Russia Holidays

You can book your Russia holiday online by simply choosing from our huge range of flights and hotels to create your own unique arrangement. By booking with Unwind Worldwide you can be asssured that our Russia holidays represent excellent value for money. We pride ourselves in sourcing the cheapest offers on the best flights and hotels.

Booking a holiday to Russia online is simple, safe and secure. However, should you have any questions, our Reservations Team are always are on hand to help you book your ideal holiday to Russia. You can contact our team via LiveHelp or by telephoning 0203 282 7684.

Russia Travel Guide

Russia, officially known as the Russian Federation — is the world's largest country, spanning nine time zones, and covering nearly twice as much of the earth as that of the next largest country, Canada. Russia extends across Eastern Europe, and northern Asia, sharing land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine to the west, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia to the southwest, and Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea to the east and much of the south.

Despite its massive size, much of the country lacks proper soils and climates – it is either too cold or too dry for agriculture. Instead it has huge reserves of some of the world's most important resources, such as oil, gas, coal, platinum, gold, chrome, water.

Russia has both extensive coastlines bordering the Arctic Ocean and Northwest Pacific, as well as smaller coastlines on the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas.

Tourism in Russia has seen rapid growth since the late Soviet times, first inner tourism and then international tourism, which undoubtedly has been fuelled by the rich cultural heritage and great natural variety of the country. Major tourist routes in Russia include travelling around the Golden Ring of ancient cities, a collection of historic Russian cities, northeast of Moscow and southeast of Saint Petersburg, which are close enough to each other that most could be reached from any other in 24 hours. Their architecture and traditional crafts make them popular for tourism. Other popular tourist routes include cruising on the big rivers like Volga, and long journeys on the famous Trans–Siberian Railway.

Most visited destinations in Russia are Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the current and the former capitals of the country. Recognized as World Cities, they feature such world–renown museums as Tretyakov Gallery and Hermitage, famous theatres like Bolshoi and Mariinsky, ornate churches like Saint Basil's Cathedral, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Saint Isaac's Cathedral and Church of the Saviour on Blood, impressive fortifications like Moscow Kremlin and Peter and Paul Fortress, beautiful squares and streets like Red Square, Palace Square, Tverskaya Street and Nevsky Prospect. Rich palaces and parks are found in the former imperial residences in suburbs of Moscow (Kolomenskoye, Tsaritsyno) and St Petersburg (Peterhof, Strelna, Oranienbaum, Gatchina, Pavlovsk and Tsarskoye Selo). Moscow displays the Soviet architecture at its best, along with modern skyscrapers, while St Petersburg, nicknamed Venice of the North, boasts of its classical architecture, many rivers, channels and bridges.

Things to See and Do

The warm subtropical Black Sea coast of Russia is the site for a number of popular sea resorts, like Sochi. The mountains of the Northern Caucasus contain popular ski resorts, including Dombay. The most famous natural destination in Russia is Lake Baikal, the Blue Eye of Siberia. This unique lake, the oldest and deepest in the world, has crystal–clean waters and is surrounded by taiga–covered mountains. Other popular natural destinations include Kamchatka with its volcanoes and geysers, Karelia with its lakes and granite rocks, the snowy Altai Mountains, and the wild steppes of Tyva.

Lake Baykal is in Eastern Siberia. It is the biggest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, and one of Russia's 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The lake is located in Eastern Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and Buryatia to the southeast. It is the planet's deepest (1637m) and oldest lake, as well as its largest body of freshwater, containing over one fifth of the world's supply. That's why Baikal is called the planet's well. Its age is around 25 million years. There are 336 rivers flowing into Baikal and yet only one river, Angara, which flows out of it.

Kamchatka is one of the most fascinating destinations in the world. Wild Kamchatka is found at the extreme eastern end of Russia, nearly all the way to Japan and Alaska, where you will find the Valley of the Geisers, lakes of acid, volcanoes, and much more, it is basically empty wilderness, mostly mountainous, and always beautiful. It is a 1250 km long peninsula in the Russian Far East which seems to be untouched by human civilization. Wild nature and pre–historical geological landscapes make Kamchatka a true phenomenon. Kamchatka is known as the magic land of volcanoes and geysers which are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Another highlight of the Far East includes the idyllic, if kind of cold, Kuril Islands to the south of Kamchatka, where you can go whale watching off the coast of arctic Wrangel Island, the remote Sikhote–Alin mountain range, home to the Amur Tiger, and beautiful Sakhalin. The nature reserves throughout these parts are spectacular as well.

Karelia is known as "the country of lakes." One quarter of Karelia's surface is covered by water including about sixty thousand lakes. The terrain is made up of rocks, marshes, rivers and streams, forests and waterfalls, vast distances of off–roads and virgin nature.

Cuisine

Russia is a huge and multi–national country, so Russian cuisine is a kind of a melting pot for different national cuisines. Russian, Ukrainian, Siberian and Caucasian traditions of cooking contribute a lot to a wonderful mixture generally known as Russian cuisine. Russians like to cook and a rich table consisting of several courses served one after another is a corner stone of any Russian party.