Dream Connections was started in June of 2011 by the American-Ukrainian couple Mark and Anna Davis. The couple met on a romance tour in late 2006 and then married in the fall of 2007. 

But a lot of  guys  don't have the time or desire to worry about the numerous pitfalls that may await someone who is new to the international dating scene. They recognize that international dating is the proverbial road less travelled (whether you do it DIY style or through purchase a packaged tour), and they have nothing to prove.

They simply want to find a healthy and rewarding relationship with a foreign woman, and enjoy the rest of their lives together. These men would rather follow  the lead of someone they can trust, someone who's been there before, to save them from any and all unnecessary challenges.  

Dream Connections wants to be that guiding hand, and it's at these sort of men their tours are aimed.

Dream Connections is for men who simply want to show up and meet real and sincere women.  With DC  the logistics and details are all taken care of, you're safe, and you will have  all the resources and information you will need to cross the cultural barrier.  That way you can focus on what matters most: your dates with the ladies and finding the right woman.

Dream Connections takes much of the stress out of traveling to a foreign country. If you're new to international travel, going to places like Colombia, Ukraine, or Thailand can seem daunting.  

However if you choose Dream Connections, spending a week abroad in search of love is as simple as buying a plane ticket and meeting the DC team at the airport. As we said before, they will take care of the rest. 

In general romance tours aren't cheap, and Dream Connections group tours are at the higher end of the pricing spectrum. If traveling and dating on a budget is one of the defining factors for your romantic search, then you might be better off going with a more DIY approach. 

DC tours are a great option if you're looking for love overseas.

However, there's something to be said for having the freedom to go wherever you want, when you want, however you want. Of course there's often more risk and more challenge involved, but isn't that part of the fun? (Maybe the fermented horse milk was worth it after all)

For some the package deal of a tour just isn't as enticing as lone-wolfing it. These types have no problem doing things like visiting a country they've never been to, learning a foreign language, and fumbling their way through a different culture. For these types a DC romance tour may not be the best choice.  

They're also some guys who simply aren't interest in going on a tour alongside 20 other men. Whether it's because of introversion, a strong sense of focus, or simply being a private person, for such men the whole "group" part of a group tour doesn't sound all that appealing.  

At the time of this review's writing Dream Connections overs tours in four different cities, across three different countries. Two are in Ukraine, with one in the city of Nikolaev, and the other in Kherson. The company also offers tours in Medellin, Colombia as well as Bangkok, Thailand. 

The first day of the tour includes the "Meet Your Translator Dinner". Here men will be served traditional local cuisine while being introduced to their assigned personal translator. The idea behind this event is to 1) get acquainted with your translator so the two of you can build rapport, and 2) to help get you acclimated to being in a foreign country and get you in the right mindset to date the local ladies. 

The next two days of the tour are the flagship event of the Dream Connections romance tours: the meet & greet speed dating events.  

About an hour before the men arrive to the event, the local ladies arrive and sign in. All ladies at the event have been screened and invited based on the men who are attending (no walk ins).  Each woman is given a name tag and is assigned a place at one of the many tables in the room.

DC does its best to ensure that each table has an even spread of ages between the ladies, so that no matter the age of a man he can expect to meet at least one (if not more) ladies within his age range.  

Next the men and their translators arrive. The translators are briefed on which ladies are attending the event. Then the actual meet and greet begins. 

Paired off with his personal translator each man will systematically work his way through each of the tables. Each table will have around three or four women. Every fifteen minutes or so everyone moves on to a new table until each man has met every woman and vice versa. 

After 15 minutes spent at each table, the man leaves and his translator stays behind to talk with the ladies. She asks if any of them would be open to going on a date with him. Any women who are willing to oblige, write their phone number on a sheet for the translator. The man is then free to contact those ladies during the rest of the week. 

The rest of the week is open for individual dates. These dates will be with the women from the meet and greet event who accepted your invitation to go out with you. 

