Day 1

Arrival to St.Petersburg. Transfer totheriver-boat station to board the ship. Dinner aboard a ship. Departure (at around 20:00).

Day 2

After the breakfast we arrive to the village of Upper Mandrogi, located 270 km north-east of St.Petersburg on the bank of the Svir River. This is a beautiful picturesque site with abundant flora and fauna, known for the tourist complex of stylized Russian wooden houses and peaceful surrounding perfectly situated for hunting and fishing. In the village the group will visit handicraft shops and attend master-class of making some typical Russian souvenirs, an elk farm, a windmill and the museum of Russian vodka. Picnic with the Russian folklore show is another amusement of the tour. Departure. Dinner on the boat.

Day 3

Breakfast. Our ship is passing through the Kizhi skerries, the multitude of beautiful green and rocky islands on the Onega Lake, finally arriving to the main island of Kizhi. The place is world renowned for the ensemble of two unique multi-domed wooden churches built without a single nail, that regarded as the ultimate masterpiece of traditional wooden architecture. The main UNESCO-listed Transfiguration cathedral is one of the most visited tourist sites of Russia as well as the iconic symbol of the Russian North-West. The best surviving examples of wooden residential buildings, barns and windmills are gathered around the churches to form an excellent museum of wooden architecture. Here we have a guided tour. Departure. Lunch and dinner aboard the cruise ship.

Day 4

Breakfast. Time at leisure. Arrival to the Valaam Island on the Ladoga Lake (the biggest lake of Europe) to visit the Valaam Monastery and its Churches. Rightly titled “The pearl of the Russian North”, the picturesque Valaam Island (about 30 km large) is famous as location of the Russia’s oldest monastery. As a legend says, Apostle Andrew himself visited the island while enlightening Scythians and Slavs as far back as the 1st century. He demolished the shrines of the pagans and raised a stone Cross on the cliff. In more recent historical times two hermits Sergius and Herman were the first monks “from the Eastern countries” who settled on the rocky island when the whole Rus (the name of the medieval Russia) was not yet baptised. Their prayers mark the beginning of the future Monastery of the Transfiguration. The island is wholly covered with thick forests (the soil for planting the trees on the rocky island was brought by the monks of the monastery by barges!) and known for its unique microclimate. Intense spiritual life and the austere beauty of services celebrated in the monastery made Valaam a popular pilgrimage place for common believers, the members of the Royal family and prominent Russian artists, writers and composers. After the revolution of 1917, when the former Grand Duchy of Finland got its independence from the Russian Empire, the island became a part of the new Finnish state. Thanks to this fact the monastery, unlike the most monasteries closed by Bolsheviks, kept on functioning until the Winter war of 1940. Closed after island’s restitution to the Soviet Union in February of 1940, the monastery resumed functioning under the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990. Here we take a guided tour of the island. Dinner aboard a ship. Sail back to St.Petersburg.

Day 5

Arrival to St.Petersburg. Breakfastin a city restaurant. City tour including a visit to the Peter & Paul Cathedral. Lunch in a city restaurant. Transfer to the hotel. Check-in. Dinner at the hotel.

Day 6

Breakfast. The tour of the Hermitage Museum. Lunch in a city restaurant. The tour of St.Isaac’s Cathedral. Dinner at the hotel.

Day 7

Breakfast. The tours of Pushkin and Pavlovsk. Lunch in Pushkin with a Russian folklore show. Time at leisure. Dinner at the hotel.

Day 8

Breakfast. Transferto the airport.