COMPANY STORY
Odessa Walks is not just a tour company. Above all, we are a team of people, united by the same values and principles. We are passionate about guiding and history. All of us are proud of our family roots and love our hometowns – Odessa, Constanta, Varna and Nessebar. We are excited to meet new people and treat them as personal friends who happen to be visiting. We share our emotions and personal stories on the tours and always hope our guests visit our hometowns more. Let us introduce ourselves with the help of this short video.
Hey world travelers! I am Olga and I am the founder of Odessa Walks. I’d like to share with you our company story.
My journey to building Odessa Walks
It all started in 1998 when I left my home country and went to California to attend a business school. What made me move across the ocean back then? First of all, interest to see the world and desire to explore my career options. And while studies were certainly important, traveling was my real passion.
After obtaining an MBA degree I have worked in California, London and Moscow. Finally, in 2011 I made a decision to return to Odessa, my anchor city. Why? I wanted to build something of my own, based on what I love most: meeting people, this amazing city and its rich heritage. As a result, Odessa Walks Ltd. came to life in 2011. The goal was to found not an ordinary Odessa tour company. I wanted to create really special experiences for our guests.
Great team. Authentic experiences.
I was extremely fortunate to meet exceptional people and enthusiastic guides. They joined our team in Odessa, Constanta, Varna and Nessebar. Together we pioneered a lot of interesting tours.
As a company, we’ve seen lots of gains and losses. We expanded into the Black Sea ports of Constanta and Varna in 2015. In 2020 because of the pandemic, we created live-stream virtual programs that shared Odessa’s beauty and rich history with people from around the world. We lost business in Ukraine due to the war and moved out to the EU to be able to continue working, making Berlin and Krakow our new hometowns.
What made us carry on? Love for what we do and passion for our home cities. We’ve become more creative and knowledgeable. We’ve launched new original tours and built new partnerships. Most importantly, we love telling local stories. There are so many new stories to tell!
We’ll be honored to create memorable and immersive virtual and in person experiences for you in Berlin, Krakow, Odessa, Varna, Nessebar and Constanta.
Olga Bokhonovskaya