Day 1 - Arrive in Moscow

Arrive at Moscow airport, escorted transfer to the hotel by minibus/bus with professional English-speaking guide. Check-in.

The rest of the day is free for you to explore this amazing city at your leisure.

 

Day 2 - Moscow

After breakfast at the hotel, depart for a city excursion with stops at its most famous sights: Poklonnaya Hill and Victory Park, Vorobievy Hills, MSU. Pass Tverskaya Street, Manezhnaya Square, Okhotny Riad, Bolshoi Theatre, Lubianka Square, Saviour Cathedral, the Kremlin and Kropotkinskaya Embankments (no entrances).

Excursion to the Kremlin and Armoury Chamber, the heart of Moscow, and visit one of its cathedrals. The Kremlin has always been the centre of political life. The Tsars’ coronation ceremony took place in one of the cathedrals. All tsars before Peter the Great are buried there. The Armoury Chamber preserves ancient state regalia, ceremonial tsar's vestments and coronation dress, vestments of the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchs, the largest collection of gold and silverware by Russian craftsmen, West European artistic silver, ceremonial weapons and arms, carriages and ceremonial horses’ harnesses.

Walk around Red Square.

 

 

Day 3 - Moscow

After breakfast at the hotel, depart for an excursion to the Tolstoy Estate-Museum, Leo Tolstoy’s winter home during the 1880s and 1890s, which now houses an interesting museum dedicated to the writer’s home life. While it’s not particularly opulent or large, the building is fitting for junior nobility – which Tolstoy was. Exhibits here demonstrate how Tolstoy lived, as opposed to his literary influences, which are explored at the Tolstoy Literary Museum. See the salon where Sergei Rachmaninov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov played the piano, and the study where Tolstoy wove his epic tales.

In the afternoon, continue the programme with the Patriotic War 1812 Museum, reminding us of one of the central events in “War and Peace” – the Patriotic War 1812 against Napoleon. The museum tells the story of the historic events during the Patriotic War, and the decisive battle between Russian and French armies that took place near the village of Borodino on 7 September 1812. Afterwards, we’ll drive to the Arc de Triomphe, which was built in 1829–34 on Tverskaya Gate Square to Joseph Bové's designs in order to commemorate Russia's victory over Napoleon. It replaced an earlier wooden structure built by the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814. The current arch was built to Bové's original designs in 1966–68 in the middle of Kutuzovsky Avenue, close to Victory Park.

Return back to the hotel for overnight.

 

 

 

Moscow

After breakfast at the hotel, depart for an excursion to the Tolstoy Estate-Museum, Leo Tolstoy’s winter home during the 1880s and 1890s, which now houses an interesting museum dedicated to the writer’s home life. While it’s not particularly opulent or large, the building is fitting for junior nobility – which Tolstoy was. Exhibits here demonstrate how Tolstoy lived, as opposed to his literary influences, which are explored at the Tolstoy Literary Museum. See the salon where Sergei Rachmaninov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov played the piano, and the study where Tolstoy wove his epic tales.

In the afternoon, the programme continues with the famous Borodino Panorama Museum, reminding us about one of the central events in “War and Peace” – Russia’s Patriotic War 1812 against Napoleon. The museum tells the story of the historic events during the Patriotic War, and the mighty decisive battle between the Russian and French armies that took place near the village of Borodino on 7 September 1812. The pearl of the museum’s collection is a panorama of the battle of Borodino, created by outstanding Russian artist Franz Roubaud in 1912 and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812.

Afterwards, we’ll see the Arc de Triomphe, built in 1829–34 on Tverskaya Gate Square to Joseph Bové's designs to commemorate Russia's victory over Napoleon. It replaced an earlier wooden structure built by the veterans of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814. The current arch was built to Bové's original designs in 1966–68 in the middle of Kutuzovsky Avenue, close to Victory Park.

Return back to the hotel for the night.

 

 

Day 4 -  Moscow

After breakfast at the hotel, depart for an excursion to Tula and Yasnaya Polyana – the place where legendary writer Leo Tolstoy was born and lived with his family.

Arrive in Tula by express train, transfer to Kozlova Zaseka railway station – excursion tour of the “Tolstoy railway” historically reconstructed railway station.

Later, we will take lunch and continue our excursion with the estate itself, situated in a pastoral setting of birch forests and orchards, which has been preserved as he left it – his living room (Tolstoy was born on the leather sofa), library (with 22 000 volumes), and parlour (where his wife Sofia Andreyevna meticulously copied his manuscripts). On the Persian walnut desk in the study, Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina, War and Peace (which Sofia recopied by hand nine times, when not busy bearing his 13 children!) and chapters of The Resurrection. Portraits by Ilya Repin and Valentin Serov decorate the walls. Today, the manor house functions as the Tolstoy House Museum. The writer also opened a school for local peasant children, which today houses the Literary Museum. Peasants and other followers would gather outside under the Tree of the Poor to ask for his advice.

