Russia

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Why visit Russia?

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The largest country in the world, Russia offers a broad array of travel experiences, from treks up the slopes of glacier-capped mountains to strolls along the shoreline of Earth’s oldest lake. Historical sites and cultural activities in the country’s great cities abound as well. Whether you are exploring the grounds of Moscow’s Kremlin or wandering through the steppes of Mongolia, a visit to Russia is an adventure not soon forgotten.

What does Russia bring in mind?

Moscow Kremlin

The Kremlin is a must-see attraction for anyone visiting Moscow. Home to the nation’s top governmental offices, the walled enclosure also houses four cathedrals built in the 15th and 16th century as well as several notable museums.

Hermitage Museum Founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great, the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia is a massive museum of art and culture showing the highlights of a collection of over 3 million items spanning the globe. The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral

Built between 1554 and 1561 and situated in the heart of Moscow, St. Basil’s Cathedral has been among the top tourist attractions in Russia. It is not the building’s interior artifacts that attract visitors, but rather the cathedral’s distinctive architecture. Designed to resemble the shape of a bonfire in full flame, the architecture is not only unique to the period in which it was built but to any subsequent period.

Trans-Siberian Railway Part of the longest railway system in the world, the classic Trans-Siberian railway runs from Moscow to Vladivostok, a city near Russia’s borders with China and North Korea. Begun in 1891 by Tsar Alexander III and completed by his son, Tsar Nicholas II, in 1916, the line is known as the route of the tsars. Most travelers use the train as overnight accommodation from one destination to the next.

Mount Elbrus

Mount Elbrus is located in the Caucasus Mountain Range in Southern Russia. At 5,642 meters, Elbrus is included as one of the Seven Summits, the highest summits on each of the planet’s seven continents, attracting both experienced and novice mountain climbers. While the mountain was formed from a volcano, it is considered dormant, with no recorded eruptions. A cable car system can take visitors as high as 3,800 meters, facilitating ascents to the summit.

Valley of Geysers Situated on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, the Valley of Geysers is the second largest geyser field in the world. The Valley of Geysers was discovered in 1941 by local scientist Tatyana Ustinova. Since then it became a popular tourist attraction in Kamchatka and attracts a lot of interest from scientists and tourists.

Kizhi Island Located in Karelia, a region in Northwestern Russia that borders Finland and the White Sea, Kizhi Island is best known for its incredible open-air museum. Karelians have lived in the region since the 13th century, torn between the cultures of the East and the West. The museum’s collection features the 120-foot high Church of the Transfiguration of Our Savior, a structure made famous by its 22 domes. Other tourist attractions include dozens of wooden houses, windmills, chapels and barns. The peasant culture is represented with craft demonstrations and folk ensembles.

Lake Baikal

Many travelers on the Trans-Siberian railway make plans to stop at Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on Earth. Lake Baikal holds around 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. Located in Siberia, the 25-million-year-old lake is surrounded by mountain ranges. The lake is considered one of the clearest lakes in the world. Known as the Pearl of Siberia, Lake Baikal is home to several resorts, making the area a popular vacation destination.

St Sophie Cathedral, Novgorod Located in Novgorod, Russia’s oldest city, Saint Sophia Cathedral is situated within the grounds of the city’s Kremlin. Standing 125 feet high and adorned with five spectacular domes, the cathedral is the oldest church building in Russia. Saint Sophia Cathedral features an array of ancient religious artifacts, including The Mother of God of the Sign, an icon that legend says saved Novgorod from attack in 1169. The cathedral has also three famous ornately carved gates dating back to the 12th century.

Suzdal

The jewel of Russia’s “Golden Ring”. Those who wish to experience the best of Russia’s historic architecture, full of onion-dome topped Kremlins, cathedrals and monasteries, will find it in Suzdal. Dating back to 1024, the entire city is like a large open-air museum that transports visitors back in time.

Things you shouldn’t miss in Russia

• The Peterhof Fountains

• The Aquapark “Piterland

• Stolle pies: A type of piroggi, pies baked with traditional Russian leavened dough. You will find Stolle Pie Restaurants everywhere. They are immensely popular with locals and a St Petersburg attraction in themselves.

