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Classical Russia
Our group tour takes you to the major cultural highlights of St. Petersburg, former capital of the Czars, and Moscow, political and historic capital of Russia. Our group tour affords you the opportunity of seeing some of the places that are a part of Russians’ daily life - the Arbat, GUM and the Moscow Metro system.
Dates 2008
May 4-12 * Jun 1-9 * Jul 13-21 * Aug 10-18 * Sep 14-22
Price per Person in Twin:
May & Sep: $3,550 Jun: $3,610 Jul & Aug: $3,075
Single Supplements:
May & Sep: $1,495 Jun: $1,565 Jul & Aug: $1,080
Visa
$131 per person is the new consulate fee.
This is valid if papers are received from participants
at least 4 weeks prior to the USA departure date.
Our Tour Features
* Accommodations for 5 nights in St. Petersburg in first class hotels
* Accommodations for 3 nights in Moscow at the Marriott Grand Hotel
* Buffet breakfasts daily
* Welcome dinner at hotel or local restaurant
* 6 Dinners at local restaurants
* 1 Dinner on the train
* 1 Lunch at a local restaurant
* Individual transfers on arrival and departure to accommodate flight schedules
* All touring as indicated in the itinerary with all entrance fees
* Expert English-speaking guides in St. Petersburg and Moscow
* Transportation by deluxe mini-coaches for sightseeing
* Day train between St. Petersburg & Moscow in the Business Class section
Our Itinerary
Day 1, Sun
Arrival St. Petersburg
You arrive in St. Petersburg and will be greeted and transferred to your hotel in the historic center. This evening you enjoy a Welcome Dinner at the hotel or local restaurant. (D)
Day 2, Mon
The City & Peter & Paul Fortress * The Russian Museum
After breakfast, we will enjoy a city sightseeing tour. The tour takes us along Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s longest thoroughfare, lined with historic buildings such as the Kazan Cathedral, the Lutheran Church of Peter & Paul, and the former Stroganov Palace, designed by Rastrelli, Dom Knigi (House of Books), in what was once the Singer Sewing Machine Building, crossing over the Bank Bridge. We view the Admiralty, with its soaring spire, and at St. Isaac’s Square, we view the grandiose St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the monumental statue of Czar Nicholas I. At Decembrists’s Square we stop to admire the monumental equestrian statue of Peter the Great, known as the ‘Bronze Horseman’. We drive along the Neva, and cross over to Vasilievsky Island to view the huge Rostral Columns, once lighthouses on the Neva, and we will view the magnificent façade of the Winter Palace, which houses the collections of the Hermitage Museum. We tour the Fortress of Peter and Paul, with its cobbled streets and view some of the sparse rooms where prisoners were held. We visit the interior of the elegant Dutch-style Cathedral where the tombs of Russian rulers, from Peter the Great to Czar Alexander II, are entombed in splendor.
Our afternoon tour continues at the Russian Museum. We start with a short walking tour around Arts Square to admire the buildings, all designed by the architect Rossi, to harmonize with the former Mikhailov Palace, within which are housed the extensive collections of the Russian Museum. Here we discover works by Russian Masters from the 10th through the early 20th centuries, including great talents such as Repin, Kiprensky, Schedrin, and paintings by Surikov, Serov, Grabar, to mention just a few. We will admire the wonderful gilded and painted woodwork, and the splendid frescoed ceiling, all restored several years ago. Dinner is at a local restaurant. (B, D)
Day 3, Tue
Petrodvorets: The Grand Palace * St. Isaac’s Cathedral
This morning we travel into the nearby suburbs to Petrodvorets, also called Peterhof, the largest of the summer estates of the former Czars. We will explore the Grand Palace, designed by Braunstein and LeBlond in the early 18th century, and later enlarged and embellished by Rastrelli, which explains the baroque touches. We pass through rooms of astounding beauty such as the Red Silk Drawing Room, the Green Silk Drawing Room, the Music Room, the Chinese Room, and Chesme Hall, among many others. This palace was built to rival the splendor of Versailles, which Peter the Great had visited, and which made him wish to ‘out do’ its splendor, and he certainly succeeded. We will have time to enjoy lunch on our own and to delight in the golden fountains and the waterworks, before returning to the city to tour of the opulent interior of St. Isaac’s Cathedral.
