TOP 10 Most Beautiful Places in Russia

It is sometimes difficult to see the most beautiful places in Russia, but travelers with experience regularly share photographs of incredible landscapes that may be a couple of days away from your home. It is only necessary to collect the things needed for the hike and go on an adventure proving that you can organize a wonderful holiday in your own country!

Content:

Baikal
Mountain Altai
Sochi
Valley of Geysers
St. Petersburg
Kizhi
Curonian Spit
Elbrus
Chara sands
Yalta
Baikal

Annually, lists, where the most beautiful places in Russia are published for traveling independently and as part of an organized group, are headed by Tsar-Lake Baikal. The largest freshwater reservoir of the planet is recognized as one of the most beautiful places of nature ever existed. And such flattering ratings could not but affect tourism.

Trips to the shores of Baikal are relevant not only in summer but also in winter because you can watch the scenic views here at any time of the year, and even Siberian frosts should not stop you. To fish, to engage in active tourism or to get acquainted with the customs and traditions of the East Siberian peoples – the choice of holiday destinations is enormous, and all this against the backdrop of crystal clear water and dozens of islands.

The recreation infrastructure around Baikal is also very well developed. Sandy Bay is often compared to the resorts of the Mediterranean, and travel on the Kruglobaykalsky railway is an opportunity not only to ride a retro steam train but also to see the most beautiful capes, rocks, and human-made tunnels.

Mountain Altai
To the question, where is the best nature of Russia, many experienced tourists answer unequivocally – in the Mountainous Altai. The region, lost in the heart of Siberia, for tens of thousands of people every year becomes a kind of tourist Mecca, thanks to the diversity of natural wonders, clean air and many routes designed for both experienced tourists and for beginners who are just discovering hiking.

Lake Teletskoye – the main attraction of the region and one of the few Russian natural heritage sites of UNESCO. The alpine reservoir itself and the surrounding area are one huge reserve, where every corner is fraught with a picturesque waterfall, a river valley, rocks of bizarre forms and viewing platforms from which all this magnificence looks special.

Read more about the most exciting sights of the republic in our material: TOP 5 places of Altai for independent travel!

Sochi
Perhaps the main resort of Russia, Sochi, since Soviet times, has confidently become the leader in attendance, especially in summer. The warm Black Sea, mild climate and golden beaches have done their job, and the infrastructure developing by leaps and bounds changes the city every year, giving tourists new sights and places to relax.

The first thing that guests call Sochi, recalling the local beauty, is the arboretum and the Sochi National Park. But these objects are not limited to the city and its surroundings – it is worth going around suburban areas in search of gorges, caves, and whole valleys with waterfalls surrounded by dense thickets that are not typical for the harsh Russian climate of most regions.

Architecture and entertainment facilities in Sochi are another reason to come and admire the city, walking along its peaceful streets, both in the bright afternoon and in the rays of the setting sun. Now for tourists organized tours with inspection of the following objects:

Olympic Park
Stalin’s dacha
Maritime Station
Akhun Observation Tower
Matsesta Bridge
Lazarev ethnographic museum
Sochi lighthouse
Art Museum
Valley of Geysers
When it comes to the most picturesque places of Russia, it’s impossible to lose sight of the Valley of Geysers, despite the remoteness of this natural wonder of Kamchatka. We learned about it only in 1941, and since then, guests of the Kronotsky Reserve have been visiting a fantastic place from year to year, despite minimal possibilities, both for inspection and transport.

Today, in the valley there are 30 active underground sources, with regular intervals emitting huge columns of boiling water into the air. The situation may change on any given day — regular mudflows and landslides destroy old and create new geysers, redrawing the terrain beyond recognition. Besides, the valley will be attractive for those who study the animal world – brown bears and other taiga inhabitants.

Important: From 2014, access to the Valley of Geysers is limited. You can get here only by helicopter from the nearest village of Nikolaevka, and the duration of the excursion is reduced to 2.5 hours. This was done for security reasons due to the chaotic situation with earthquakes and the risk of landslides.

St. Petersburg
The city, the historical center of which became the first Russian UNESCO World Heritage Site, the northern and cultural capital, the “window to Europe” and many other official and popular titles – all this allows Saint Petersburg to be included in the most beautiful places of Russia and the world that have ever been created. By man. And, of course, excursions here are among the most popular areas of domestic tourism, regardless of the season.

