Below are some Testimonials of our Customers who we helped to book Red October St Petersburg Tours

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Mike, 

My friends and I have just returned from our Baltic Cruise and I am thrilled to tell you that the highlight of our visit was St. Petersburg.         Red October service was outstanding!  Our guide Helen was incredibly articulate, knowledgeable and patient – we asked so many questions and she took the time to answer each one. Our driver Andrew was polite and very friendly. 

We only had 2 days and Red October was outstanding in cramming as much into our agenda as we could physically manage.  Mike, thank you for your attention to detail as we planned the trip and ensuring we had the best guide. Your company is first class and I have already recommended your services to my friends and colleagues.

Please feel free to include my note amongst your customer testimonials. 

Best regards,

Denise – Baltic Cruise – Star Princess August 4-5, 2010

 desouza_denise@hotmail.com

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Hi Mike,

This is long overdue and I’ve written this mentally so many times that I actually thought I had sent you a previous note – but don’t see it in my “Sent” folder so must not have.  All 28 or us cannot thank you enough for the wonderful Red October Tour you helped arrange.  Everything you said would happen – happened.  The quality of the buses was fabulous and comfortable – the meal in St. Petersburg couldn’t have been any better – the tour itself was perfect and covered everything – the headsets made it so easy to hear -- but most importantly – the Guides were UNBELIEVABLE!!  All 3 were “Helen’s” but they all had such an incredible knowledge of the history and facts of the area we were all blown away.  Outstanding of the 3 was Elena Lyapakina.  She was upbeat and happy and so incredibly helpful all the time.  She joined us the second day when one of the other guides Aunt passed away and she could not do the second day.  We were very fortunate to have Elena join us.

Thank you Mike, for all you did to set this trip up so expertly.  You are definitely right that Red October is the Cadillac of tour companies. I hope to use you again many times in the future.

 Dale

 Dale Davis

President/Owner

Treat Yourself Travel

Phone/Fax:  407-251-4741

E-Mail:  Dale@TreatYourselfTravel.com

Website:  www.treatyourselftravel.com

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Hello Mike —

Just wanted to let you know we really enjoyed our tours in Berlin and St. Petersburg!  The guides and drivers were always on time, and very polite, knowledgeable and responsive to our questions and needs.  We were particularly impressed with the way our SPB guide (Marina) managed to cut to the front of every line—saving valuable time.  She also managed the ticket pick-up for our Kirov Ballet performance while we had dinner.

I will definitely recommend Red October to anyone considering a trip to the Baltic.  And one day, we hope to tour Moscow too. 

Sincerely, 

Jerry Wiese

Johns Creek, GA

jerry@pointedvd.com

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Irina, 

Both the Kovich's and the White's want to thank you for a great 2 day tour in Russia. You were so educational, entertaining, and made the 2 days very special. Your city was magnifient. We will never forgot the sites you showed us. The weather was great, and so were you! We certainly will recommend you to any of our friends who go to Russia.  

Also, I am copying Mike Finn, as well. He did a great job putting together the info and all the preplanning. 

On behalf of us all:  Spaseba and Dosvidan!!! 

The Kovich's and the White'

sronald.kovich1@gmail.com

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Dear Mike, 

Our group totally enjoyed the 2 day tour in St. Petersburg!

It is a beautiful and interesting city.

Our guide (Elena Lyapakina) was outstanding.

 I will certainly send my cruise clients in your direction.

Thank you!

Dear Red October,

My family & I just returned from a 10-day visit to the Baltic’s and I have to say that our tour of St. Petersburg was the highlight of our trip.  We were the first off the cruise ship (no problems at all!) at 7:30am, breezed right through passport control, and were met by our guide and driver.

Tanya was fabulous, as was our driver (unfortunately I don’t remember his name)!  Her knowledge of the area and of the sights that we saw was amazing.  We saw everything we wanted to and more!  Thank you for providing such an excellent service!  I will, without hesitation, recommend your company to friends and colleagues who are planning to visit the area. 

Wishing you continued success!