• Night cruises of St Petersburg are an amazing way to see the city, which is sometimes called the “Venice of the North” because of its elaborate network of rivers and canals.

• Climbing the Colonnade of St Isaac’s Cathedral allows you to see an amazing panorama of St Petersburg. It is well worth the 300 steps...

• The St Petersburg Metro is as ornate as the palaces of the Tsars, as it was built during the 1950s as a celebration of Soviet achievement.

• The Aurora is a battle cruiser with a fascinating history. She served in the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War, until her crew refused to put to sea and sparked the beginning of the October Revolution.

• The Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad

• The Kunstkamera is one of the finest ethnographic museums in the world, and was the first public museum to open in St Petersburg. It was one of the favorite projects of Peter the Great, who successfully used the Kunstmuseum as part of his project to modernize Russia.

• Walking tours of the old part of St. Petersburg A lovely and relaxing way to the city, as well as being a great way to avoid being stuck in a traffic jam.

Top Tourist destinations in Russia

Saint Petersburg

Many of Petersburgers do not consider themselves Russians, but rather as Europeans. They go to Finland every weekend, they give their cafes and hotels Finnish names and distinguish 100 shades of grey in clothes. Yet, by building the Peter and Paul Fortress, Peter the Great aimed to protect the city from the Swedes. As well as the Hermitage with its baroque and rococo styles, and Voltaire’s library which was bought out by the educated Catherine, the Kunstcamera museum is a must for visitors to St Petersburg. After looking at two-headed dogs and embryos preserved in alcohol, visit the monument of Peter the Great which is surrounded by a fence of champagne bottles. No matter how many times the place is cleared, newlyweds still hang their “trophies” on the fence. Palace Square is at its best at night, whereas the interiors of Saint Isaac’s and Kazan Cathedrals look better in daylight when rays of light play on the mosaics and paintings. However, the best mosaic collection is in the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

Moscow

In contrast to St Petersburg, Moscow is a city of wide avenues and massive Soviet buildings from the Lenin Russian State Library which has 275 km of shelves, to Stalin skyscrapers representing Stalin’s Empire style. All tourists, however, go to see the Kremlin and Red Square first. Having originally been a market and an execution yard (the place of bread and circuses), Red Square is now the first port of call for foreign and local tourists alike. Even today, it is the centre of Moscow life, allowing you to plunge into the history of the city quickly and easily.

Kazan

Kazan is officially called “the third capital of Russia”. In 2005, the city turned 1000 years old. Despite its impressive age, the oldest Annunciation Cathedral, Kazan Kremlin, and the core of the old city, the Old Tatar Settlement and iconic buildings of the century-before-last, are still preserved in the centre of the city. Interestingly, there are also many modern architectural monuments alongside the history. These include the “Frisbee” of the circus as the symbols of Kazan, and the modern Qolsharif Mosque. Architecture lovers can also see how Christianity and Islam coexist in Kazan. The decoration of Orthodox churches contains elements of Asian pomp. Raifsky Bogoroditsky Cathedral has a miracle- working icon of the Mother of God of Georgia, which is kept with special reverence.

The Golden Ring

Fans of Russian Orthodoxy who wish to experience the calm and profundity of the Russian faith often go on tours around cities which are famous for their unique monasteries and churches of the 12th - 17th centuries. These cities have rather poetic names: Sergiev Posad, Alexandrov, Kostroma, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Uglich, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Rostov Veliky, Suzdal and Vladimir. The Golden Ring tour includes visits to Sergiev Posad, Suzdal, Vladimir as well as Moscow, St Petersburg and Novgorod.

Novgorod Veliky

The history of the city is closely connected with the history of Russian statehood, of which one of the pillars is Orthodoxy. For this reason, you can find lots of churches, monasteries and other places of worship in Novgorod Veliky. The most extraordinary is Sofiysky cathedral, which was built in the 11th century. It contains the remains of six Russian saints and many important icons, including the miracle-working icon of Our Lady of the Sign.