Travel All RussiaReviews of travelallrussia.com

My husband and I are independent travelers who plan our own trips to make sure we are getting the cultural experience and maximizing our time while traveling abroad. With both of us getting new jobs and moving cross country, we decided to get help with Firebird Tours to help with logistics of our Norway/Denmark vacation. We used Firebirds to book a private tour (no groups) which consisted of booking all travel (train, ferry, private drivers), hotels, and excursions such as kayaking, and a glacier hike. Overall, Firebirds did a good job with the communication as we were planning the trip and the hotel accommodations were great choices. We had one hiccup on our trip (one driver did not show) but we called Firebird and they took care of it immediately. Although their services are a little pricey, I am confident time is money and they would provide a great group tour or help specialize your private tour the way you want it.

This was our first time using Firebird Tour for the trip to Denmark, Norway and Finland. Overall, our trip was very excited and almost perfect. Almost perfect, cause we brought too many luggage and had to drag them through planes, trains and ferries. It wasn't a good sight :) We enjoyed the itinerary Firebird put together as a private tour for the two of us. Everything was taking care of as planned. There were places that we wouldn't care for a one night stay and there were places that we wished we stayed a little longer and would probably go back. We didn't really care for Finland, Denmark was great but Norway was so amazing. We would use Firebird again in the future should we need to go back to Europe. Remember to ask for Sim Uzkuraitis. He's very pleasant to work with and he's going out of his way to help you with your travel needs. Thuy & Jerry Harvey Newport Beach, California, USA

Listens to needs,flexible, very knowledgeable, art and history. Not sure she was open to sharing true economy and life in Russia outside of St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg is a gorgeous city and I enjoyed the time spent there. The itinerary was substantial and I'm more than satisfied with the hotel and the services of the drivers. The pre-tour planning procedure was easy and with no pressure. Travel All Russia is a good company that doesn't have you worry. The guide we had was knowledgeable, devoted and obviously loves her job. I really liked that we visited not only the must-sees but also off the beaten track places with significance in Russian history. Would recommend the Venice of the North tour to anyone.

Despite the large crowds at the main tourist attractions, I really liked my 6-day private tour to Moscow. I took the tour in June so I'm guessing that tourist crowds are a usual thing there at this time of year. The tour organization was impressive, very professional company. The whole tour was interesting and time really flew by. I especially liked the Tretyakov Gallery day and the Moscow Subway really is like an underground museum. I had a friendly guide and I think we bonded well during the days that she showed me the city. We covered lots of ground and I have no regrets about choosing this destination. Maybe next time I'll take a tour to Lake Baikal with Travel All Russia.

Travel All Russia is a great company to deal with. Their staff are very responsive and took care of all the planning for our trip, including extensions to Saint Petersburg before the trans Siberian journey and to Shanghai after the journey. The logistics for these extensions were superbly organised and flawlessly executed. The trip itself was a wonderful experience, even if at times it was hard work. As you travel from west to east you cross several time zones, each of which reduces the time available for sleep. The logistics of the journey were flawless - the train arrived on time and was met by the local guides in every city. The guides were extremely knowledgable and spoke excellent English. The tour leader who accompanied us from Moscow to Beijing was superb and kept everybody well briefed on daily events and activities as and when needed. However, the train itself was not as described in the advertising material, which promised a newly refurbished train in the first year of its operation. The reality was that the rolling stock was old and showed signs of considerable wear. The seats in the sleeping areas were ingrained with dirt and the upholstery in the dining chairs was worn and split in several cases. There was no hot water for showers on two days. The toilets appeared to not be cleaned and serviced regularly. There was a Russian doctor on board, whose services were required by many of the passengers, including this reviewer, who were affected by gastroenteritis. Our journey across Russia and Mongolia into China was epic, and despite the deficiencies above we were very pleased with our overall experience.

Overall it was a great trip except some bumps on the way. Great stuff: 1. Good food. 2. Pleasant manner and politeness of all involved. 3. Sightseeing were good and well arranged. 4. Tour guides were knowledgeable and put forth best efforts. 4. Land lodgings (hotels in St Petersburg and Moscow) were outstanding. Bumpy Stuff (lengthy so to show specifics): 1. Because of fog in the morning, the time to get off the ship to Moscow was delayed. The management decided to let us off in one of the locks. However, the arrangement for getting off the ship were mis-managed and quite annoying. Understood it was a time saving measure. However, the movement of the luggage and transportation were in a mess. We were like refugees for about two hours stranded near a railroad interchange with scourging sun and dragging luggage across the street to the buses. Dragging heavy luggage, I fell in the middle of the road when crossing the street to the bus. Fortunately the cars that were waiting for me to cross and began to move while I was crossing, they immediately stopped when they saw me fell. 2. The ship lodging/accommodation were a bit cramp because of the size of the ship and the old age of the ship as well. 3. The coordination between the hotel in St. Petersburg, tour guide, and Travel All Russia had a big gap during the morning of the third day. Resulted in losing two plus hours waiting for luggage to be put on the bus. The consequence was that we dashed through the Hermitage in about 1 to 1.5 hours. The tour guide hurried us during the entire day because of the luggage problem in the morning. It ended up we were on the ship around 7pm exhausted and did not see much.

Initially we were a bit concerned about the way in which our tours were arranged, but slowly but surely we gained confidence that the scheduling and capabilities of the agency and their contractors was first class.