HEY GUYS

[canadian guy25]

I need some info cause i want to go on a romantic tour to russia and any info would be awesome being from canada so i wouldn't know were to begin.

[Randy]

Hey Canadian Guy,
I can not tell you which company would be best as I have not looked into them to much.
What I can tell you is that doing a search on the internet would be a good start.
But be carful,alot of the companies are over priced and not all are honest.
Some companies even hire perfesional daters,they are beautiful looking ladies hired just to draw in the men so the companies can make more money.They will be soooo nice to you but the chances of ever marrying one is pretty much nil.
Of coures there are the other girls there that come to meet a man,but all are on there best behavior.
I am not trying to scar you off of taking one of these tours,just do your home work on it first and on the companies.
If you have any other questions,just ask,we will try to help,EH.
I have been to Russia 2 times and never took a tour,and have met a lot of nice ladies,just not the right one.

Good luck
Randy

[canadian guy25]

umm a little overpriced last time i looked it 8000 canaidian then you had to find your way to new york and then you go so umm yeah just wonder if there agencies in russia when you go there to meet ladies

[wavetossed]

I think you will get the best price if you book your flights yourself, fly with Aeroflot, and deal with an agency that doesn't make most of their money on tours. Search on the net and find a marriage agency that has a reasonable choice of girls and write to them. Tell them that you would like to visit their city and meet several girls in person.

The agency can help you to find a local hotel, translator, car & driver, and also help with the visa.

Or if you really want to just deal with an agency that offers love tours, I would suggest that you avoid Moscow and St. Petersburg. In fact you should probably lean towards Siberia because that is where the prices of everything will be the best. For instance check this site
http://www.siberianbrides.com/lovetour.html or this one http://www.faceofsiberia.com/order_tour.php or this one http://www.mailorderbride.ws/tour.shtml

When an agency offers "personal tours" that is often a code for "we don't do a lot of organized tours but if you want to meet women in person then we can help". In other words, their core business is not running tours but helping women to find men. This is a good thing.

[MartinUK]

Wavetossed,
Nothing personal but before using an agency, and most certainly before recommending the said agency, you do a background check first.
As soon as I saw you had posted 'Face of Siberia' I already knew them to be internet blacklisted and I've just confirmed this belief by running their name thru google.com.
Not sure about the other 2 agencies though but ALWAYS do an internet search first. If you're thinking of spending ANY money with an agency do it by recommendation.
Siberia's fine but only for 6 months each year!
Martin

[canadian guy25]

not knocking ya martin but i am from western canada and well the weather changes faster than i can change my socks lol but thanks for the tip.. http://datingtalk.info/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[wavetossed]

Martin,

Note that I didn't recommend a Face of Siberia. I referred him to a selection of sites. And if he looked at all three he would have noticed that Face was the most expensive and violated my suggestion of avoiding a romance tour operator. But it does provide a standard of comparison and for some people, Face is probably a great choice regardless of so-called Internet blacklists.

A lot of men hunting for Russian brides are overly paranoid and too willing to blacklist innocent women and innocent agencies. The world is simply not black and white, there are many shades of grey.

[MartinUK]

Wavetossed,
Like I said, nothing personal however grey is a shade of black. Accepted, some losers blacklist through losing or naivity however when several guys blacklist that shade of grey starts turning black.
Just by posting an agency name and suggesting 'check this' is to put a potential customer their way and some guys may interpret this as a recommendation by yourself.
How is this story for a shade of grey:

Face of Siberia -- BIG Problems III

Conclusions:

1. I paid for personal matchmaking service that describes specific actions on the website, which did not occur. I've sent Ashley a request for information to provide phone records, emails with date/timeheaders, etc. to detail a paper trail of his matchmaking efforts and the results of his search in an email entitled "Some questions". Ashley
responded in an email entitled "RE: Stupid Questions" saying, "I am not going to answer these stupid questions."

2. While I was in Omsk, the agency representatives argued about money for extra days I would stay in front of girls as I was being introduced to them on 7 of the 10 paid days. Only once did the argument take place in private away from a girl, but on that a second argument also took place in front of a girl I was about to meet. They appeared to use the girl's presence as a means to pressuring me to agree with their demands. I have a signed and dated statement from the interpreter who was my original interpreter who had to referee the initial arguments. That quote has been already listed. At the point I realized that I was not going to use the agency the remaining days of my stay, I let them know all arguing should stop as I'm not going to use them anyway!! I believe that monies equal to 70% (7 of the 10 days) tour cost should be refunded.

3. The AGENCY changed the extra hour interpreter agreement made and demanded to get $20/hr for interpreter fees for service beyond 8hrs AFTER I GOT TO SIBERIA. Andrey later tried to negotiate, with himself apparently, down to $10/hr. Whereas, at the dinner I had with Ashley Neil, President of Power Productions and Face of Siberia, Mr. Neil stated that any extra fees should be negotiated and paid directly to the interpreter. There are no fee schedules for extra hours on the web site and I have made repeatedly requested to be pointed to them, if they exist. I requested Mr. Neal to document our conversation and he failed to do so. That question was declared stupid as well by Mr. Neil. (see thread for more details) I merely wish to warn any prospective clients not to use this service or at least to get everything in writing from Mr. Neal if you are so inclined to still do so.