Noreen Berger

Raleigh, North Carolina

noreenberger@att.net

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Mike

Our group of 8 individuals used Red October to tour St Petersburg 7-9 July 2010.  Our tour guide was Catherine Kuralesina and our van driver was Igor.  We engaged the service of Red October after two separate recommendations from friends who used the service last year.  Based on the glowing recommendations, our expectation for excellence was high, and that's exactly what we received!  Catherine was the perfect tour guide for our group.  She was exceptionally professional, considerate, and courteous during all three days.  She provided a staggering amount of detail about the city, the Tzars and their families, art, Russian culture and a multitude of other related information.  We marveled at her knowledge and referred to her as our walking encyclopedia of St Petersburg.  We affectionately called her Catherine "The Greatest", because she was so good at her job.

 Catherine was complemented by Igor who was careful in his driving and always found the right spots to drop us off and pick us up at the various sightseeing places.  This enabled us to optimize our time seeing important aspects of the city. 

We unanimously agreed that we received high value for our investment with Red October, and each couple will recommend to friends who travel to St Petersburg to hire your service. 

Thanks for all you did to help arrange the tour. 

Please pass this correspondence to the boss of Catherine and Igor so that he/she will know how pleased we were with both of them.

 Jim Cravens

cravensjb@aol.com

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Hi Mike: 

Just a short note to let you know that Judy Rennison and I have finally returned home after our travels.  We want to thank you so much for all your assistance with our tours! It was a very hot day when we visited Berlin.  Your driver George – picked us up at the ship…he was most informative and lots of fun.  Once in Berlin we picked up the guide Monika – she was also wonderful. As you can imagine, we had a very full day and we were pooped when we returned to the ship.

And what can we say about St. Petersburg?  Anton ( the driver) and Tanya( our guide) were WONDERFUL!. U have never seen so many sights in such a condensed period of time in my life.  Both Anton and Tanya were very in tune with us in terms of when we needed to stop for lunch (for example).  They delivered us to some restaurants we surely would not have ever found o our own and they thankfully joined us so we could learn a little about life in St. Petersburg.

All in all it was an amazing success and we will not hesitate to recommend Red October to anyone we might know who is heading that way!

If it helps to write a more formal letter extolling the virtues of the company in general and Anton and Tanya in particular – let me know and we would be happy to do so.

THANK YOU again for everything….it was an amazing trip made particularly memorable by you and yours. 

One short question – the Gift Shop where we went to pay our bill with Red October.  I think it was the Beriozka Art shop.  Do they have a web site?  Can I order from the web site?  I find I did not bring home quite enough souvenirs for friends.  Let me know and thanks. 

All the best,

Stephanie ( Stevie) Mitchell 

Stevie.Mitchell@telus.net

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Mike,

I wanted to pass along our thanks for the fantastic trip we had to St. Petersburg.  We arrived the morning of June 15th on the Eurodam.  Getting off the ship went very smoothly and we met our guide, Tatiana, outside the immigration office at 7:30 and were off.

First, I have to tell you that my wife wasn't sure about taking a private tour, but after a couple of hours she thought this was the best excursion we had ever been on in our 4 cruises.  The sights of St. Petersburg were fantastic and Tatiana was exceptional.  With two children (12 and 13) she did an outstanding job keeping them engaged and sharing the history and culture of the city.  There is no way we would have left St. Petersburg with as much knowledge or had such a positive experience in city without her.  Thank you Tatiana.

Trying to identify our favorite part of the visit would be impossible as it exceeded all of our expectations.  The Hermitage, Peterhof, and Catherine's Palace though have to rank at the top.

Thanks for all of your efforts in coordinating our visit, it will be large part of our memories from our Baltic Cruise.

Rich Stirm

richs5005@hotmail.com

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Mike:

Today we completed three days of wonderful touring with guide Tanya and driver Dmitri.  We cant say enough good things about them and about Red October.  Tanya is a skilled professional and is courteous and attentive.  She enjoys sharing her substantial knowledge of the city.  She and Dmitri made best use of our time with early admissions, navigating around city traffic and making on the spot adjustments to avoid loss of time.  Tanya was most helpful with suggestions on what to do with our two free days.   

Thank you for preparing an itinerary that wonderfully suited our needs. 

