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Arts & Crafts

Russian Museum As well as having the country's best collection of works by native artists, this St Petersburg institution has a fantastic folk crafts section.

Flyonovo (Флёново GOOGLE MAP ) Crafts are still produced at the pretty riverside estate of late-19th-century art-lover Princess Maria Tenisheva, 18km southeast of Smolensk.

Novgorod State United Museum Within Veliky Novgorod’s kremlin is an incredible collection of iconographic art spanning several centuries.

Izmaylovsky Market A bustling market for all kinds of handicrafts where you can also watch them being made or try your hand at making your own.

National Museum Marvel at 3000-year-old Scythian gold jewellery in Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva.

Yantarny The source of around 90% of the world’s amber. Look for attractive amber bracelets, necklaces and pendants in Kaliningrad's shops.

Amber jewellery for sale, Kaliningrad | OLEINIK IULIIA / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Epic Journeys

Trans-Siberian Railway The 9289km trip from Moscow to Vladivostok is the big one to do.

Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) The ‘other Trans-Sib’ route takes you through very lonely parts of Siberia and the Russian Far East.

Chuysky Trakt Hop in a shared taxi or hire a car to travel the 600km route through dramatic Altai landscapes, including glimpses of snowy mountain peaks and vertigo-inducing canyons.

Neryungri to Yakutsk An iron butt is required for this full-day classic 4WD ride through the Sakha Republic.

Frolikha Adventure Coastline Trail Pushed through virgin territory by Great Baikal Trail volunteers, this 100km-long lakeside trail is an eight-day Siberian odyssey.

Golden Ring Circuit some of Russia’s oldest and cutest towns on a loop that begins and ends in Moscow.

Imperial Grandeur

Catherine Palace The vast baroque centrepiece of Tsarskoe Selo is famed for its Amber Room, dazzling Great Hall and beautiful grounds.

Peterhof Gape at the Grand Cascade fronting Peter the Great’s Gulf of Finland crash pad.

Yusupov Palace A canalside mansion offering a series of sumptuously decorated rooms culminating in a gilded mini-theatre.

Kolomenskoe Museum-Reserve (Музей-заповедник “Коломенское” MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.mgomz.com; hgrounds 8am-9pm; mKolomenskaya, Kashirskaya) An ancient royal country seat and Unesco World Heritage Site.

Tsaritsyno Palace (Музей-заповедник Царицыно GOOGLE MAP ; %495-355 4844; www.tsaritsyno-museum.ru; Great Palace & Khlebny Dom adult/student R350/100, all exhibition spaces R800; hgrounds 6am-midnight, exhibits 11am-6pm Tue-Fri, to 8pm Sat & Sun; mOrekhovo) The contemporary manifestation of the exotic summer home that Catherine the Great began but never finished.

Literary Titans

Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House Celebrating the life and times of the famous 20th-century St Petersburg–based poet.

Spasskoe-Lutovinovo The family home of Ivan Turgenev, surrounded by beautiful grounds, is a short trip from the literary town of Oryol.

Dostoevsky House Museum The author, famously associated with St Petersburg, lived for many years in this modest, riverside home in sleepy Staraya Russa.

Mikhailovskoe (Михайловское GOOGLE MAP ; %81146-22 321; www.pushkin.ellink.ru; with/without tour from R250/150; h10am-6pm, closed last Tue of month, Apr & mid-late Nov) Stand in the shade of Pushkin’s beloved oak tree on his family’s estate near the small town of Pushkinskie Gory.

Lermontov Museum The 19th-century Romantic writer lived in this thatched cottage in Pyatigorsk before meeting his death in a duel.

Yasnaya Polyana (Ясная Поляна GOOGLE MAP ; %4872-393 599; www.ypmuseum.ru; grounds R100, Tolstoy House guided tour in Russian R350; h9am-5pm Tue-Sun) The estate where Leo Tolstoy was born, lived most of his life and is buried.

Majestic Landscapes

Dombay This Southern Caucasus resort town is encircled by jagged, Matterhorn-like peaks of rock and ice, festooned with glaciers and gushing waterfalls.

Kola Peninsula Spot the northern lights reflecting off snowbound forests and tundra in the Arctic wilderness.

Barguzin Valley Isolated, virtually uninhabited and hemmed by high peaks, this is one of the most stunning Siberian landscapes in which to go astray.

Kamchatka This Far East peninsula is studded with several dozen snow-capped volcanoes.

Volga Delta Where the mighty river explodes like a firecracker into myriad raskaty (channels).

Blue Lake (Голубые озёра GOOGLE MAP ; Babugent) No permit is needed to hike to the gorgeous lake halfway up the side of Mt Aktru (4044m) within Altai National Park.

