We used them last year and really liked the service they provided us. We did 2-day independent tour on Costa Luminosa. Blanket visa was sent us via e-mail. We didn't have to pay the deposit before our arrival.

We have visited Peterhof, Catherine palace, the Hermitage and a pair of terrific Russian churches. Everything was ok, guide's English was much more better we could dream!!! And we really appreciate his sense of humour

Twistergirl--

I noticed that you are fairly new to the forums, so I wanted to caution you about the responses above, and to take them with a grain of salt.

The first response, you will notice, appears to be from the tour operator.

I suspect that the second response may be a "plant"; just the tour operator using a new screen name in order to promote his own business . What makes me think that this a strong possibility is that:

1. johncruisefan posted his first forum post just to compliment this tour operator, having joined Tripadvisor today

2. If you look at johncruisefan's "profile", he has also written an "inside" page about tour operators in SP which is flagrantly an unpaid ad promoting this specific business.

3. johncruisefan makes a few errors in English which would not be made by a native English speaker. (This is less of an indictment than the other points, since obviously many tourists, including Californians, are not English- fluent).

Of course I could be wrong-- but these are "red flags" for self-promotions on tripadvisor-- and I'd be suspicious if I were you.

Consider using one of the more established companies which have many testimonials on this forum and Cruisecritic.

pasca, just curious what makes you think twistergirl74 herself is real? She is making exactly the same mistakes as johncruisefan in her English :)))

Well - twister and cruisefan are both from the US and A - must be contagious :))

Absolutely agree with you, very naive and direct advertising.

Not sure about twister-girl, but if you think I am not from California, I invite you to my house

))).California. You better invite everubody on you dasha, not far from Kolpino...)))

))).You better invate eveyrybody on your dasha, which is not so far from Kolpino....))) Be honest and it will be better advirtising!!!