Incentive trip in Russia

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Excursionary tour

The two capitals

Moscow / St Petersburg

6 days (5 nights)

 

Day 1

 

Arrival in Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation. Moscow is the economic, administrative, and transport centre of Russia and is one of the largest and most interesting cities in Europe. The population of Moscow accounts for approximately 7% of the total population of the country and stands at almost 12 million today. The first mention of the Russian capital came in 1147.

 

You will be met by your guide at the airport and taken to your hotel. Free time.

 

Lunch will be followed by an introductory tour of the city, taking in the main sights:

Red Square, the Church of Christ the Saviour, the Sparrow Hills, Old and New Arbat, the Novodevichy Monastery, Moscow State University, the Boulevard Ring, Tverskaya Street, Manezhnaya Square, Pushkinskaya Square, and much else besides.

 

After the introductory tour, you will plunge into ‘underground’ Moscow – with visits to the city’s most interesting and beautiful metro stations.

 

You will then be taken to a popular Moscow restaurant for an a la carte dinner.

 

Day 2

 

Breakfast.

Sight-seeing. Today you will be given a series of snapshots of the rich and colourful history of the Russian capital. Your trip begins with a visit to the oldest part of the city – its principal social, political, spiritual, political, and artistic complex, and the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation – the Moscow Kremlin. Specifically, you will visit: the three cathedrals inside the Kremlin (the Cathedral of the Assumption - the city’s first stone church; the Cathedral of the Annunciation, the most famous church in Moscow, which was consecrated during the festival of the Annunciation; and the Archangel Cathedral, built out of gratitude for Russia’s deliverance from famine in 1333); the Armoury, a museum whose collection is based on precious objects made in the Kremlin workshops and kept for centuries in the Tsar’s treasure-house and the patriarchal sacristy, as well as gifts from foreign embassies; and the Diamond Fund, a unique collection of precious state regalia, decorations, and high-society jewellery that belonged to the many generations of Russian rulers who reigned prior to 1914.

 

A la carte lunch at a restaurant in the city centre.

 

After lunch, your guide will take you on a walk along the Arbat, Moscow’s oldest street. Here you will see a number of things of interest, including the Vakhtangov Theatre; houses associated with the lives of the poets Alexander Pushkin, Andrey Bely, and Bulat Okudzhava, the artist Sergey Ivanov, the composer Alexander Skryabin, and many others; a memorial wall dedicated to the rock musician Viktor Tsoy; and a large variety of interesting shops and cozy restaurants serving various cuisines.

 

At the end of the walk you will have the chance to return to your hotel or spend free time on the Arbat.

 

You will then be taken to a restaurantin the old part of the city for an a la carte dinner.

 

Day 3

 

Breakfast.

A visit to the Tretyakov Gallery willmake the perfect end to your time in Moscow. The Tretyakov possesses one of the largest collections of Russian art in the world, covering the 12^th to the 20^th centuries. Exhibits include world-famous icons by Andrey Rublev and masterpieces by artists of international importance such as Vasnetsov, Bryullov, Shishkin, and Repin.

 

Following this, you will have an a la carte lunch at one of the best restaurants in the city centre.

 

A short period of free time will be followed by a visit to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, one of the country’s largest and most important museums of Russian and foreign art. Currently, the Pushkin Museum has 560,000 paintings; works of graphic art, sculpture, and applied art; archeological artefacts; coins; and artistic photographs.

 

Supper.

Transfer to Leningrad Station for the journey to St Petersburg.

Your Russian journey continues with a pleasant night spent on a comfortable train with first- or luxury-class sleeping compartments.

St Petersburg, the capital city of the Russian Empire in the 18^th to early 20^th centuries, is a city of beautiful architectural ensembles, old palaces, mansions and castles, austerely straight streets, spacious squares, gardens, parks, rivers, and numerous canals, embankments, bridges, filigree railings, and monumental and decorative sculptures. This open-air museum city was founded on the banks of the River Neva in 1703 and currently has a population of approximately 5 million.

 

Day 4

 

You will be met by your guide at the railway station and taken to your hotel.

Settling in, relaxation, and free time.

Breakfast.

