Moscow City Tour and the Kremlin Grounds
Full day tour that will introduce you to the capital of the world's largest country, a melting pot of cultures and the epicentre of both old and
new Russia. Both beautiful and austere, you will see such sights as the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the wonderful panoramic view
from Vorobiovi Hill. The heart of Moscow beats at Red Square with the multi-coloured onion domed St Basil's Cathedral and the imposing red
brick walls of the Kremlin dominating the skyline.
Within these walls you will be able to see the 202 tonne Tsar Bell, the 89cm bore Tsar Cannon & the accumulated treasures housed in the
Armoury.Covering over two floors there are over 4000 items that have been presented to the Russian State over the centuries and is also
the home of one of the most valuable collections of Faberge eggs.

Moscow City Tour and the Metro
Built between the 1930s and the 1960s where thousands of people toiled & died to create the city's first mass transport link, the metro is
one of the few Stalinist projects that Muscovites feel truly proud of, and nine million people who use it everyday surely can't be wrong.
Many of the stations are works of art where marble and frescoes combine with chandeliers & statues to create a sight far removed from
the southbound platform at Tottenham Court Road. The stations were also meant to double up as air-raid shelters, which is why many of
the escalators in the older stations seem to plunge towards the earth's core.

Pushkin Fine Arts Museum
This famous museum houses over 500,000 works of art of every variety - from paintings and sculptures to graphic art, archeological
monuments and photography.
Housed in this classical building dating from the turn of the 20th century is probably Russia's finest collection of foreign art dating
from thousands of years ago to the present day. On the ground floor you can find works of art from Ancient Egypt, European paintings
from the 7th to 18th centuries and various antiquities. On the first floor there are halls full of tinted plaster casts of many of the most
famous sculptures from Ancient Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, as well as rooms that bring you right up to date
with collections of original paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Kuskovo Estate
If you are wishing to break out of downtown Moscow, then may we recommend a visit to Kuskovo, a sort of mini Versailles that was initially
created in the 1770s as the countryside residence of Count Sheremetiev to entertain and stage receptions.
The wooden main mansion overlooks a lake, where once mock sea battles were staged and in the formal grounds there is the orangery,
which now houses an exhibition of 18th to 20th century Russian ceramics.

Tolstoy's Dacha
One for hardened Russian literature fans is the once home and now museum of the great writer Count Leo Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana,
approximately 240km south of Moscow. Tolstoy settled here in 1862 and it’s where he spent much of his life until his death in 1910
while writing in between the classics 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina'.
His home is decorated with portraits including one of the real Anna Karenina and a photograph of himself presented by Edison, and in the
nearby garden can be found his flower strewn grave. Lunch is included with this excursion.

Bolshoi Theatre
An evening at the Bolshoi remains one of the best nights out in Moscow and even if you're not a particularly avid ballet or opera fan, the
electric atmosphere & the glittering spectacle within is alone worth buying a ticket for. The repertoire over recent years has certainly
broadened to include more than just the usual Russian suspects and performance schedules can be obtained from their web site at
www.bolshoi.ru Ticket prices are volatile and depend on the performance, the company performing, the conductor, or sometimes if the theatre believes
it can charge a bit more just because you're foreigners.

Important - For the forseeable future, the Main Stage of the Bolshoi is undergoing an extensive refurbishment programme and is closed
until further notice. The more modern, New Stage, is open for performances.

St Petersburg City Tour and the Hermitage Museum
In just three centuries this city has already had three names, but whether it was called St Petersburg, Petrograd or Leningrad, it has
always been where you'll feel Russia's European ambitions and influences. This full day excursion will provide an orientation tour of the
city's landmarks and highlights including the once feared Peter & Paul Fortress, the golden domed St Isaac's Cathedral and the Cruiser
'Aurora' that fired the starting gun for the 1917 October Revolution.
It is, however, for the Hermitage, this vast museum housed in the opulent former Winter Palace of the tsars, that St Petersburg is famed.
This is a powerhouse of art and we will not kid you that an afternoon wandering its five buildings will allow you to see all of what's on show.
What it will do though is provide a concise viewing of the very finest masterpieces, sculptures, jewellery, objet d'art and Romanov interior
design that makes this museum quite breathtaking.

Yusupov Palace
Positioned on the bank of the Moika river is one the most beautiful palaces in central St Petersburg, the former residence of Felix Yusupov.
Reputed to be even wealthier than the Tsar, his favourite palace exemplifies his very eccentric style and wealth, which even went as far
as purchasing and transporting an entire marble staircase that took his fancy all the way from Italy. Though there are numerous treasures on display including Rembrandt and Rubens pictures, French tapestries and Venetian mirrors, it is
in the bowels of the palace that there is the most interest. It was in the basement that the notorious Gregory Rasputin was assassinated
in 1916 after being fed poisoned cakes, shot and finally dragged down to the icy Moika to be drowned.

Pushkin & Pavlovsk
Two palaces located less than 30km from St Petersburg that not only provide an ideal day out into the country but will reward you with
some of some of the most sumptuous architecture and ornate interior design this side of the Urals. At Pushkin, or, Tsarskoye Selo as it's
also known is the huge baroque Catherine Palace designed by Rastrelli and surrounded by a park and woodland dotted with numerous
classical statues.
Just a couple of miles away is the rather more modest palace, for a tsar that is, at Pavlovsk built in neo-classical design set in vast
landscaped gardens and the favoured residence of the paranoid (rightly so) Paul I, who was poisoned by his courtiers in 1801.

Peterhof
If you had to visit one palace and one palace alone during your stay in St Petersburg, then Peterhof (Petrodvorets) should be the one.
Overlooking the Gulf of Finland and set within a spectacular ensemble of golden statue fountains, cascades and other more amusing water
features, Peterhof was the vision of Peter the Great to rival and even outshine France's Versailles.
The estate comprises over seven parks and more than 20 pavilions and smaller palaces with the Grand Palace being the impressive
centrepiece that today is a vast museum of lavish rooms and galleries. Please note that the fountains are only on between May and
September.

For an even greater experience we recommend to go by hydrofoil to Peterhof - £20.00/p.p. one way - includes transfer from the hotel
to the Winter Palace where boats depart, guide assistance throughout the excusrion.

Romanovs and Revolution
Spread over two days, this excursion concentrates on the places and events that led up to the 1917 October Revolution and the hostile
takeover by the Bolsheviks.
You will visit Yusupov Palace where Gregory Rasputin, the sinister and influential adviser to Tsarina Alexandra, was murdered; the
Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo where Nicholas II signed his abdication and the imperial family were arrested in 1917; the Cruiser
'Aurora' that fired the shot marking the start of the Revolution; the Winter Palace (including Hermitage Museum) that was stormed by
the Bolsheviks; the Smolny Institute, once a school for aristocratic girls, but where Lenin directed the October Revolution from; the Peter
& Paul Fortress that acted as a political prison and where most of Russia's pre-revolution rulers lie buried including, until only recently,
the tragic Nicholas II and most of his family who were all slain at Ekaterinburg.

Mariinsky Theatre
St Petersburg is the birthplace of Russian ballet and the Kirov Ballet has nurtured talent such as Nijinsky, Pavlova, Nureyev and
Baryshnikov. An evening at this sumptuous building, which saw the premiers of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker,
guarantees glamorous and memorable night out.
The repertoire between September and June is a mixture of home-grown and foreign opera and ballet and schedules can be obtained from
their web site at www.mariinsky.ru. As with the Bolshoi in Moscow, ticket prices can depend upon the production, the cast and the fact
that foreigners, by law, pay at least six times more for a ticket.