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Summer 2002
Individual Tour for 3 people (June 22 - July 4, 2002)
Kiev - Ratno - Belaya Tserkov - Moscow - St.Petersburg

Plans for this trip to Ukraine and Russia commenced last fall. We had numerous considerations for this trip. The primary reason that we were making the trip together (other than compatibility) was because we both wanted to go to the part of western Ukraine from where our MUTUAL family came: Zdomyshle. We didn't know much about Zdomyshle, EXCEPT that it was a "selo" very near to or part of the town of Ratno in Volhynia Gubernia, which is now the Volhynia oblast. We really had trouble finding it on a map; but we knew it was near the Polish border with Ukraine. I also wanted to go to the city in Ukraine, near to Kiev, where my father and his parents were born, Belaya Tserkov. We wanted to spend a couple of days in Kiev. I also have family in Kiev and in Moscow that I very much wanted to meet. And from Kiev, we planned to go to Moscow - and we certainly wouldn't go all the way over there without seeing the historical and beautiful (so we'd heard!) city of St. Petersburg!

Stories of Russian planes made both Murray (my cousin) and me decide that once within the boundaries of the former Soviet Union, we would not be flying from point to point. We KNEW what we wanted. And we knew what we DIDN'T want. But unlike travel to other places, we were at a TOTAL LOSS as to how to get what we wanted. It's very easy to make your own travel arrangements, if you're going to Western Europe. If you're going to Israel and the Middle East or to Asia, as I have found out by first-hand experience, it isn't аdifficult to make your own itinerary, hotel arrangements, and all flight arrangements. There are, however, MAJOR obstacles in trying to make your own plans, if you are going to Ukraine and Russia. The first one is the language barrier. There's no point of similarity between English and the Ukrainian and Russian languages (Yes! TWO different languages!). The second obstacle is that, if you FIND a computer site for making hotel reservations or tour plans within Ukraine and Russia, GOOD LUCK in getting a response! Just for your edification, at least once per month since last year, I've sent a communication to a hotel or museum in Ukraine and/or Russia. Had I awaited responses before making my plans to travel there, let alone actually making the trip, I still would be sitting and waiting for the first response. As much as there is to see and do in these two countries, the powers that be in the places that house and squire Americans around have neither a sense of responsiveness nor a hospitable emotion to show to visitors and POTENTIAL visitors; and if left to their own devices, as much as tourism is a boom to any economy, there are VERY, VERY FEW people IN Ukraine or Russia who seem to realize this.

So, we realized very quickly that we needed the services of a competent but caring travel agent specializing in travel to Ukraine and Russia. We needed someone who would be responsive to our questions, who is knowledgeable about Ukraine and Russia and the geographical layout of the cities and smallerаtowns where we were planning to go, who could make arrangements for our entireаvisit to these countries and provide us with tours, investigators (for any potentially-available information about our families), translators and interpreters, AND ALMOST MOST IMPORTANTLY, who would be willing to help us do all of this to the best of our financial capabilities (which didn't seem that great!).

We contacted a grand total of THREE travel agents. I quite frankly ruled one out immediately, because while he did not say that he was not familiar with making travel plans in Ukraine and Russia, it very quickly became very clear that he did not know ANYTHING about travel in those countries. There is NO travel agent who can specialize in the WORLD.

Then, there was travel agent NUMBER TWO. She claimed to have expertise in Ukraine - she had even lived there for awhile. And I guess some of her family must have come from there, once upon a time. But a fair amount of information that she provided, with hindsight, turned out to be false. And the BIG problem came when she heard that we were planning to go to Ukraine and Russia during the high season for travel in those countries, BUT that we were unable to pay TOP DOLLAR. She actually told us that it would not be possible to find what we were looking for at the price we wanted to pay - and added that if we could even THINK that it was possible, not only were we misinformed, but we could NEVER afford her service charges. And she told us to goаelsewhere.

Travel agent NUMBER THREE is actually NUMBER ONE - both because it was the first travel agency that we actually contacted, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, because it was the ONLY agency that NEVER SAID NO--NEVER said that anything we wanted was impossible--NEVER said that it couldn't be done--ALWAYS responded within MINUTES of receiving our inquiries--ALWAYS was cheerful, full of advice and information and totally competent. I realized this immediately. I didn't believe it was possible that we could actually find an agent who wouldn't try to push us into everything, gave very reasonable explanations when something we wanted was not possible and always provided alternatives so that we could get what we wanted, very often at even BETTER prices than those we were expecting to pay. UkraineTour turned our vacation to Ukraine and Russia into a fairytale-type ofаtrip. Everything that we could have possibly wanted came true. Everything we planned to do on this trip was accomplished in the twelve days that we hadаfor staying in the two countries. Every detail of our trip was PERFECT. Once the details of our travel plans within Ukraine and Russia were made, including hotels, interpreters, train travel, tours, being met at the airport and train stations, with the able assistance of UkraineTour provided very able assistance in getting us our visas to Ukraine and Russia (and since my cousin is in Toronto and I am in New Jersey, between us, we needed visas in both the U.S. and Canada). We were provided with all necessary documents and information, so that our visas were obtained without any problems.

Every e-mail correspondence was answered within minutes--never did it take longer than an hour to get a response. Even my silliest questions (Showers on the trains? Deposits for pajamas on the train?--It turns out that "bed clothes" are linens and towels, NOT pajamas.) received cheerful responses (and a few laughs!). UkraineTour provided us with a WONDERFUL apartment in beautiful central Kiev at a VERY reasonable price. And we obtained hotel and train reservations via UkraineTour in all of our choices, again at VERY reasonable prices. All of our needs were anticipated and handled during our stay in Ukraine and Russia.

When I requested that an investigator make a preliminary visit to western Ukraine, so that we would know where to go to look for family records, it was done at a very minimal expense by a very competent investigator, who also provided snapshots of the area we would be visiting, and in addition, checked out hotels while out there to find the best possible location for us to stay while there. The investigator, it turned out, spoke impeccable English and served as our interpreter and translator and--yes!--friend in Ukraine, and even went on with us to Russia, when we realized that we could make use of his services there.

The interpreter provided by UkraineTour did far more than help us to communicate with government officials in the Archives. He translated all conversations that I had with family in Ukraine and Russia - a very important part of making me feel part of the family I'd never known. In UkraineTour, we got MUCH more than we paid for. We got not only a competent tour agency, but a caring friend, who phoned Kiev and spoke with our interpreter to make certain that we had arrived as planned and that all was well. And he was in touch with us throughout our trip, making certain that all of our needs were being attended to. To me, this is going beyond anything I expected.

As a result of my experiences, I would advise any person going to Ukraine or Russia to look no further than UkraineTour to provide careful travel planning and very competent and able assistance. Others may offer these services for travel to Ukraine and Russia. UkraineTour delivers -and even delivers MORE than expected.

Peter Harab (New Jersey, USA)