The Cathedral, built between 1818 and 1849, was named for St. Isaac of Dalmatia, whose Saint’s Day coincided with the birthday of Peter the Great. The interior is all in marble and rare minerals, with columns of rare malachite, and huge icons with elaborate gilt frames, gilded sculptures, and incredible mosaics adorn the interior. The crowning glory is the domed ceiling, by Bruyllov, with a wonderful skylight. Dinner is at a local restaurant. (B, D)
Day 4, Wed
The Hermitage Museum & Gold Treasury * Yusupov Palace
This morning we drive to the immense Palace Square, formed by the façade of the Winter Palace and the curved façade of the former General Staff Headquarters, and in the middle is the huge Alexander Column, a monolithic piece of red Finnish marble, weighing over 700 tons!
Our tour concentrates on two of the most popular and vast collections - the French Impressionists and the Dutch Masters. We view some of the fabulous rooms of this former royal residence such as Malachite Hall, once the living room for the Czarina, with elaborate parquet floors, malachite columns, tables and fireplaces, and dazzling chandeliers. Our visit includes a scheduled viewing of the Gold Treasury, a collection of prehistoric Scythian gold pieces of incredible detail and beauty. We have a time out for lunch on our own at the Hermitage Cafeteria.
This afternoon we will truly be dazzled by the historic Yusupov Palace, a pale neo-Classical building on the banks of the Moika canal, built for one of St. Petersburg’s richest noble families, the Yusupovs, who were said to be richer than even the Czars! The palace became notorious as the site of the assassination in 1916 of Grigory Rasputin and we will learn about this historic event and visit the ground-floor room where the assassination took place. We will enjoy a very special tour the palace’s private rooms. Dinner is at a local restaurant. (B, D)
Day 5
Pushkin: Catherine Palace * Pavlovsk
After breakfast, we drive out to the suburbs to the town of Pushkin, once known as Tsarskoye Selo or “Czar’s Village” to explore Catherine Palace, begun in 1718 by Braunstein, for Peter’s wife, Catherine I, but later enlarged and embellished by Rastrelli, which explains the similarity with the Winter Palace, which he also designed. We discover rooms where color themes are carried out in the upholstery, marbles and wall papers: the White Vestibule, Green Dining Room, Blue Drawing Room and the fabled Amber Room, fully restored several years ago. Our guide will explain the fascinating history of this room, and we will admire the results of decades of restoration work by talented Palekh artists. We view the Ballroom which was designed after the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Peter the Great was obsessed by the magnificent French palaces and always strived to make his palaces even more spectacular.
We enjoy lunch at Podvorie before visiting Pavlovsk, the smallest of the summer palaces, designed for Czar Paul by the Scot Cameron. This palace is more ‘somber’ in style, in a buff color with white trim, and no gold domes. What makes this palace special is the fact that it was entirely destroyed during WW II, and subsequently reconstructed using paintings and drawings of the times. Within you will see the pictures of its destruction. You visit its many beautiful rooms, with original period pieces used by the Czars, exquisite porcelains, and elegant chandeliers. This was a palace that was lived in, and used a lot by Paul’s widow, and subsequent Czars. We return to the city in the late afternoon. Dinner is at a local restaurant. (B, L, D)
Day 6, Fri
The Summer Gardens & on to Moscow
This morning, our touring continues in the Summer Gardens, a favorite retreat of the locals. This vast garden is like Central Park – the green lungs of the city. It is bounded on all sides by rivers and canals and has thousands of trees, and myriad statues, pavilions and alleys. We will explore some of its fine alleyways, and tour the small, but modest, Summer Palace, the first proper royal residence, designed by Trezzini, and built from 1710-1712 for Peter I. After our walk, we have some leisure time. This afternoon we will be transferred to the rail station where we board our day train that departs in the mid-afternoon to Moscow. Along the way we will be able to glimpse villages and small towns. We enjoy dinner on the train. We reach Moscow at around 10 p.m. We will be greeted by our local guide and transferred to the Marriott Grand Hotel in the city center. (B, D)
Day 7, Sat
The Kremlin Territory, Armory Museum * GUM, the Arbat & Metro * Circus
This morning we enjoy a comprehensive walking tour. We enter the Kremlin Territory through one of its many gates and will notice that the magnificent red brick walls of the Kremlin Territory, erected in the 16th century by Italian masons. We view its wonderful monuments such as the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, the Czar Cannon and the Czar’s Bell and learn about their fascinating histories. We will visit one or two of the elegant Cathedrals with their gleaming golden domes, and marvel at the dazzling icons and chandeliers within. Our tour includes a special scheduled visit of the Armory Museum, considered the richest museum in all Russia, with dazzling royal treasures – thrones, jeweled crowns, and even some of the Faberge eggs.
