Angelika Network - Review

The Angelika Network is a large agency network with many local affiliate agencies throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union. Generally speaking, if you decide to meet Russian women via an individual tour, this is one of the best Russian dating sites to use.

I have been to Ukraine several times using services of the Angelika Network and found their services and prices to be the best by far. They are a network of independent agencies, but apparently their contract terms with local affiliate agencies are rather stringent, which tends to make them operate a little more like a franchise than truly separate independent agencies.

That's good because to some extent it standardizes good service. They are typically rated well by the independent watchdogs. And, they have some seriously attractive women, especially in Ukraine.

The Angelika Network has some of the most rigid controls in place to reduce the likelihood of fraud. For instance, for a Russian woman's profile to be presented on their site, her passport must be electronically scanned by the local affiliate agency and kept on file in order to verify her identity.

They also exercise tight control over letter services. When their Russian women use the letter services to reply to you, they usually hand-write their letter in Russian and give it to the agency who then types/translates it to send to you. Angelika Network requires that the agency scan and send the handwritten letter as an attachment along with the translation. They are also required to save a scan of every letter sent from the women. And any letter sent from the girl that appears to ask for money, even if only subtly implied, is rejected.

Obviously with such a large network of independently owned and operated affiliates, 100% quality control over each and every affiliate is not possible, so it is possible for a rogue agency to operate in a less than honest manner.

But the umbrella network is definitely committed to customer satisfaction and take reports of scam activity very seriously. I experienced this on one tour to Poltava, Ukraine through the "Alice Agency" (an Angelika affiliate) where I really felt "set up" with a "ringer" whose primary role was to bait me to come back to town with no serious intentions other than to drum up business for the agency and trick me out of money and gifts for herself.

I wrote about the experience to the Angelika management and they immediately removed the girl from the network. Collusion between the girl and the agency itself is much harder to convincingly PROVE, so the Angelika Network didn't (and really couldn't) do anything to censure the agency.

By the way, you might notice an inordinate proportion of really hot Ukrainian women from Poltava, Ukraine on the Angelika Network. There might be a reason for that other than just "something in the water". Be careful... most of them will be represented by the "Alice Agency".

As for services offered by the Angelika Network...

As of this writing, with Angelika you can meet Russian women on an "Individual Tour" for a minimum of five days at 100 Euros/day (and a little more in the more expensive cities) where you get airport pickup/drop-off, apartment in the center of town, unlimited consultations, and unlimited introductions. They will also arrange translations for girls who need it, but there is usually an additional charge for that service.

They say that included in your tour are the addresses of 25 Russian women of your choice from their website. But what they actually provide isn't that at all, but something much more useful...

They allow you to provide them a list of up to 25 women from their network in the city of your tour, your generic introduction letter, and a few pictures of yourself. Before your arrival they will show your letter and pictures to the women you listed to find out if they are interested in meeting you. If they are, the agency will start filling up your date calendar before you arrive so that you can hit the ground running.

If you carefully compare this to ANY other reputable agency or network offering individual tours (as I have) you will easily see that the others charge more and offer fewer services.

Angelika Network affiliates also offer other services, like if you're just in town and want to meet one or two women from the Angelika Network, you can pay-per-intro. You get to town, go to the office, and ask them to set it up. If the girl will meet, it's $25-$50 (depending on the city and the girl).

They also offer letter and gift services, but as you may have already read elsewhere on this site, I'm not a big fan of letter and gift services in cases where you have not already met the girl.