Meet GIANLUCA PARDELLI | Photojournalist, tour operator, travel designer.

We had the good fortune of connecting with GIANLUCA PARDELLI and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi GIANLUCA, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
After having travelled to almost every corner of the former USSR, either working as a photojournalist or gallivanting as a humble wanderer in search of the unknown, I realized that I had gathered an amount of knowledge, experience and contacts large enough to create my own personal post-Soviet network. And there came the epiphany: what I had accumaleted during my journeys was no less than the single most important asset every tour operator should rely on. The compelling desire to show the rest of the world what I had seen and encountered along the road gave me then the final push to put into practice what had been already simmering in the back of my mind. Thus I took that tiny bit of courage everyone needs to face the notorious German bureaucracy and moved on to found Soviet Tours, a Berlin-based boutique tour operator focussed on off-the-beaten-path destinations across the fomer Easter Bloc.

What should our readers know about your business?
Soviet Tours is a Berlin-based boutique tour operator focussed on off-the-beaten-path destinations. Our core area, as the name suggests, lies mainly in and around the former USSR. From the mystic forests of Siberia to the austere peaks of the Caucasus, from the scorching deserts of Central Asia to the windswept steppes of Southern Russia, through the elegant shapes of Eastern Europe and across the endless vastness of the Far East, we cover every single corner of the mysterious and fascinating Land of the Soviets. We tend to shun well-travelled routes and prefer to explore unknown destinations, remote regions and forgotten backwaters. We are experts on unrecognised countries, contested territories, separatist nations and rogue states, such as Transnistria, Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as little-known autonomous republics and obscure geopolitical entities like Chechnya and Karakalpakstan. In addition to our vast travel portfolio of USSR-themed itineraries, we also offer outstanding journeys to every single country of the former Eastern Bloc as well as a few obscure destinations in Africa, America, Asia and the Middle East, including Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Haiti, Eritrea, Venezuela, Somalia and North Korea.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
As you can guess from the nature of my business, I am fond of East Berlin. In particular I like its imposing architecture and mesmering GDR-era mosaics. My favourite spot to hang out has to be Karl-Marx-Allee, monumental boulevard built by the GDR between 1952 and 1960 in Berlin Friedrichshain and Mitte.

My favourite eateries in town are the East German butcheries surving in spite of the unstoppable gentrification process, whereas the best places to enjoy a pint are the old-style West-Berlin corner bars, where one can still meet the true souls of the city: the old, grumpy and bittersweet Berliners!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate my shoutout to my grandmother Lia, who bestowed the lust for knowledge upon me.

Website: https://www.soviettours.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soviet_tours

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Soviet_Tours

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soviettours

Other: www.gianlucapardelli.com

Image Credits
Gianluca Pardelli Soviet Tours