Russia Attractions

Moscow

Moscow is the barometer and nucleus of the changes sweeping through Russia. Nowhere are Russia's contrasts more apparent than here - ancient monasteries and ultra-modern monoliths stand side by side, and 'New Russian' millionaires and poverty-stricken pensioners walk the same streets.

Moscovites now prefer international name brands to monolithic department stores, and the beautiful churches vandalised or abandoned during the Soviet era of hardline atheism are being lovingly restored. But the real flavour of this city is in its nooks and crannies, each of them unique.

St Petersburg

St Petersburg has been dubbed the Venice of the North for its palace-lined waterways. It managed to escape the architectural incursions of Stalinism and its grandiose relics of tsarist days are largely intact. Sculpted by islands and the sinuous Neva River, the city is a vista of geometric elegance.

Within St Petersburg's geometry is a dust-devil of influences and styles and a bewitching vortex of life's extremes. It's breathtakingly gorgeous, it's ruefully falling apart; it's viscerally sensual, it's crude and vulgar; its very essence gets under your skin, but remains forever outside your grasp.

Trans-Siberian Railway

A jaunt on the Trans-Siberian Railway is the way to see this massive country. The six-day, 9446km (5857mi) journey takes you from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, passing through endless forests of birch and pine, log-cabin settlements and vast steppes.

Life on the rails can be boring or fascinating, depending on the nature of your travelling companions, your choice of paperbacks and the friendliness of your carriage attendant (a vital factor). The route takes you past Siberia's huge Lake Baikal and the multicultural and highly appealing Irkutsk.