Testimonials

Customer testimonials are always very important for me because they show that my services were truly appreciated and not forgotten. If you have used my services I would be glad to have your feedback!
Below you can read some of my former customers’ Thank You messages.

You're welcome to leave your thoughts and comments here and I will
be glad to publish them!

2008-07-06
Wir kцnnen kaum mehr lobende Worte ьber Lena finden als jene, welche schon andere Reisende ьber Sie geschrieben haben. Sie ist wirklich eine sehr intelligente und professionelle Reisefьhrerin und gleichermassen eine дussert angenehme Person. Sie fьhrt die meistens kleine Reisegruppe (3-7 Personen) sehr kompetent durch die Stadt, zeigt alle wichtige Sehenswьrdigkeiten und kann jedermanns Frage beantworten. Lena hat ein sehr breites Wissen ьber alles, was ein kulturbegeisterter Reisender nur wьnschen kann. Die Fьhrung ist in englischer Sprache, welche Sie perfekt beherrscht. Wir kцnnen Sie fьr eine Tour in St. Petersburg sehr empfehlen. Sie werden es selber erfahren, so viele positive Meinungen kommen nдmlich nicht von ungefдhr!!! Vielen, vielen Dank Lena Eva und Istvan Lauko, Schweiz

2008-06-30
June 29, 2008 We have just returned from a wonderful five day tour with Lena. Lena and her friends exceeded our expectations and simply could not have been better. Without her, we would not have been able to see as much as we did and to have as good a time. The fee was money very well spent. Lena provides a tremendous value to anyone seeking a guide in St. Petersburg. Mark and Amy Wolfe Manassas, VA

2008-05-17
Elena, I cannot tell you how fabulous our trip to St. Petersburg was, and that was, in large part, due to you!! I\'m not sure what we would\'ve done without you! The city itself is magnificent, but having you with us for our 4 days there, making the city come alive through your interesting and informative dialog, was absolutely phenomenal. I can\'t thank you enough for your flexibility, your insight, your humour, and your knowledge of Russian history - as you noticed, Dad was much more \'in the know\' than either Ismail or me, but by the end of the trip, I was the one reeling off the order of the Romanovs! Please, please, please keep in touch - more than anything, I can truly come away from our St. Petersburg experience saying I\'ve made a new friend. Take care and tell Andre we all said hi. Miss you already!! Kind regards, Liz Mirza

2008-05-13
The highest rating goes to Elena Ulko for her time with me, my daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Ismail Mirza, April 30 through May 3 ,while in St. Petersburg. She spoke impeccable English, was very knowledgeable of Russian history, and made our visit to St.Petersburg an exceptionally pleasant and memorable experience. She set up a comprehensive, interesting and informative itinerary for us, was always prompt, very helpful with ordering, etc. in restaurants, and was a delight to have around. She made herself completely available to us for anything that we wished to do. Whenever we needed a driver, Andre was punctual and helpful. Having Elena with us was more like having a friend than a tour guide. Her knowledge about the many palaces, cathedrals, parks, statues, districts, etc. in and around St. Petersburg was exceptional. She has a delightful sense of humor. I would not hesitate to recommend her highly to anyone who is anticipating visiting St. Petersburg. Ken Henry

2008-05-12
Elena, Thank you for a truly educational and fun-filled 3 days at St. Petersburg last month. Not only did you do a great job in terms of planning the trip\'s itinerary, you helped Liz, Ken and I execute it to perfection to maximized the amount of stuff we could see. I found your knowledge of the Russian history, the sites and key figures to be very thorough and helped generate our own curiosity and intrigue around the city\'s history. But most impressive was your ability to be flexible around the itinerary and keep the events exciting and fun. I was not bored for a single minute during our trip. Thank you! Ismail

2008-05-11
Dear Lena, Thank you so much for your time and patience while organising this trip for us. The days we spent with you were certainly worth every cent we had paid for your services and I\'m very glad we got you as our tour guide in Saint-Petersburg! Now we\'re safely back home, looking at the photos we had made and re-experiencing it all over and over again. thank you so much!!! God bless you. Paul and Jean Garvick

2007-05-31
Lena and I emailed for several months setting up every detail of our October 2006 trip to St. Petersburg. She was very patient with my myriad questions and concerns. In addition to arranging for transportation to and from the airport, she provided 2 days of guided tours, one in the city and one to the palaces in the suburbs, both of which were very interesting and gave us a great feel for St. Petersburg and Russian history. We were very happy with Lena's hotel recommendation (Arkadia) as well. It was perfect in terms of location, security, cleanliness and service. Lena's English, written and spoken,is excellent (I was impressed!), as is her knowledge of the sites we went to and the city's history. Our driver, Andrey was courteous and prompt. Our trip to St. Petersburg was wonderful thanks them!

