Terrible Karelia!
I'm not a picky tourist, I've traveled half of Europe by bus, but this is the first time I've encountered this. Therefore, I could not help but leave my review, I feel very sorry for the people who use the services of this operator. We rested with a young man in Karelia, a sightseeing tour of Kizhi-Valaam-Solovki for 5 days. It took a very long time to choose which company to go with, I wanted to, and not expensively for the money, and so that all the excursions that interest us were included, and that the dates fell on the June holidays. Finally, we chose the "beautiful" Karelia tour! As it turned out later, this is a new company that has been engaged in travel only for the first year, although the website says that they have been working since 2006. They met us from the train, immediately took us around the city on a tour, then to the Doll House Museum, then the transfer was to the city of Kondopoga, where we lived all 4 nights. In general, the entire route is stretched in a straight line from south to north, so it was necessary to go in the same way, stopping at each center, then the travel time is reduced, and the time of excursions is increased. We were going back and forth every day. . After accommodation, we were taken to the tour base, which was 1.5 hours drive from the city, and the road was a dirt road with huge potholes, it was shaking so that I could not drink until we arrived. They dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. it turned out to be an old abandoned pioneer camp, which they began to restore only this spring. In addition to unrepaired buildings and a tent on the shore, there was nothing else. The tour program included a visit to the bath, as it turned out, it was a tourist bath. For those who are not in the know, a tourist bath is stones heated by a fire, and around the wall is made of some kind of tarpaulin. Inside, of course, it is warm, but not hot, and there is no hot water, wash yourself cold, dear guests. The worst thing is that since July they have been selling vouchers there as if they were going to a sanatorium, and they promise doctors, massage therapists, and so on. I feel sorry for those who go there. There is no shop, no cafe, and you can’t get to the city on your own. After the bath, the ticket included "Romantic dinner on the beach". In reality: we sat down by the shore, had dinner, and the waiters and other staff sang to us, everyone sang separately from each other, but loudly! Next, I will write down our rest by the hour, so that it is clear how everything was. In the morning at 5 o'clock there was a departure to the city of Sortavala, from where Meteors (fast ships) go to the island of Valaam, but we traveled for 2 hours on some old steamboat. We spent 3 hours on the island, after which we drove back to Kondopoga. Arrived at the hotel at 3 am. At 7.30 departure again to this camp site, from where we were taken to Kizhi on a motor boat. I want to note that meteors also travel from Petrozavodsk, but obviously it is more expensive than by boat. There was a 2 hour tour on the island and we were taken back. On the way, we were supposed to stop at Pegrema to look at the valley of idols, but the boat driver said that we couldn’t drive there, it was dangerous and he would not be lucky. They fed us at the tour base and took us to the hotel, where we were already at 17:00. The question is: why did we have to wake up at 7 am (we arrived at the hotel the day before at 3 am! ), not to give free time on the island to bring us to the hotel in the evening ? In the night there was a departure for the Solovki. Here the worst began! Departure at 3.30 nights, 7 hours of travel to the city of Kem, from where we were supposed to sail on a boat to Solovki. But since the organization of the whole tour was wonderful, we were late for it by 10 minutes. The bus driver, when he realized that we did not have time to 10.00, began to drive. The road is winding, full of holes, it rushed so that I thought either the wheels would fall off (by the way, the bus was Finnish, made in 1982 !!! ), or we would not fit into the turn. Thank God there was no accident. So we missed the boat. We were given 2 boats. They are not intended for transportation of people: there were crew loungers in the hold, not a single chair on the deck. Everyone started to get angry. That they do not fit on the seats in the hold, but one of the sailors assured us with a smile on his face that everyone on the deck would walk and take pictures. The weather was +5 and an icy wind was blowing from the sea. Naturally, we did not believe it, but how right he was! When we sailed away from the shore, it began to rock so that everyone ran out onto the deck. I have never been swayed in my life wherever I go, but everything happens for the first time))) Since they put us in the hold, which was below the water level and was square. Approximately 3-4 meters in all directions, the effect of the pitching waves increased many times over. After 15 minutes, everyone was hanging on the railing, freeing their stomachs, and the waves covered from above. This boat rocked so much that I really thought I would fall overboard. The only place where the waves did not reach and it was possible to hold on was on the bow of the ship, in front of the captain's windows. So I grabbed the iron handrail with my hands, spread my legs shoulder-width apart, an icy wind blows in my back, swim for 3 hours - a fairy tale in a word! After half an hour of such a journey, I began to doubt whether I would get to Solovki. But I was lucky, the boys from the team took pity on me, took me to the captain in the cockpit. At 13.30 we were on the island. After lunch, we were taken on a tour of the monastery, which lasted 1.5 hours. After that we were told that we have an hour of free time and will go back. 7 hours of bus + 3 hours of chatter in the trough when you puke = 2.5 hours on Solovki. This is fine? I want to add that in addition to visiting the monastery, the program also included a visit to the maritime museum and labyrinths. No time left for this. Realizing that we would not survive the return trip on this boat, we began to look for an alternative. We were lucky, at 17.30 a huge steamer was leaving, in which it did not pump, paying 500 rubles each. per man we rejoiced in salvation. Not having time to leave the bay, the ship turned back. As it turned out, the boats did not come for the rest of the group - a wave rose in the sea, and they returned the ship to pick up the rest. I don’t know if this is normal in Karelia, but where else could it be that a regular steamer can be returned to the shore for tourists. We got to the shore safely, we even got our money back for the ticket. Ahead of us was waiting for 7 hours of travel in the bus. All other companies offer overnight stays in Kemi. We were at the hotel at 4 am, and the departure to the Kivach waterfall was scheduled for 9.30. But as it turned out, the organizers thought that we would not go and the driver was told not to come, so in the morning we had to wait another hour until they called the driver and he arrived at the hotel. While they were waiting for the bus, the whole group made a scandal to the managers, but apart from reducing the price of the excursion to Kivach from 700 to 250 rubles for one, they did not achieve anything. To top it all, we were at the waterfall for a little over an hour, and then 10 people who were traveling by an earlier train to Moscow were loaded into a minibus along with their suitcases and taken away. Vacation was completely ruined! The sediment remained, of course, out of 5 days of stay in Karelia, the total duration of the excursions was about 8 hours. The rest of the time we spent on the bus. I don’t seem to want to go to Karelia again, out of the corner of our eye we saw the sights, but, for good, we didn’t really see anything. Thanks to the wonderful operator company Karelia-tour!