4. The agency in Omsk was unaware of my arrival date and had to scramble to arrange meetings. I told Ashley several times at dinner and during phone calls over the course of 3 weeks prior to my trip that I was to arrive on 6/28. Mr. Neal correctly points out that I sent an email a month and a half prior to my trip stating I had not firmed up plans but estimate it would be around 6/30. Mr. Neal did not take the time to communicate my trip plans to the Russian agency. I cannot recommend taking an individual tour from this
company. I cannot give any opinions of their beauty contest tours except that the girls are surprised to find out about an American intro agency.

5. Ashley Neal had agreed that I would be able to move between the Omsk
and Novosibirsk agencies, paying only transportation fees. When I arrived
the agency said I could not do this without paying all expenses (hotels,
agency fees, etc.) in both places, then after more than half my trip was used,
agreed that I would merely have to check out of my hotel and pay transportation.

6. One woman who I know very well, stated that she did not finish writing the email response I received under her name and that agency finished writing her letter, content and translation, for her. Isn't this fraudulent activity? Mr. Neal assured me before purchasing hundreds of dollars in email tokens that this practice never occurred at his agency. I did not pay to talk to the agency.

7. Each woman's web page has quotes about what she is looking for in a man. One girl also said the quotes on her web page were fabricated by the agency when I showed her web page to her. The quote used under her name is word-for-word repeated on several other women's web page.

8. Several of the women said they had no idea that American men would come to see them when they joined the beauty pageant held by Power Productions.

9. When I met Mr. Neil in Austin, he displayed an offensive video on his PC with Russian girls dancing in bikinis with words like "SEXY" sauntering across the pages as the camera pans on specific body parts. I told Mr. Neil that that didn't tell me anything about finding a wife to which he replied that the big money was in selling voyeuristic, sexy videos, for the guys to you-know-what-over.

10. Mr. Neal and his agency in Omsk have AGGRESSIVELY worked to thwart the
budding relationship I have with Elena Korsunova. He has boasted of his doings saying,

"We have spoken to both of our clients above and they now understand
everything that you tried to do by bad mouthing our agency there while
you were in Omsk.

Neither will be coming to see you anytime soon."

He won't even tell me what I've supposedly tried to do. Be warned that it appears if you don't agree with this agency's tactics, even undocumented, they will do everything they can to cast doubt into your girl's mind. Remember, Russians trust Russians first.
In ten or less days, you cannot establish your implicit credibility with a woman. If there is a problem, Mr. Neal and his staff have acted as unprofessional as anything I have seen in my life.

__
Dave

[canadian guy25]

ok guys calm down there are good points to both sides

1. yes alot of women get black listed for some things that they say but i also have to say when the rules are set ie:if women ask for money on the ites report them then something is up hence they are weeding out the good and bad ..

2. Alot of places do what martin has said and screw things up and try to put things out of whack for you and they lady you meet.

This is why i asked you people have done this and expericened it first hand .I am new to this and would rather ask people who did it done it instead of going and being screwed over by these companies ands leaving russia or the ukraine with a bad feeling or a chip on my shoulder .

so martin since waved gave his sites what sites would you recommend.

[MartinUK]

Hi Canadian,
No need to calm down, I don't believe anyone is agitated.

The short answer is, I cannot recommend an agency for tours because I have never tried such a thing. I did consider such a thing, through circumstances, earlier this year and I went on recommendation(s) from forum posts on www.rwguide.com and thereafter shortlisted an agency or two with the more desirables!

That was a personal tour I was considering, simply because these 'all inclusive' tours that include air travel etc. are a rip-off and you have to travel from somewhere like JFK. Part of my reasoning behind thinking of a personal tour was I was travelling to Ukraine only a few days from then and didn't think I would have the time to arrange something 'personal' for myself, I did however manage to arrange something for myself.

The longer answer is, how will you know if the ladies on such a tour are serious or 'professional daters', they could be having a meal with you this week, another guy next week and so on and if you go for 2 weeks, 14 ladies, 14 evenings out then you'll still be only at the first date stage with, and if you meet, a special lady.

If you've got weeks or months to plan such a thing why do you need an agency to provide the ladies for you when you have every opportunity to do it yourself and minimise the chances of meeting professional daters.

Select yourself a central point (city) but try to stay away from the major/expensive cities but one with a decent/accessible airport, as an instance let's say Donetsk, Ukraine. Then, on a map draw a 200km diameter circle around Donetsk and then 'mailshot' suitable ladies within that circle.

You can organise a personal tour any time you like, it only takes an email or two and a rather large cheque, why not do-it-youself if you've got the time to?

As I said previously I wouldn't recommend an all-inclusive tour because they are a rip-off, the FSU do not have access to the discounted airfare agencies/websites that we do, an agency will be charging you the full IATA fare (and more!) yet in the west we can achieve up to 70% discounts on such IATA fares.

