We returned at the end of June from a fantastic river cruise on the M.S. Russ between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The trip was everything we expected plus, plus, plus.
Everything worked exactly as advertised. Our tours were fantastic. We're accustomed to cruising on larger ships, and we're used to paying almost as much for our tours as for our cruise. Considering that the price of our cruise was pretty reasonable even if it didn't include the tours, we were surprised at the quality of tours that we received. Every tour had an English-speaking local guide who was extremely knowledgeable of the area, and our cruise representative also went on all our tours.
It would be hard to pick a favorite port because they were all unique and very interesting, but it would be pretty hard to beat the Church of the Transfiguration in Kizhi ... a spectacular weathered wooden church located on an island pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We also thoroughly enjoyed Mandrogi. We thought it was going to be a tourist trap, and it did have expensive souvenirs, but it was really more of a living history museum. We could have spent many more hours there to see everything.
I could probably go on and on; just the process of writing this brings back so many fond memories. Suffice it to say that if I ever have the opportunity to travel to Russia again, I will definitely call Travel All Russia.