Here, he wanted to create a miniature of Russian society. Tolstoy also developed a philosophy of Christianity so potent that the Russian Church excommunicated him. He also became a vegetarian, enjoyed wearing simple peasant attire and worked in the fields alongside his serfs. Tolstoy wrote: “It is difficult for me to imagine Russia without my Yasnaya Polyana”. The great writer died in the stationmaster’s hut on 7 November; his last words were said to be: “To seek, always to seek”.

Then we’ll transfer to Tula, for a city tour. Tula is more than 850 years old, famous for its gingerbread and armouries. We take an enjoyable walk along its ancient streets with their new constructions, and explore Tula’s Kremlin and Samovar Museum (another world-renowned Russian symbol). Next, we hear the story of the first Armament Plant built by the Demidovs. It is the oldest museum in the city, showcasing the history of weapons since 1724! Of course, we will sample Tula’s proudest invention – gingerbread: a tasty treat to bring this part of our exploration tour to a fitting conclusion.

20.45 – take the express train from Tula back to Moscow.

22.45 – arrive back in Moscow, transfer to our hotel and overnight stay.

 

Day 5 - St Petersburg

After a lazy breakfast at the hotel, check out by noon. Transfer to the train station to take a Sapsan train to St Petersburg. 

Arrive in St Petersburg to start your excursion of the city with stops at the most famous sights: the spit of Basil’s Island, St Isaac's Cathedral and Palace Square, the Сhurch of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood, the Aurora cruiser, and others. Drive along Nevsky Prospect and the Neva Embankments (no entrances).

Transfer to the hotel, check-in.

The rest of the day is free to explore St Petersburg at your leisure.

 

Day 6 - St Petersburg

Breakfast at the hotel. Start your programme with an excursion to the world-famous Hermitage art museum. Founded by Catherine the Great, the museum occupies 5 buildings and has, among other things, a famous collection of Western European art that includes paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Rubens, Van Dyke, and French Impressionists.

The Winter Palace is part of the Hermitage. 

In the afternoon, continue with an excursion to the Peter and Paul Fortress – the first structure to be built in St Petersburg, and thus the birthplace of the city, it never actually served its intended defensive function. Entering the fortress through the Peter Gate, you will see the flat east wall of the cathedral. Here, Domenico Trezzini, the architect of the stone fortress, broke with tradition, which demanded three or five circular apses on the east wall. The composition of the cathedral wall repeats that of the gate. The carved, gilded iconostasis also reminds us of a sumptuous triumphal arch. The themes of war and peace can easily be detected in its numerous carved figures. Thus, the fortress’s triumphal gate and large cathedral form a memorial to Russian military prowess. 

Return back to the hotel.

 

Breakfast at the hotel. Later in the morning, set off for a sightseeing tour of St Petersburg, a city of haunting magnificence - an imperial capital that seems to have been built as a monument to its own passing. The city has witnessed so many dramatic events, it’s hard to believe that it’s a mere 300 years old. Founded in 1703 to be the most European city in Russia, it remains Russia’s ‘Window on the West’ - just as Peter the Great intended. In 1991, the city was placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

We visit the palace of Pushkin, formally called Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar’s Village), then later known as Detskoye Selo (Children’s Village) during Soviet times. It was renamed Pushkin in 1938 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the poet Pushkin’s death.

At Catherine’s Palace, you will see the world-famous Amber Room and formal gardens of Yekaterinsky Park, named after Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great, for whom the entire village was a gift.

Return back to the city.

Visit the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, commissioned by Emperor Paul I in 1801 and built during the reign of Alexander I, who took the throne after his father was assassinated. The layout of this Russian Orthodox Church was designed by a serf architect, Andrey Voronikhin, who was inspired by Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Rome. Its most distinctive feature is a curved colonnade (111 m or 364 feet) that runs parallel to Nevsky Prospekt. The church was completed in 1811, just a year before the invasion of Napoleon and his twelfth nation army. This coincidence tied Kazan Cathedral with the Patriotic War of 1812 and its heroes. Both ends of the external colonnade have two statues. One is that of Mikhail Barclay de Tolly (1761-1818) and the other of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov (1745-1813). Kutuzov, who was described in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, is also buried here.

Later on, visit the Derzhavin Museum. The only estate that remained within the borders of St Petersburg was turned on the big screen into the house of the Rostovs in St Petersburg. Here, Natasha spends a heart-pounding night before her first ball, and here she later longs for her beloved Andrei to come.

The building houses the memorial estate of Russian writer Gavrila Derzhavin.

Return back to the hotel.

 

After breakfast at the hotel, check-out and excursion to the Yusupov Palace. This stunning Palace on the Moika River is one of two surviving residences of the Yusupov family. The palace is known to be the place where the infamous Grigory Rasputin was assassinated.

It is one of the few aristocratic houses in the city that is still decorated with its original interior, making it a perfect backdrop for the BBC drama.

The home theatre of the Yusupov princely family was chosen as the shooting location for the scene in the opera when Anatole Kuragin was introduced to Natasha Rostova.

Later on, escorted transfer to the airport by minibus/bus.

Return home with lots of happy memories!

 

*Please note that some sightseeing destinations mentioned in the programme might be closed on certain dates. In such cases, we will offer you an equivalent alternative, which you will be advised about in advance.