THE RUSSIA EXPERIENCE TEAM:

LONDON OFFICE:

Joanne Coombs is General Manager in London, and came to us from Romania specialists Friendly Travel, and subsequently East Coast Travel, where she did a similar job. Jo has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe, including Moscow and St Petersburg. As well as handling a lot of our financial affairs (which can be pretty complicated when dealing with countries where the banking system is, well, quite basic), Jo finds time to handle some of our bookings too.

Colette Smith is Operations Manager. Colette has travelled extensively and joined us in 1997 after riding  motorbikes around the world for several years. Colette's been to Moscow, St Petersburg, Siberia, Mongolia, and Central Asia - as well as extensive worldwide travel personally, and is our expert on Central Asia. Colette will be riding the Beetroot Bus later this year too! Additionally, Colette takes responsibility for producing our brochures and printed materials.

Marina Perevalova is Reservations Manager. Marina was born in Bratsk, Siberia, and lived in Mongolia for several years as a kid. After graduating she worked as a local guide at Lake Baikal with our passengers for quite a few seasons, before moving to London, where she's now joined the office staff. Marina has in-depth knowledge of our Siberian destinations, and in addition to fluent English, also speaks Japanese.

MOSCOW OFFICE

Neil McGowan is Director of Russia Experience. Neil worked for ten years as a tour leader with USA groups visiting what was then the USSR, before starting Russia Experience - he's visited most cities in Russia and the ex-USSR. Neil has travelled extensively in Siberia and Mongolia, and now lives in Moscow. Neil's responsibilities include developing new destinations and trips, ensuring service standards from our local partners, and maintaining the website. In Moscow, Neil works alongside our great team of local partners. He contributes to specialist guidebooks, magazines, newspapers, radio programs and websites about Russia and Mongolia.

Pam Collins keeps our books in order.

Moscow and  St Petersburg are run by Lena, Vika and Elena, and masterminded by Lia.  The on-site team in Moscow and Petersburg includes Big Lena and Little Lena,  Anya, Masha, Dima, Vika, Gennady, Svetlana, Zhenya, Olga, and others too......

The Siberian Team includes Tania, Lidia, Marina, Gena, Konstantin, and others, all coordinated by "Mr Bear" himself, the rarely-defeated Sasha, with aquatic assistance from Andrei Baranovsky.

Shuren are our local partners in Mongolia - Galtmaa, Narmandakh, Odon and Co are on-hand to try to keep things running smoothly in a country where almost anything can happen.....

The smooth operation of our services in China is coordinated by the behind-the-scenes work of Miss Lin, at State Travel Company, CITS Ltd.