St. Petersburg guide

I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, on business and some pleasure in October ’05. I was guided on a tour through the Hermitage by an excellent, knowledgeable guide, Anna Getmanskaya (Museum & Palace Tours, St. Petersburg; phone 356-69-79 or mobile phone +7 812 918 15 99 or, preferably, e-mail get_ann@mail.ru).

A licensed guide, she is a professor of English at the St. Petersburg University and can arrange trips to museums in the city (she has licenses to all of the museums) as well as in the suburbs of St. Petersburg — excellent!

She prefers to work with groups of not more than four people and can work out custom itineraries, making changes along the way. She charges $15 per hour for a group of two to four people, not including museum admission fees.

She can also provide a car or minivan with an experienced driver. If two people want to hire a car, the driver charges $15 per hour, but if there are four people then a minivan is needed and the driver charges $20 per hour.

GEORGE N. GIANOPULOS
Fresno, CA