This was our itinerary for the trip to Russia and the Baltic States tour:
May 7 - San Diego to St Petersburg Russia
Alex Golovko was our tour director for the entire trip. Professional, extremely competent and knowledgeable, Alex met us at the airport and was with us the entire trip, herding a flock of 44 Americans through many sights and cities for two weeks.
May 8 - 10 - St. Petersburg, Russia
Pribaltiyskaya Hotel
May 11 - 13 - Moscow, Russia
Cosmos Hotel
May 14 - Minsk, Belarus
Hotel Belarus
May 15 - 16 - Vilnius, Lithuania
Holiday Inn, Vilnius
May 17 - 18 - Riga, Latvia
Islande Hotel
May 19 - Tallinn, Estonia
Tallink Hotel (formerly the Best Western, Tallink)
May 20 - 21 - Helsinki, Finland
Hotel Radisson SAS Royal
The tour was presented by Grand European Tours (website: http://www.getours.com).
Based on our experience for this tour, we would recommend this company to anyone who wants a thorough sampling of any area. The pace was excellent - not too fast, but never boring. The city tours were presented by licensed local tour guides, were passionate and very informative. Periodically, after Alex provided a short bus trip overview of an area, we were given instructions about how to safely navigate from our hotel to the town center or another interesting place we might like to explore on our own.
The ages of our group ranged from roughly the middle 50s to middle 70s; and, with the exception of one, all were capable of walking reasonable distances and cobbled streets and keeping up with the pace of the others. The one member who couldn't keep up was a misfortune. He shouldn't have scheduled himself for this, or any other, tour. He wasn't aggreeable to the group experience, at the outset; and when he quickly learned that he didn't have enough lung power to walk from the bus to the hotel, he became increasingly demanding of all the other members - especially of the tour director. Thanks to the professionalism and experience of our tour director, this member's inability to stay with the tour was only a little inconvenience to the group as a whole.
Our group was composed of both singles and couples, and people migrated into like-minded groups. Our favorites consisted of two couples just a little older than us, with similar goals and family values, plus a group of women who were traveling alone or with friends. Among the singles, a few were traveling alone without their spouses, two were mother-daughter combinations, and others were widows.
It was amazing that a group of 44 people, most unknown to each other (except for married couples) before this trip, traveled so well together.
This tour will definitely set the standard by which we will judge any other tour we take!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment