MIR Corporation's Press & Awards
MIR Corporation has offered supurb customer service and impeccable tours for 25 years. Browse our press clippings to read about our industry awards and accolades. Most recently, MIR has been rated one of the "Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth" by National Geographic Adventure Magazine.
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MIR's Inside the Russian Space Program featured in Business Destinations October, 2011
In the Nov/Dec edition of Business Destinations, an international publication with a readership of international business travelers, Inside the Russian Space Program is described as a "one-of-a-kind travel experience pioneered and designed by MIR founder, Douglas Grimes."
New for 2012, MIR's exploration of the formerly secret Russian Space Program ranges from Star City outside Moscow, where Russia's cosmonauts train, to the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppe, where travelers get to watch the launch of a Soyuz spacecraft on its way to the International Space Station.
You can flip through the magazine (we're on pgs 72-76 of the Nov/Dec, 2011 issue), or read the web version on the Business Destinations website.
MIR's tours to the Savitsky Museum in Nukus featured on BBC.com October, 2011
An article about Nukus, the city's critically acclaimed Karakalpak Museum of Art and the "Desert of Forbidden Art" film was posted on the BBC.com travel blog. It explains the documentary's premise in addition to including mention of ways one can visit Nukus and the museum with MIR. In particular, two of MIR's regular catalog tours now include visits to Nukus with curator-led tours to the Savitsky Museum:
Read the full article on the BBC website.
MIR wins design award from Travel Weekly for 25th Anniversary catalog October, 2011
Our 2011 catalog was awarded the prestigious Gold Magellan Award, the premier travel award for the industry, by Travel Weekly magazine.
Informing MIR of the award, Travel Weekly wrote that they had "...received entries from top travel organizations and professionals worldwide and the quality of the work was outstanding. Being selected a Magellan Award Winner is a tremendous achievement and proves you represent a high standard of excellence within the travel industry."
The award arrived just as we were sending our 2012 catalog out the door to be printed, and it validated our feelings of pride in our 25th anniversary catalog. We, of course, envision that our photo-filled 2012 offering is as well-received as last year's.
World Race 2011 - the New York to Paris road rally supported by MIR Corporation - is featured in RM Magazine August, 2011
An article in the prestigious Canadian automotive culture magazine, RM, illustrates the U.S. leg of the MIR-supported road rally from New York to Paris (download the article here).
MIR Corporation handled the logistics from Tianjin, China all the way to Paris, where in July the surviving cars rolled to a halt in the shadow of Eiffel Tower, precisely where the original 1908 Great Race ended.
The grueling 1908 New York to Paris Race proved to an unbelieving public that cars were indeed the wave of the future. In 2011, 12 adventuresome drivers started out in NYC to recreate the incredible journey. MIR founder and president Douglas Grimes joined in for parts of the journey.
Read about their adventures across China, Kazakhstan, Russia, the Baltics, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic and on into Paris at the official World Race 2011 Blog.
MIR's Treasures of the Trans-Caucasus featured in International Travel News Magazine July, 2011
MIR's small group tour Treasures of the Trans-Caucasus got a great review in International Travel News this July. Kathryn Whitmer of Bellingham Washington remarks on the special features that MIR included in the tour of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, calling the journey "a gem of a tour." (download the article)
"In addition to showing us Tbilisi, the cave town of Uplistsikhe, the Gudauri ski resort and Gori (Stalin's hometown), MIR arranged a private concert at the home-turned-museum of Georgian artist Elene Akhvlediani (1898-1975)."
MIR's "knowledgeable local guides" and "absolutely outstanding" Tour Manager were given shout-outs as well.
New MIR Trip Honored as "Tour of a Lifetime" by National Geographic Traveler April, 2011
Once again, National Geographic Traveler has honored a MIR tour: our new Eastern Turkey & Georgia: Legacy of Empire is featured as a "Tour of a Lifetime" in their May/June2011 issue.
The editorial team was looking for 2011's "most authentic, most innovative, most immersive, best-guided, and most sustainable tours." The unique Eastern Turkey & Georgia: Legacy of Empire itinerary fills the bill.
"The outfitters we selected continue to find new ways travelers can connect with places and people," notes National Geographic Traveler Senior Editor Norie Quintos, who headed up the project. "More and more, it's about human interaction."
