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Rating: 5
Thought you would like some feedback on our trip to Moscow & St Petersburg. First, there aren't words to describe what an absolutely fantastic guide Tatyana Surkova is. When we met her and explained that we wanted to visit the Impressionists Gallery at the Pushkin Museum as well as the Diamond Fund at the Armory, she immediately said it was no problem & worked it into our sightseeing program. The evening we decided to stay on the Arbat and have dinner before returning to our hotel, she wrote out our hotel information in Russian, including the price we should pay, to give to the taxi driver and showed us the best place to get a taxi. She was with us almost constantly, up to putting us onto the overnight train to St Petersburg & into our compartment. My camera stopped working in the middle of Red Square & she took us over to GUM to see if there was a camera repair shop or a place to buy a disposable camera. Unfortunately there wasn't, but she surprised us on the way to the train station with an evening tour of Red Square so we could take pictures with our other camera. The Borodino Hotel in Moscow was perfect, except for the fact that it was way too far from town if you've never been to Moscow before & don't speak Russian. The room & the breakfasts were wonderful and the staff very pleasant. The Arbat Nord in St Petersburg was a good location as we could walk to Nevsky Prospect. Decent size room, but no dresser or mini bar. Again, excellent breakfasts. Our guide, Victoria Barskaya, was a pleasure to be with. She went out of her way to handle our requests. Our driver, Alexander was also a pleasure. Our last day in St Petersburg, Carolyn decided she wanted to check through her carry-on bag, but needed a small lock & key. We didn't pass any place to buy one. Alexander dropped Victoria & us at the Russian Museum and we said our good-byes to him. About an hour later, Victoria received a phone call from him saying he had bought a lock & key and left it at the front desk of our hotel. What a nice thing for him to do! We couldn't have seen as much in St Petersburg as we did without them. It was a trip we will always remember. Thank you so much. Audree