Treasure & Taiga: Western Russia & Siberia

Balancing the highlights of both culture and countryside, this tour includes the essential Russia. The polished brilliance of the czarist palaces is matched by the natural grandeur of Siberia’s “Holy Sea,” Lake Baikal.

We begin in the metropolis of Moscow, where modern skyscrapers rub shoulders with art deco Stalinist structures, and ancient churches still stand after seventy-five years of official atheism.

We walk the bricks of Red Square and admire the imperial jewels in the Armory Museum, shop the thriving stalls of the Izmailovsky outdoor market, and enjoy the Russian artwork at the Tretyakov Art Gallery.

Our flight to Siberia takes us more than halfway across Russia to the town of Ulan Ude. The streets of Ulan Ude are crowded with Russians and with native Buryats, whose Mongol features punctuate the Slavic throng. Here we visit a Tibetan Buddhist monastery that Russian Buryats have integrated into their lives. Then we taste old Russian culture in a village of Old Believers who still dress and worship as their forebears did hundreds of years ago.

Boarding the Circumbaikal Railway, we roll along the lakeshore on the most scenic leg of the old Trans-Siberian route to our rustic coastal guesthouse, where we can steam out the kinks in an authentic Russian banya. From here we boat across the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake to Listvyanka and travel overland to Irkutsk, the “capital” of Siberia. Here we admire the decorative woodwork on the older buildings and learn about some of Russia’s first revolutionaries, the Decembrists.

Our trip concludes with a three-day immersion in the comfort and culture of St. Petersburg, the “Venice of the North.” Here we visit the palaces of the czars, inspect the Peter and Paul Fortress, tour the Hermitage and toast our survey of the very best of Russian culture and natural beauty.

Trip Details

Length of Trip: 13 Days Departures in 2009: Tentatively scheduled for 2009 Dates:       Land Tour Cost   4-16 travelers Call for pricing Single Supplement

MIR Signature Features

• Blend into the throngs of New Russians on the streets of an evolving Moscow
• Capture a sense of native Buryat culture and Buddhist tradition in Mongol-influenced
  Ulan Ude
• Gain a unique perspective on Lake Baikal from the windows of the shore-hugging
  Circumbaikal Railway
• Experience the heights of Russian civilization in 300-year-old St. Petersburg

Map

Day Activity   Days 1-2: Moscow   Day 3: fly to Ulan Ude   Days 4-5: Ulan Ude   Day 6: drive to Sludyanka, old railway to Port Baikal	Day Activity   Day 7: boat to Listvyanka   Day 8: drive to Irkutsk   Day 9: fly to St. Petersburg   Days 10-13: St. Petersburg

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