On this tour, travelers visit the workshop of a local potter as well as enjoying lunch in a private village home, and observing a felt-making demonstration.
The rugged sunburnt Anatolian Plateau of Eastern Turkey and the steep-sided green valleys of Georgia are brilliantly paired on this unusual back-road exploration. The trip begins among the folded hills of out-of-the-way Anatolia, rich with the traces of early civilizations, and continues along the balmy Black Sea Coast to the unfamiliar little country of Georgia, where guests are welcomed at tables laden with some of the finest food and wine on earth, and hosted by an official Georgian toastmaster.
Other MIR tours picked in past years by National Geographic Traveler as "Tours of a Lifetime" are:
Space: The Final Frontier with MIR Featured in the Toronto Globe and Mail March, 2011
The March 14 Toronto Globe and Mail suggests MIR's 11-day Russian Space tour as an alternative to a $200,000 dollar Virgin Galactic space flight. And as the Virgin Galactic flight experience takes approximately 2-3 hours, the 11-day MIR trip (from $13,995) is the obvious choice for discerning space cadets.
MIR's tour includes Moscow's formerly secret Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, a.k.a Star City, where you can undergo some of the same training that astronauts go through before their space flights. This can include a zero-g space flight, centrifuge training and a hands-on lesson in donning an Orlan spacesuit.
Then the group flies to Kazakhstan for front-row seats at a launch of the Soyuz spacecraft on its way to rendezvous with the International Space Station. How's that for up close and personal? For more information about our tour dates and price options, contact Douglas Grimes at 1-800-424-7289 or via email at douglas (at) mircorp (dot) com.
MIR Corporation's Custom & Private Expertise Featured in the Palm Beach Daily News February, 2011
MIR recently had the pleasure of handcrafting a custom, private itinerary for Anne Kazel-Wilcox, who chronicled her travel to Warsaw, Poland in a Palm Beach Daily News article. In the piece she extols the atmosphere of this flourishing city: "Poland's capital is filled with charming streets in a rebuilt Old Town, a thriving arts and music scene (this being the home of Chopin), and fascinating attractions of unique historical significance."
We are honored that she relied on MIR to "show me a side of Warsaw I might not otherwise see," and glad she returned home with a new insight into one of our favorite Polish destinations. For those interested in visiting Eastern Europe, we have a variety of ways to experience the region. You can explore Eastern Europe's history on our classic independent journey, Essential Poland. Or, if you prefer a customized journey, perhaps designed with a family heritage focus, contact our destination experts at privatejourneys (at) mircorp (dot) com.
MIR Corporation's Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia named in Outpost Magazine's 2011 Global Travel Guide January/February, 2011
MIR's adventurous small group tour, Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia, was featured in Outpost magazine's 2011 Global Travel Guide issue in January. Billed as "the most unforgettable, unimaginable travel destinations from around the globe," the chosen journeys span the globe and challenge the imagination.
Our Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia tour travels the Silk Road from Western China through the five 'stans (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). Highlights include the legendary Sunday market in Kashgar, a camel ride along the outskirts of the Taklamakan Desert, the UNESCO-listed oases cities of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan's ancient Parthian site of Nisa.
MIR Corporation's Silk Road by Private Train featured on Gourmet Train Trips list January, 2011
MIR's Silk Road by Private Train rail journey was recently featured alongside eight other noteworthy train trips and praised for its luxury dining fare as well as its extraordinary routing on foodie website TheDailyMeal.com.
The article detailed, "...once aboard the luxurious trains, where meals featuring regional specialties are expertly prepared, and your own private butler sees that your bed is turned down nightly, each day will blur together, into one unforgettable experience."
MIR's Silk Road by Private Train rail journey has one departure in 2011: September 20-October 10. For more information, please contact Charity or Joanna.
MIR Corporation's Russian Space tour featured in Departures Magazine May/June, 2010
MIR's over-the-top travel experience, Inside the Russian Space Program 2010, merited a write-up in the May/June luxury lifestyle magazine, Departures as part of an article, "Going to Extremes: Six Specialty Trips." The feature spotlights "new and notable trips run in conjuction with cultural and academic institutions... open doors and borders that would otherwise remain firmly shut."
MIR's Inside the Russian Space Program 2010 has two remaining departures for 2010 in September and December. For more information about our tour dates and price options, contact Douglas Grimes at 1-800-424-7289 or via email at douglas (at) mircorp (dot) com.
