Things to do in Russia

The historical towns of the Golden Ring, outside Moscow, are like living, open air museums of architecture and Russian orthodoxy, stuffed with elaborate wooden churches and fortified kremlins. St Petersburg on the Baltic coast, meanwhile, is European in feel, with grand palaces lining the Neva River, while in Moscow, the narrow streets of historical Kitay Gorod are just a stone’s throw from Lenin’s mausoleum and Soviet-era squares and skyscrapers. Culturally, where to begin? In St Petersburg, art lovers can roam the Hermitage Museum and admire the Fabergé eggs in the Armoury Museum, while anyone inspired by Russia’s great writers and composers should make for the cemetery at Alexander Nevsky Monastery, where Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Dostoyevsky lie. In Moscow, meanwhile, the classical performing arts are among the best in the world, with the Bolshoi a magnet for ballet fans.

Trips way out east are never a budget option and are generally classed as expeditions or experiences rather than garden variety holidays! This is well off the tourist trail, after all. Russia’s eastern seaboard dominates the North Pacific, but it’s largely unknown, inaccessible and isolated. As a result, wildlife thrives here. Against a backdrop of volcanoes and icy rivers, brown bears, reindeer and Arctic foxes roam, while on the coast, walruses flop and polar bears raise their cubs. Man has made it here, too – think gulags and gold mines – but often been defeated by the harsh conditions. Only the indigenous people last the course, and their stories bring a human twist to any Far East adventure.