Arrive at Simferopol Airport, where you are met and transferred to the luxury Hotel Oreanda in Yalta for a three-night stay.

 

Today there is a guided tour of Yalta including Chekhov’s House and the Botanical Gardens, followed by lunch at the Swallow’s Nest, a fairy-tale castle breathtakingly perched high above the sea. This restaurant is a world famous location and many world leaders have eaten here. In the afternoon we take a scenic cruise along the picturesque coastline before visiting the Massandra Palace and Imperial Winery, touring the cellars (they have bottles dating back to 1775 and many bottles from the Tsars personal collection).

 

This morning we visit Alupka Palace which was built for Count Mikhail Vorontsov, former special envoy to the United Kingdom and friend of the Marlborough Family. The Palace is a strange, but attractive combination of a Scottish castle with Arabian additions. Churchill stayed here during the Yalta conference of February 1945. In the afternoon we enjoy a private tour of the Tsar’s Summer Palace at Livadia and the site of the Yalta conference between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. A champagne reception in the grounds will be followed by a concert of chamber music and dinner in the restaurant attached to the palace.

 

After breakfast we take the spectacularly scenic coastal road from Yalta to Sudak, a popular beachside resort on the Crimean peninsula, with a well-preserved and imposing Genoese Fortress which overlooks the town, and the centre of the Crimean viticulture industry before arriving in the seaside resort of Feodosiya where we visit the Aivazovsky Gallery. Late afternoon we board the Golden Eagle for our departure to Sevastopol.

 

Today we arrive into Sevastopol which is home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and is a town steeped in the history of the Crimean War and World War II, on both occasions being under siege for almost a year. We visit Balaclava and the Diorama depicting the Word War Two battle and from where there is a fine view of the valley where the Charge of the Light Brigade took place. The valley is now covered in neat rows of vines and in the middle is a white stone memorial to the infamous Charge.

 

Our tour of Sevastopol this morning includes the Old Town, the Panorama (a 360-degree painting and montage depicting the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War) and Khersones, reputed to be the most complete ancient Greek settlement in existence, and only opened to foreigners a few years ago. In the afternoon we leave Sevastopol and travel by train and make the short trip to the Bakhchisarai where we visit the sixteenth century Hansaray (or Khan’s) Palace and Uspensky Cave Monastery. An early evening departure sees us heading northwards away from the Black Sea.

 

We arrive in the elegant city of Odessa in the morning with its tree-lined Primorsky Boulevard featuring street cafes on the embankment and the Potemkin Steps where we spend a full day. This Black Sea city was immortalised in Eisenstein's 1925 film ‘Battleship Potemkin’. Nearby is the impressive Opera and Ballet Theatre.

 

Passing over the Moldovan border during the night, spend the morning travelling through the picturesque Moldovan countryside before we arrive at lunchtime in the capital city of Kishinev. After lunch, our afternoon tour of the city includes a visit to a local winery.

 

Our full day tour of the ancient city of Kiev includes the beautifully restored Monastery of Caves, Lavra Complex which has the highest bell tower in the former USSR, the huge Mother Ukraina World War Two monument and museum, a stroll along Khreshchatyk Street, Saint Sophia’s Cathedral and Independence Square.

 

This morning we arrive in the capital city of Russia. Our city tour of Moscow today takes us to Red Square, an iconic symbol of Russia’s former military and political might. Here we see an eclectic mix of fascinating architecture, such as the ornate St Basil’s Cathedral with its magnificent onion-domed spires, the grandeur of The Kremlin and the sombre and evocative site of Lenin’s tomb. After our day’s tour, we transfer the Moscow Marriott Royal Aurora, centrally located for a one-night stay. 

 

For clients taking the St Petersburg extension, we will take the morning high speed train from Moscow to St Petersburg, where you are transferred to a luxury five-star hotel in the centre of the city for a two-night stay. For clients leaving the tour in Moscow, transfers will be provided to the airport for onward flight connections.