On each DC tour Wednesday  is reserved for an optional special event. It could be anything from  a cultural show in Bangkok,  to a karaoke night club in Ukraine. The purpose of this special event is to take some of the pressure off  of the week and simply relax and enjoy your time in a foreign country. 

Thursday morning Mark typically holds a free live webinar for any men around the world who are interested in going on a DC tour. More often then not some of the men on the current tour will stop by and share some of their experiences. 

One of Mark's live trip reports

The Ukrainian tours feature an optional visit to a local orphanage supported by Mark and Anna Davis through their nonprofit Abundance International. While the Ukrainian government does supply some support to local orphanages, there tend to be a lot of gaps in their funding. 

Mark and Anna have stepped in to help meet that need and have successfully helped fund building projects (like a new infant ICU), as well as supplies such as medicine, diapers, etc. 

More info on the Davis' Ukrainian Orphan Support Project

The final event of a DC tour is the finale dinner. On the last night of the tour men are invited along with their date and translator to attend an elegant meal in celebration of the successful week. 

Often stories are shared, staff and translators are honored, and of course tons of pictures are taken. 

On Saturday the tour is officially over and some men return home. However, many stay an extra few days. While these extra days aren't apart of the official tour, DC will make it easy for you to extended your time at your hotel, and with your personal translator if needed. In fact from what I've heard many men plan to stay longer ahead of time. 

You'll also have access to a community of other international couples and well wishers who have walked the trail before you. This is a true benefit. An international relationship is a unique experience and it's an invaluable experience to have others you can share it with. 

Emphasis on creating relationships

One of the guiding values of DC is that they strive to help their clients find meaningful long lasting relationships. They aren't in the business of letter writing, or the free for all socials that are common in the international dating industry. In fact men have no contact or correspondence with ladies until they meet them face to face on the tour.

Everything about a DC tour, from the initial screening and interview process, to the format and itinerary of their tours, is designed to create an environment where good honest men can make meaningful connections with equally honest and relationship-minded ladies. 

Pre trip training

Training videos

Before leaving for a tour each man will be given access to a series of exclusive training videos. The goal of this series is to help prepare guys to head into the tour with the right mindset and excepections. They also help prepare viewers to date within the context of a foreign culture. 

Here's a few of the topics the training videos cover:

Personal translators (the secret sauce of DC)

Mark himself often says that the single most important component of DC's success over the years has been their translators.  If you find your way to DC's Youtube channel you're likely to find past DC clients saying the same thing. All this begs the question: what exactly does a personal translator do on a DC tour? 

Who is your translator and how will she help you on a tour?

Naturally, they provide translation (if you don't speak your lady's language or your lady of interest doesn't speak English). More than that though, your translator also helps you navigate the maze of the local culture. 

Many a man has dated a foreign woman only to have things go south, not because any one person had bad intentions or did something purposefully wrong, but because of a cultural misunderstanding. 

The cultures in these countries differ widely from that of the West. Your translator will personally protect you from cultural faux pas and misunderstandings between you and your dates. Whether it's dress, etiquette, or traditions your translator has you covered. 

Your personal translator is a valuable cultural asset

She'd seek to understand what you want and need in a romantic partner and she would try her hardest to help you find such a woman.

It's this sort of wing-womaning (yes I made that word up) that best describes what your translator will do for you on a DC tour. 

Your translator will arrange your dates, manage your schedule, take you shopping, help you pick out gifts, arrange transportation, and take care of just about any other logistic that stand between you and a successful date. 

If you watch any of the videos DC puts out on their translators, undoubtedly one of the first questions to come to mind will be "Soo....can I date my translator?". It was certainly the first question that popped into my head.

These women come off as intelligent, beautiful, very sincere, and they already know how to speak English, thus any straight man is likely to find them attractive. 

Be honest...what guy wouldn't want a date with a lady like Julia?

As a rule of thumb DC does their best to use translators who aren't single, so as not to stir up any unneeded tension while going on dates (a wise man would know the danger of simultaneously going out with two women he was both interested in). 

