Dancing Bear Tours

Our two day tour of St Petersburg was outstanding. The guide Elena was the best we have ever had. We saw many sites but never felt rushed. The itinerary was unique. Lunch the first day was included. We ate in a lovely little restaurant that I doubt many tourists ever see.

Our group of two dads and 3 sons was on a 72 hour visa to St. Petersburg. So time was limited but the sites were plentiful. This tour really made our trip! The owner was extremely communicative. Even when we were making several last minute requests they did a great job accommodating us. The tour van picked us up at our hotel. They were even early. The owner showed up to make sure everything went smoothly. The van was large and held our luggage which were carryon bags. This was our last day and after the tour they would drop us at the ship. They had an organized preapproved itinerary. The van itself was nice and the seats very comfortable and adjustable. My back was happy. The tour guide Tatiana was amazing! She was young and energetic and had a wealth of knowledge. She was a certified guide. This is important when you go to locations like Catherine's palace. She gave us a background of the neighborhoods we drove through and how the city developed since it's inception. We hit some sites I would not have picked but were not crowded and added to our tour nicely. We hit the maximum number of sites that time would allow and they fit well with our tour like the cake church Catherine built but is hardly visited. We have unique picture not many tourists have. Our biggest site was Catherine's palace. I could write a book on Tatiana's tour here! Wow. The key is while everyone was waiting to pickup tickets we walked in past the gates into the garden! We had private pictures there while almost everyone was outside the gates. We got 15mins of pictures and then got to the entrance doors. This saved us so much time! In each room Tatiana not only explained everything but gave the staff (in almost every room) confidence she was watching us. This means they felt good letting us get in early or allowing us a private minute to get pictures alone with our group. The pictures are worth a million bucks to us! Stunning and once in a lifetime. Tatiana never complained about taking pictures. She always had a nice smile and good interactive conversation. We had lunch on site to save time. Tatiana answered our questions on life in Russia. The teenage boys were entertained and never spoken down to. They loved her. After more pictures and touring we got back to the car. Water was waiting for us there. We had some extra time so we added chesma church. Tatiana had no issues with this and was also knowledgeable on this location. From there was walked across street to a wonderfully hip coffee shop! She used her phone number to get us on WiFi (you need a code text). This allowed us to upload all our pictures before the boat where we had no internet. We went back to the ship and now the tour was done. After we said goodbye and got our gift book from the tour, Tatiana decided to stay and help us with the ship line. She wanted to see if we had priority entrance to the ship. She waited with us 30min before we told her to go and rest, we were fine. She also text us after the tour several links about information we were curious about. This was one of the best tour companies I have ever used. They are very responsive. They care very much about customer reviews. Russia can be difficult and not very customer service friendly. This tour company is the opposite. They really saved our trip! Oh our driver was good also.

Wow! What can I say that is superlative enough to describe how wonderful a guide Elena from Dancing Bear Tours was for our group of two couples. We had signed up for a ‘small group’ ‘Must See’ tour of Saint Petersburg after comparing what Dancing Bear offered vs. other tour companies in SPB. Many companies were highly rated but something about Dancing Bear and Julia’s comments on her website made us choose Dancing Bear for our tour company for our two-day cruise stop in SPB. WHAT AN AMAZING DECISION WE MADE!!! This was maybe the best tour we have ever been on - and we’ve been on lots of tours. We saw and learned so much about Russian and SPB history and many other little things about real Russian family life that will stay with us forever. We were almost in tears leaving our guide, Elena, at the end of our two day tour. She had become like family with her tales of her family and her never-ceasing energy and positive attitude. We saw so much in such a short time! We had great meals, we ate the BEST donuts I’ve ever had (4 of them to be exact) and we were always right on time. With only four of us - the couple with us who we met the first morning - became our good friends. Through Elena’s efforts we were able to skip lines, be treated to a canal cruise on our own adorable small boat, and be able to wander about the Faberge Museum at our leisure. Elena even made the rain stop for us to see the fountains of the Peterhof in their full glory! Our driver of our small M-B three row van - Maxim - was always waiting for us and he and Elena made a great team. What could have been a dry historical tour was instead lots of fun, really informative and a true once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

I love dancing-bear-tours service. It is outstanding. I can't say enough good things about the hotels, how well organized everything is, the guides, the whole works.

This one is very good. Services are nice. i am totally satisfied in their services. Good job guys.