My sister and I were on her son's senior trip to Europe, we added a week to the end of it and went to Helsinki and St. Petersburg. We stayed at the Scandic Marski in Helsinki which was a wonderful place with a fantastic staff and is in THE BEST location possible. We took the Princess Maria overnight ferry to and from St. Petersburg. It's a beautiful and well kept ship, very clean and comfortable. In St. Petersburg we stayed at the Solo Sokos Vasilievsky, another beautiful hotel in a great location with a fantastic staff. This place also has a fantastic restaurant. In a month of touring Europe that included France, Italy and Greece (amongst others), our dinner here was the best meal of the whole trip. The breakfast buffet here is also outstanding.
We booked our tour with Alex, who is a ROCK STAR. He answered my questions, promptly returned emails and phone calls, gave great advice and picked beautiful hotels in wonderful locations at reasonable prices. I very much appreciated the continued service even after his job was done. Everything was paid for, I had my reservations and documents, and Alex still treated me like he was trying to earn my business.
Our guide in St. Petersburg was MASHA GANINA, who is also a rock star. Her encyclopedic knowledge, passion for sharing it and warm and kind personality made our whole trip. Leading up to this segment of our vacation, we had 3 weeks of tour guides under our belt, hands down Masha was the best we had. She knows EVERYTHING and sharing her love for St. Petersburg and Russia gives her a joy you can see on her face and hear in her voice. Everyone should love their job so much and be so good at it.
One thing Masha mentioned to us is that people are afraid to travel to Russia. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with a fascinating story. I studied the architecture here while i was in college, but i didn't really study the people. Masha made history come alive for me, and the people in St. Petersburg that we encountered were so nice, happy to be helpful, and a lot of fun. I never felt unsafe or insecure. I would tell anyone thinking about visiting that however they need to make it happen, make it happen. It's a beautiful vibrant place. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm so grateful that I took it, and so happy my sister shared it with me. I would encourage everyone to visit Russia, with Masha as their guide and Alex as their travel agent.
Additionally, both my sister and I LOVED Helsinki. Warm and wonderful people, clean and safe with lots to see... but truly, it was a pleasure just to browse the market. I'd love to go back.
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Nordic Saga Tours offers the very best of escorted and unique customized tours to Scandinavia, the Nordic Countries, Russia and the Baltic States. As a licensed tour operator, we accommodate both individual and group travel. Our comprehensive services also include competitive airfares, cruises, hotel stays, car rentals, rail passes, city packages, adventure travel and self-drive tours.
Nordic Saga Tours provides personalized expertise for your total travel experience.See more
