FIERY COSSACKS and gentle monks
May 05 ⇾ May 14
In addition to our regular group departures to Southern Russia, we also offer tour services for private travel parties and lone wolves alike. As a traveller-oriented boutique operator, tailored trips and bespoke adventures are our bread and butter. Get in touch for more info on our customised journeys to the Russian Deep South!
DAY 1 – Rostov on Don
Meet-and-greet at Rostov-on-Don International Airport and transfer to our hotel of choice in central Rostov.
Soviet Rostov Monumental Tour: Lenin Statue, Victory Obelisk, Tachanka Monument, Monument to the Railroad Strikers, Zmiyovskaya Balka Memorial, Kumzhenskaya Complex, Eternal Flame, Ferry Terminal, First Cavalry Monument, Karl Marx Statue, and a vast plethora of Soviet public art (mosaics, bas-reliefs, sgraffito works) and post-Soviet flair (chaotic food markets and improvised roadside stalls).
Overnight in Rostov on Don.
DAY 2 – Sea of Azov
Today we’ll head towards the rarely visited but strategically vital Sea of Azov to enjoy a nostalgic tour along its sandy coasts.
Our first stop will be the impressive Glory Memorial on the Sambek Heights and then we’ll continue our westbound journey towards the military city of Taganrog, home to an extremely vast array of Soviet-era relics.
After a short monumental tour around Taganrog and a visit to the traditional fishing quarter of Bugudoniya, we’ll drive to the city of Azov, stopping en route at the quaint townlet of Merzhanovo, which boasts splendid vistas over the Sea of Azov, crab-thriving beaches and even a mockup lighthouse on top of a postcard-like grassland promontory.
Overnight in Rostov on Don.
DAY 3 – Volgodonsk
We’ll leave Rostov early in the morning and head north for Novocherkassk, a historical Cossack town sadly known for the 1962 Massacre that occurred when protests broke out following a labor strike at the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant.
With enough food for thought in our minds, we’ll move further north to the Shakhty, a rough and bleak Soviet mining town currently holding the dubious honorary title of “most dangerous city in Russia”.
We’ll spend two hours in Shakhty touring its rich ensemble of Soviet monuments and – after a quick stop at the Tank Memorial in the village of Tatsinskaya – we’ll then travel east-southeast towards Volgodonsk to visit the Lenin Volga–Don Shipping Canal, a gargantuan marvel of Soviet engineering connecting the Mighty Volga and the Quiet Don at their closest points.
Overnight in Volgodonsk.
DAY 4 – Quiet Don
We’ll depart from Volgodonsk in the early morning and travel along the Quiet Don towards the Tsimlyansky Sands Natural Park, a sandy plateau covered with shrubs, grassland bushes and maritime pines.
After a picnic lunch at the reserve we’ll move north and head for legendary Volgograd/Stalingrad, making one more Soviet stop en route to visit the awe-inspiring Unified Fronts Memorial near Kalach-na-Donu.
Overnight in Volgograd/Stalingrad.
DAY 5 – Stalingrad
We’ll devote the entire day to Volgograd/Stalingrad, a heroic Soviet city that really needs no introduction: it was here, amid bombed out buildings and corpse-filled streets, that the spiralling course of WWII, aka the Great Patriotic War, was eventually changed for good.
Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring once famously said: a thousand years hence, every German will speak with awe of Stalingrad and remember that it was there that Germany put the seal on her victory; well, history proved him wrong as he didn’t reckon with the indomitable spirit of the Soviet people, who stalwartly and relentlessly fought for every single inch of their glorious motherland.
Besides enjoying an extensive tour through Stalingrad’s de-rigueur Soviet sights (Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex, Stalingrad Battle Panorama Museum, Alley of Heroes, Central Railway Station, Pavlov’s House, Lenin Square, Volgograd Hotel, Flour Mill, Stalingrad Planetarium), we’ll take also some time to experience less solemn but equally compelling facets of the city such as the colourful central bazaar and the melancholic city beach.
Just south of Stalingrad, we’ll also stop at Lysaya Gora to visit the namesake majestic obelisk, and in Krasnoarmeysk to stare in awe at a giant Lenin Statue towering above the entrance of the Volga-Don Canal and dwarfing even the nearby lighthouse: this is, in fact, the largest Lenin in the world.
Overnight in Volgograd/Stalingrad.
DAY 6 – Baskunchak
Today we'll set off on a bumpy ride across the steppes and head for the salty waters of Lake Baskunchak, the very Soviet version of the Salton Sea.
We'll follow the course of the mighty Volga for most of the time, driving down the old Soviet road connecting Astrakhan to Stalingrad and crossing a surreal and dystopian landscape of windswept steppes, Mad-Max-style settlements and industrial decay.
In the early afternoon we’ll eventually arrive at Lake Baskunchak, have a swim in its muddy waters, climb the blazing Bogdo Hill and visit the nearby military town of Akhtubinsk, once one of Soviet Union’s many closed cities and still home to a military testing range.
Overnight in Akhtubinsk.
DAY 7 – Mighty Volga
We’ll leave Akhtubinsk early in the morning and head down south to the splendid port city of Astrakhan, breaking the long haul in Rechnoe, a forlorn fishing hamlet home to an impressive Buddhist temple dating back to the XIX century.
We’ll then devote the rest of the day to Astrakhan, the pearl of the Volga Delta, a marvellous city with a rich Soviet and pre-Soviet history.
In addition to the mandatory Soviet and Tsarist sights, our tour around Astrakhan will also include more mundane and arguably also more interesting spots such as smelly fish markets, ancient Tatar mosques and highly photogenic backstreets of rickety wooden houses, fluttering clotheslines and playing kids.
Overnight in Astrakhan.
DAY 8 – Kalmykia
We will leave Astrakhan early in the morning for the five-hour journey to Elista, the capital of the Republic of Kalmykia, an oddly fascinating and melancholically beautiful autonomous region mainly inhabited by friendly Mongolic people.
Once in Elista, we’ll undertake a comprehensive tour around this remote provincial capital where Soviet heritage and Buddhist traditions merge together to form an idiosyncratic urban kaleidoscope of socialist monumentalism and colourful pagodas.
Our visit will also include a short detour to Chess City, a mostly empty and truly surreal upscale neighbourhood built around an incongruously large Chess Palace.
Overnight in Elista.
DAY 9 – SALSK
From Elista we’ll head for the rough-and-ready Russian transit town of Salsk, crossing a charming landscape of blossoming prairies and farflung Kalmyk villages.
We’ll then conclude our tour with a grand Russian dinner in the best restaurant in town: allow for some space in your belly as you are running into a massive overdose on meat, cheese, potatoes and vodka!
Overnight in Salsk.
DAY 10 – FAREWELL TO RUSSIA
2990 €
INCLUSIONS
Double/twin-room accommodation (breakfast included), private transport in Russia (car/minivan), all entrance fees, English-speaking guiding service, 24/7 on-site and remote assistance.
EXCLUSIONS
Single supplement, international flights, main meals (lunches and dinners), extra drinks, visa fees (if required), tips, travel insurance.
