Russia travel guide

The Trans-Siberian railway is a classic among train journeys and a must for any traveller. The "real" Trans-Siberian route is the one from Moscow to Vladivostok in the far east, while the Trans-Mongolian branch, that breaks off at Ulan-Ude and continues through Mongolia to Beijing in China, is the most popular one. Other branches are the BAM (deep Siberia), Trans-Manchurian or what about going into Central Asia? On board, you get the chance to rub shoulders with ordinary Russians and be lavished with their genius friendliness, once they warm up to you. Don't be surprised to be offered beer and smoked fish for breakfast and get invited to a game of durak and never-ending vodka drinking at any other time. Though the train journey itself is an attraction, getting off at some of the historic cities on the way will complete your Russian adventure.

Tip: With the use of a browser with built-in translator (like Google Chrome), you can fairly easily book train tickets online directly from the Russian Railways RZD, which is much cheaper than going through any agency.

As old as Moscow itself and once the seat of an independent princedom on the northern reaches of the River Volga, Uglich went into decline in the 17th Century to become what it is today: a small, tranquil provincial backwater of 34,000. Nevertheless, it remains dotted with beautiful historical architecture, in particular churches and monasteries whose magnificence contrasts starkly with the dinginess of some of the town’s backstreets which are often unpaved and lined with crumbling concrete apartment blocks or wooden cottages. The modest but beautiful kremlin is on the waterfront and a lovely view of it from the water can be had by taking an inexpensive boat trip or hiring your own rowing boat from Victory Park.

Either the end, or even better, the start of the Trans-Siberian railway, 9288 km from Moscow. This harbour town is beautifully set along a peninsula separating Golden Horn Bay from the Amursky Golf. It is the base for Russia's Pacific fleet which gives the town a real navy feel, with a fort and a submarine museum inside a docked submarine. There is even a city beach, which must be quite a sight on one of the few hot summer days. If you are planning on going east, it's possible to take the ferry to both Japan and South Korea.

The towering, oft-smoking Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the Northern Hemisphere's tallest active volcano (4,750 m). You might therefore expect the nearby village of Klyuchi to be at least slightly geared towards tourism. Not so. This collection of wooden cottages and dirt lanes is situated inside a closed area requiring a permit to enter and has not a single hotel, although a vulcanologist who has lived and worked here for over 35 years has a couple of dormitory rooms he rents out to the odd traveller that passes through. From the village there is a track leading to a vulcanologists' cabin at the base of the volcano. In winter you will probably need skis or a snowmobile to reach it though and in summer there are lots of bears in the area, so watch out! One bus a day makes the ten-hour journey to Klyuchi from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky along a road that starts off as low quality asphalt before petering out into a dirt track. On the way there is a river with no bridge: in winter the bus drives across the ice, in summer there is a ferry and for a while in spring and autumn neither bus nor ferry can cross!

Nomadic reindeer herding, along with the culture of the nomads, has been extraordinarily well preserved here. The local indigenous are Nenets, Asian-looking people of whom 50% live year-round nomadic existences, travelling by reindeer sledge through the Arctic tundra with herds of up to 10,000, wearing reindeer fur clothing and sleeping in reindeer-hide conical tents. Their language is unrelated to Russian and they follow an ancient animistic religion, sacrifing reindeer to the gods of sky, sun, earth and others. Travel here is not easy - the area is completely closed to outsiders, Russian or otherwise. To gain access, there is a laborious two month procedure for getting a permit, impossible if you do not speak Russian. The second problem is that no roads lead to Yamal so you will need to organise helicopter, all-terrain vehicle and snowmobile transport. The third problem is the environment - the average felt temperature out in the Yamal tundra in winter is almost -50°C while in summer mosquitoes descend in such numbers that you constantly have to spit them out of your mouth!

Russia's fourth largest city is located just to the east of the Europe/Asia border. The reason most tourists come here is either as a pleasant place to make a stop and explore on a break from the long Trans Siberian Railway or, for the Russian history buffs, as the site of the execution of the last Tsar and his family after the Russian Revolution. The enormous Cathedral of the Blood has been built on the site of the house where they were shot and out of town at Ganina Yama the Monastery of the Holy Martyr stands on their burial site. Other attractions around Yekaterinburg include the Shirokorechinskoe mafia cemetery, the small historical town of Nevyansk, the Old Believer village of Byngi and several ski resorts and cross-country skiing trails.