Let's discuss Russian tour guides

[cadreamer]

I would like to add my opinion to those expressed above. I have had the unique experience of touring with Ludmilla (with Denrus) and Alla as an independent operator. My husband and I spent 4 days with Ludilla in 2004 and it was not a pleasant experience. We tried viewing her as simply opinionated and tried to maintain interest in hearing her points of view by seeing them as valuable insights into why Americans are not well received. However, it got very tiresome. I would like to add that in additon to having a poor opinion of Americans she seams to have a bias against men in general, apparently based on her bad experiences. In addition she did things several things which we viewed as not the sign of a good tour guide. She routinely dismissed our requests, and in one instance did not mention a very important cemetery where Dostoevsky and others are buried when we walked right by it. When I asked about it she said we had not asked to see it. I was quite sure we had and that was the reason we were at the Alexander Nevsky complex in the first place. At another sight she did not take us to the outbuildings we had asked to see and I truly believe she did not want to make the longer walk to get to them. She dismissed it by telling me essentially that what I wanted to see was not there. This was not true.

We had to apply serious pressure to get her to grant us 1/2 hour at the outdoor market where we wanted to shop.

We had arranged to go to an open air museum area when we made our original plan with Denrus. We drove past it on our way to another sight and we could see it was not what we had in mind. Since we had been told that the private guides were flexible and there were no tickets purchased ahead of time for this open air museum, we told her we wanted to skip it and go back to the city to see more there. She refused and insisted we go to the Museum. It was very unpleasant.

Lastly, she was very outspoken about her bias against things military and made it quite clear she did not really want to take us to the Artillery Museumas my husband had arranged. Once we got she there failed to show us one of the more interesting exhibits(we learnedabout it later).Her best attribute is being knowledgeable, but many of the guides are knowledgeable.

On the other hand we spent 4 days with Alla and it was a totally delightful, educational experience with plenty of discussion of sensitive and political issues. We can't say enough wonderful things about her and we echo all that has been said about her above. If she is able to come to the US we would welcome her into our home. She is an intelligent woman with her own opinions who can express herself (in excellent English) without causing the listener to feel that they wish they were elsewhere.

In previous posts I have heartily recommended Alla ( http://www.alla-tour.com ) . I think it is helpful for readers to know that in addition to arranging tours with the big companies there is also the option of arranging tours with an independent tour guide who is fully licensed by the government and can offer the same visa coverage as the big companies.

And to Mike Brill - I am so glad to hear about your great time with Alla and I hope we will see her here one day.