MIR Corporation Featured in Luxury Magazine, Caviar Affair Winter, 2010
When Caviar Affair - a glossy quarterly magazine self-described as "celebrating worldly indulgences and luxury living" - began looking for a company to custom-design a lavish tour to Russia and Ukraine, they searched until they found MIR Corporation. The magazine's criteria: "We search out the impeccably designed, the obsessively well-fashioned, and the startlingly beautiful." MIR's specially crafted luxury tour fit the bill, as featured in the Winter 2010 issue of Caviar Affair.
Among other opulent adventures, MIR arranged an exclusive tour of the Kremlin's Diamond Fund, where the travelers inspected the brilliant 189-carat Orlov Diamond; a private boat tour of St. Petersburg's canals, complete with onboard vodka and caviar; and a distinctive outing by horse-drawn carriage around Pavlovsk Park - the gardens surrounding Czar Paul's summer palace, presented to him by his mother, Catherine the Great.
The authors say, "Today, now that we're back in the U.S., we credit our incredible experience to the people who led us. Perhaps MIR stands for 'make it remarkable.'"
Download the Caviar Affair article (880 KB).
Two MIR Corporation Tours Named in Outpost Magazine's "Global Travel Guide" January, 2009
Two of MIR's tours have received special mention in Outpost Magazine's 2009 annual Global Travel Guide. MIR's Siberia, Mongolia & Tuva: Ancient Songs & Stories and From Mongola to Moscow:
A Trans-Siberian Railway Adventure are both named as one of the "Top 123 - Our Picks For Some Plum Trips, Treks And Voluntours."
Siberia, Mongolia & Tuva: Ancient Songs & Stories
During the 16-day journey, travelers explore the remote Russian region of Tuva, where throat-singers and shamans demonstrate their skills; take a boat ride on UNESCO-listed Lake Baikal in Siberia, spending a night in a lakeside lodge; and travel the back roads between the lake and Mongolia, where they conclude their journey on the rolling steppe.
Read the Outpost article.
From Mongola to Moscow:
A Trans-Siberian Railway Adventure
Starting off in UlaanBaatar, travelers ride on regularly scheduled Trans-Siberian trains over a dramatic and variegated route that offers limitless opportunities to meet the diverse local people - Mongol, Buryat and Russian. Highlights of the 15-day tour include experiencing the rolling green hills and nomadic traditions of Mongolia, Siberia's UNESCO-listed Lake Baikal and endless taiga forest en route to the booming capital, Moscow. Read the Outpost article.
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MIR Corporation Named among Best Adventure Travel Companies by National Geographic AdventureWinter, 2009
MIR Corporation has once again been rated as one of the "Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth" by National Geographic Adventure.
In a recent authoritative study of adventure travel outfitters published on its website, http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com, National Geographic Adventure scored companies on criteria such as Quality of Service, Sustainability, Spirit of Adventure, Education and Client Satisfaction. MIR is proud to have earned a place among the top-rated travel companies of 2009.
In 2007-2008, MIR Corporation was included in National Geographic Adventure's first-ever list of 155 top adventure travel outfitters, acknowledging its 20 plus years of inventive itineraries to uncommon destinations at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. MIR features a broad array of scheduled small group active and cultural tours, sophisticated private rail journeys, and custom-crafted private adventures.
 Two MIR Corporation Tours featured in new adventure travel book, Riding the Hula Hula to the Arctic OceanMay, 2008
Riding the Hula Hula to the Arctic Ocean, by well-traveled authors Don Mankin & Shannon Stowell, offers advice and anecdotes about some of the world's most interesting destinations, including two of MIR's tours.
Journey Through Central Asia: The Five 'Stans and the Trans-Siberian Classic Route by Private Train were selected by the Adventure Travel Trade Association as two of the 26 tours highlighted in the book.
Journey Through Central Asia: The Five 'Stans
Discover a corner of the world little known to Western travelers, journeying along the ancient Silk Road through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Stop at beautiful alpine Lake Issyk-kul before heading to Uzbekistan to admire the unparalleled majesty of Samarkand's Registan. Shop for pottery and carpets in Turkmenistan's Tolkuchka Bazaar and visit the ruins of Merv, one of the largest cities in the world for a brief period in the 12th century.
