Soul of Russia, 8 days/7 nights

Moscow, 3 days  + Golden Ring, 3 days, Sergiyev Posad + Rostov Velikij + Yaroslavl + Kostroma + Suzdal + Vladimir

Day 1, Moscow

• Arrival to Moscow
• Airport pickup, transfer to the hotel for check-in hotel  (a hotel category according to your wishes)
• Rest at the hotel

Day 2,  Moscow

• Breakfast at the hotel, meeting with your guide at the hotel’s lobby
• Moscow city tour

During this big Moscow city tour you will see and enjoy the most famous and interesting attractions of the Russian capital, its avenues and squares, modern scyscrapers and its predecessors, Stalin’s «vysotki», iconic Red square and great panoramas of the Kremlin, elegant Bolshoi Theatre and the Triumphal Arch, the Novodevichiy Convent, the main building of Moscow University at the Sparrow Hill, the White House and a former KGB building at Lubyanka street, the memorial complex dedicated to the Victory in the 2nd World War on Mount Poklonnaya and much more.

You will also visit Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Russia that has a very big and challenging history. Being constructed in the 19th century, it was the main Cathedral of the Russian Empire but at Soviet times, it was demolished and rebuilt at the end of the 20th century.

• Lunch time
• Free time
• Return to the hotel

Day 3,  Moscow

• Breakfast at the hotel, meeting with your guide at the hotel’s lobby
• Red Square, St.Basil Cathedral (outside), the Kremlin, The Armoury Chamber (inside), Lenin’s Mausoleum (outside), GUM building 

You can’t imagine the Russian capital without iconic Red Square, St.Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin. We will have a walk at the territory of the Kremlin and visit inside the ancient churches of the 15-16th centuries (The Archangel, The Assumption and the Annunciation Cathedrals), where Russian tsars were crowned, near the 81 meter high Bell Tower of Ivan the Great built in the beginning of the 16th century we will listen to its 22 famous bells. The Big Kremlin Palace, a residence of the Russian President we will see from outside. In the famous Armoury Chamber that houses a unique collection of crown jewels, stunning coronation finery, hand-forged armor and weapons, royal carriages and sleighs, and world-famous Fabergé eggs you also will have a guided tour. 

• Lunch time
• Free time
• Return to the hotel

Day 4,  Moscow

• Breakfast at the hotel, meeting with your guide at the hotel’s lobby
• Kolomenskoye and its Wooden Palace

Kolomenskoye is a former Tsar’s summer residence famous for a wooden palace of Alexei Mikhailovich (father of Peter I) and the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, the first stone tent church in Russia and one of the few surviving monuments of Ivan the Terrible era in Moscow. The temple was built on a hill at the place where, according to legend, the miraculous spring beat, so area around is considered holy. The wooden palace of the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich which we visit inside will impress you with its interiors in Russian style with wood carving elements, traditional patterns typical for the interiors of nobility of the pre-Petrine times. 

• Arbat street

Arbat Street is located in the very center of Moscow and is one of the most famous streets of the capital. We can say that this is one of the symbols of Moscow, like the Kremlin or Red Square. It is a pedestrian street with many shops and cafes. Here you can see numerous artists depicting pedestrians, singers. There are several memorial museums of Russian writers, picturesque old mansions with interesting decoration

• Lunch time
• Moscow Metro Tour

The Moscow metro is famous for its unique decoration resembling real underground palaces with walls lined with marble, bronze and granite sculptures, mosaics and lamps of rare shape. By 2010, 44 stations were recognized as objects of cultural heritage. Among the most interesting and fascinating are Ploschad Revolutsii, Mayakovskaya, Novoslobodskaya, Komsomolskaya, Arbatskaya, Kievskaya, Teatralnaya, Dostoevskaya stations. 

• Free time
• Return to the hotel

Day 5 – Golden Ring –  Sergiyev Posad, Rostov Velikiy (Rostov the Great), Yaroslavl

• Breakfast at the hotel in Moscow, early morning check out, departure to Sergiyev Posad (2,5 hours drive)
• 11.00 a.m – arrival to Sergiyev Posad
• 11.00 a.m – 1.00 (1.30) p.m – in Sergiyev Posad you will visit the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and its most important churches, the Assumption and the Trinity  Cathedrals
• Lunch in a local restaurant in Sergiyev Posad
• 1.00 – 1.30 p.m. – departure to Rostov Velikiy (Rostov the Great)
• Departure to Rostov Velikiy, a medieval city known since the IX century, famous for its fabulous Kremlin, a lot of Russian history movies were filmed there
• A tour of the Rostov Kremlin, a visit to the Finift Museum (the famous Rostov enamels)
• Transfer to Yaroslavl
• Check in 4* hotel in Yarosloval, rest at the hotel

Day 6 – Golden Ring – Yaroslavl -Kostroma – Suzdal

• Breakfast at the hotel in Yaroslavl
• 9.00 a.m – Yaroslavl city tour

Yaroslavl is located on the banks of the Volga River, the panoramas are fantastic. During the tour you will also visit the Transfiguration Cathedral (Spaso Preobrazenskiy) and the Church of St. Ilias the Prophet.

• Transfer to the city of Kostroma, lunch at the local restaurant in Kostroma 
• Kostroma city tour 

Kostroma is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma rivers. During the tour you will walk through the central part of the city with its provincial architecture of the eighteenth century, visit the Ipatievsky Monastery, famous for having served as a refuge for the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, Michael, who came to the throne in 1613. That year brought an end to the long and dramatic period of revolts and Polish invasion. Another cathedral worth visiting is the Holy Trinity Cathedral famous for its ancient frescoes

• Transfer to the city of Suzdal
• Check in 4* hotel in Suzdal, rest at the hotel

Day 7 – Golden Ring – Suzdal – Vladimir – Moscow

• Breakfast at the hotel in Suzdal 
• 09.00 a.m. – in Suzdal you will have a city tour including the Suzdal Kremlin,the Rozdestvensky Cathedral (the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Theotokos) , the Museum of Wooden Architecture,the Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius , the Transfiguration Cathedral and an excursion to the Pokrovsky Convent
• 1.00 – 1.30 p.m. – departure to Vladimir
• Arrival in Vladimir, lunch in a local restaurant (included)
• 3.30 – 6.30 p.m.  – in Vladimir you will have city tour, a visit to the Golden Gates, the Assumption Cathedral famous for its frescoes by Andrei Rublev, and the Dmitrievsky Cathedral (outside), the Museum of glass and lacquer miniatures
• 5.00 p.m. – departure to Moscow (4 hours transfer)
• Arrival to Moscow, check in
• Rest at the hotel

Day 8,  Moscow 

• Breakfast at the hotel in Moscow, meeting with your guide at the hotel’s lobby
• Transfer to the airport

This tour is one of the options how you can enjoy Moscow and the Golden Ring cities but it can be modified according to the number of days you have and preferences about cultural content you would like to see. Please feel free to share with us your ideas and we will do our best to prepare a tailor made itinerary for you.

Thank you for choosing Nordic travel!