Reviews of East West Tours (Travel Agency)

sushil sawhney

Hi Bobby Just letting you know, Jaipur trip was great. All went smoothly, driver was very cooperative and took great care of us. Thank you Sushil

Alice Wonder Seattle Web Design Studio

East West Tours has wonderful customer service and great selection of tours. Small private group tour of St. Pertersburg was educational and really once in a life time experience for me and my family. The price was also amazing. I can't wait to explore other parts of the world with East West Tours.

James M. Hadden

This was my wife an I's first tour through Russia, and upon returning I can highly recommend Alex and East West Tours. He was very thorough with everything we needed prior to departure, and to see on our trip, and, they were so much more cost effective than other companies offering similar tours. You're in good hands with this travel agency, and also want to mention, we really enjoyed our guide, Mrs. Masha Ganina while in St. Petersburg.

Elena Neely

Our trip to St. Petersburg was simply amazing and our guide Maria Ganina was the reason behind it. She is the best guide we have ever had in our travel. Her knowledge of history, art and architecture is encyclopedic and her personal and professional qualities are outstanding. Thanks Masha for a wonderful gift of St. Petersburg. If you ever visit US we would be happy to host you in Seattle. Hope to see you again one day.

Jane Walden-Newman

We want to let everyone know what a wonderful time we had on our trip to St. Petersburg, Russia due to all the arrangements and services provided by East West Tours. The hotel was excellent, but most of all, our guide, Maria Ganina, was outstanding! She was thoroughly professional and knowledgeable about all the sites in the city and on excursions. It frankly was incredible how her skills and kindness made our trip one we will never forget. You are so lucky to have her working for your company - and this is coming from two people that have high expectations!

Paul Thomas

Review of MOBY SPL A great way to see St Petersburg and the Baltic states We have just come back from a Stockholm-Helsinki-St Ptersburg-Tallinn-Stockholm trip on Princess Anastasia organised via East-West Tours and would recommend it highly. The ship is not the newest but it's well-maintained, the staff were efficient and helpful, and the food was varied and good. We chose a De-Luxe cabin (not really a fair description but it was quite comfortable and reasonably well-equipped) in order to benefit from the priority disembarkation and embarkation, which was well worthwhile. The 2 nights in St Petersburg (which was fabulous and where we were part of a group of 5) were spent at the 5 star Solo Sokos Palace Bridge hotel which was very good, but what was really special was the quality of our guide Maria Ganina. She has excellent English, is very knowledgeable about all the key sights and about Russia generally, very open to any kinds of discussion and has a really nice touch. The driver Alexander was also very good. Date of experience: October 2019

Arina Temple

East West Tours arranged a trip to Spain and Portugal for us this summer. They recommended very affordable and conveniently located hotels and booked private tours for us in Madrid and Lisbon. The guides they used were professional and with good knowledge of the subject and good command of English. On their advice we also rented a car and drove thru the countries enjoying the rural areas with wonderful food and wine. We stayed in several bed and breakfasts recommended by Alex and were very happy with the choice. His knowledge saved us a lot of time on research and making decisions. Alex, thanks for all your help and you will hear from us in a few years when we plan our trip to the Holy Land. Irina S.

Patti Lock

We can thoroughly recommend East West Tours! They provided us with superb hotel accommodation and It was a complete delight to have Masha as our tour guide in St Petersburg. Not only was she full of amazing facts and information but was also a charming lady who never ceased to “look after us” during our busy couple of tour days. Her knowledge of her lovely city was exceptional. Masha ..........you, and your torquoise fan , did a wonderful job and many many thanks to you and our driver ( who never had us hanging around for more than a few moments ) . Patti & Michael Lock

Lawrence DC

I want to say that the visa-free three-day tour in St. Petersburg was fantastic. There turned out to be seven people in our group which was great. Our tour guide (Anastasia) was right there waiting for us after Russian passport control. She was personable, educated, and excited about her work. Having taken a degree in art history, she was perfect for all the stops we made. She also was experienced in leading tours, shepherding us in and out the right doors, planning time just right, and making sure we didn’t miss a word or a highlight (of which there were about a million). She managed hearing equipment for our adventure in The Hermitage, made sure we saw Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son, got us ballet tickets, and got us to a borscht restaurant for an impromptu late lunch. She’s a gem! I feel we saw everything that a first-time visitor should see. I have to add that the hotel in St. Petersburg, the Sokol Vasilyevsky was superb. Our room was newly done (as seemed the entire hotel), the breakfast was excellent, and the “pub” was a pleasant watering hole. The boat that carried us over the Baltic was an interesting adventure. It’s a bit older, but spotless. Because of “technical problems” there was no hot water on the outward bound voyage. But the staff was professional and prompt, the food was plentiful, and we slept really well on our sea voyage. An experienced traveler would enjoy the voyage, too. And for this tour’s excellent price and value, I can put up with a delay in getting hot water. Thank you for making this adventure happen for us!

