Travel All RussiaReviews of travelallrussia.com

They claimed to be experts on Russia, however, this was the furthest from the truth. Prior to our departure, we spent months planning our 3 weeks in Russia. When on vacation, there was nothing more valuable than time and we would much rather spend time at home planning in order to maximize our time once we arrive at our destination. And we foolishly thought using Travel All Russia would facilitate that. The representatives of this company were very helpful UNTIL we made our final payment and then it was so difficult to get anyone to respond to us via email or phone. This was the furthest from the truth because of their improper planning and logistics, we wasted hours if not days of valuable time. We paid them a lot of money for private guides and drivers, therefore we should not have been at their mercy. These were NOT organized tours, but tours arranged and customized specifically for us. They made so many errors such as: failing to mention much faster means of transportation, failing to respect and follow through with our dietary restrictions, showing up at sites and there was no one to explain them to us, wasting more time at a road side restaurant while the guide ate lunch and we just sat and watched her, instead of the guide taking us someplace we could explore on our own while she ate her lunch, (and a lunch stop was never included in our itinerary) because they provided us with incomplete itineraries, we were forced to repeat sites we had all ready gone to, etc., etc. I could go on and on. Because of their errors, we were often so frustrated, we left in tears. But the worst part was that, once we arrived in Russia, there were issues which could have been resolved, but were not. We further wasted an inordinate amount of time calling and emailing with them in an attempt to resolve and correct some of these issues, however, they were so rude that our pleas for help fell on deaf ears. And even though they booked our train tickets from St. Petersburg to Tallin, Estonoia, when we queried if once we arrived in Tallin, we could expect porters at the station, their uncaring response was, "Our business with you ends at the Russian Border!" We were not asking them to provide us with this service, we were just asking a simple question, and they were so unreasonable that they would not even answer a simple question. Travel All Russia is ALL about taking your money and they could not care less about their customers. Their employees were very poor in every single aspect.

This is our experience with Travel All Russia/Firebird Tours. While we were in Russia before the Trans Siberian tour we were informed that we would not be travelling by train between Yekaterinburg and Irkutsk, a significant portion of the trip. There was some excuse given but it didn’t make sense to us and when we asked for more detail it only became more vague. The main reason for the extremely short notice change, we were told, was that some people had cancelled , therefore, leaving insufficient numbers for a private car on the train; we didn’t book for a private car on the train, it was supposed to be 1st class on a scheduled train. I cannot see how other people cancelling or altering their trip should cause half our trip to be scrapped! With a weeks notice of cancellation, the people would not have received any refund, in other words, Firebird Tours would have been financially in the same position but nevertheless rearranged our entire trip. If we were informed of this before we left home we would have cancelled the trip! However, as we were already in Russia we had no alternative but to accept their arrangements; which initially included flying from Yekaterinburg for 3 hours to Moscow, waiting for an hour and half then flying to Irkutsk for 8 hours at midnight and expecting us to sleep on the plane; which we cannot do at the best of times. It was an insult! Firebird also put us in 2nd class on a Chinese train from Irkutsk to Ulaan Baator, we had a compartment for 4 to ourselves but it was still 2nd class, very dirty, the toilet was disgraceful, it could be smelt from the passageway and was not cleaned at all, the windows were too dirty to see out of clearly. We paid for 1st class and we got 2nd class. We met a small group in Ulaan Baator who were travelling with Firebird doing the same trip in reverse ie to Moscow and they were told the same story and were going to have to fly from Irkutsk to Yekaterinburg. It seems to us that this is the way the trip is done. We were offered a couple of extra meals, side trips and some compensation (about 20%) but all that was meaningless, we paid a lot of money to travel across Russia by train and that is what we wanted to do. It was the train ride we were interested in, they didn’t seem to care about this. I waited 50 years for this trip, paid a lot of money and did not get the trip I paid for. I wonder if the trip was never going to be the full train ride.

We are back from a trip in Russia including Moscow and Saint-Petersburg done from 26th June to 2nd July with Travel All Russia. If the organization in Moscow was perfect and totally in accordance with our expectation (Hotel St Regis and limousine), unfortunately we have been very disappointed when reaching St Petersburg by very bad accommodation in St Petersburg (Radisson Royal Hotel) and transportation. The vehicle was a van without AC in poor condition, the last day they have been obliged to replace it by a society car because of maintenance. Guides in Moscow and St Petersburg are very efficient with a perfect knowledge of their subjects and drivers acceptable. We do not recommend this organization if you are looking for a 5* standing and definitively not the Royal Radisson till a complete and major refurbishment. Do not expect any help from Travel All Russia if you are facing any issue: they ignore the word "issue"!

Supposed to be two trips back to back down Volga last August. 2nd trip was cancelled due to "low water". I paid extra for train and hotel arrangements to some of the Volga cities. First part from St. Pete to Moscow the tour director ignored me and was rude, did not wish to make announcements in English, etc. Also when I embarked, they had cancelled my reservation even though I did not do so. I certainlky would not travel with Travelall Russia again!