Tour order

Russian ballet lovers

Duration: 9 days/8 nights
Price from: 1900

Day 1

Arrival to Moscow, meeting at the airport by coach with English/French/German speaking guide, transfer to hotel for accommodation.

 

Day 2

Buffet breakfast

Half-day city tour of Moscow - the largest city in this country, its capital, political and cultural centre of Russia. Moscow territory is 1000 sq km and population is 12 mln people. The highlight of city tour is visit to the Red Square. You can see the Kremlin walls and Towers, the State Historical museum, St.  Basil Cathedral,  the monument to Minin and Pozharsky,  «Lobnoe mesto» - the round structure, a kind of a tribune, the Saviour tower. In the centre of the square is Lenin's tomb,  GUM. This building originally contained over a thousand of individual shops along three parallel glass-roofed passages. You can enjoy a bird view of centre of Moscow from Sparrow Hills - highest point in the city and see Moscow State University.  Russian White House, Old Arbat street, Bowing Hill with 2nd World War memorial are the important parts of the city tour. Lunch downtown

Afternoon visit of the Ballet Academy of Bolshoi theater or ballet Studio of world known ballet dancer Ilsa Liepa

Evening opera or ballet performance in New Opera theater in Moscow

 

Day 3

Buffet breakfast in hotel

Tour of Moscow Kremlin and Armory Chamber - A unique complex of architectural monuments surrounded by ancient red brick walls crowned with 19 towers, which are an important city landmark. The first wooden Kremlin was built by order of prince Yuri Dolgoruky in 1156. Later on during the reign of Prince Dmitry Donskoy white stone walls were erected. And in the 15th century when the seat of Orthodox religion was moved to Moscow, several Italian architects were invited to reconstruct the Kremlin, especially its cathedrals and chapels. Thus the architectural ensemble of Kremlin we can see today has appeared. The center of Kremlin is the Cathedral Square with the Cathedral of Assumption, where royal wedding and coronation ceremonies used to take place. The Cathedral of Annunciation and the Cathedral of Archangel Mikhail are located next to it.  Some other outstanding examples of the Russian architecture are: Palace of Facets, the church of the Deposition of the Robe, the bell tower of Ivan the Great and the Spasskaya (Savior) Tower, Armory Chamber and the Diamond Fund, the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Patriarch's Palace, the Tzar Bell and Tzar Cannon, etc.

Afternoon visit to Arbat street and famous Moscow Metro. Evening performance in Bolshoi Theater.

 

Day 4

Buffet breakfast

Morning visit of the museum of Petr Tchaikovski in Klin (70 km from Moscow).

On 5th of May 1892 P.I. Tchaikovsky settled in the house in the outskirts of Klin and lived his last seventeen months there.  In this quiet corner he found ideal conditions for his work: here he completed the scores of "Iolanta" and "The Nutcracker",  wrote 18 piano pieces, 72 compositions, "The Night" vocal quartet, romances, composition No 23 to the poem of D.  Ratgauz, Third piano concert which was his last composition. The manuscript is dated "October, 1893. Klin." In this house Tchaikovsky wrote Symphony No 6 which he considered his  "best and most elaborated composition".  And it was from this house that he left for his last concert trip to St. Petersburg on October 7, 1893.

In 1894 the first Russian memorial music museum was opened in the Klin house.

The Museum was initiated by the composer's brother, first biographer, playwright and librettist Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky. His nephew Vladimir Davydov and P.I. Tchaikovsky's servant Alexei Ivanovich Sofronov (who gifted the Museum his personal property, that was left to him according to the composer's will) helped to carry out the plan.

As the result of their activity a new type of memorial museum appeared which completely preserved not only the interior,  where Tchaikovsky spent his last years,  but his archive - valuable music and literary heritage.

Return to Moscow for lunch in downtown restaurant.

Afternoon visit of Tretiakov picture Gallery, founded in 1856 by the merchant Tretyakov. Initially the collection consisted of works by Moscow and St. Petersburg painters -T retyakov's contemporaries.  Now there are about 47.000 Russian works of art housed here. The museum boasts the largest collection of Russian masters from the 18-th and 19-th centuries:  Nikitin, Rokotov,   Borovikovsky,  Kiprensky,  Brullov, Ivanov and others as well as world-famous collection of ancient Russian icons.

Evening visit to a Ballet or opera in Stanislavski Opera and Ballet theater Or concert in Concert Hall of Tchaikovski

 

Day 5

Buffet breakfast in hotel

Morning visit to the museum of world known ballet dancer - Galina Ulanova.

