Travel the Russian Countryside: Road tripping from Moscow to St. Petersburg
Customized tour to the Real Russia: visit traditional villages and explore the ordinary life of people
Highlights
Tour Highlight: Staritsa town... and the Russian Countryside!
7 reasons to visit Staritsa town
Russian countryside in winter
About the Russian Countryside tour
Our Schedule: From Moscow to St. Petersburg
Day 1
We will drive from Moscow to Staritsa town (about 200 km). Most of the day will be spent road tripping. We will see Moscow suburbs, a lot of small villages, abandoned churches with tumbled down crosses, small countryside towns, and nice nature. Depending on your wishes, we will spend the night at the hostel or camping at the riverbank.
Day 2
This day we will visit the 700-years old Staritsa town with its beautiful old mansions, abandoned churches and a real monastery, truly the place where time stopped! You'll see the real life of a small Russian town on the banks of the Volga river.
In the afternoon, we'll have an ecotour along the Volga River to see its light evergreen forests, limestone cliffs and the crystal waters of numerous small creeks. You will learn a lot about Russian nature and life of the people here.
We will also visit the ramified network of underground quarries where people mined limestone for churches and monuments. Depending upon your adventurism, you can either wander in some easily accessible beautiful quarries or search the road back from remote parts of the most challenging kilometers-long underground network! The Russian bathhouse («banya») will bring the relaxation after the very active day.
Day 3
We will visit an elderly couple living in a traditional Russia village. They have a small farm with several horses, cows and ducks. We will help them with their daily work - plowing the land (not by tractors, but by horses), caring for the livestock and cooking food in a traditional Russian oven… And surely we will taste some real fresh milk and eggs while they will be telling us about their common life, their habits, and the households.
Day 4
We will say goodbye to friendly couple and move to Ostashkov town to have some adventures (4x4, horse riding quad, boat trip, kayak...)We will choose activity all for together one month before the trip.
Day 5
We will drive to Novgorod the Great and walk there. Novgorod is the oldest city in European Russia, famous for its history. It was a people's republic at 9-12 centuries! Oh, good times... The city is known for the variety and age of its medieval monuments. The huge fortress at the city center is even more impressive than the Moscow Kremlin!
After the day in Novgorod we will say farewell to each other at the Novgorod train station where the cheap local train well be waiting for you. Only 4 hours later you will be in St. Petersburg to wonder its architecture wandering all its small streets and river channels.
Price: from 35 000 RUB / person for 5-days tour!
Experience what others only dream about... Travel Real Russia!
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For a second part of our adventure, you will visit a network of underground limestone caves with an experienced caver guide. Depending on your adventurism, you can either wander in some easily accessible and beautiful cavern halls or you can search the depths of remote parts and the most challenging kilometers of a lengthy underground network!
Finally, after a long day of exploring, you will have a lovely meal of our traditional food and enjoy a blazing campfire.
Duration: 8-12 hours
The next 2-3 days we will see life in the typical Russian provinces visiting small towns of the famous Golden ring of Russia. It is a ring of ancient towns, which also played a significant role in the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church. They still preserve the memory of the most important and significant events in Russian history.
The towns are one of the best places to visit in Russia! They have been called "open-air museums" and feature unique monuments of Russian architecture of the 12th–18th centuries, including kremlins, monasteries, cathedrals, and churches. You will also see a lot of rural Russia with its old wooden houses and traditional villages.