Multicultural Encounters

Jewish Museum & Centre of Tolerance (Еврейский музей и Центр толерантности MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %495-645 0550; www.jewish-museum.ru; ul Obraztsova 11 str 1a; adult/student R400/200; hnoon-10pm Sun-Thu, 10am-3pm Fri; mNovoslobodskaya) Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov’s bus depot gets a thrilling makeover as one of the country's best museums.

Tuva With its throat-singing, yurt-building, milk-fermenting traditions, this isolated republic in southern Siberia is a revelation.

Lovozero This dilapidated outpost is worth the trek for those wanting to come into contact with the reindeer-herding Sami (Lapp) people of the Kola Peninsula.

Elista The capital of Kalmykia is home to the only Buddhist national group within Europe.

Esso Make contact with Evenki and Even people in this pretty village in the hinterland of Kamchatka.

Kosh-Agach With a population made up almost entirely of ethnic Altai and Kazakhs, it’s easy to forget you are still in Russia.

Off the Beaten Track

Zyuratkul National Park (Национальный парк Зюраткуль GOOGLE MAP ; %351-613 2033; www.zuratkul.ru, headquarters in Satka; park levy per day R40) A remote and beautiful part of the Ural Mountains, with a lovely lake, hikes, log houses and a banya (bath house).

Teriberka Tourism is slowly taking off in this Sami village, one of the most picturesque spots in Arctic Russia.

Cherek Valley & Upper Balkaria Hike among the ruins of 18 Balkar villages in the spectacularly scenic Cherek Valley.

Shoana Church (Шоанинский храм GOOGLE MAP ; im Kosta Khetagurov; h9am-6pm) An early 10th-century Alanian church, claimed to be the oldest functioning chapel in the Russian Federation.

Solovetsky Islands Make a pilgrimage to these White Sea islands, home to one of Russia's best-known monasteries and also a former gulag camp.

The Kurils There are 49 active volcanoes in this Russian Far East chain of 56 islands, as well as beautiful lagoons, rivers and lakes.

Hot springs, the Kurils | PITATATU / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Quirky Places & Experiences

Permafrost Kingdom A never-melting pod of elaborate ice sculptures in a cocoon of permafrost and neon.

Bunker-42 Cold War Museum A secret underground Cold War communications centre now open for exploration.

Sumarokovskaya Elk Farm (Сумароковский лосеферма GOOGLE MAP ; %4942-359 433; www.loseferma.ru; Sumarokovo; adult/child R150/100; h10am-3pm) Meet some friendly moose and drink their milk at this farm-cum-scientific institute outside Kostroma.

Dancing Forest Marvel at the twisting and turning pines, sculpted by the winds that whistle across the Kurshskaya Kosa National Park.

Chess City Sit on the 12 chairs of the Ostap Bender monument in this literary fantasy come to surreal life in Elista.

Religious Buildings

St Basil's Cathedral Easily the country's most famous church; its candy coloured domes and swirly spires face the Kremlin across Red Square.

Grand Choral Synagogue A lavish place of worship indicating the pivotal role played by Jews in imperial St Petersburg.

Ivolginsk (Ivolga) Datsan The centre of Russian Buddhism continues to expand into its dramatic setting.

Kul Sharif Mosque Dominating Kazan’s World Heritage Site–listed kremlin is this enormous mosque named after the imam who died defending the city against Ivan the Terrible’s troops.

Church of the Intercession on the Nerl (Церковь Покрова на Нерли GOOGLE MAP ; Bogolyubovo; h10am-6pm Tue-Sun) Revered for its exemplary perfect proportions and beautiful setting.

Sergiev Posad Russia’s holiest of holies, the beautiful Trinity Monastery of St Sergius.

Soviet Relics

Lenin’s Mausoleum (Мавзолей Ленина MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.lenin.ru; Krasnaya pl; h10am-1pm Tue-Thu, Sat & Sun; mPloshchad Revolyutsii) Soviet relics hardly come more authentic than the embalmed body of VI, a fixture of Red Square since 1924.

VDNKh This park offers grandiose pavilions, gilded statues and fabulous fountains originally built to glorify socialism’s economic achievements.

Alyosha The ever-vigilant, utilitarian concrete statue keeps an eye on Murmansk’s wind-whipped and splendidly hideous Soviet architecture.

Mamaev Kurgan An astounding 72m-tall statue of Mother Russia is the memorial to those who fell in the bloody Battle of Stalingrad.

Lenin Head Installed to celebrate the commie leader’s 100th birthday, this gigantic bust dominates Ulan Ude’s main square.

Lenin Mosaic Beautiful public art in Sochi created in 1980 to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of the father of the Bolshevik Revolution.