Fast train from Moscow at 16.30 arr at 20.50 to St.Petersburg.

Meeting and assistance at the rail station, transfer to the hotel for accommodation.

 

Day 6

Buffet breakfast in hotel

Transfer to the city center for the tour of the oldest part of St.Petersburg -Strelka

09.30 Start of the tour of the Hermitage - special early opening

Hermitage is one of the greatest museums in the world, consists of five interlinked buildings — the Winter Palace (previously the residence of the Imperial family), the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage, the New Hermitage and the Hermitage Theater — and contains over three million exhibits and one of the best art collections in the world. The gallery is most famous for its collection of West European art, here you can see paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens and Rembrandt. The splendor of the museum is all the more enhanced by the incredible beauty of the buildings, inside and outside: ornate and regal facades; huge frescoed halls; marble, wood, and mosaic floors;  statues, figurines, antique furniture. 

Continue the city tour with Field of Marc, Admiralty building, Bronze Horseman, Nevsky prospect Visit of Peter and Paul Fortress.

Diagonally across the Neva River from the Hermitage, is the Peter-and-Paul Fortress, the first construction of St.   Petersburg put up by Peter the Great in 1703 to provide protection from the Swedes. It lost its military significance before it was completed. Its guns never saw any action and were put to use as a flood - warning signal, and the fortress housed a political prison for two hundred years. The Fortress Cathedral is the burial place of most of Russia's Tsars and Tsarinas from the 18th century onwards, including Peter the Great.

On the grounds there is an interesting and controversial monument to Peter the Great by the Russian artist Shemiakin.  Inaugurated in May 1991, the monument stirred controversy because it portrays Peter not as a majestic giant on horseback, as is the tradition,  but as an old man with a remarkably tiny head.

Lunch in downtown restaurant

Evening visit to Ballet or opera in Mariinski Theater.

 

Day 7

Buffet breakfast in hotel

Depart to Pushkin for visit of Catherine Palace and Amber room

The summer palace at Tsarskoe Selo (renamed Pushkin in 1937 to commemorate the centenary of his death) was created for Catherine I,  the wife of Peter I,  expanded and redesigned for Empress Elizabeth and remodeled again for Catherine the Great. It lies 25 km south of St. Petersburg. The baroque Catherine Palace was left in ruins by the Germans at the end of World War II, and is today a masterpiece of restoration. The exterior features golden domes and blue and white facade moldings,  while the interior positively gleams and glitters with mirrors, chandeliers and gilded wood-carvings. The parks of the estate with the enchanting Grotto Pavilion, the Hermitage and the Chinese Pagoda add to the splendor of the palace.

Return to St.Petersburg for visit of Theater Museum - Ballet Department where the guests can see the costumes of the world famous Ballet dancers of the beginning of the 20th century - Nezhinski, Anna Pavlova, Maya Plisetskaya.

Evening concert in Mariinski Concert Hall

 

Day 8

Buffet Breakfast

Morning special visit to "behind the stage" of Mikhailovski opera and ballet theater.

Lunch in downtown restaurant.

Master class of Russian Folk Dance in Nikolas Palace.

Evening opera or Ballet in Mikhailovski Opera and Ballet theater.

 

Day 8

Buffet breakfast

Visit of Yusupov Palace and private theater of the Palace, mysterious Rasputin room Yusupov Palace.

The most sumptuous non-imperial palace in St. Petersburg was the home of the wealthiest family in Russia, who from the mid-18th century (when the first version of this palace was built) until the Revolution of 1917, moved in to the most powerful circles. The palace on Moika was one of the 54 estates owned by the Yusupovs. The Yusupovs were great collectors of art, and their residence on the Moika was one on the most splendid palaces in Russia. After 1917, most of the collections were moved to the Hermitage and Russian museum, but the interiors are still impressive.

Afternoon boat ride on rivers and canals (if the weather is suitable), time at leisure in Nevski Prospect.

 

Day 9

Buffet breakfast

12.00 Check out of hotel and transfer to the airport for flight home

 

Price from 1900 euro for 1 person (group 5-10 people)

Tour cost includes:

- transfers by minivan with English or French or German speaking guide

- sightseeing programme by minivan with English or French or German or French speaking guide

- entrance fees to museums \events as per programme

- theater tickets as programme

- rail ticket St. Petersburg - Moscow

 

Tour cost does not include:

- Russian visa

- accommodation

- meals

-medical insurance