Culture holiday in Finland and Russia

The Winter Palace on the St Petersburg's Palace Square is on the landmarks of the city

Prices from £2087 per person

This cultural break starts and ends in Helsinki, the trendy capital of Finland. Take a train to the historic St. Petersburg, the imperial city of the Russian czars and history. Visit Moscow with its amazing churches and Kremlin, the ancient seat of power in Russia. The tour combines history and art with visits to Hermitage Museum and Tretyakov Gallery, to imperial palaces and cathedrals.

Monday: Helsinki the Daughter of Baltic
Arrive at Helsinki-Vantaa airport and later on check in to your city centre hotel. Helsinki is easy to explore on foot as everything is within easy reach – it is a beautiful city on a human scale. There are dozens of museums and galleries, and for keen shoppers, Helsinki offers an interesting choice of design boutiques and open-air markets. Helsinki will be the Design Capital of the World in 2012.

Tuesday: Welcome to the imperial St. Petersburg
Board the super fast Allegro train in Helsinki and arrive to St. Petersburg at noon. After a transfer including a panoramic city tour it is time for a lunch at the hotel.

The rest of the day you can stroll along the famous, bustling avenue of Nevsky Prospekt, or just enjoy the sights of this beautiful city. Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg in 1703 as his capital with palaces, churches and cathedrals, river embankments and canals, handsome parks and dozens of bridges. St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia for over 200 years.

Wednesday: For art lovers
Have a good breakfast at the hotel, as you need energy for a comprehensive tour of The Hermitage, one of the greatest museums in the world.

The tour includes Old Masters, State Rooms in the Winter Palace, and the Impressionists’ Exhibition. The Hermitage has works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Renoir, Degas and Matisse. The collection of Spanish art can only be compared to Prado Museum in Madrid, and the French collection is the largest outside France.

Lunch is at a local downtown restaurant.

The afternoon visit takes you to the Yusupov Palace that saw some of the most dramatic events of the Russian history, including the murder of Grigory Rasputin.

Thursday:  Splendour of the Imperial Palaces
Breakfast at the hotel.

Excursion to Pushkin, one of the former imperial summer residences, and a visit to the Catherine’s Palace. The town of Pushkin was originally called Tsarskoye Selo (Czar’s Village). The Empress Elizabeth had the original palace, named Catherine’s Palace, expanded and renovated in 1752. The work continued during the reign of Catherine the Great. The palace is a combination of white and gold, and has a huge ballroom and ornately decorated drawing rooms. The most famous of these is the Amber room, which was raided by the German’s during the war, and restored after its return to Russia.

A lunch at a local restaurant.

The afternoon excursion takes you to Peterhof, the magnificent summer residence of the czars by the Gulf of Finland. The palace was built in the 18th century, and has enormous gardens with dozens of beautiful fountains.

Friday: The Russian Rail Experience
The day starts with a breakfast, some free time and a transfer to the station. Train to Moscow in the afternoon, arriving in the evening.

Time to settle in the modern Russian capital and explore it independently, if you like.

Saturday: Historic Kremlin
Breakfast at hotel gives you energy for visits to the greatest sights in Moscow. Tour of the handsome Moscow metro ending at Kremlin.

The fortification has 19 towers and is surrounded by a wall. Kremlin area has several ancient cathedrals with colourful onion-shaped towers, some dating back to 15th century. The Assumption Cathedral was the main church for imperial Russia, and the czars were crowned there. The Annunciation Cathedral has a collection of ancient icons, including works by Andrei Rublev.

The lunch break at Manege shopping mall.

The walking tour around the Red Square takes you to the heart of Russia’s capital. The name “Red Square” is, in a way, a translation mistake: originally the Russian word “krasnaja” meant beautiful, but over the centuries the word’s meaning changed to “red”. This meant that also the name of the square changed.

The Lenin Mausoleum is situated in the centre of the square. The founder of the Soviet Union is buried in the mausoleum that is still visited by thousands of people every year. Kremlin has been the centre of power in Russia and the Soviet Union for centuries.

Sunday: The Capital of Russia
Start with a breakfast at the hotel before a panoramic city tour with a visit to the enormous white-stone Church of Christ Our Saviour whose golden dome dominates the Moscow’s city view.

The church was originally built to celebrate the victory over Napoleon’s army in 1812. The building work took decades and the church was inaugurated in 1883. Stalin wanted to replace the church with the Palace of the Soviets and it was blown up in 1931 to make space for the new monument. This plan was interrupted by the Second World War. The Russian Orthodox Church started to raise funds to re-build the church in 1990s, and the copy of the original church was opened in the year 2000.

After the lunch you can take an optional tour of Tretyakov Art Gallery with nearly 50,000 works of art. The Gallery’s collection consists entirely of Russian art and artists, ranging in date from the 11th to the early 20th century. The collection covers the history of art from early days to Soviet Realism and modernists such like Chagall and Malevich.

Transfer to the railway station for overnight train Tolstoy leaving at 22.50 for Helsinki.

Monday: Goodbye and see you again!
Arrival in Helsinki at 12.00. Unless you have taken optional extra nights in Helsinki it is time to say goodbye and take the evening flight home.

Package prices:

Prices per person:
July-September: from £2087 /sharing a twin/dbl room, from £2525 /single
May-June: from £2158 /sharing a twin/dbl room, from £2644 /single

What is included in the price:

• Scheduled return flight from London Heathrow. Flights from other airports are available for additional charge
• One night in a city centre hotel in Helsinki including buffet breakfast
• Two nights in a city centre hotel in St. Petersburg and one night in Moscow at chosen hotel, two nights in train
• Three breakfasts and three lunches in St. Petersburg, two breakfasts and one lunch in Moscow
• Transportation between Helsinki and St. Petersburg in 2nd class and between St Petersburg, Moscow and Helsinki in 1st class (2 berth compartments)
• Transfers railway station – hotel and vv. in St Petersburg and Moscow
• Excursions as per programme, entrance fees included
• Visa support letter
• Departure taxes and fees, service charges and taxes in included items

Please note that transfers in Helsinki and visas for Russia are not included in the price.

Departure dates:

May 14, 21, 28
June 04, 11, 18, 25
July 02, 09, 16, 23, 30
August 06, 13, 20, 27
September 03, 10, 17, 24

Optional extras:

• 1st class in rail Helsinki-St Petersburg (compartments for 6) 95 euros per person
• Optional evening programme: ballet or opera (95-130 euros), folklore or circus (60 euros per ticket)
• Additional nights in Helsinki
• Single supplement in night trains 170 euros per each train
• Helsinki Card

Visa for Russia:

A visa is required for all passengers on the tours to Russia and each passenger must apply for the visa in his/her country of domicile. As the visa application must be accompanied with confirmation documents, they will be provided by our local agent. To obtain the necessary visa support letter, we require some personal information for each passenger (surname, first names, date of birth, gender, nationality and passport number).

Please visit the Russian Embassy page for further information on visa requirements www.rusemblon.org