Victor

Our Grand Tour of Russia was a really grand and over-the-top travel experience! It's amazing just being in Moscow and soaking up all the different sites steeped in history. Sergei, our guide around the Golden Ring, was superb, very knowledgeable, really striving to make it interesting for us and to get us to appreciate these historic towns of which he is a native. We concur that St. Petersburg was stunningly beautiful and our guide there, Maria Ganina, is the best guide ever, with her encyclopedic knowledge of history, art and architecture and outstanding personal and professional qualities. All in all we highly recommend this tour. The excellent customer service from East-West Tours is also much to be commended.

Olga Mill

Have been using them for about 12 years; very dependable, best prices and best service.

Claire Smith

This was a wonderful tour. We loved every part of it. Masha, in particular, was a real treasure. She was extremely knowledgeable and great company. Also, she was flexible when we needed it, and made our visit smooth as silk.

Meg Burke

We had an amazing tour in St. Petersburg! The sights, the hotel, the lunch were all perfect and provided us a marvelous taste of St. Petersburg. But the best part was our guide, Maria (Mascha). She was fantastic!!! Her knowledge of and love for her country shined through each day! We learned so much of the history and loved hearing some personal accounts of growing up in the city. Mascha seemed much more of a friend than a tour guide! She gave us recommendations for our evenings telling us about the locals favorites, helped us get amazing seats at the ballet (last minute), guided us through Russian cuisine, helped us find souvenirs etc., etc. I can't imagine anyone better !! Thank you Mascha and East West Tours!

Diane

My husband and I want to thank you for affording us the opportunity to have one of the most impactful, enjoyable trip experiences of our lives. From start to finish, our trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg exceeded all of our highest expectations. This was due in great part to the expertise of the guides that you have employed. Although our initial guide, Rita Babakina was ill (and unfortunately, I can't remember the name of her substitute, but I'm sure that you do!), her substitute was outstanding, as was Oleg Tkachenko. Both were extremely knowledgeable, engaging, and very accommodating. They made every day in Moscow wonderful. Masha Ganina was equally erudite, making every minute interesting with facts and anecdotes. She was also very warm and went out of her way to make us feel comfortable in the city that she loves. We eagerly looked forward to every day because of her engaging mixture of history, art, and political intrigue. The drivers were wonderful as well...Andre was very accommodating. Both hotels were fantastic, but the Four Seasons Lion Palace in St. Petersburg really went above and beyond with the warmth of their staff. We highly recommend both hotels, and we would not hesitate to return because of the stellar service, beautiful accommodations, and the variety of delicious dining choices that are offered. This was truly a most memorable experience.

Mariya Z.

East West Tours, we wanted to let you know that we enjoyed the “Splendid Baltic Capitals” tour. We feel like we now know these beautiful countries, a part of the world we knew little of before. So much history and culture, not to mention all the beautiful architecture, my favorite was art deco streets in Riga. We both liked the trip to Trakai Castle. My husband really liked the Suomenlinna Fortress and military museum in Finland. Guides were good, and easy to understand. I want to point out some negatives on our trip. When we arrived in Helsinki it took forever to find our driver, and when we finally found him, he took us to the wrong hotel. Apparently he wasn’t notified that we changed it last minute. After some discussion he took us to the hotel we were supposed to be at, it was only few blocks away. I am glad we stayed at Glo Art, very nice hotel with great service and perfect location. Although the guides were good, sometimes we felt very rushed moving from place to place, in order to keep up with the set schedule. Maybe visiting 4 countries in 7 days wasn’t such a great idea. Hopefully when we retire we will take less paced vacations. Thanks for all your help, Barb and Bob Schiffer.

Anna

Dora from East West was extrmely accommodating and went out of her way to make sure every single detail of our trip to Russia was planned to perfection. She provides the best customer service that I've experienced in the US. Can't wait for our next adventure with East west!

G S

Did extensive reseach and contacted them about a published tour with a side trip to Poland. I got a snotty message back that they did not have anything on those dates and that they had given me what was available. I asked them to clarify we were discussing the same tour as I took the dates directly from their site. Even snottier return email full of highlights and captilization that the dates I was requesting were wrong. I provided them a screen shot of their site with the dates and told them the dates they kept highlighting for me for a trip three weeks earlier would not work. And, perhaps they should update their site. No response, no offer to help find another trip, just snarkiness. THIS agency exemplifies why I rarely use travel agencies! Had them in my sights for two seperate trips; their lack of professionalism steered me away.