Carol in New Mexico, USA

2006-10-21
While I and a friend were in St. Petersburg October 13-18, we used one Elena as our guide. What a lovely person she is. She arranged to have us picked up from the airport and also our return, plus we used her for three days to personally take us around -- one day with a driver, Andrei. She is very, very knowledgeable about Russian history and her city. She made our trip very enjoyable and it would not have been near as good had we not had her as our guide. dsuman

2006-06-05
Just got back from our trip from St Petersburg. Lena was wonderful-She packed all the sights she could into our 5 days. Her knowledge of all the museums and palaces made the places seem alive. it was especially helpful to my husband, who really had not had time to read up & research the city-One of the highlights was at St Isaac Cathedral-when she went up on the dome collonade with him, and showed him all the highlights of the city.Peterhof, Pavolosk, Catherine's Palace were all brought to life by her stories-And by the end I could almost answer her questions-well maybe i needed a little prompting! Lunches were always delightful , she helped us with suggestions and encouraged us to try new things Russian. I will surely reccommend Lena to anyone !!Thanks for great memories!!

2006-05-12
Dear Lena,

We had such a great weekend in St. Petersburg and, in particular, our guided tour on Sunday was very much a highlight.

Thank you for all the information you provided and for helping us both in the restaurant and at the marathon presentation event.

Best wishes,

Frances

2005-10-09
Dear Lena,

My husband and I have returned from Saint Petersburg and I would like to tell you what a marvelous time we had. From the very beginning, this trip was more of a pilgrimage than anything else and when I told you I "stumbled" on to your website, I really knew in my heart that that action was an answer to prayer. We were not going to Russia just to see the sights and look at pretty palaces. We were going on a journey that was spiritual and I needed just the right guide to help us on that path. When Lena began corresponding with me, it became apparent that she was the person to take us on our journey. I don't think she even yet knows what it was that made me know she was the one, but there was one line in her correspondence that made me know "she got it" and directly or indirectly knew what we were about and why we were coming there.
As we had discussed prior to the trip, my husband and I would have already spent more than 3 weeks traveling in Europe before we actually came to Saint Petersburg. Had we had a guide that only took us around and did not interact with us, it would have made the end of our trip nice, but not special. We spent four marvelous days with Lena and she mapped out our daily programs well to fit our desires, actually leaving the most important things until the very end. I do not really know why she chose to take us to Saint Trinity Monastery for church on Sunday morning except that she likes the choir there, but what she didn't know was that I have a nine year old grandson who has really been struggling and Saint Alexander Nevsky is his patron saint. Since that is who is buried at that monastery, I was able to light a candle and pray for my grandson there. It was a moving experience and one that I will remember always. The main reason for our trip was to visit the Smolensk cemetery to visit the tomb and chapel of Saint Xenia and that was the next thing on our agenda after the church service. That was an experience of a lifetime and just knowing that Lena was taking us and understood the reason why I needed to go there was very special, to say the least. But the next part of the day was the big surprise. Lena had invited us to come to her home for dinner and we were so honored. We could not believe how it touched us to be in her home and meet her family and interact with them. There are no words to describe our feelings as we left these people we had never met, and yet, after one evening together we felt we had made friends with them and had shared a little piece of their lives. It was a priceless experience and one of those moments in time that you know can never be repeated but will live with you always.
Lena was wonderful and Andrei was incredibly polite and sweet. He is a very humble man and very enjoyable.
Please know, that if I ever have the opportunity to recommend your services to anyone traveling to Russia, I will. It was well worth our money to have both Lena and Andrei. You will remain a friend for the rest of my life and I hope to stay in touch with you always. If you ever have the chance to come to the states I would love to have you visit in my home. You are a gem. It was a pleasure doing business with you.
Penny Brunner

2005-09-17
Many thanks. We do want to say that Lena was the deciding factor in us choosing her services. Our friends had used another agency but I immediately connected to Lena's first e-mail. She responded quickly, in perfect English and answered every question we had. She continued to do that throughout our correspondence-separating each question and providing a detailed answer. That takes both time and dedication. She was informative, organized and really cared that we had a positive experience. While we could have been assigned another guide (you offered many highly trained guides) we were thrilled that Lena could be our guide. Meeting her was such a pleasure. She made our stay in St. Petersburg so special. I was amazed how well she could accommodate to our needs-as my husband and I had different interests. Lena knows her city but she also knows how to making touring fun. I can hardly wait to refer her and her service to our family and friends. She's an outstanding professional.