Trans-Siberian Classic Route by Private Train
Traverse the wide expanse of Russia on this private train tour from Moscow to Vladivostok or the reverse. Roll across 6,000 miles, with expert guides leading the group during train stops in stunning Siberia, fascinating Mongolia, and exciting Western Russia.
 MIR Tour Honored as 2008 "Tour of a Lifetime" by National Geographic TravelerMay, 2008
National Geographic Traveler has designated MIR's Georgia & Armenia: Mountains & Monasteries as a "Tour of a Lifetime" in its May-June 2008 issue. With a maximum of 12 travelers, the Explorer Series tour is a journey into the spiritual, natural, architectural and culinary heritage of the spectacular Trans-Caucasus countries of Georgia and Armenia.
On this active journey, MIR leads travelers deep into the mountainous countries of Georgia and Armenia, rich with fruitful slopes, saw-toothed peaks and unexpected treasures. Meet and interact with local people, staying overnight in village homes in spectacular, steep-sided valleys and taking day hikes past the ruins of ancient fortresses. Survey Yerevan and Tbilisi, sophisticated capital cities with excellent museums, and feel the faith of centuries at medieval churches and monasteries.
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MIR's Trans-Siberian Mongolian Route by Private Train journey featured in Town & Country MagazineFebruary, 2008
Town & Country magazine's February, 2008 issue features a great article about a trip on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express private train from Moscow to the capital of Mongolia, UlaanBaatar-- MIR's Trans-Siberian Mongolian Route. The author, Carolyn Seebohm, was a participant on a custom journey that MIR put together for Princeton and Smith alumni groups in July of 2007, and describes her experiences on and off the grand train.
There are two 2008 departures of the 13-day Trans-Siberian Mongolian journey:
July 1-13, 2008 (Eastbound) and July 10-22, 2008 (Westbound).
Space is filling up, so contact MIR today for more information.
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MIR rated one of the "Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth" by National Geographic AdventureNovember, 2007
In November of 2007, MIR Corporation was included in National Geographic Adventure's first-ever list of 155 top adventure travel outfitters. MIR rated in the top third of these "Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth."
Described as "the world's first authoritative rating of adventure travel tour operators," the study scored outfitters on criteria such as Quality of Service, Sustainability, Spirit of Adventure, Education and Client Experience. MIR is proud to have been awarded an overall rating of 91.2 in these categories, with an outstanding 97 in "Spirit of Adventure."
As National Geographic Adventure asserts, "When planning the adventure trip of a lifetime, the most important decision isn't where to go, but who to go with."
We agree.
Two "ordinary American tourists" travel to Iran with MIR, in International Travel News (ITN)
April, 2007
Highlighting their friendly interactions with the people of Iran, these travelers describe their experiences on a flexible MIR tour called Essential Iran:
"Since we were speaking English as we toured various sights, including mosques, people often came up to us to find out who we were. There was never the slightest hostility toward us Americans. We had several encounters where people wanted our photos taken with their families (quite a switch for a tourist!)."
Read the full ITN article.
Two MIR Corporation Tours Honored as "Tours of a Lifetime" by National Geographic TravelerOctober, 2006
Two of MIR's core journeys, Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia and Belarus, Ukraine & Moldova have been spotlighted in National Geographic Traveler's October 2006 "Next Great Places" issue.
Honored as "Tours of a Lifetime" these two in-depth experiential journeys go to very different places, but both include MIR's characteristic touch - diving into the cultures and meeting the people of our destinations.
Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia
Silk, spices, tea, precious metals and jewels, carefully lashed to pack camels, made their way from one world to another along the old Silk Road. Travel back in time on our Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia Tour and follow in the footsteps of early explorers who plied the great trade routes connecting East and West. Limited to a maximum of 10 travelers, this Explorer Series trip is among our finest.
Belarus, Ukraine & Moldova
Belarus is a country of factories, wooden houses and farmland where time slowed drastically after the devastation of WWII. Ukraine, the cradle of Slavic civilization, has glittering churches, imperial palaces, fertile farmland and the former Soviet Union's prime real estate, the Crimean Peninsula on the sunny Black Sea. And little Moldova, part Romanian and part Russian, its green hills and plains stitched together with grape vines, is jostling for position in the European winemaking hierarchy.
Changing with every moment that goes by, these three countries should be visited now before the rest of the world discovers them. Join us on this Premier Series venture through Belarus, Ukraine & Moldova. <
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