MNPAGES

We found the Optima Tour Company in St.
Petesburg, and they say that they take care
of the Visas. We are looking for a private
tour for 4 persons.
Any comments or experiences with Optima Tours?
Thanks.

marti1

Checkout Expresstorussia.com I'll be using them in my trip to Russia next
July, they have been very helpfull and
friendly- their $ are good compare to other companies and I have a friend that used them and she love them....

MNPAGES

Thank you for you suggestion, I am going to check it out.

MNPAGES

Hi: Marti1, I called the expresstorussia.com, but they do not
take care of issuing the VISAS like
RED October, this means you have to
do all the work and applications for
the Visa, and in R.O. they do everything
for you.

marti1

great! well, look no more RO is your
best shut.
Have a great trip.

Garfield

What is the website for RO?

MNPAGES

Website to RO: www.redoctober.us

Good luck

swanzon

For our recent trip to Russia, we thought we had done our research well, and chose Optima Tours to arrange tour guides for both Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Unfortunately, our experience with Optima was not good.

Our first day in Moscow, the tour guide went to the wrong hotel, even though we had clearly confirmed with Optima a hotel change we had made some weeks prior. Because I had the foresight before our trip to ask for a cell phone number for our guides, we were able to contact her.

After waiting another 45 minutes, I called her again, and learned that the driver was somehow stopped by the police. We still do not know why. The guide walked to our hotel, but could not explain what had happened to the driver, nor when if if another driver would be available.

At 11:30 (for a planned 10:00 excursion), when the guide could still not either explain what happened nor when our excursion might start, we necessarily cancelled the excursion.

The next day we visited the Kremlin with this guide, and she must have answered her cell phone 15 times, interrupting our tour.

Then - in St. Petersburg, our guide was 15 minutes late the first day.

The second day, she was 45 minutes late due to confusion about tickets for a destination. However, she did not bother to mention this to us. Had she done so, we would have immediately informed her that the tickets were delivered to us at the hotel the day before. Had we known that she was 'missing' them, all would have been solved.

On our final day, we were picked up at 10:00 to visit a site. After a very short drive (5 min), we were informed that our entrance time was 10:40. Thus, we waited for 35 minutes in the street outside the palace, simply waiting for our pre-established entrance time.

As you can tell, this experience was supremely frustrating. We would never recommend Optima.

amberjack

Hi MNPAGES,

We also used Red october in the past; they are wonderful and well prepared. As you mentioned, they did take care of our entry Visa for free but we were on a cruise and I don't know if they can do the same if you fly instead.

Just be careful; at the end of the day they bring you to their stores to buy souvenirs. Of course, they don't force you to buy anything but they made that the only option for shopping.

concher

MNPAGES:

Olga Melnick
email address: [email protected]

This lady was outstanding and was most professional.

You will enjoy St petersburg.

janisj

amberjack: MNPAGES' post is more than 2 years old. swanzon topped this old, moldy thread and several others to post her complaints . . . .

sshirokov

I hear some bad things about Optima tours. Their biggest problem is that they are not a US but Latvian company, meaning they are pretty detached from customers needs.