Very sad to say that our anniversary trip was a series of disappointments. Our goal was to use our Russian visas before they expire in a few months. We really wanted to see the Peterhof palace. We worked with Kevin Testa at Mir, providing us with an itinerary we requested to also see Lithuania and Latvia before heading to St. Petersburg. He sent us a revised itinerary just days before we left but did not tell us what had changed. We booked all of this 6 months in advance. We soon found out the hotel in Vilnius was changed. We checked into the Artis hotel instead of the Shakespeare hotel. The Shakespeare hotel is much nicer and has a better location to the old town sites. We were disappointed in that plus the management at the Artis was horrible. We did not have AC in our room and we called immediately to ask to have someone repair it. They told us, they couldn’t do that until the following day. After traveling all day and sleeping in a sauna. We decided to go to the brand new Marriott, and ask MIR to reimburse us. They tried to tell us it was more expensive when it was actually 20 euros a night cheaper. Then our guide in Vilnius, skipped taking us to the tower in the old town, no acknowledgment or apology from MIR. Then in Riga, our itinerary indicated a full day guide and car to various sites. First, the guide rushes us through the sites and we are done at 2 pm each day. Then he describes each site as though he is dismissive to the significance as we’ve seen it before. In fact most of his comments were negative and then he tries to stereotype all Americans as pushy like New Yorkers. By the 3 day of touring with him, I dreaded getting into the car to listen to him. Then we head to St. Petersburg. We booked 2 days of touring and the first was excellent. We had seen the hermitage before and enjoyed it the 2 nd time. The next day they take us to the Peterhof, but we only saw the gardens. We were hugely disappointed and complained. The Russian team at MIr did s nice job of redeeming themselves, but we have no confidence in the Seattle team.

Our trip to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia that the MIR Corporation planned, organized and executed for us was absolutely spectacular from beginning to end and far exceeded our wildest dreams and expectations of a perfect trip to Russia. Lisa Peterson, at the MIR Corporation, was our travel advisor and she was a superb point of contact and information resource for all of our questions and concerns. She planned our itinerary in the utmost detail, left nothing to chance and provided immeasurable assistance with all of our planning details, and ensuring the Russian visa process was as smooth as possible. She is most assuredly a truly outstanding travel professional. Our guide in Moscow, Irina, was an absolute gem of a guide. She is extremely knowledgeable, and informative in all aspects of Russian and Moscow history, and all aspects of the cathedrals, palaces, museums, art, and artist that we saw on our trips around Moscow. Our driver, Sergey, was an extremely professional driver, and ensured that we were on the correct train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. He went well above the call to duty for us in all of our interactions with him. Our guide in Saint Petersburg, Larissa, was equally outstanding. She bubbles over with pride and enthusiasm for her Saint Petersburg. She is extremely knowledgeable about the history and rulers of Russia, as well as overflowing with information about all of the palaces, cathedrals and museums that we visited. Our driver, Yan was also a very dedicated professional driver, and always made sure that we were met and arrived at all of our destinations in a timely manner. He was even cheerful when he took us to the airport at 2:30 AM for return flight home. All and all, this was a trip of a lifetime, a dream come true, and I cannot express enough good comments about the MIR Corporation, Lisa Peterson, Irina, Larissa, Sergey, and Yan and their parts in making this trip so extraordinary. If you are thinking about a trip to Russia, the MIR Corporation should be the only company that you contact.

I have been on over 6 trips with MIR & they have all been way above and beyond what I expected. I just got back from visiting Saudi Arabia & highly recommend it for anyone wanting to be a pioneer into a country rarely seen by non-Muslims. Of course that is a country that is developing its tourism industry, so you won't get a Disney experience. If you want everything neat & tidy, go to Disney or on a cruise. If you crave real adventure, take MIR.

Recently I was on my first MIR tour to Saudi Arabia and it was amazing, anyone wishing to have a real adventure should book this tour. It was well organized with a wonderful tour director with us everyday. I highly recommend this tour and this company. There were 12 on the tour, a perfect number.

MIR is a wonderful company and we had an excellent experience with one of their tours. They were extremely flexible and insightful in planning our trip and were just as excellent on the ground during our tour. I highly recommend them!

fabulous group. I've done the Baltics, the 5 stans (Tzbekistan, turkmenistan, etc, and now Iran. They go all the places other groups don't go. You can trust them to get you there and back without any problems.

We recently used MIR Corp travel to tour Tibet and Western China. The itinerary and guides were very good. MIR Corp definitely slumped on hotel accommodations and meal quality. Not a good value for the money!

They are great, however, with Russia's attack of Ukraine. Most of their trips are off limits or unsafe. It is a shame because this is such a great company.