I'm looking at doing Russia, Warsaw & the Baltic States, May next year.
What can you tell me about this tour & is it worth doing.
The posts I found are old.

Hi Allison,
We were debating on this tour - I like the idea of visiting places like Riga and Tallin - especially from watching Eurovision! But then we opted for the Easy Pace plus Grand Tour Scandinavia - the later which you have been on. LOVED your photos by the way!! Thank you.
(Also enjoyed the recent Jordan ones very much as well. Would like to visit Petra - does the travelling ever stop? NO!)

I am not going to be very useful really - sorry - But, it looks as if the tours in cities that are on other tours, as you will already know, have lots of optionals and visits in common. (Hope that sentence made sense)
So, there seem to be a few of us taking tours that will visit regions common between your tour and ours we will have to make sure that we get our photos and tales organised for you!! asap.
You would already have read the other eastern european tales and looked at the photos I'm sure.

I know it doesnt solve what the actual tour is like. You are correct - when I was selecting the tour for this year some of the posts are old and the hotels etc can be different now. Also there was next to nothing on the Easy Pace Russia for instance.

The optionals for Warsaw, Russia and the Baltic states in Moscow and St Petersburg look the same as the ones offered to us for the Easy Pace Russia so I can let you know how they pan out after July. Even though it doesnt give me much time in Moscow I really like the optional to Zagorsk as it was an area I looked at in the Lonely Planet guide that looked interesting.

Happy tour hunting. Eve

Hello Allison

We did this tour in 2005 and we did write up a trip report which is still use full as a lot of the things that you are going to see and do will be the same. They have reversed the tour so you will be spending more time in St Petersburg. Some hotels are different but that doesn't matter as you usually stay in good hotels. The Sheraton in Warsaw is modern, Pribaltiskaya in St Peterburg is a typical Soviet style hotel but is was clean,beds are good and the food was great.The worst hotel was in Minsk but I see in the brochure its a different hotel, where we stayed at that time it was the best they had.
You asked if the tour is worth taking, I would say yes. Moscow and St Petersburg are lovely cities and so different from each other, experiencing the train journey is fun. The Baltic countries are worth seeing too Tallinn is interesting to explore. If you like history you will enjoy doing this tour. If you want to know more let me know.

Tupps

Eve777 and Tuppence,
Which one would you pick, Russia, Warsaw and the Baltic States or the Northern Capitals and Russia? I'm debating between the two for May-June of next year!

Hi Bethb

It will be a hard choice to decide which one of the tours you would like to do as they are both great tours. If you chose the Northern Capitals you would only be missing Tallinn and Riga but you would be seeing some of Scandinavia and Berlin. So it come down to which countries you want to see. If you do the Northern Capitals make sure you come in a few days before the tour starts so you can see more of Berlin.
Read some of the tour reports on both tours will help you also and if you want to know anything please ask as there are a few of us that have done these tours.

Tupps

Thank you both for the info.
Looking forward to reading your tale and seeing your photos Eve777, hope you the great trip.

Allison

Hi Allison

I will be going on this tour in 4 weeks time. I'm so excited. The places we will be visiting look really interesting and filled with history. When I get back I'll let you know how the tour went

Hello Allison, Bethb and Curious Traveler
I just return from 2 Insight Tours 1-The Bohemian(10 days) and 2- Northern Capitals and Russia (19 days) with 1 week in between Tours in Italy visitin friends. out of everything RUSSIA (St. Petersburg and Moscow) were the best
we were all incredible surprise with so much beauty and so much history this Tour is worth every penny. The Hermitage Museum is Magnificent and the Kremlin with St Basil's Cathedral in moscow incredible beautiful we went in the morning then again at night to see it ilumnated. In the Metro in Moscow is like a museum also the crown jewels, the imperial Carriage and the faberge Easter eggs from the romanov Dynasty. I return home in june 5 but I had being so bussy, I want to try to writte a short story about the good the bad and the most beautiful things from that Tour, I did Love it they did offer lot of Optionals witch I took all except for one because I felt really tired, if you take all is non stop going all the time, to my surprise the food in both places St Petersburg and Moscow was fantastic with exception the food that we had at the big beautiful Mall where they give us time to have Lunch in our own. If you have any Question write me a note and I wll try to have the answer for yo. I was trying to writte notes about the Tour but at the end it was so much running, but I think I can remember almost everything. one dissapointment was that we were not able to go inside the St. Basil's Cathedral, another the Hotel in St. Petersburg the Air conditioner they turn into a heater during the winter so lots of us complaint about the room being hot, other them that the room they were very comfortable and the food at the Hotel was great, most all the buffet Breakfast included fish, salmon, cold cuts all kind bread , eggs , fresh fruit etc etc.
Hope this help. VictoriaR

Hi Allison:

I just got back from this tour and absolutely loved it. Russia is beautiful. The food there is so delicious. I loved Warsaw (Sheraton) 5 mins from downtown. Riga and Talinn is beautiful. Luthuania is so so. Hotel Minsk in Belarus is excellent right in the middle of downtown. Too bad we only had to stay one night. The hotel in St. Petersburg was on the outskirts but we had plenty of time in the city as most people went on optionals and I didn't so I was roaming around till the bus came to pick us up (those who didn't do the optionals). you will love this tour.

quote:

Originally posted by safina:
Hi Allison:

I just got back from this tour and absolutely loved it. Russia is beautiful. The food there is so delicious. I loved Warsaw (Sheraton) 5 mins from downtown. Riga and Talinn is beautiful. Luthuania is so so. Hotel Minsk in Belarus is excellent right in the middle of downtown. Too bad we only had to stay one night. The hotel in St. Petersburg was on the outskirts but we had plenty of time in the city as most people went on optionals and I didn't so I was roaming around till the bus came to pick us up (those who didn't do the optionals). you will love this tour.

hi safina

i've just booked to do this tour next september 9/9/2010
can you give an update on the belarus visa situation? = the bulletin boards info froma few years ago says the TD organises the belarus visa , but nothing in the insight brochure mentions anything about it.

thanks in advance for any advice