We invite you to spend 2 days exploring the Staritsa area by going off the beaten track and visiting sights not usually included in the main tourist routes. Along the way we encounter various obstacles and everyone gets a chance to master his or her 4x4 driving skills. We provide specially prepared cars, guidance, food and accommodation. Our friendly English-speaking guides give necessary tuition and assistance and also make sure you get the best insight into Russian culture and history.
Would you like to go back to the XVIII century, and see with your own eyes how Russian nobles used to live in their Golden Age? Nowadays, only well-equipped 4x4 vehicles can bring us to some of the estate art gems of Catherine the Great era, scattered around this ancient town. Once the outpost of the Novgorod Republic and afterwards the most important station between the two Russian capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg, Torzhok and its surroundings surely have a lot to offer.
This tour offers a fascinating journey into the heart of Russia, transferring you not only in space but also in time. Within three days we will not only visit three Golden Ring cities and the Palace of Ivan the Terrible, but we will also see the erection of the largest pumped-storage hydro electrical plant of Russia in progress and have a look into abandoned Soviet missile pits.
The road between the cities is not just 700 km from southeast to northwest – it is the whole Russian history and geography in miniature. It takes only one turn aside of the highway, and Russia will rise before you in all its many faces: the exquisite mansions of Catherine's grandees; gold-domed cathedrals and tiny cave churches; emperors' road palaces and tight coachman's log huts; spaghetti from Gaglioni restaurant in Tver and penny Valdai bagels.
A popular resort with tens of thousands of tourists visiting the area every year, Seliger in fact has a lot more to offer than the typical sunbathing, swimming and fishing activities that most of its visitors limit their pastime to. The area’s rich cultural heritage is highlighted by sights such as Nilova Pustyn’, a monastery founded in 1594, nowadays one of the most impressive ensembles of Neoclassical architecture in Eastern Europe, or, for example, the Shirkov Parish – a unique 300 years old wooden church built «as high as the measure and beauty would prompt.
Moscow and St. Petersburg are the two capitals of Russia. The road between them is not just 700 km - this route represents Russia itself in dynamics and development. We start from the Grand Duchy of Moscow, approaching Novgorod find ourselves in the Tsardom of Russia, and finish in the capital of the Russian Empire. The advance of Russians to the Baltic sea, to the cherished «window into Europe» was long and thorny. The path to the Baltic lies through the very heart of Russia - the Valdai Hills, where the three great Russian rivers - Volga, Dnieper and Western Dvina – have their sources, and at the foot of which the Slavic sea - Lake Ilmen - stretches its waters.