We have a time out for lunch on our own in the historic center where the unique colorful St. Basil’s Cathedral dominates vast Red Square. Our afternoon is spent with the locals. We tour the beautiful interior of GUM, once a ho-hum department store for the ‘people’ and now a high fashion mecca for the new rich Russians. GUM is notable for its fabulous architecture with its glass-domed ceiling, beautiful arcades and sparkling fountain in the center of it all. We continue with a walk along the Arbat, a pedestrian street which dates back to 1493 and is rich in history. Today we will admire the elegant low-rise late 19th century buildings of wonderful pastel colors, a favorite of Muscovites, and learn some of the history of this district and street. We will also note the more touristy aspect of the Arbat – where dozens of hawkers sell matrioshka dolls of all varieties – from the traditional to political, and other souvenirs. We go underground to join the Muscovites on the move. We will view a few of the more amazing Metro stations, each a work of art with mosaics, paintings, chandeliers and spotless station platforms. Moscow’s Metro was designed by the French and is easy to navigate like the French Metro system (if you speak Russian of course), but it is as deep as London’s Tube! We return to our hotel in the late afternoon. We enjoy an early dinner, and afterwards we attend a performance at the renowned Moscow Circus. (B, D)
Day 8, Sun
The City * The Tretyakov Picture Gallery
After breakfast, we set off for a city sightseeing drive. We will drive along Tversakaya Street, passing Pushkin Square, named for the illustrious poet Pushkin whose statue dominates the square. We drive through the narrow streets of Old Moscow. We will cross over the Moskva River and drive through some of the chic residential areas and up to Sparrow Hills for a wonderful panoramic view of the city, second in size only to London! We view the imposing buildings of Moscow University, elegant old churches and beautiful Novodevichy Convent, a white-washed brick kremlin, or fortress, set in lovely grounds, with a lake.
After a time out for lunch on our own, we enjoy a tour of the collections at the Tretyakov Picture Gallery, housed within a building that is something out of a fairy-tale – red brick and lots of gingerbread features. We will discover Russian paintings from the 17th through early 20th century by artists who are virtually unknown in the West, but the paintings will give you an insight into Russian life. We will view more works by Serov, Grabar, Vrubel and Surikov, and learn about Russian history depicted in the themes and scenes of these paintings. We enjoy dinner at a local restaurant. (B, D)
Day 9, Mon
Departure
After breakfast, individual transfers will be provided to the international airport, depending on the various individual flight schedules. Da svidanya! (B)
Notes: This tour is based on a minimum of 10 participants.
Due to severe problems of overbooking in St. Petersburg because of high season and the Economic Summit, the following hotels, all in the historic center, are currently confirmed for this tour.
May: Hotel Fifth Corner (superior rooms)
This is a small boutique hotel with friendly, competent staff. The rooms are comfortable with satellite TV, data port, mini bar, fridge, hairdryer. There is no air-conditioning which should not be required in May. The hotel is in a renovated apartment building, but does not have an elevator. The Hotel Reception is on the third floor. If you have difficulty climbing stairs, this would not be suitable for you. Complete porterage of luggage up to your rooms will be provided.
June: Hotel Kristoff
This is another small boutique hotel with friendly, competent staff. The rooms are comfortable with satellite TV, wi-fi, a small fridge and air-conditioning. Like the Hotel Fifth Corner, it is in a former apartment house, but on the second floor. Complete porterage of luggage up to your rooms will be provided.
Jul, Aug, Sep:
Hotel Petro Palace is a 4-star hotel within a completely renovated historic building, near the Hermitage Museum, St. Isaac’s Cathedral and many excellent restaurants in the historic center. The rooms are spacious, and all have individually controlled air-conditioning, high speed internet access, mini bar, safe and iron. There is a fitness center and swimming pool. Its Baron Restaurant serves excellent Russian cuisine. |