If travel to Russia was an option, where would you go? (No Politics Thread!)

Definitely St. Petersburg. It's always been a dream of mine to go there. I'm still hoping that I outlast Putin and can make it there one day. And if I was there, I'm sure I would tack Moscow on to the trip. Maybe more, but I would need to research. But St. Petersburg is at the top of the list.

We had a trip to St Petersburg booked for May 2020 that wound up being cancelled due to Covid. I already had the visa and everything! We were hoping to reschedule as soon as travel resumed post Covid but then political events overtook us. As soon as it is safe/etc again to do so, that is at the top of my list. It seems like an amazing place.

Another vote for St. Petersburg. Probably because of reading books and being a history buff. Also Novosibirsk a large city in Siberia.

Ditto, St. Petersburg!

St Petersburg. I had 2 days there when on a Baltic cruise ship pre-Covid. Would love to go again for a longer trip, sometime ....

Got a bit of everything in the time we were there, all amazing - am still blown away when I remember the Faberge Museum.

Absolutely St. Petersburg. The thought of Hermitage Museum makes me swoon.

Seeing Red Square is Moscow would also be incredible.

And since I love Russian literature and Dostoevsky, visiting Siberia would also be fascinating, though very impractical.

And Perm-36 gulag musueum would be interesting.

A highlight for me in St Petersburg would be seeing a top-tier orchestra perform in one of the city's fine performance halls.

One of my closest friends is a foreign officer and assigned to a new country every few years. I was so excited when she got assigned to be in St. Petersburg in 2016 (I think). I was planning to visit her there but the consulate/embassy had to be shut down in 2018 and she was reassigned somewhere else. Unfortunately, her new location was not on my wish list.

Well, it's been over 50 years since I visited Moscow and St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). I was part of a huge tour group not long after detente made that sort of thing possible. After all that time my most vivid sightseeing memory is of the Kremlin Armory Museum, so if you didn't make it there, I recommend it. If I went back, I'd like to see the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, outside St. Petersburg.

I was lucky to visit the USSR but it's been a few years..... 1985. St Petersburg was wonderful and the Winter Palace was gorgeous. The Hermitage was kind of sad at the time but hopefully has improved its care of its collection. We also visited Moscow and Odessa and Kiev in Ukraine. Odessa was beautiful. The highlights of the trip, aside from people we met, were performances; opera, ballet, orchestra. And the theaters were beautiful. The one place we missed in Russia I would have liked to have seen was Volgograd. I've read so much about he siege of Stalingrad and I wanted to see The Motherland Calls statue.

I'd revive my twice thwarted (2020 and 2022) plans for the Rick Steves tour that went to Tallinn, Helsinki and St Petersburg, again adding Moscow, where I had tickets to the Bolshoi (fully refunded.)

In this dream trip, I would get tickets (let's make them box seats, why not!) to the Bolshoi Ballet's production of Spartacus. The 2027 Hungarian production, with a Hungarian choreographer, will be fabulous. But the paragon has to be Yuri Grigorovich's Russian choreography, with the male corps performing the slave revolt, which I watched over and over (and over) again, streamed during COVID. I'm certain that would be the height and dream of my ballet-planned travels.

St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg to visit the Hermitage.

I'd like to visit the area some of my family line came from, which I think is near the modern border between Ukraine and Russia. St. Petersburg would also be on the list.

Lake Baikal, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Moscow

In my case I have two little journeys in Russia I never managed to do, but always wanted to-

The Trans Siberian from Moscow to Vladivostok then the ferry to Japan (I very nearly managed that about 10 years ago, as part of an organised RTW), but life intervened.)

The river cruise from St Petersburg to the Black Sea via Moscow on the old Soviet Era passenger ferries, emphatically not a modern river cruise vessel. I've been on those ships in Siberia and Ukraine, and they are great vessels.

Very doubtful that either trip will ever come to pass now.

Glass Beaches in Vladivostok, Russia is on some of my family's list.

And The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. So much great art!

I have a different viewpoint regarding a trip to Russia which I visited in 2017. I am a history buff so visiting the beautiful museums and other such sights in Moscow and St. Petersburg did not interest me. Instead, I spent most of my time visiting what is the most horrific battle site in all of human history: Stalingrad (aka Volgograd). Because so few visitors to this site come from North America or Western Europe I had to hire an expensive English speaking tour guide who had to be paid in crisp $100 bills. As a bonus I got to see the workings of a Russian medical clinic as a patient and where no one, including all of the medical personnel, spoke English.

What does that mean, you had a medical event as a patient?

I got an infection in my leg while in Stalingrad.

Some places I'd love to see: Baikal, Kalmykia, Kaliningrad, Sakhalin.

We did a wonderful tour of Russia in 2011 that included a river cruise from Moscow to St. Pete. Also, spent five days each in Moscow and St. Pete. Loved the river cruise.

Been to Russia on two occasions previously, but was always interested in taking the Trans-Siberian Railway. Hopefully a bucket list item that will one day be fulfilled.

I visited in the summer of 2018. Moscow was excellent with highlights including a subway tour (!) as well as all the usual stops.

