Tsars’ Capitals: Moscow and St. Petersburg
Day 1
Arrive in Moscow, meet and greet at the airport and private transfer to the hotel. Accommodation at the hotel.
Day 2
Your day will start with a Moscow city tour and include a visit to the Kremlin (residence of Tsars and Patriarchs), Armory Museum (collection of gold, silver and jewelry), the Diamond Fund, Red Square and Alexandrovsky Garden.
Day 3
In the morning you will visit Kolomenskoye Estate (summer residence of Tsars since the time of Ivan the Terrible) and its church, built in 1530, once called the 8th wonder of the world. The rest of your day is free with many optional excursions available.
Day 4
Today you will take a full day trip to the town of Sergiyev Posad (Zagorsk). The town is a historical and cultural center of the Russian Orthodox Church and known for its Holy Trinity - St. Sergius Lavra (“Lavra” in Greek means the most significant monastery).
Day 5
Spend your morning and afternoon exploring the city on your own. Evening transfer to the train station for an overnight departure to St. Petersburg on the famous Red Arrow train.
Day 6
The train arrives in St. Petersburg in the morning. You’ll be met and transferred to the hotel. Accommodation at the hotel. On this day you will take a sightseeing tour of the city, which includes major sites such as the Bronze Horseman, the Spirit of Basil Island, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. Complete your tour with a visit to the famous bastions of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Day 7
Today you will take a day tour of Peterhoff, Peter the Great’s summer palace, best known for its outstanding series of golden fountains that reach from the palace down the hill to the Baltic Sea.
Day 8
Your day will start with a visit to the world-famous Hermitage Museum where masterpieces of hundreds of artists including Renoir, Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Picasso are displayed. A free afternoon will give you time on your own to visit new sights or revisit the Hermitage. A farewell dinner and a folklore show will complete your final evening.
Day 9
Your journey comes to an end as you are transferred to the airport for your flight home.
Excursion Ideas
Novodevichy Convent. An outstanding example of early 16th century architecture set in a surprisingly peaceful oasis in this busy metropolis. As a religious center, this convent was in its day second only to the Kremlin, and among other daughters and wives of the Russian tsars, Peter the Great’s half-sister Sofia was exiled here in 1679.
Tretyakov Picture Gallery. Home to thousands of masterpieces of Russian art, this gallery boasts an exquisite collection of old Orthodox Church icons, with works by the famous Andrey Rublev among them. The core of the museum’s collection consists of many paintings and sculptures by prominent Russian artists of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The museum houses works of art from the Orient, Greece and Rome, but its main attraction is one of the world’s largest collections of European art, including works by famous Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, such as Monet, Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Degas.
KGB Museum. This tour takes you into the main KGB building on Lubyanka Square, which was an object of dread for Russians for many years. Learn about the history of this notorious organization and the methods and techniques of collecting intelligence used by its agents.