John 

Jpachter@smithpachter.com

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Dear Mike, 

On behalf of our group of 8 who visited SPB on the 19-20 June, 2010 and completed the 2 day tour please accept our grateful thanks for a packed and  well organised tour. Our guide Natasha was a star who guided us through two full eventful days. May I wish you well for the future and I will not hesitate to recommend your company in the future. 

-- Spasiba

Graham Dowling 

ghdowling@sky.com

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To Mike Finn,

Tom & I just want to thank you for all your help in planning our tour of St. Petersberg, Russia (June, 2010). 

We were so fortunate to get Katheryn as our guide. We had a wonderful time and really saw a lot of the city. 

Thanks Mike for helping us with all the documents, we had no trouble at all. 

If you ever have people who are leary of booking a tour that is not through their cruise line we would be happy to put them at ease.

Thanks again,

Tom & Ann Fullenwider

anntom@logical123.net

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Good morning.  Eight of us had the pleasure of touring with Elena in early June (Ron Hyslop’s group from the Eurodam).  She was an exceptional guide and we truly enjoyed her knowledge of history, her enthusiasm, and her ability to guide us through all the venues in such a professional and speedy manner.  It was the highlight of our cruise.

Ana S. Heltsley

Executive Secretary to Court Administrator

Supreme Court of California

350 McAllister Street

San Francisco, CA  94102

Phone:   (415) 865-7010

Email:    ana.heltsley@jud.ca.gov

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Dear Mike,

We just wanted to say thank you vey much for oranising the tour for us. 

We had a fantastic time in St Petersburg and everything went according to plan.  We even got off the ship without any problems and on time! 

Victoria our guide was very very good and very knowledgable about the history and everything to do with St Petersburg. 

We have recommended you to other people on our cruise who are going to do the cruise again next year and we could not praise your company enough on what a fantastic day we had.   

Many thanks again and hopefully we may do the trip again in a few years time and see other delights that St Petersburg has to offer. 

Regards 

Elaine and Bryan Bates (May, 2010)

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Dear Mike Finn,  We arrived in St. Petersburg's port on the Costa Ship "Atlantica" and the two couples of us (who had opted out of the ship's tour and had booked our own tour with Red October USA) were met at the departure point by our Red October guide and driver.  We were the first passengers off after the ship had cleared customs at 9:00am and there waiting was our guide for the day and a better guide we could not have had for se was absolutely excellent and impressively knowledgeable in all periods of Russian history.  The driver and van were of top quality and exceeded our original expectations.

Our shoretime on the Costa cruise was extremely limited  (only one day) therefore Red October did exceptionally well in gearing our tour to exactly what we were most interested in seeing.  We were given a private tour of Catherine's Palace and Amber Room before the opening time, and then a private tour of the Gold Room at the Hermitage.  We stood in NO lines, were admitted to each site with priority treatment and basically we felt like royalty ourselves.   The Yusupov Palace (where Rasputin was poisoned) was very interesting with it's small private theatre, but our favorite site was the beautiful Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral - for these you need an inside tour to appreciate the the full beauty of the structure.  The Hermitage was wonderful and we did enjoy an evening Russian Folkshow with dinner and gypsies!  We can not say enough good things about our shore arrangements processed through Red October USA for everything was wonderful and all schedules operated like clockwork!"   Isabelle Peterson, Baptist Hospital Group, Miami, Florida

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Hello Mike,  We had a great trip to Russia.  Our guide was incredible. Her knowledge of art & history is is also incredible.  Thank you for your help in making the arrangements.

Bill  Darker
Darker's Cottages on Sparrow Lake
1176 Grandview Lodge Rd.  SEVERN  BRIDGE , ON,  P0E 1N0,  CANADA  ph 705-689-1740

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Dear Red October,  On behalf of the group of 12 people who recently toured with Red October  from the Royal Caribbean Ship sailing July 4th. 2009.  I would like to thank you for the amazing tour you put together for us.
 
Elena Pago was a charming and knowledgeable guide.  She kept us enchanted and engaged with her knowledge and stories of the history of Russia.  We all learned so much and had a lot fun.  I really did not think we could pack so much into       2 days but we somehow did.  We have great pictures and of course great memories of this trip. 
 
