I have been visiting Ukraine since 2004, and in that time I have only ever visited Odessa once, and it was only a rainy afternoon in the summer of 2005, where I saw next to nothing. Fast forward to 2021, and I was traveling to Moldova via Odessa, so used the chance to see the city. Looking around I found Odessa Walks, and the reviews were good, so decided to book a tour through them. I know Odessa has a lot to see (both rich and poor sides) plus a very rich Jewish history on top of that, and this tour seemed right up my street as it covered EVERYTHING in Odessa, and when I asked if the Catacombs could be added in to my tour, they were more than happy to accommodate. Olga was a complete joy to work with from first approach right through to the day itself, and really brought Odessa to life for me, with a very in depth history of the city, as well as taking me to find some more off the beaten track locations that I would never have found. First part of the tour was a walk around the heart of Odessa, leaning about the origins of the city and the beating heart of Odessa, this was followed with a bit of insight into the writer Isaac Babel (I strongly recommend reading his Odessa Stories book, as you will visit a lot of the places that influenced his stories, and the people who potentially were the basis that were characters in his stories). After a lovely stop off at a Georgian Restaurant for lunch, the afternoon section was a trip by car around Moldavanka, with more insight into area's away from the city. Highlight of the day was the Odessa Catacombs, which were about a 15 minute drive outside of Odessa, but very much worth it. Covering around 2km's underground, you get to learn about the history of the caves as a mine for building Odessa as it expanded with people moving into the area from other regions, and then during WW2 where it was used as a shelter for the Partizans fighting against the Nazi's. Really amazing stuff. The day started at 10am, and I asked if I could be dropped off at Odessa train station for 6pm, and it was 5:45pm when I was dropped off at the front steps of the train station. Olga is amazing guide and will teach you a lot about Odessa, so highly recommend this tour.

I spent perfect time with Mme. Olga, she is such patient, well knowledge person! I learned so much from her about the city and opera! Thanks so much!

Had a great day with Olga! Best way to see & learn about the culture and history of the beautiful city. Food was great! I now have done the Pub tour, Food tour & Catacombs with them & highly recommend!

Well, thanks to covid we had the entire place to oursevles. Sasha again was an awesome guide providing us with a historical look at early Odessa. I recommend her highly! Next time we will try the wine tour!

We were very lucky to book this tour! Sasha is an amazing guide that has a lot of knowledge about the city. The pubs we went too, we have never found without her. I highly recommend using Sasha for any tour. She speaks perfect english & has a great sense of humour!

Outstanding tour. I thought this would only be visiting pubs in Odessa. I discovered that tour was pubs and more. We learned some of the history, culture and customs of the city. Our tour guide, Alexandra, was the perfect tour guide. If you are looking to learn about the city and enjoy the taste of local brews, this is the tour to take! Enjoy!!!

We have just returned from a three day visit to Odessa. We arranged our tours with Olga at Odessa Walks by e mail. She was very accommodating taking into account my husband's difficulties in walking. She is a wealth of information, very personable and a pleasure to spend the time with. At her suggestion, we took the Odessa historical walking tour first to get a general background of the city and then the two Jewish tours. We were also very interested in seeing the residences of the Jewish writers and intellectuals as well and she also arranged that tour for us. We feel that we toured the city with a friend and recommend her highly. Excellent.

A lot of interesting history of the city of Odessa, the tour guide was very informative about the history of the city, buildings, and food. Why I gave it such a low rating was it was kind of boring, also kind of expensive for what you get. I highly recommend going with a friend or group.

I really liked Odessa, so was looking forward to this tour. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that I was the only one taking the tour, so I thought there would be some flexibility about how the tour was conducted, but alas it was not to be. My guide, who was very experienced and polite, had two further tours lined up back to back with mine, so we looked at various monuments, did a tour of the market (fascinating) and ended up walking around the buildings that make up the medical precinct of Odessa - much less fascinating. We finished on the stroke of the two hour mark. Overall, a useful tour, but not really the ‘other’ Odessa.

I spent three days with Olga, the first on a general city tour with a group I'd been touring with, the second and third were just booked by me --Jewish heritage tour. It's usually done in one day, but Olga agreed to split it up over two days, because of my health issues. My grandparents and extended family came from Odessa to the U.S. in the early 1900s. Olga made the world they'd lived in come alive. Her knowledge and passion was infectious, and I felt the unique spirit of the city: exciting, playful, and vibrant. She's great company and a wonderful story teller. My experience with her was unforgettable.

Odessa is a beautiful city but to really understand you need help from a local, and Odessa Walks is perfect for that. Originally we planned to have 2 private half-day walking tour. We decided to have a private guide (rather than group tour) because of our 10-month baby (we had to stop from time to time to feed her). All logistics were sorted quickly by email with Olga (the founder) while Alexandra, our guide, proved to be amazing throughout the day. Competent, friendly and great storyteller. We loved so much that we decided to have another tour later in the week, this time full day visiting the catacombs and the Shabo winery. I strongly recommend

We made two tours with Olga, one in the city center and one in the catacombs. She is very well informed, knows what places to show and speaks perfect English.

We did a great walking tour with Olga. She is very knowlegeable and she gave us excellent explanations about many aspects of the jewish life in the city. I am very thankful and most of all because she arranged my transportation for a trip to the village where my grandparents came from.

If you're going to do any tours of the city, definitely skip the ubiquitous driving tours and stick with Odessa Walks. Do as many of their tours as possible. My friend and I first did the "Odessa Through the Centuries" walking tour in a small group of five with Alexandra, who was just lovely and gave a thorough rundown of both the actual history as well as the anecdotes and myths of Odessa, in which she was fluent (as well as at least 3 languages, which is helpful for multilingual groups). Also, her beer recommendation was excellent! We then did the ~5 hour Jewish History walking tour privately with Olga, who is also a goddess and champion of a tour guide. My friend only speaks Russian, so Olga gave over the tour in both languages and knew everything about everything. I also requested the addition of Moldavanka and kingpin Misha Yaponchik's house to the tour, which she duly showed us. The tours are specially tailored, and whatever interests you, trust me, Olga has forgotten more about it than you'll ever know. Even if you're not Jewish, like my friend, the history of the Jews in Odessa is fascinating, and if you're there in the summer, you'll barely notice the heat and distance once she gets started. Had we had more time, we'd definitely have done all the other tours on offer. If you're in Odessa and are even mildly interested in the city and its history, definitely ensure you do at least one of these.

I did the Moldavanka tour with Aleksandra. It was great and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this neighborhood and it's history.