Tour Moscow – SPB – Kazan

Arrive in Moscow, meet the guide.

Dinner.

Transfer to hotel.

Hotel check-in.

Meals: -/-/D

Vehicle: MiniBus Sptinter (15-20 seats), Bus (40-50s).

Guide: English Speak Guide.

Breakfast at the hotel.

Kremlin territory and Cathedrals (UNESCO World Heritage Site).

Lunch.

Red Square walking tour (St. Basil’s Cathedral, Mausoleum, Spasskaya tower, Aleksandrovsky garden, Lenin's tomb, GUM).

Dinner.

Visit in Circus.

Return to the Hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. Meeting at lobby with the guide.

Sightseeing bus tour of Moscow. During this tour you will pass by ancient streets, squares, and boulevards in the heart of Moscow, see the grandiose Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, enjoy the panoramic view from the Sparrow hills, main building of MGU and the Pobeda Park.

Lunch.

Visit Museum of Victory.

Dinner. Return to the Hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. Check-out from the hotel, meeting at the lobby with the guide.

Visit Tretyakov Gallery (or Arts Museum Pushkin).

Lunch.

Walking the pedestrian Arbat street.

Light Dinner by lunch box.

Transfer to Kazan railway station. Departure to Kazan.

Meals: B/L/D (lunch box).

Vehicle: MiniBus Sptinter (15-20 seats) , BUS (40-50s).

Guide: English Speak Guide.

Arrival to Kazan.

A walking tour “White-stone Fortress”. The Kazan Kremlin is the main sight of the city; it is a UNESCO world heritage site. The Kremlin is an official residence of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan and a state museum-preserve attended by thousands of tourists every year. The white-stone Kremlin is the heart of the ancient city that incorporates the culture of the East and West. Minarets of the main mosque of the city – Qul Sharif – shoot up into the sky, and cupolas of the Annunciation Cathedral, oldest one in Kazan, shine with gold. Inside the fortress, there is one of the symbols of Kazan – the famous “leaning” tower of Tsarina Suyumbike.

Bus and walking sightseeing “Legends and Mysteries of the Millennium-old Kazan”. Enjoy the original beauty of Kazan, see the bright colors of its streets and squares with your own eyes, learn where teeming treasures of Khans of Kazan are kept and where water boiled in a cauldron with no fire by taking the sightseeing tour. The sites of the millennium-old city combine the culture of the West and traditions of the East: Old Tatar Settlement where Tatar residents lived from the 16th century, Textiles Settlement originating as a result of industrial reforms by Peter I, fountain squares, Kaban lake with its mysteries and legends, a simulated Tatar village Tugan Avylym (My Native Village), a new building of the Puppet Show, Kazan Federal University, Liberty Square as a cultural and administrative center of Kazan. During the sightseeing tour, you will see a variety of minarets and cupolas, crescents and crosses, which is a proof of a good neighborliness of the two native peoples – Tatars and Russians.

The Chak-Chak Museum is a place where you will plunge into the atmosphere of the Tatar life and feel like guests in an old Tatar family. Here you will learn the secrets of preparing the chak-chak, you will be introduced to the utensils that were used before, you will discover a lot of new things seemingly in the usual things. They say that a Tatar can not eat, but tea will certainly drink! And here you will have aromatic tea from samovar, you will try chak-chak, baursak, Tatar pastila, as well as an old forgotten dish that we restored for you.

A walking tour “Kazan Arbat”. Bauman Street is one of the most favorite places to walk for both residents and guests of Kazan, a meeting point for people in love. During the tour, make a lot of amazing discoveries: jets of fountains, belfry and Epiphany church where Fyodor Shalyapin was baptized, a monument to Shalyapin himself, a building of the National Bank, zero milestone, Peter & Paul Cathedral. Meet Su Anasy and learn the story of the Cat of Kazan whose monument always attracts crowds. Beyond competition is a replica of a luxury horse carriage used by Catherine II to move around Kazan during her visit in 1767. Shiny windows of numerous souvenir shops are so luring. Being in Kazan and missing a walk in Bauman Street – one of the oldest streets in the city – is the same as missing something most important.

Check-In. Leisure time at the hotel.

After breakfast you can get acquainted with new sites in Bolgar. See one of the most significant structures added to the contemporary collections of the architectural heritage of Tatarstan – Ak Mechet (the White Mosque).

Lunch at the town restaurant.

A walking sightseeing tour “Mecca of the North” in the town of Bolgar. More than 700 years ago, in the place of the present-day town of Bolgar, there was an ancient city, the capital of Volga Bulgaria – an early-feudal state located in the interfluve of Volga and Kama rivers. The historical and archeological site of Bolgar was included in the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites. During the tour, one can walk along remains of white-stone walls of ancient buildings to imagine the life thriving there many centuries ago… See all the landmarks remaining in the territory of the ancient town site: Congregational Mosque, East and North Mausoleums, Khans’ Mausoleum, Minor Minaret, Black Chamber, White Chamber, Khans’ Bathing House, Khans’ Palace.

