Services

With over twenty years of experience in Russian tourism, Rustravel can offer visitors to Russia great flexibility in their travel plans and satisfy virtually any specific requests. Tourism on a professional level means an individual approach to every client. The best way to see Russia is first to determine what your interests and budget are: then you and Rustravel can together plan à-la-carte tours, activities and excursions…just for you or your group.

Here are just a few examples of Rustravel’s satisfied clients:

For a group of managers from Migros, Switzerland’s leading chain of retailers and supermarkets, we arranged the program that included the acquaintance with Russian supermarkets: personal introductions to store managers, demonstrations of administrative systems, advertising methods, how Russian stores work with customers and how stores in Russia build lasting relationships with their clientele.  

A tour was conducted for Carrosserie Verband, the Swiss association of automobile body workers and coach builders, for them to make the acquaintance of their St Petersburg colleagues. The members of the tour were amazed at the remarkably high quality of the Russian equipment, much of which dated from Soviet times.    

Members of the club known as the Twike Challenge came to Russia with their microcar-velomobiles called Twikes. For these enthusiasts in their electric+pedal-power vehicles, Rustravel arranged a show parade along Nevsky Prospect and through Palace Square.    

In the kitchens of the popular suburban restaurant called Podvorye, master classes were arranged to instruct Swiss chefs in the subtleties of preparing Russian cuisine. Russian chefs shared their recipes and culinary techniques for such traditional dishes as Ruby-red Beetroot Borsch and Chopped-Steak Cutlets à la Pozharsky. At the conclusion of the chefs’ visit, the Swiss magazine Saison Kueche published an article entitled ‘Russia Dishes It Up!’   

When the rector from Bern-Neufeld Gymnasium came to St Petersburg, he was introduced to the academic staff of a typically Russian school, Gymnasium No 209 in Vosstania Street. He relished the opportunity to sit in on classes, meet teachers and school administrators and discuss scholastic topics of mutual interest.    

Travellers to Russia naturally like seeing the country’s world-famous sights, especially during a first-time visit. But they also want to become acquainted with Russia’s cultural heritage and learn about life in 21st-century Russia. One of the most satisfying and practical ways to do this is to have Rustravel make introductions to Russian professionals in specific fields, so that they can discuss topics which concern them both. The highly qualified Rustravel staff are experienced in arranging such rewarding discussion groups.                                  

Exclusive excursions to restoration art studios, backstage visits to theatres and opera houses, inspiring trips to some of the world’s oldest Christian monasteries – these and many other custom-designed, thematic tour programmes help visitors to delve into different aspects of Russian culture. 

We offer clients a sincerely personal approach, with creativity, reliability and a strong desire to establish and maintain long-term relationships.

Here are some of the most frequently requested types of tours: 

•    Professional tours concentrating on specific professions    
•    Incentive holidays, an ideal way for firms to reward employees for excellent achievement 
•    Tours for corporate clients  
•    Educational tours and excursions for young people   
•    Promotional tours for international companies and travel agencies from abroad to become familiar with Russia 
•    Romantic holidays for couples and newlyweds
•    Cultural enjoyment of St Petersburg’s professional ballets, operas and concerts
•    White Nights excursions and late-night summer festivities 
•    Combinations of any of the above, and much more!  

Here are just a few suggestions for à-la-carte tours for individuals and groups:

•    Watch icon-painters at work in their art studios in the cities of St Petersburg and Novgorod. 
•    See and talk to the remarkably gifted masters who work with amber in their studios. 

•    Meet Russian painters and sculptors to talk about art.  

•    Visit glass-blowing studios and watch Russian masters at work.  

•    Learn what’s happening in Russia’s booming construction industry: visit a leading architect’s drafting studio, and watch Russian construction projects of residential flats and office space as they approach completion. 

•    A trip to the Imperial Porcelain Factory is a fascinating way to see how such treasures are created. View the magnificent pieces Imperial Porcelain has produced over the past two hundred years by visiting the factory’s museum. Visitors can even participate in porcelain-painting master classes.   

•    Visit some of the special places that inspired St Petersburg’s most honoured poets and novelists, such as Feodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Pushkin and Anna Akhmatova.  

•    Enjoy the gaiety of Russian folk-music and traditional Russian folk-dancing while sipping tea from a samovar and enjoying Russian blini-crêpes. 
•    Winter is an especially appropriate time to visit Russia. Just imagine reliving scenes from Dr Zhivago by riding in a horse-drawn troika through the snow-covered parks just outside St Petersburg   

Whatever your professional interests or favourite avocations, let Rustravel help you to see it and participate in it when you visit Russia.