It’s up to you to decide where to start your walk around Peter — from visiting the seemingly endless galleries of the Hermitage, the Neva embankments or the Faberge Museum, but each of the routes is guaranteed to cover several architectural monuments. A separate direction – tours of the writers’ places and homes of famous people who have ever lived in St. Petersburg. Literary tours are associated with the names of Pushkin, Blok, Brodsky, Akhmatova, Gogol and other recognized masters of literature.

Other objects that are included in the mandatory list of places for inspection of almost all sightseeing tours are:

St. Isaac’s and Kazan Cathedrals
Peter-Pavel’s Fortress
Savior on Spilled Blood
Kunstkamera
Mariinsky Theatre
Cruiser Aurora”
Want to learn more about memorable places and museums in St. Petersburg? Check out our landmarks section on the official VipGeo website!

Kizhi
In the north-west, the most beautiful places in Russia for traveling are not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Karelia, and one of these places is Kizhi Island. Despite its ancient settlement history, which began even before the baptism of Russia, this place became famous throughout the world only in the 19th century, thanks to the skill of the architects who created multi-domed churches, exceeding any Christian shrines in the number of poppies.

Now the architectural ensemble of the Transfiguration and the Intercession Church together with the hipped bell tower is included in the UNESCO list, and the whole territory of the island is one large open-air museum. Ethnographic excursions are arranged for guests with detailed stories about the history of the island and features of each building. And no walk is complete without aerial photos, unless, of course, the weather spoils the plans.

Curonian Spit
In the most western region, the best nature of Russia is represented by the Curonian Spit – the only sandbar of this size on the planet and at the same time a national park with relict thickets, viewing platforms, and recreation centers. Guests who get here, get in a truly unique place, living by its laws, and a little like anything in the world.

For example, here is the famous Dancing Forest – artificial planting of pines, which, due to the incompatible chemical composition of the soil, grew in bizarre forms and under the angle impossible to a rational explanation of the edge to the ground. And at the ornithological station guests can observe the life of the rarest species of birds in their natural habitat.

The dunes of the Curonian Spit are the subject of a separate discussion. They amaze with their size to such an extent that, with a right angle, photographs will turn out similar to some African desert, and only the color of the sand in them will produce a seaside landscape. By the way, a whole staff of caretakers is following order and cleanliness here – after all, it’s a nature reserve.

Elbrus
Stories where the most beautiful places in Russia will be incomplete without mentioning the Caucasus and the magnificent Elbrus is the pearl of these places described in mountain legends, Russian literary classics, and most guidebooks in the Russian sub. Photos of the snowy two-headed summit should be with every serious traveler who considers it his duty to visit the incomparable natural beauties of our country.

Most of the tourist infrastructure is dispersed on the southern slopes of the mountain, which is visited, both in winter, to go skiing or snowboarding in the Elbrus region, and in summer to see landscapes of the foothills that are not inferior to the Alps, drowning in greenery and flowers rare for these places, and from this – even more valuable.

Chara sands
Among places well-known in literature in Russia there are such corners of nature that far from every experienced tourist knows, and Chara sands are one of such objects. The desert tract of the Transbaikal Territory does not belong to distant objects, but because of its isolation from “civilization” large groups of tourists rarely visit it, and in vain – huge dunes standing against the mountains of the Kodar ridge can impress anyone.

Getting to the East Siberian desert is not easy. It is located 1250 km north-east of Ulan-Ude, but the route is one, and it will be just impossible to drive past this natural wonder. The long journey will end with a mass of impressions received from a walk on the dunes, which you need to capture on camera.

Yalta
The pearl of the Crimea and the city of the eternal holiday – precisely such epithets have been described by Yalta by tourist observers almost since the foundation of the resort. And any definition is true, because the pebbled Yalta beaches have become a kind of symbol of high-quality recreation on the Black Sea coast, and the natural wealth of the environs of the city has been working for sightseeing and active tourism for several centuries.

A unique conservation area has been created around the Ai-Petri mountain, crossed by hiking trails and sports routes that require some preparation. As a reward for the efforts of tourists can see a lot of beautiful peaks, park areas with waterfalls and other most beautiful places of Russia, hidden from the eyes of a city dweller.

Architectural monuments of Yalta are represented by a whole ensemble of palaces, museum sites and objects, for the visit of which many lovers of antiquity and buy tours to the Crimea:

Massandrovsky and Livadia Palaces
bird home
Yalta Oceanarium and Zoo
Crocodile farm
Chekhov House Museum
Glade of Fairy Tales
Cableway “Mishor – Ai-Petri”
Yalta Film Studio
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