St Petersburg was a bit sootier than I expected, but The Hermitage, Peterhof, Faberge Eggs, Rasputin home and the food were all outstanding.

On to Volgograd….a bit of A Tale of Two Cities. The Motherland Statue and Memorial was very cool and if you are into WWII history as my friend was it was a must visit, we did an English- speaking two day tour and he was thrilled. But overall the area was very….aged. If Moscow and St Petersburg were modern, Volgograd was mostly still not.

We spent 5 days in St. Petersburg in 1996. While we did the typical tourist things including the Hermitage and an evening of ballet, it was our interactions with the Russian people that left the biggest impression. From trying to speak Russian with our taxi driver from the airport while he tried to speak English to us, to our adorable waitress that really appreciated our under the table tip in USD to the dour older woman shushing people as we toured the Peterhof Palace . She noticed us admiring the beautiful parquet floor and grabbed my husband's hand and opened a "secret" door to another beautiful room. Her sudden smile was wonderful.

Since my wife and I are highly interested in history and art , we had long wanted to visit Russia . In 2015 we obtained three year visas to visit ( no third party agent involved , we prepared and submitted the documents ourselves ) We spent two weeks in St. Petersburg in 2015 and returned in 2017 for two weeks in Moscow and two more in St Petersburg . No point in listing the sights , but one bears a mention . Using public transportation , we made a day trip from St Petersburg to Kronstadt , an island in the Gulf of Finland , The Naval Cathedral was what drew us there , and it was magnificent . Two articles here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt_Naval_Cathedral and this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt Also for anyone interested , The historians Robert and Suzanne Massie have written several fine books on Russia , the history and culture . This one by Suzanne Massie is a wonderful overview of Russian culture , a kind of " one can't put it down book " https://archive.org/details/landoffirebirdbe0000mass/mode/2up available on Amazon , or your local library

I went to St. Petersburg in 1990 and those czars really knew how to build beautiful palaces! We also went to Moscow and the Armory Museum was interesting, but my overall impression of Russia at that time was that it was a third world country.

Just got tickets for Madame Butterfly at the Bolshoi two weeks from now. Not my first choice, but it will be cool to show the kids the historical stage.
Super affordable, too - about 20 dollars a ticket - a far cry from their usual in-season offering of about $200.

I spent my working years as a classically trained musician in New York . In addition to my work , I have always had a great love for fine music . While I'm sure many here are familiar with Russian composers like Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky , here is a lovely composition by a somewhat lesser known composer . " The Seasons " , written at the turn of the twentieth century by Alexander Glazounov , a beautiful and melodious work in the best tradition of the Russian composers . The story here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seasons_(ballet) and a full performance ( a somewhat modern choreographic interpretation , but quite fitting ) from the Marinsky Ballet in St Petersburg .- https://youtu.be/Pxf-urQe_AQ?si=7hsi0RAdUfi19b-o

Steven, I am not at all into music - so a silly question, perhaps - your thoughts on Sviridov (time, forward)?

Perilsof , Thanks !! I was unaware of Sviridov , but I just listened to a little of his work . After a whole life in music , I'm still learning , a never ending process . Quite interesting and beautiful . I'll be listening to more of his work this evening .

"Time, forward" is the best known piece. I didn't like it much growing up - it was the jingle for 9pm news, but somehow grew to appreciate it now.

That is not uncommon in music .. Music can start in one incarnation and be adapted in another one . The best example here is the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto . In David Lean's 1945 film " Brief Encounter " it was appropriated for the underscore to the film ,and the last movement also became a popular song ,renamed " Full Moon and Empty Arms " https://youtu.be/7Fw7vYUGIlY?si=Q6eapFLMGVUqA8T5

Reporting on Madama Butterfly - it was actually great. The very top balcony, but could hear and see everything (except the captions, which were blocked by the chandelier for some of our seats). All in all, excellent production.

Dave, I love this question. I am one of those lucky people who has had the opportunity to spend some time in Russia - back in 1988, when as a callow 18-ywar-old, I went with my college Russian professor on a study-tour to the then-Soviet Union. We flew into Helsinki and then took the train to Moscow, then onward to Leningrad (!), then to two Baltic states that were at that time incorporated into the USSR. We then returned to Moscow for six weeks of language study.

Yes, I would be very interested to return to Moscow and St Petersburg, especially to revisit the Hermitage now that I know a little bit more about art and Schchukin etc. My husband and I had also talked a few years ago about doing the Trans-Siberian railway, or a portion of it.

Goodness, that my parents encouraged (and funded) me to do such things ! I am grateful for them.

Kim,

That is quite the story. It is cool that your parents encouraged and funded such things.

We had a trip booked for Russia then Chernobyl blew. We cx and spent three weeks in China.
I definitely would love to see St. Petersburg and Moscow.

As I recall my visits to Russia some ten years ago , My ongoing interest in art and history keeps me involved in both on a daily basis . I just bumped into this extended video on The Hermitage ( three and one half hours long ) and could not tear myself away . Certainly , it is not necessary to watch it in one sitting , so , a section here and there would also work well . For any one here who has an interest , I hope you enjoy this - https://youtu.be/g7RmgdVY_Gw?si=tch9bo-g7wq82fcv