I've got a great story to share with you all. Last year, just a few months before New Year's Eve, my friends and I decided to spontaneously head to St. Petersburg. We'd never been to this amazing city before, so we thought, why not consider an organized holiday with guided tours and accommodation in a hotel?

We looked into various tour options for New Year's Eve and I was particularly drawn to a 5-day tour, with 3 days dedicated to sightseeing and 2 free days. Several companies offered this option, but I chose to go with Tari Tour, a local company based in St. Petersburg. I figured that locals would be able to show us the city's best sides and handle any issues that might arise quickly and efficiently.

I booked the tour on the Tari Tour website, which was called "New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg - Affordable!" I liked the dates, hotel options, and attractions included. I used their online booking system to select the tour, hotel, and additional services, and received a confirmation email with my application registration details, login, and password for my personal account on the website, so I could track the status of my application.

Along with the tour, I also booked a New Year's Eve banquet at the hotel. The manager got in touch with me to let me know that the banquet was still being coordinated with the hotel, and after that, I would receive an invoice for payment in my personal account.

Everything was sorted out on the same day, and I paid for the tour (the payment deadline was 5 days). After payment, the status of my application changed to "paid".

I really liked this system. In my personal account, it's easy to track my order and download all the necessary documents for the tour.

I booked the tour 1.5 months before New Year's Eve and, after sorting out all the financial and administrative details, I felt at ease. I had all the documents and a receipt, so I knew everything would be okay. The tour met my expectations in every way.

Seven days before the tour, I received additional documents, including tickets for the banquet. And, suddenly, I felt like packing my bags!)

We arrived in St. Petersburg a day before the tour started, which gave us some extra time to rest and get settled. We paid for additional accommodation at the hotel ourselves, which was a good decision - we were fresh and well-rested for the first day of the tour.

Naturally, there were no surprises with the accommodation. We chose the "Moscow" hotel from a list of ten options, and Tari Tour booked standard rooms for us. We were quickly checked in.

According to the tour program, we were supposed to meet our guide at 14:00-15:30 on the first day in the hotel lobby. I headed down to the lobby around 14:30.

Our guide, Vsеволод Евгеньевич, was a bit hard to spot at first. There were a lot of people around, and it took me about 5 minutes to find him in the crowd. He was sitting in a corner on a couch, chatting on the phone with some of the tour participants.

Vsеволод gave us a quick rundown of the tour, explained the organizational details, handed out the tour program, and showed us a map of the city. It turned out that he would be our guide for the excursions.

As part of the "New Year in St. Petersburg - Affordable!" tour, we had planned excursions on days 1, 3, and 5 of the tour (you could also book additional excursions if you wanted to).

About an hour later, our group met up for the first excursion in St. Petersburg. There were around 30 of us staying in the hotel, and another 15 people in nearby hotels.

We took big buses (not super new, a bit worn out) to the excursions. The bus would pull up right to the entrance, and we'd just get on randomly.

Our planned excursions went smoothly. The bus would arrive on time, and we'd get to the museums right on schedule. No one got lost.

On the first day of the tour, Tari Tour had a nice surprise for us. They took our big group to their office, where we were greeted with champagne and canapés, and even had a prize draw. The lucky winners got some nice prizes and the chance to relax with Tari Tour at a discount. It was a great way to start the tour!

Vsеволод, our guide, was absolutely fantastic. He knows his stuff and loves his job. He's great at telling us about the sights in St. Petersburg, and he's also very organized – he always made sure we were all accounted for, and even handled any unexpected situations that came up (like when the bus broke down during one of the excursions).

We were really happy with Tari Tour's service. By booking the tour, we saved a bit on accommodation (all the standard rooms were already booked by the time we ordered), and we didn't have to worry about getting around to the sights – the bus would arrive right on time, and we didn't have to take taxis.

One of the things I loved about the tour was that we had free days to explore the city on our own. We used that time to check out some local cafes and enjoy the New Year's atmosphere. And everything went according to plan. With Tari Tour, we sped through St. Petersburg (from the bus window), visited distant Kronstadt and Tsarskoe Selo, and we'd already checked out the Kunstkamera, Hermitage, Yusupov Palace, strolled around Palace Square, Peter and Paul Fortress, and seen some churches and cathedrals. We even took a detour on the "Bar Crawl" excursion.

We chose Tari Tour on a whim, but we didn't regret it. Great job, staff are always on hand, and the prices are reasonable. That's why I'm giving Tari Tour 5 stars and recommending them to visitors of St. Petersburg!