To summarise, I recommend you arrange your own travel, your own accommodation and indeed, if you have time to do it, your own ladies. It does seem to be a N. American thing (picked-up from www.rwguide.com) that nothing can be achieved without an agency being involved somewhere, or at every stage, along the line. Try to forget about agencies, you'll only pay more for the same thing, try do-it-yourself first and if that fails then think about an agency, one that's recommended though.

[wavetossed]

Hey, we're giving the same advice. Pick a smaller city away from Moscow and St.Petersburg. Organize your own travel. Pay only for the services that you need.

That's basically a personal tour and most guys will need help from a local agency to deal with things like hotels, train tickets, bus tickets, interpreter. I'm lucky because I can speak Russian (badly) after a lot of effort. But I can manage to reserve hotels by email, read signs and websites in cyrillic and communicate with taxi drivers, hotel clerks, waiters and ticket agents.

In any case, if you are Canadian then I recommend that you avoid Southern Russia and the Ukraine. Instead focus on Siberia from Ekaterinburg to Vladivostok. That's because southern girls will not be used to the cold Canadian winters and I know from my experiences with Americans and British people that if you haven't experienced real cold in your life then you often don't have the psychological outlook to deal with it.

On the other hand, find a Siberian girl who is used to summer lasting from June 15th to August 15th with winters colder than -40 degrees and she will be happy with the mild Canadian climate.

And everybody should be studying Russian now so that you can read Cyrillic signs by the time you visit Russia and at least communicate the basics as a traveller.

[canadian guy25]

well thanks for the tips and i have met a nice lady sheis from kazan ( probablyshort for kazkanastan not sure if spelt right but ) hopefully it isi close to where waved tossed says it should be but i hope to go next summer and why so long cause i have to go to a friend n whitehorse this year cause he and his wife asked me to be a godfather of thier child so i figure get to know the girl first and then visit ... or i could senda ticket there ...

[liam]

http://datingtalk.info/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif G'day!

bizzare though it may seem i was in Kazan a couple of weeks ago. Its about 10 hours on the train from where i am right now. if you ever get to visit, you'll love it. http://datingtalk.info/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif Its the capital of the Tartastan region, its well Arab though. Heaps of mosques and a beautiful Kremlin http://datingtalk.info/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

whatever you do, don't go to a resturant called fairytale its one of the biggest dives on earth http://datingtalk.info/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Liam

[MartinUK]

Canadian,
But will the lady wait until next summer, almost a year away? Ladies may say some things but do another. They are normally in a race with other ladies and when she sees her friends fixed up with guys, and she's not, then her heart begins to sink.
Chances are that she's writing to several guys, once you start writing to a lady you need to be prepared to meet with her, pretty damn quick, if you can't travel until next year then suggest you look for a lady next year and not too soon beforehand.
Wouldn't consider sending her a ticket until you have clearly established if she will be granted a visa.
And Kazan is a city, Kazakhstan! a country, the 2 are not related, Kazan is in Russia, as Liam says, Tatarstan ..... where the Tatars come from.
Martin

[mawahit]

If you are looking for a Russian girl to marry, it would be the best to address one of the Agencies in Russia. But do it smart! As you know, some of them are tricky, they might disappoint you moneywise and womenwise. The average interpreting fee at the Agency is $20 per letter. Russian translator may be getting 20 cents off it at the most.That's why they may not be interested in the quality of work they do. Instead of live communication you often get a cat in the bag and a bunch of lies. You should remember that the most valuable thing is a database. Register with the Agency (for example ANASTASIA), pick out a profile, pay for the first letter and try to get her private e-mail address. And keep in touch with a girl through a private interpreteur- translator. This way you would be independent form the Agency, save you some money and nerves.
I can help you with that. I used to work for one of the companies in Russia and I know how they conduct their business. if you find a girl I'll help you out with the communication.
I have a degree in sociology and linguistics, practice in translating, live in the USA. good luck!

[MartinUK]

ANASTASIA is another well reknowned scam organisation. Why the hell is someone likely to pay up to USD20 per letter if they don't need to and why is it BEST to use an agency when it seems to be USD20 per letter more expensive than by not using an agency?

[canadian guy25]

I would like to say i wrote to her and she understood cause i had made the plans to go up to whitehorse for my friend and his wife before we even wrote to each other and as for restaurant dives i would have to say fairytale would be a cats meow compared to some places i have been to in alberta by where i go camping there is a chinese place and it the food was so bad i had to stay at my cabin for 3 weeks cause well we all know when ya cant get off the biffer . all i can say is i would rather spend my time in the summer with a beautiful lady then winter.

[Gregory45]

hey guys if you are really serios in getting married I will check
with www.thedatingame.com very serious and experience
agency. Its the only way to go, work with a good agency and
they can plan your trip, you meet the ladies without any problems, they can hepl you with apartaments, guides, and anything you need, why try to go alone and suffer....and they are located here in the USA but with several offices in Russian and Ukriane, when you deal with a loca agency there are not surprices when you get there.