Day 1 - 24th or 27th dec: St Petersburg Welcome to Russia and the start of your holiday! Arrival transfer from St Petersburg Pulkovo Airport. Transfer to hotel and check-in. Tonight, our Welcome Meeting takes place with an opportunity to meet your tour leader and fellow passengers. The remainder of the evening is free, maybe head to the bar for a few drinks or the hotel coffee lounge. Overnight - St Petersburg. Day 2: The Hermitage After breakfast we tour Peter’s city. Founded by Peter the Great in 1703, grandiose St Petersburg is designed around an intrinsic network of canals and rivers. Today we take a city tour, driving through the museum and university district and along Nevsky Prospekt. Stops will be made at the Church on Spilled Blood and The Bronze Horseman. Afterwards, we enjoy a guided visit at The Hermitage, which houses one of the biggest and best art and antiquity collections on earth, the bulk of which was amassed by Catherine the Great.  Overnight - St Petersburg.

Bolt-ons     Go the max in St Petersburg and sign up for our pukka pass!  For more information, please click here.

Day 3: Pukka Russia
Breakfast. Today there is time for you to independently explore the city or take in a little more culture and history with our optional pukka pass bolt-on. Our pukka pass includes guided sightseeing, transportation, entrance fees and lunch, with visits to Peter and Paul Fortress on the Petrogradskaya Side, Pavlovsk Palace or Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Seloand lunch. St Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the world’s largest. The construction was a colossal engineering feat. Thousands of wood piles were sunk into the city’s marshy ground to support its weight of 300,000 tonnes! From the dome are panoramic views that sweep across the city. The lavish imperial palace at Tsarskoe Selo was designed for Tsarina Elizabeth, who named it Catherine Palace in honour of her mum, Catherine I. The Amber Room is a stunning drawcard. This evening we board the overnight sleeper train to Moscow. Overnight - sleeper train.

Day 4: Explore Moscow
Moscow – breakfast. Arrival into Moscow and hotel check in. This afternoon we ride the capital’s efficient Metro to Red Square, for a walking tour. The Moscow Metro, a gift to the Soviet people from Joseph Stalin. Many of the central stations are richly adorned with bronzes and chandeliers and clad with marble and mosaic! Overnight - Moscow.

Day 5: Red Square
Moscow - breakfast. This morning we return to Red Square for a tour of the mighty Kremlin and Armoury. If Lenin’s mausoleum is open we can also pay our respects to the grandfather of Soviet Communism. Rest of day free to relax or perhaps visit one or two of the city’s plentiful museums. Overnight - Moscow.

Day 6: Moscow farewell
Moscow – Tour ends after breakfast and hotel check out.