Ronnie Duberstein

Recently returned from a wonderful "splendors of Russia" tour, which went to Moscow and St. Petersburg. East-West-Tours provided excellent hotels, two personable and knowledgeable tour guides, good choices of restaurants and a well-thought-out itinerary. I felt safe and at ease. Both cities have so much to offer. Only suggestion is more days there and more free time to explore in our own. Thank you, guides, Natasha and Masha! Thank you, East-West-Tours.

Emilee Pope

As a first time traveler, I had no idea where to begin to make trip plans and creat an itinerary. Alex from East West Tours helped to all that for me. And I could call and ask questions and he would be happy to answer them. The Bistro tour of Russia is a shorter tour, but the guides made graet use of that time and showed lots of really cool thing! Hotels were amazing, more fancy then I have ever stayed at. I know they can't control the weather, but I went in august and it was always sunny! I had the best time!

Laureline Sauvage

East West Tours arranged our trip to Russia in July 2017. Our agent was Dora Rozet. We traveled to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vilnius. We stayed at Hyatt Ararat in Moscow, the Amberton Hotel in Vilnius, and a homestay in St. Petersburg. Both hotels were very nice and located right in the very center of the city. We really enjoyed our tour guide Masha and her family. We were fortunate to stay at her apartment in St. Petersburg and spend time with her husband, daughter and 2 cats. Masha is a very good guide with outstanding knowledge of Russian history and culture. One of my favorite memories is our overnight train ride to Moscow and the opera at the Bolshoi theater. I also enjoyed the Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg and Armory in Moscow. Vilnius was a pleasant surprise. Very cozy old town, cobblestone streets, lots of trees, beautiful parks and squares, tasty vegetarian cafes and great shopping at Zara. East West Tours arranged a great trip for us and I would definitely recommend them to anybody travelling to Russia and Lithuania :)

Broni Mazus

I’ve been a client of East West Tours since 1994. I always work with travel agent Alex. He is very helpful and patient, has good knowledge of how to book best airline tickets and obtain visas to different countries. Throughout the years he arranged our trips to Russia, Poland, the Baltic countries, Georgia and Armenia, Uzbekistan and Tadzhikistan. He has personal contacts in all places and can make informal arrangements such as visiting local families and touring unusual places. He came highly recommended by our friend many years ago and we are happy to recommend him to anybody who likes to visit new destinations.

Clevin Jane

Thank you for putting together a wonderful trip. We had a marvelous time and our guide Vaida was fantastic. We look forward to working with you again in the future!

Sheri Holthouse

Alexander Vilkevich at East-West tours is a rock star. He answered my questions, promptly returned my emails and phone calls, gave great advice and picked beautiful hotels in wonderful locations at reasonable prices. I very much appreciated the continued service even after his job was done. We'd already paid for everything, reservations were made and i'd received all my documentation, but he still treated me like he was trying to win my business. We did the 3 day ferry trip to St. Petersburg from Helsinki, Alex arranged everything including accommodations in Helsinki... AND he managed to secure fellow rock star, Masha Ganina as our guide. Her encyclopedic knowledge, passion for sharing it and warm and kind personality made our whole trip. Leading up to this segment of our vacation, we had 3 weeks of tour guides under our belt, some better than others. Masha should be their queen. She should be queen of the whole world. She knows EVERYTHING and sharing her love for St. Petersburg and Russia gives her a joy you can see on her face and hear in her voice. Everyone should love their job so much and be so good at it. Thank you East-West Tours for giving my sister and I the experience of a lifetime!

East West Tours Bobby

Hello Bobby, We would like to thank you for putting together such an excellent package. Everything went very smoothly. The ferries were comfortable and the staff friendly and helpful. The guides met us exactly as planned and the one in St Petersburg was truly amazing – a real fund of information. The hotel in St Petersburg exceeded our expectations and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole tour. We are recommending this package to all our friends ! Thank you, Gillian and Peter Taylor

Scott Swaim

I just wanted you to know the Visa Free Cruise to St Petersburg, Estonia and Stockholm was amazing. What made the St Pete portion so great was our guide, Olga, and driver, Vitaly. First of all, my wife and I were the only ones on the tour. Second, Olga was amazing. Her energy, knowledge and understanding were outstanding. She is everything a guide should be and an amazing photographer. My wife and I have never had so many great pictures together. Vitaly was an unsung hero. Always getting us close to the destinations and there for the pick-up. It was our first time with East West Tours but wanted to tell you what a great job you (Dora) and the entire team did. We are so thankful and want to share this message with more people.