I am booked on Imperial Russia river cruise in September 2007. I cannot find any mention on this bulletin board of a past traveller on this tour. I did notice that "Leonie B" was to go on this tour but she has not been heard of since. Would anyone who has been on this tour mind giving me some ideas of what to expect.
Thank you

Hi Auscan,

I've not been able to find anything on the BB about this tour.

However, we are taking it in June and I will be posting a report on my return.

It would help people considerably if you showed on your profile where you are from. For example, you could get some advice on how best to get to St Petersburg; something that is giving us trouble.

When in St. Petersburg make sure that you do the Folklore show. It is fabulous.

Thank you Tangata and Mid Life Traveller. I shall look forward to your tale when you return from your trip Tangata> I am from Sydney Australia and will put it with my profile when I figure out how to do it. I am flying to Singapore and then Luthansa to Frankfurt and then on to St. Petersburg. A long flight but as I have found not many airlines go to Russia.

auscan
Press "Go"
then press Profile
then press Compete Profile and fill in the missing information. I think that does it for you.
If this doesn't work there will be someone on the board that can help you.
Welcome to the board.

We hadn't looked at going through Frankfurt, as it seemed to be a major detour.

We are flying Turkish Airlines from Bangkok to Istanbul then to St. Petersburg. Return from Moscow via Istanbul.

It is not ideal, there is a long wait in Istanbul for the St Petersburg flight and it arrives after the last free transfer.

Have to go now, the car is due in 20 minutes to take us to the airport for HK.

We have flown with Turkish Airlines previously and found them excellent.

Tangata
Would love to read a report on your River cruise in Russia.
Cheers
Betty

Betty, I posted a Trip Report some time ago in three parts. You will find them under Tour Tales.

I also posted a lot of photographs in The Member's Gallery.

I finally finished editing my video yesterday, a lot of work but I think that the effort was worthwhile.

Hello Tangata,

I am surprised to see you on TT tours forum , you are a well-travelled person. YOu posted a reply on my question on the other forum and I appreciate it a lot.

How did you find Russia? Do you feel that Russia is a safe place for a single person to visit? I am considering this tour in the future, I will be on my own before and after the trip.

thanks,
sistine

Hi Sistine,

I lurk on both the Trafalgar and the Insight BB but as we prefer to travel with Insight I normally post on the Insight Board.

However, Insight do not offer a Russian cruise, so we went with Trafalgar.

We only had two days on our own in Russia and we didn't find any real problems. On one occasion we were approached by a Thai lady who lives in Moscow and she was very helpful, in addition to insisting that we used her ticket to travel on the metro.

On our last night in Russia we were walking back to our hotel when a police van stopped in front of us and two policemen got out and ran towards us. One threw us a very hasty salute whilst heading straight for Madam. I started to say, “Hello what can we do for you?” but only got out the “Hello”. They stopped dead, threw us very formal salutes and sprinted back to their van.

I have no idea what it was about, but Madam insists that they thought that she was unfairly competing with Russian working girls!

As for being well travelled; last time I counted I had visited 41 countries and lived in five, but I am sure that there are many people on the BB who have been to more.

Hello Tangata,

I have a coworker who just got back from St Petersburg, she is caucasian and her husband is Chinese. Her husband had his passport with him all the time in case he gets questioned by the russian police. Luckily, he was not stopped for questioning but my coworker advised me to go to on an escorted tour if I decide to visit Russia soon.

May I ask if you felt uneasy walking by yourselves around the city? Based on your experience, have you been to any place that made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe by yourself?
Heard from anybody feeling this way?

I have been to several escorted tours but havent reached your "number 41" yet.

Thanks,
sistine

quote:

May I ask if you felt uneasy walking by yourselves around the city? Based on your experience, have you been to any place that made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe by yourself?

We felt very relaxed both in the centre of Moscow and in the suburbs where our hotel was. The people we met were all very helpful. St. Petersburg was also fine.

As for places where I have felt unsafe! Nowhere at all in Asia. New York where the doorman at a 5 star hotel ran after me and told me that I shouldn't go walking on my own.

Auckland New Zealand where I went to a reception wearing a dinner jacket and ended up walking alone through deserted streets back to my hotel, I felt as though I had a target pinned on me!

I can only remember one time on a tour when we were warned not to go walking alone because of a high incidence of assaults and that was atLimerick in the Irish Republic. Though not on a tour, I have also been warned about walking around certain parts of Frankfurt at night.

Mind you, it does help to be built like an All Black forward!

I certainly haven't been to 41 countries on tours, most of our travelling is done indepenently. We have visited about 19 countries on tours.

Hi to Sistine and Tangatta
Have just returned from Imperial Russia and loved it. We were blessed with wonderful weather, all but one day beautiful blue sky and not too cold. We had about an hour of rain in Uglich, but that was a benefit as I stayed away from the market stalls.
Will post a tale when I get over jet lag.
At no time did I feel afraid or uncomfortable in Russia (but I cannot speak for all of the country as we toured so little of it). The people are on the most part friendly and helpful.

Auckland New Zealand where I went to a reception wearing a dinner jacket and ended up walking alone through deserted streets back to my hotel, I felt as though I had a target pinned on me!


May I ask what made you feel that a target is pinned on you? Personally, I would feel challenged and scared to be walking by myself and also alone in a deserted street at night anywhere in the world. I wonder why New Zealand?

I can only remember one time on a tour when we were warned not to go walking alone because of a high incidence of assaults and that was atLimerick in the Irish Republic. Though not on a tour, I have also been warned about walking around certain parts of Frankfurt at night.

I plan to go to frankfurt soon, I thought this is one of the safest city to travel in Germany with the recent attacks on minorities recently but you mentioned " certain areas," I feel ok now.


Mind you, it does help to be built like an All Black forward!

You must be a tall guy, I am very short! (Please excuse if I sound like I am stereotyping, I apologize!)


I certainly haven't been to 41 countries on tours, most of our travelling is done indepenently. We have visited about 19 countries on tours.[/QUOTE]

I am curious if Trafalgar would allow me to ask you "what is the best tour company that you have travelled with?"

Thanks Tangata

quote:

Originally posted by auscan:
Hi to Sistine and Tangatta
Have just returned from Imperial Russia and loved it. We were blessed with wonderful weather, all but one day beautiful blue sky and not too cold. We had about an hour of rain in Uglich, but that was a benefit as I stayed away from the market stalls.
Will post a tale when I get over jet lag.
At no time did I feel afraid or uncomfortable in Russia (but I cannot speak for all of the country as we toured so little of it). The people are on the most part friendly and helpful.

I am waiting for your tour tale, it takes me 3 weeks to get rid of my jet lag, I guess it is just me refusing to go back to my average day to day activities.

It seems like September is always a good month to visit any country, do you think so?