Review about Narelle MacKenzie-17/07/17 by Narelle MacKenzie

I have the feedback form for the trip I took with you from June 25, 2017 – July 10, 2017. There were some great things about the trip and some not so great things. Please note I paid for four star hotels and paid a single supplement to have my own room. Great things Hotel in Vilnius is very good. Hotel In Moscow was very good. Hotel in Helsinki was excellent. City tour in Vilnius - we had an English only tour and this was wonderful and I really appreciated the language proficiency of the guide and the fact it was English only. City tour in Riga - we had an English only tour and this was wonderful and I really appreciated the language proficiency of the guide and the fact it was English only. Lamija and Yannis – our guides in the Baltic Bus transportation – there was plenty of room (with the one exception of the trip to the Helsinki ferry but this was not a long ride to the ferry) Parnu – the free time was great as I was able to explore the area and saw things most of the rest of the group did not as I had my guide book to help me – recommend the Museum of Modern Art (in the old KGB building) and the medieval festival that was happening Ferry to Helsinki – great experience Moscow Metro tour – although this was dual language of English and German, this tour was the highlight of the trip for me. In Vilnius I was given a bed with twin rooms, but after speaking with Lamija this was changed to a double/queen/king bed in all future hotels, so thank you for arranging this. Okay things City tour in Helsinki – tour guide was very good, but the dual English and Italian tour was frustrating so I left the tour before it finished. City tour in Tallinn – tour was English only, but the tour guide was very, very slow at the beginning that one of the group left to do his town tour, and then as we running out of time she had to speed up and lost two of the group and we did not understand the tour of the Great Guild as she told some of us to go to one place in the hall and then she spoke to the rest of the group elsewhere that they needed to tell the ones who went where she told us to go what we were doing which was we were on our own which she could have just told us as we walked into the Guild instead of having us waiting. City tour in Moscow - tour guide was very good, but the dual English and German tour was frustrating so I left the tour before it finished. It was obvious she ran out of time to share all the information we needed to know so again I resorted to my guide book Jurmala – as I was the only English person I got my own English tour with Lamija so that was great. However, I did not receive the visit to the City Museum. Not so great things Hotel in Riga – very bad room location and stunk of cigarette smoke. I have been in contact with the manager of the hotel as I wrote about this experience on TripAdvisor. This was not a four star hotel experience Hotel in Tallinn – a Park Inn is not a four star hotel. The agreement stated four star or equivalent. Hotel in Moscow – a Park Inn is not a four star hotel. As for the comment about the Tallinn hotel, the agreement was a four star or equivalent. I met people staying in the hotel with another tour group who had paid for three star hotels so know it is not a four star hotel. Vyborg – short sightseeing tour was very short 40 minutes. I had thought we would have enough time to see the historical sites in Vyborg but was told there was not enough time as we needed to beat the traffic to St Petersburg. Since we did not have anything scheduled for the evening I was very disappointed by the time being so short in Vyborg City tour in St Petersburg – dual language in English and German. Since there were only three German speaking people I do not understand why you did not have the local (male) guide speak in English and have Lamija explain it to the three German people in German. The speaker sets did not work and I was so frustrated by the whole experience that I used my own guide book and left the tour early. Canal tour in St Petersburg – the (female) local guide’s command of the English language was so bad I chose to sit elsewhere and use my guide book. I was really looking forward to the canal tour and was highly disappointed. Transportation from the hotel to the railway station in St Petersburg – local (St Petersburg female) guide did not explain to us what was going to happen and when we persisted trying to understand what was going to happen she gave us wrong information. Kremlin tour as part of the Moscow City tour – extremely disappointed that Armory was not part of this tour and by the time I realized it was too late for me to get tickets. I met people on other tours whose Kremlin tours included the Armory I chose this tour as it provided the transportation and city tours in each city and allowed me to do many things independently. I also was comforted by the thought I was going to have four star accommodations which I did not receive in Tallinn or Moscow. I will be going to back to Russia for another trip but am unlikely to use Baltic Vision based on the not so great (and okay) things. The not so good outweighed the great things.