customized tours
Jun 7th, 2005, 05:11 AM
#1
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customized tours
I just returned from a really amazing fourteen day tour of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novgorod arranged by Optima Travel (travelinrussia.com) to my specifications. The price was less than most pre-packaged tours, the guides were wonderfully aware of Russian culture and history, the transportation was great. Not a moment lost waiting for someone to arrive. I would recommend the organization to anyone going to Russia.
Jun 7th, 2005, 06:10 AM
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Messagediva:
I agree that it is probably an "ad" but since you've obviously been chosen to do the "advertisement police" duty this week perhaps you would care to enlighten the rest of us as to how this "ad" differs from that constant stream of Trenitalia promotional material supplied by GAC or the periodic alerts about airline fare sales or Robespierre's periodic advisories about RATP travel plans and cards and Rex's incessant drivel about flying everywhere???
And, please, don't give me the thing about people having "commercial interests" unless you can tell us you've personally checked out every poster here.
This board is about INFORMATION and since you obviously have no proof that Camel7 is getting some sort of commercial benefit from this "ad" I suggest you back your little a** off and let the adults on this board decide for themselves.
I agree that it is probably an "ad" but since you've obviously been chosen to do the "advertisement police" duty this week perhaps you would care to enlighten the rest of us as to how this "ad" differs from that constant stream of Trenitalia promotional material supplied by GAC or the periodic alerts about airline fare sales or Robespierre's periodic advisories about RATP travel plans and cards and Rex's incessant drivel about flying everywhere???
And, please, don't give me the thing about people having "commercial interests" unless you can tell us you've personally checked out every poster here.
This board is about INFORMATION and since you obviously have no proof that Camel7 is getting some sort of commercial benefit from this "ad" I suggest you back your little a** off and let the adults on this board decide for themselves.
Jun 7th, 2005, 06:47 AM
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AuntIda- I usually don't respond to huffy posts,but I'll let you know why I posted what I did.If you read the OP's post,it reads like a brochure.It's also the poster's only post on the forum.It doesn't take a neurologist to see that this is a post by someone affiliated with the company. It happens here all the time.I think it's good to call people on this kind of thing so that they may in the future decide that it's not an effective marketing campaign for them.
Jul 30th, 2008, 02:12 PM
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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.
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.