I would heartly endorse Red October for anyone going on a Baltic Cruise.   I will pass this information on to        the cruise operator that booked this for us.  If anyone needs a recommendation, I would be pleased to provide one       for Red October.  Red October is a professional and knowledgeable tour operator who provided the 12 of us with the     most delightful experience of Russia.
 
Thank you so much, it was a pleasure working with you and with Red October.
 
Dianne Garrels Munro - dbmunro@sympatico.ca

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Hi Mike,  We were part of our group of six that used Red October to tour St. Petersburg last week for two days.               It was wonderful to be able to tour Catherine's Palace and Peter the Great's Palace with them.                                     They were able to open the Palaces to us on the two days they were closed. We didn't have to wait in line to enter         any Church or Museum. My husband had the wonderful experience of being able to take photos in the                  Catherine Palace without any other person being in the room, since he was the first one to wander through the Palace.   One of the highlights of the two days was having lunch with the Russian family. I think we were the only R.O. group      from the Regatta to do this. When I mentioned that I was Jewish, Helen, our guide took us to the Choral Synagogue. Apparently, the ship also was able to tour the two Palaces those two days. I didn't hear any reports from anyone about   the ship's tours, but having only six people in a van had a lot of advantages. I think there were about 35 or so from       the ship who were using Red October. The price for two people is high, but it goes down with four people and further reduces for six. We saw the other groups at lunch the first day and at the Red October Store. Every group had a     personally designed tour which was set up through by Red October in advance. They all seemed to thoroughly enjoy     their tours. We didn't need a Visa because we were using Red October. They sent us tickets to get past immigration      and were waiting five feet from immigration in case of any problem. I would definitely suggest using Red October           to anyone planning to visit St. Petersburg.  Max

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Dear Red October,   Thanks for a great experience in St. Petersburg with Catherine and Gennady.   My sister and her    three 20-something kids were with me for the 2-day tour.  Catherine has 2 college degrees.  She looks like actress     Naomi Watts and is incredibly personable.  She had the answer to every question.  Amazing!!  Catherine was able to get   us to the head of the lines repeatedly.   This really saved time.   Gennady is a great driver.   We had a nice Mercedes van.   He knows how to get around St. Petersburg’s crazy traffic.  We really enjoyed the dinner with the Russian family.          The Hermitage and Peterhof were incredible.   This was the highlight of our Baltic adventure.    

Thanks to Red October!  It’s the best value to see "Peter" - as the Russians call the city. 

Mike Maguire, Century, May 27-28, 2009 - mmlongwood@embarqmail.com

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Dear Mike:   This past August we enjoyed a 2 day tour of St. Petersburg which you organized for our group                      (7 people including a 12 year old) from a cruise ship. Because you gave us such great service in setting up the booking – efficient and easy – I was hoping that we’d experience the same when we got to SPB – and we were not disappointed!   

We had a fantastic time with our guide Helen, and driver Alex – they became like friends.  Aside from the fact that SPB    is a great place to visit on its own merits, the service we had with Red October made the visit even better.                   Our itinerary was exactly as you had booked, but we had the flexibility to add other stops if time permitted, which it      did since not only did Alex really know his way around the city, around traffic jams and to convenient parking spots,      but also, we made a point of getting off the ship in good time!  Let me add here that while the cruise line did             make prominent mention in the daily bulletins that we would not be allowed off the ship until their own shore        excursion passengers disembarked, we followed your advice and just proceeded to the gangway early.  Nobody even    asked us which tour we were on!  We had no trouble getting off the ship, and going through Passport Control was a   breeze – everything was in order as per your instructions.  Helen was an exemplary guide – not only is she                    very knowledgeable and personable, but she also got us past the long line ups of bus tourists, was very organized          with venue tickets (minimal waiting), made sure we had ample time to spend in each of the palace or art gallery rooms and got the photo opportunities that we wanted – and even made sure we got to strategically timed and placed ‘comfort stops’ (her term) that were clean and line up free!  (Our family members who chose shorter cruise line shore excursions because of their young children, were not so fortunate in any of these aspects.)  We also appreciated the efficiency at     the Red October stores – again, we followed your instructions on final payment to the letter and were done in 3 minutes.  Also the variety and quality of the goods in the stores was extensive and, by the second day, we came to understand     the different levels of quality for the price on things like lacquered boxes and nesting dolls and could make            informed decisions about our purchases.  Our lunch at a local restaurant the first day was very good – Helen made sure   we got the borscht for our first course instead of the vegetable soup we were first offered (she never stopped watching   out for us), it was delicious.  We took your advice and packed a lunch for the second day to eat on the hydrofoil back  from Peterhof so that we could have the extra time to visit the Gold Room at the Hermitage.  Over 2 days we walked       a total of 22 kilometers – but it was never too much at any one time – we were happily tired at the end of our tour       and very satisfied – we’d have done more if there were more hours in a day!   

