Have just returned from St. Petersburg trip and just wanted to tell you how great the visit was. The hotel, tours and tour guides were just wonderful. Everything went like clockwork, nothing went wrong. The English speaking guides were perfect. We will recommend your service to all our friends. Thank you for a great visit.

Ozzie
May 2006

Hi Maria,

I have just returned to Australia now. I was actually on a long holiday after Russia and thats why didn't get a chance to write to you back.
The tour was absolutely fantastic and thank you very much for making this one of my most enjoyable tours.
The hotel in St. Petersburg especially was excellent and the Moscow one was in great location. Tatyana in particular in St. Petersburg was really really good. She was very flexible with times, excellent guide and always tried to accomodate things that will best suit me.
Both drivers in Moscow and St. Petersburg were great...extremely extremely reliable.
Once again thanks for everything and next time I decide to organise another trip in Russia I can assure you will always be my first point of contact. I have already started reccomending your group to my friends for their future russian tours.
Well thanks for everything once again.

Tauseef

Maria,

Our trip went quite well.  We enjoyed it a lot.  The hotels were what we expected from the descriptions.  The Arbat Nord is excellent.  The Ukraine is "Soviet" style, that is, unique.  Both sets of guides and drivers were friendly, accommodating and flexible.  I want to single out Natalia.  We especially liked and appreciated her.  She has unlimited energy, knowledge about Moscow, Russia, art and history and was so enthusiastic in explaining everything to us.  She talked with us, not at us.

Both sets of guides and drivers were flexible, adjusting the schedule to accommodate the times that things were open or closed.  In St.Petersburg, Tania even changed the itinerary on the fly, when we encountered too much traffic.

Never having been to Russia, we didn't really know what to expect. However, everything worked out well.  We saw almost everything we wanted to see.  We were busy all day.

Thanks,
Rich

Hello again Dasha,

We are now safely back in Moscow with our friends and thanks to you we were met right on time at the boat.  My friends are very impressed with you and with how you have looked after us and they have kept your name and number and e-mail for future reference for their own use.

Thank you again for your assistance.

Roger and Barbara Ball, Canada

Dear Maria,

We had a most enjoyable trip; it more than met our expectations. We had never had guides before and were a bit apprehensive about that.

But Natalya and Tatiana were fantastic! Natalya has such a passion for Moscow, it was quite endearing. Her background in art and history were most apparent. She was pleasant and caring and could not have been better. Tatiana was also very well informed and both were very conscious of meeting all of our needs. We would not hesitate to recommend your company and both of our guides.

The trip went without a clitch. It was fabulous.

Deborah

Dear Natasha!

We are safely back in the States! Thank you so very much for your service and excellent organization of our trip. The transfers were all on time and the drivers were all wonderful. Especially Maksim in St.Petersburg. He is the best driver we have ever seen. Thank you for the train and plane tickets and the last minute reservations for the dinner. Everything was wonderful! And mostly thank you for your support with our visas! It was very crucial for our trip!

I will highly recommend your agency to my friends and will gladly use your service in the future!

Olga Batova, USA

Thank you Russia Travel Group. I recently booked a trip to Russia through your agency. The trip was everything I was told it would be and more. I have traveled to other parts of Eastern Europe with other agencies and I must say that my Russia Travel Group experience was much better than with those other agencies.

The trip I went on took me to Moscow and St.Petersburg, and the itinerary was very well thought out. The accommodations were excellent. Me and my wife really enjoyed ourselves taking in the sights of the two capital cities of Russia. If you are planning a trip to Russia, I can wholeheartedly give my recommendation to Russia Travel Group.

sincerely yours,

Keith and Elena Lettow, New York, USA