Visit the Bolgar Civilisation Museum at the embankment of Volga, the Memorial Sign built to commemorate the official adoption of Islam by the ancient Bolgars, where the world-biggest printed Quran is kept.

After breakfast country excursion to the Tatar Village of XIX - early XX centuries “Achasury”. This is an interactive tour, during which tourists can immerse into the world of past and become participants in the life of Tatar peasant of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The structure of the museum complex includes: a peasant's house with a tradition of separating on the female and male parts, the first wedding night appartment with bed, art workshops, a bath, an orchard. Tourists can try themselves in the role of a Tatar peasant: absorb iron, spoil coals, chop cabbage, grow grain in a grater, beat butter in a butter churn, pull out a real ancient pot from the oven, etc. At the end of the tour, guests will be treated to Tatar tea made from herbs.

Departure for Sviyazhsk.

Lunch at the island-town café with russian cuisine.

A walking tour “The Island Town of Sviyazhsk”. Sviyazhsk is a historical and cultural gem of the Republic of Tatarstan. At present, the place where an ancient fortress used to be is surrounded with waters of Volga river. In the past, the fortress served as a military outpost in the Volga region and a place to prepare troops for an assault against an unassailable fortress of Kazan. In the course of time, as its value as a military facility diminished, Sviyazhsk became a spiritual center of the Middle Volga. The sightseeing tour in Sviyazhsk comprises unique monuments of history: the Cathedral of the Joy for All Who Grieve, one of the oldest wooden temples of Russia – the Holy Trinity Church, an operating Assumption Monastery featuring an architectural ensemble of the 16-17 centuries, Stable Yard, workshops.

Among the numerous museums of Sviyazhsk there is a unique and so far the first in Russia Museum of archeology of wood. Here you can see with your own eyes how our ancestors used and what household items used 400 or even 500 years ago: more than 4 thousand items found on the shore of the island-city were collected here. The so-called wet archaeological layer was formed in this place – due to the large amount of moisture and oxygen deficiency, archaeological objects in it are kept especially long. The excavation on the area of 900 square meters recreates the real location of the wooden urban buildings of the middle of the XVI - XVIII centuries. Fellings of houses and outbuildings, fences and pavements are located exactly on the places where they were found.

On the 21-meter animation panel “Sviyazhsk of the 17th century” there is a reconstruction of the appearance and life of the city. In the technique of turntable and frame-by-frame animation, 450 characters are represented, which are involved in 120 everyday scenes.

Interactive program "Bogatyr`s strength". The group is separated for two teams in order to fight in the heroic duels and identify the strongest, dexterous and brave. To capture the enemy banner is not easy, but for a friendly team, nothing is impossible! Dexterously wield a real sword, shoot straight with a bow and hit the "bull's eye". And can you quickly and without error dress in the robes of the XVI century? Or solve the medieval riddle? Find out the answers to these questions can anyone who dare to test their strength in the heroic fun!

Returning to Kazan.

Observation of the «Universal Temple» in the old Moscow Highway. In 1994, a construction of a by all means unusual architectural structure – the Universal Temple – began in Kazan. It is a unique building that combines features of Catholic, Orthodox, and Buddhist temples, a Mosque, and a Synagogue. The Temple was not designed by its creator Ildar Khanov as a religious center but as a site combining a museum, a concert hall and an exhibition gallery. The Universal Temple is an architectural symbolic symbiosis of religions, civilizations and cultures.

Departure to SPB. Check in.

Breakfast at the hotel. Meeting at the lobby with the guide.

Leave Saint-Petersburg for suburb – Half-day tour to Peterhoff*(4h). Visit to the Park and Palace.

Lunch.

Sightseeing bus tour of St. Petersburg. The bus/car will trace the route around the city's most popular spots such as St. Isaac's Square, Dvortsovaya Square, Nevsky Prospect, Palace Square, Peter and Paul Fortress, etc. The historical center of St. Petersburg is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Dinner (including hard liquors).

Return to the Hotel.

Meals: B/L/D.

Vehicle: MiniBus Sptinter (15-20 seats) , BUS (40-50s).

Guide: English Speak Guide.

Breakfast at the hotel. Meeting at the lobby with the guide.

Half-day tour to Tsarskoe Selo. Walk around the Catherine palace and park and see the reconstructed Amber Room. Shopping at the local souvenir market.

Lunch.

Visit Peter and Paul Fortress: territory, Cathedral + prison.

Dinner.

Return to the Hotel.

Meals: B/L/D.

Vehicle: MiniBus Sptinter (15-20 seats) , BUS (40-50s).

Guide: English Speak Guide.

Breakfast at the hotel.

Check-out from the Hotel.

Visit State Hermitage – Russia’s most famous palace and museum.

Lunch.

Transfer to the airport. Return flight. The end of the program.

Meals: B/L/-

Vehicle: MiniBus Sptinter (15-20 seats) , BUS (40-50s).

Guide: English Speak Guide.