Mike, all of your advice was excellent.  We all truly enjoyed a most memorable visit to St. Petersburg and it was           Red October that made it so.  And we got way more for our money with Red October in comparison to the costs of   shore excursions offered by the cruise line – never mind the special attention and added conveniences listed above       that you just can’t get on a cruise line tour.  All of our group agrees that Red October is definitely the way to go   for anyone going to St. Petersburg – your North American booking service makes it easy from the start and   the operations group in St. Petersburg makes it a thoroughly rewarding experience to the finish.  Needless to   say – a number of months have past since we were on our tour and we are still so enthusiastic about it –                       we recommend Red October to anyone considering going to St. Petersburg! 

Thank you again,
Sincerely, 
Dawn A. Longshaw
Vancouver, BC info@recruiters.com

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We cruised with Royal Caribbean (July 1 out of Harwich), and were very fortunate to have hooked up with Red October    for our 2 days in St. Petersburg.  From the moment we contacted Red October, we were given excellent treatment.    Mike Finn is very professional and completely took care of us- he is more impressive than anyone we dealt with at RCL.  Indeed, RCL tries to get people to use their tours, including by suggesting in its material that people on independent tours cannot leave the ship until after the RCL tours have departed, this is simply not true, and hopefully RCL will stop        doing this (after we, and others, complained about this, the cruise relations director on our ship said the RCL           written materials would be changed).  RCL was ok, but Red October was absolutely terrific.  If anyone wants to tour       St. Petersburg, we strongly recommend using Red October- if you don't, you will not get the most out of this       wonderful city.  If RCL tries to give one of your customers the run around, just tell them to ignore the RCL people,       and they will get off the ship and be able to take the tour with Red October.

 Our driver, Anatoly, and guide, Irina, were at the dock waiting for us on day one- they made us feel welcome             and important from the first moment we met them.  The tours they took us on were great.  The van was spacious,     clean and in excellent condition.  Anatoly is a great driver, and made sure we were comfortable and safe.  Irina was      the best- she is an excellent guide, who gave us first class treatment.  If anyone is going to St. Petersburg, we     encourage them to ask for Irina, so they will be guaranteed a great tour.   Irina told us about life in Russia, and seemed   to know everything possible about the various sites we saw!  Irina was able to get us priority access to all venues,       which saved many hours we otherwise would have wasted standing in line with larger tour groups.  Irina could not      have been better, and we ask that you pass along our heartfelt thanks to her.  The Red October store was also excellent- lots of excellent souvenirs at reasonable prices (we found the Red October store to be better than Swan Lake).  Again, thanks for providing such excellent service, and please thank Anatoly and Irina for us. 

Len Griffiths.   GRIFFITHSL@bennettjones.ca 

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ST. PETERSBURG-MOSCOW RUSSIA TOUR GUIDE SERVICE - GUIDED TOURS AND SHORE EXCURSIONS 
Please take a few minutes and Submit a Request for Quote < click on it

Red October USA
P.O. BOX 216
Rexford, New York, 12148, USA

E-mail: info@redoctober.us
Phone: (518) 557-1230  -or- (518) 357-3383
www.redoctober.us

Please join Red October Company for your next trip to Russia.
RO staff never misses an opportunity to exceed your expectations.

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