History
Since 1990 we, the Rettau Family have been active as tour operator for camping and caravanning tours as Perestroika Tours and Mir Tours & Services.
1989
First contacts with the Soviet Union are tied. A declaration of intention with the potential partners in Moscow and Minsk signed.
1990
A joint venture company Camping Perestroika is established in Belarus. This company has the task to promote camping tourism of western tourists into the Soviet Union.
1992
Belorussian Week on the campsite Schinderhannes: around fifty Belarussians bring their culture and cuisine to the Hunsrück.
Belarus is getting too small. The first camping tourists travel to Lithuania and to Kaliningrad, which was the former East Prussia.
1994 - 1997
The tours go further and further: to the Ural mountains, Lake Baikal, to Siberia and Mongolia.
The first Christmas-Get-Together takes place: since then our regular information and participants meetings attract more and more people to the Hunsrück.
1998
The first of many China trips calls for adventure!!! 28000 km within 140 days to Beijing and back. Since then more than 200 participants have experienced the tour.
2000
A new marathon-tour is created: North Africa - Egypt - Near East. The tour took place 13 times, even in the year of the Iraq war.
Perestroika Tours changes into a private limited company. Also the Mir-Club is initiated.
2003
The journey of superlatives (some say it is the best Perestroika Tour) to "South-East-Asia Singapore" - all overland and back. As the first motor home group we enter Vietnam and Myanmar.
A television crew accompanies a group to Karelia for a film called "Retirees on Tour"
2005
Leave the winter for the warm: a group is spending Christmas in Jordan and the first months of the year on the Arabian Peninsula.
During a three-month-stay in Islamabad a regular motor caravan is turned into a very special one: completely colour-painted with pictures from the history of Pakistan, animals and Perestroika tour destinations.
2007
The generation of founders retires; the company is now led by Sabine Machado-Rettau
The One week in -series of tours offers more opportunities for employed persons and those seeking more individuality.
2008
Despite many obstacles (unrest in Tibet, torch relay and Olympic Summer Games) a group goes to Beijing and back.
During the first Long Week there is a small celebration for the 10 year of Marco Polo besides the Mir-Club Meeting and the Workshops.
In the autumn the first workshop-week is taking place on the Schinderhannes campsite. The tour-guides and the Perestroika-Staff get you going in regards to GPS navigation, image-editing, computers and languages.
2011
In early March the first Perestroika group and most likely the first camper group at all travels through Laos. On the return tour from Singapore the "Szechuan - Chinese Silk Road"-tour participants were delighted. Also enjoyed was the stay in southern China.
2012
The operative business of the Perestroika Tours is taken over by Mir Tours & Services GmbH. The sisters Sabine Machado-Rettau and Susanne Rettau are now the owner of the touring business. The whole team (employees, tour leaders and touring partners) came along.
2013
Around Easter the office moves to a new location in Birkheim.
In August a new website is presented and the first catalogue under the name of Mir Tours & Services is sent out.
2014
In March Mir Tours & Services GmbH signs a code of conduct for organized tours.
New tours are introduced during the springtime presentation, i.e. From the Danube to the Volga, around the Black Sea.
Despite the Ukraine crisis, 13 units travel to Transcarpathia in the Western Ukraine in July.
2015
Due to the 25th anniversary there will be some celebrations at Easter. Also the Mir Club Meeting takes place at Camping Schinderhannes from April 03rd to 6th.
2016
For the international market an English-language catalogue is presented. In this you find short trips as well as the classic tours to Moscow-St. Petersburg and White Nights.
2017
With a tour to the Rhine and Moselle valleys, a cooperation with the "Camping and Caravanning Club" from Great Britain is started. Another joint venture is the Baltic States tour to St. Petersburg.
2018
With a new website, aiming at already booked clients we are showing once more how service oreintated Mir Tours is. The name of this site is www.mir-auch.de translates as mir too.
2019
In time for the information days we are releasing the "Allein mir Mir" (Alone with Mir) hand book aimed at individual tourists for their tour planning.
2019/2020
As of October 2019 a cooperation exists with the BurgStadt CampingPark in Kastellaun. This is now the house site in use for information events, pre-tour meetings and reunions.
2020
We are operating in our 30th year. Time to dust the photograph album and show some pictures with the title then and now = Damals-Heute.
2020
The Corona Pandemic is messing up everyday life as well as the travel world. Many tours are cancelled and information events take place online.
2021
In the series “Hierzuland” in 2009, the house at Hauptstrasse 10 was presented at that time as the village restaurant “Birkheimer Hof”. In mid-February 2021, the Südwestfunk was back and the new episode is about the change in the place. In the 7-minute broadcast you will see a brief mention of our company.
2021
On the trip "Picturesque Moldova" we visited a collective farm in Gargauzia. On the way there, employees of the local television station discovered us and so we were accompanied when visiting the vineyards. Travel participant Stefan Breder, who has vineyards in Oberwesel am Rhein, was able to shine with background knowledge.
To see the report go to https://fb.watch/80n9RQbCd0/
2022
While we looked at the year with good booking figures, unfortunately Vladimir Putin thwarted our plans in the last week of February. Because of the invasion of Ukraine, long-distance trips to Lake Baikal and Central Asia were be cancelled in February. Of course, we can't travel to Belarus or Russia in good conscience either. The early summer trips can not take place.