Still, DC translators are sometimes single, and a few couples have resulted from a client going out with a translator. However, according to Mark no client has dated his personally assigned translator. If a romantic spark is lit, it's typically between a client and a translator assigned to another guy. 

The cost of a group tour vs an individual tour

A spot on a group tour will run you $4,950.

As I said before a romance tour isn't really my cup of tea, but if it was, would I be willing to pay almost $5,000 for a tour with DC? 

Hmm...probably.

This is because I'm impressed with the company's system. There are a lot of good things that set apart DC from other companies. Taken by themselves, I don't know that any one of them would be worth paying so much money for. 

 It's when all these pieces are moving together in a unified system that the magic happens. The training videos, the personal translators, the speed dating events, the pre-screenings, the support....if I paid just under $5,000 for it all I wouldn't feel cheated.  

Over the years Mark and Anna Davis have worked together to develop a model for a romance tour that makes honest relationally-minded international dating available to even the most travel averse guys out there. 

If I was shopping around for a romance tour and $5000 was in my budget, and I was serious about actually finding a real relationship, I'd have no problem going with Dream Connections.

Other guys may feel differently, and that's cool. This is just my two cents (for whatever it's worth) 

A Foreign Affair is one of the oldest and most popular romance tour companies, and one of DC's main competitors (we'll talk more about AFA later). The cost of a ten day/nine night AFA tour in Ukraine costs $3495. That's exactly $1,000 or about 20% less than a Dream Connection's tour in Ukraine. 

So my personal question when surveying these two tours is this: is there anything worth $1,000 which DC offers on their tour that AFA doesn't? DC offers a personal translator throughout the week. The translator has been trained according to the DC tour system. 

The DC tour format is unique, though other companies (AFA included) have mimicked the idea of a speed dating event to varying degrees of effect. There's also the idea of overall higher quality, given that DC vets both the men and the women who come on their tours. AFA is known for taking any and everyone.

So is a personal translator, natural environment for meeting women, pre-trip screening, as well as overall higher level of service worth the extra 20% in price?  You'll have to decide for yourself. 

Personally I have no problems with Mark's 80% success rate. To put a percentage on how many couples get married would seem a bit unnatural....

Imagine I had company that did romance tours and I told you that you had a 75% chance of marrying a woman on the tour. That's a tough metric to gauge. It'd be very easy for someone to renege their payment saying I didn't meet my end of the bargain because they didn't meet their wife. Not to mention it would put a lot of pressure on the dating environment (it would be anything but casual). 

Also, this sort of statistic wouldn't sit right with a lot of people. There's an element in mate selection that is irrevocably human, and thus next to impossible to predict or quantify. You could put the best women and the best men from around the world in a room with the perfect environment, but that still won't automatically mean everyone or even most will find a soul-mate. 

At the end of the day life and the people who live it are unpredictable. To put a hard guarantee on a success rate for marriage would turn romantic interactions into something more akin to a transaction (I give you money, now you give me a wife). One of the things that makes love what it is, is the freedom of choice and possibility. 

That means each man or woman has the freedom to choose whomever they wish. There's a possibility that  a woman will reciprocate your advances, and there's a possibility that she won't. The fact that she had a freedom and possibility to say no to you, makes it all the more meaningful if and when she says yes. 

So yeah, Mark's success rate makes complete sense to me.  

Dream Connections has secured a place in the international dating industry as a go to company for the all exclusive romance trip experience. From the moment you step off the plane until you step back on, they take care of everything you need. 

However, not every guy necessarily wants this fine catered approach. Some value the flexibility, independence, and challenge that comes with planning and arranging a trip on their own. 

Others might desire a more economical approach to international dating.

If this describes you then you might want to lean more toward international dating sites, versus an agency. 

Just as there are scammers in the world of romance tours, you can bet that there are also scammers lurking in the online dating world. As always exercise common sense and use what we teach in scam school to avoid getting taken advantage of. 

Here are some of the dating sites we recommend for making connections abroad.