2005-08-09
Just wanted to tell that Lena really did her Job.
She was very thorough, polite, witty, VERY timely and extremely Knowledgeable.
She wanted to give us a test at the end but we refused. Who could remember so much.
She made the trip for us. Many thanks and for sure we will recommend her.

2005-07-18
I am Maurice Garrett the traveling partner of Marvin Lutzker. I am writing to tell how professional Lena is and how much we enjoyed our trip to St. Petersburg. She was great, knew her subject matter and her manner made our visit a pleasure. She is so enthusiastic that when we were reluctant to continue she was able to convince us to move on. We thoroughly enjoyed her and our driver and will not hesitate to recommend them to anyone. Please feel free to give our names as a reference.
Sincerely, Maurice and Barbara Garrett

2005-07-15
What a pleasure it was to spend the better part of 3 days with Lena Ulko as our personal guide in St. Petersburg, Russia during White Nights season in June 2005.

Lena spoke perfect English and was extremely knowledgeable about Russian art, architecture and history. She was a lively and charming person to be with and we were very reluctant to leave St. Petersburg, and Lena in particular.

We have been privileged to have had some superb guides during more than 50 years of travel to some of the most exotic and difficult places for tourists to visit throughout the world. Lena is at the head of the class in this regard.

Prior to our trip, we had three months of extensive email correspondence with Lena about our interests. Given the time constraints of less than 3 days at our disposal, she did a superb job of avoiding the throngs at all the attractions during the height of the St. Petersburg tourist season or getting us through them easily when necessary... and covering all the ground we planned to cover.

How can anyone possibly know as many special routes to the best toilets in the massive Hermitage while almost everyone else had to stand in long lines to visit the lesser-quality ones? Don't laugh... this is more important than it may seem to you if you've never been there before.

Amazingly, Lena was eight months pregnant when she first started corresponding with us, had her beautiful, healthy Diana a month later and was spending long days touring with us just two months after that.

Our only regret... not spending more than three days in St. Petersburg with her.
Here's to our next visit, Lena!
Betty and Steve Zimmerman

2005-06-27
Dear Lena,

We would like to thank you sincerely for your excellent guiding of us in
St. Petersburg. We believe we may have taken you to places that are not
usually in your guiding itineraries, but we are sure you didn't mind that.
We have now returned home from our holiday in St. Petersburg, Helsinki
and Tallinn, but there is no doubt that our star location was St. Petersburg.
You are fortunate to live in such a beautiful city with so much history.

Again, many thanks. Also, please accept our best wishes for your marriage
next month.

Elizabeth and Roger

2005-01-11
Hi Elena,
This is Miya and Fred. We are so happy to have met you and to have been able to visit your beautiful city. It was a wonderful time and much of that is due to your gracious sharing of your knowledge about your city. You made our visit with our son a very joyous time and we thank you. so very much. Please send me your postal address so that I may send you a little something from El PASO , TEXAS,USA. Nothing fancy just something typical of this western city where we live. OK? Hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Miya and Fred

2004-09-08
Lena,
I want to add my appreciation for your excellent work. It was a pleasure meeting you and you made our St. Petersburg visit one I will never forget. Thanks
Jim

2004-07-25
For three days this summer, we had the pleasure of being in St. Petersburg with our guide, Elena Morozova. We certainly were in capable hands for she not only was knowledgeable about all of our sites, but was a terrific help when we went to visit an artist whose work we had viewed in Santa Fe. We felt that all the time we spent together was both fun and informative. In fact, we feel that we have made a friend for life. Our only regret was that we could not witness her wedding, but she has promised to send us pictures. Her English was exceptional. My only regret is that we could not find my sweatshirt. (She would know what I mean). Finally, we would recommend her to anyone who wants a friendly and informative guide.- Hunter Temple

2003-08-29
Lena was AWESOME as my daugthers described. They all got along like a house on fire! She was very down to earth, an endless source of interesting information, personable and friendly! Words can't describe how well the day went and how grateful I am for her company.
Thanks again!
Sharon DeFreez