Russian Cycle Touring Club

Together with Cyclists for Cultural Exchange

Tour Highlights:
Unique nature of the Crimea
Meeting with local people and acquaintance with local culture
National parks of Eastern Crimea
Palaces, wineries and mountains of South coast of Crimea

Russian cycle touring club invites you to the annual international bicycle tour in the most interesting historic part of Russia. 12 days, 500 km for 10 cycling days.

The bike tour is designed for international cyclists, and it will introduce you to the real Russia! Bicycling is an ideal way to explore this fascinating country. Our informal tour is comfortably paced and you will enjoy biking in the quiet Russian countryside. You are not our customers – you are the guests of our club. In addition to cycling, we offer a special culture program. We visit a lot of museums and exhibitions (some of them are little known). You will meet friendly village dwellers and see how Russians really live. The menu promises to give you the opportunity to taste authentic Russian food that is unlike anything you’ve tasted before!ke anything you've tasted before!

Tour Highlights:
The most educational tour about Russian history
UNESCO world heritage sites in Sergiev Posad, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Suzdal
6 days along Volga - the longest river in Europe
Crossing river by boat
Special dinners in Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Suzdal
Russian steam bath (banya)

We invite you to visit a rather unique part of European Russia with scenic airy long views over endless chernozem soil (black earth) fields covered by blooming sunflowers, wild steppe, old hills that used to be seabed and carry a lot of sea fauna remains, motherland of ichthyosaur, so-called Russian Karlovy Vary, and of course middle Volga River National Parks - Sengiley Mountains and Samara Bend (real mountains!) Historically the region is closely connected with the rise and fall of a famous historic state Volga Bulgaria which flourished on these lands between the 7th and 13th centuries but was subjugated by the Mongols and became a part of the Golden Horde. This is the land where Christianity meets Islam, the West meets the East. Moreover it is motherland of Vladimir Lenin, 1917 Socialist Revolution leader and home to the famous Soviet car brand LADA. We end our tour in the city of Samara, formerly closed city, Space Capital of Russia. The first space rocket that took Yury Gagarin in to space was build in Samara.

Route: Kazan - town-island Sviyazhsk (UNESCO World Heritage Site) - Ulyanovsk - Sengiley Mountains National Park - Samara Bend ( Ziguly Mountains) National Park - Samara
 

The cycling route goes from Moscow, the modern Russian capital, to the old one, St. Petersburg (Venice of the North, cultural capital of Russia) through the oldest one, Novgorod the Great (UNESCO world heritage, Hanseatic city). In both Moscow and St. Petersburg we have bicycle rides. You will see the great Russian river Volga in Tver, will be charmed by the XIX century architecture in Torzhok. We will pass woody Valdai hills, where Mother Volga starts. We will spend a night near "European Baikal" lake Seliger, one of the biggest natural lakes of Central Russia. In Staraya Russa we will visit famous mineral water resort and the museum of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who wrote there three his great novels: The Brothers Karamazov, The Adolescent, and Demons.In Novgorod you will see its ancient Kremlin (Detinets), magnificent XI-century St. Sofia Cathedral and wonderful Russian Millennium Memorial. And of course you will be conquered by beauty of grand palaces and parks, built for Russian Tsars in St. Petersburg and its vicinity. After the tour you can return to Moscow by comfortable train or stay longer in the northern capital of Russia.

Most roads along the route do not have heavy traffic and are good paved. We stay only in good quality hotels (double/twin or single accommodation with private bathroom).

We call Moscow to Saint Petersburg bike tour during White Nights time from middle of May till early July "White Nights bike tour". It has the same itinerary plus night bike ride in SPb. Thousands of people try to come to St. Pet to see bridge opening at that romantic time. After the tour you may enjoy St. Petersburg and take part in White Nights festival - one of the ten best music festivals in the world. White Night bike ride in Saint Petersburg. Bridge opening

Tour Highlights:

• bike excursions in Moscow and St. Petersburg
• guided excursions in Tver, Torzhok, Staraya Russa, Novgorod
• Museums: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Sergey Lemeshev, wooden architecture
• Monasteries: St. Nil on lake Seliger, St. George (the oldest in Russia)
• Lakes: Seliger, Ilmen
• Special dinners in Tver, Torzhok and St. Petersburg
• Russian steam bath (banya)

For people who like Russian literature and want to ride unhurriedly around the Central regions of Russia in the most romantic time of year this new tour looks a promising choice. This region was home and a Pierian spring to the great Russian writers Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina), Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons, Sportsman's Sketches), Anton Chekhov (Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull), Nikolai Leskov (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea), and others.

The route runs through sparsely populated and scenic countryside area along minor roads. Wild and picturesque scenery, fields and hills interchanging with protected forests, create a unique atmosphere of European Russia. As far as the nature is concerned the route is interesting thanks to the fact that it runs along the natural southern forest borders of European Russia, which served as a natural defensive position against Mongol-Tatar invasions in 12-15 century. Old Russian townlets Krapivna, Odoev, Belev, Kozelsk will acquaint you with both monuments of architecture and life in the remote interior of Russia.

In the second part of our tour we will visit famous monastery of Optina Pustyn, space museum in Kaluga. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a great scientist and founding father of the world astronautics, lived in Kaluga for most of his life and rode his bicycle there. Polotnyany Zavod - the memorial museum of Goncharov family (Alexander Pushkin's wife). At the end we visit Tarusa (the favorite place of many Russian artistic people, such as Marina Tsvetaeva, Konstantin Paustovsky etc.) and Polenovo - the estate of Vasily Polenov, famous Russian landscape painter.

The tour starts and ends in Moscow. Most roads along the route do not have heavy traffic. We stay in hotels (double/twin or single accommodation with private bathroom).

Main sights:
Yasnaya Polyana – the State Memorial and Natural Preserve "Museum-estate of Leo Tolstoy
Old townlets: Krapivna, Odoev, Belev (Pastila's capital of Russia), Kozelsk (Town of Military Glory).
Optina Pustyn - one of the most beloved Russian monasteries, spiritual retreat of L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky
The State Museum of the history of cosmonautics named by K.E. Tsiolkovsky in Kaluga
Polotnyany Zavod - the Memorial Historical-Architectural and Natural Museum-Reserve of Goncharov's Estate
Nikola-Lenivets - the world biggest outdoor art-park
Tarusa - an artistic oasis in the countryside
Polenovo - the Museum Estate of Vasily Polenov