 

During the first half of the day you will have an introductory tour of the city. Your first stop will be the Peter and Paul Fortress – St Petersburg’s first architectural ensemble, which includes the Peter and Paul Cathedral (the burial place of the Russian emperors and members of their families) and the prison where political prisoners were held before the Revolution. Also at the fortress, you will witness the traditional firing of the fortress’s cannon to mark midday, before going on to see a selection of the city’s principal sights (Smolny Cathedral, the Cruiser Aurora, Kazan Cathedral, the Winter Palace, and the bridges and embankments of the main river). The introductory tour will end on a high note with a visit to St Isaac’s Cathedral, the city’s largest Russian Orthodox church. St Isaac’s is an outstanding example of Russian architecture and is the world’s third largest domed building after St Peter’s in Rome and St Paul’s in London. It is 101.5 metres high, 111.2 metres long, and 97.6 metres wide, and is an important focus in the centre of St Petersburg.

 

You will then take lunch (a la carte) at one of the best restaurants in the centre of the city.

After lunch, you will visit one of the most popular museums on earth, the Hermitage. The Hermitage Museum is the largest art museum in Russia and one of the most important repositories of art collections in the world (with more than 2.5 million exhibits). It is generally considered to have been established in 1794, when Empress Catherine II made her first acquisition of a large number of paintings in Berlin. Over the course of two centuries the Hermitage has put together one of the largest collections in the world, a collection that extends from the Stone Age right up to the present day.

 

The museum’s enormous collection displays the history and culture of the primeval and ancient classical worlds and of the peoples of the Orient, Europe, Russia, Ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt, among others. It includes: fabrics, glass, porcelain, weapons, items made from metal and wood, sculpture, paintings, and much else besides. The Hermitage’s collection is housed in several buildings (the Winter Palace, the New and Old Hermitages, the Hermitage Theatre, the General Staff Building) that were built at different times by outstanding architects such as Francesco Rastrelli, Yury Felten, Vasily Stasov, and Carlo Rossi. Particularly worth seeing are the state rooms of the Winter Palace, the residence of the Russian emperors (the Ambassadors’ Staircase, the Small Throne Room, the Armorial Hall, the War Gallery, and the Large Throne Room). Additionally, there is the Golden Storeroom, which displays artefacts that were fashioned from precious metals and stones at various different times and in various countries – from pieces made by Scythian and Greek goldsmiths to jewellery made at the beginning of the 20^th century.

 

After returning to your hotel, you will be taken to one of the best restaurants in the city for an a la carte supper.

 

Day 5

 

Breakfast.

 

Today you will visit Tsarskoe Selo (otherwise known as Pushkin). Your trip to the Catherine Palace and Park, including the exhibition at the Catherine Palace Museum, will encompass the 300 years of history of this outstanding monument and introduce you to the work of architects who were involved in its construction and decoration during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, as well as to the achievements of the restorers who brought the palace back to life after WWII. You will see the palace’s staterooms, boudoirs, studies, the imperial bedchambers, throne room, and the recreated Amber Room. The trip will conclude with a walk through the Catherine Park. One of the largest parks in Europe, the Catherine Park will endlessly delight you with its regular and landscaped gardens, ponds, small bridges, pavilions, galleries, and garden sculptures – true masterpieces of architecture and sculpture.

 

Lunch at Podvorie, a traditional Russian restaurant in a traditional wooden building, will be a further chance to relish the refined tastes of Russian folk cuisine and relax in the welcoming atmosphere of an old roadside inn.

 

Transfer to Pavlovsk.

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A visit to the palace of Paul I and its park. Designed by Charles Cameron, Vincenzo Brenna, and Andrey Voronikhin, the palace is a fine example of the Russian Classical style. It was partially restored after WWII. The palace consists of a main building and side wings that are linked to it by galleries. Your visit will take in the Egyptian and Main vestibules; the Italian, Greek, and Cavaliers’ rooms; the Ballroom and Throne Room; the Room of War and Room of Peace; the Picture Gallery; and Paul’s Library. The park at Pavlovsk is likewise very well-known. A combination of natural and manmade landscape spread out on the banks of the River Slavyanka, this is one of the largest landscape parks in Europe (approximately 600 hectares).

 

You will then be taken back to your hotel in St Petersburg.

 

For your last evening we propose a visit to the famous Mariinsky Theatre, where any of the opera or ballet performances will leave you with enduring memories of great beauty.

 

This will be followed by an a la carte supper at one of the city’s best panoramic restaurants – a further chance to enjoy wonderful views of the old centre of St Petersburg.

 

Day 6

 

Breakfast

 

Before leaving for the airport you will have free time in which to walk the city’s main street, Nevsky prospekt, go shopping for souvenirs, visit any of the museums that have taken your fancy, or return to the Hermitage.

 

Transfer to the airport.