Day 1 UK to Moscow

Fly to Moscow and transfer to the locally rated 4-star Novotel Moscow Centre Hotel (3Q) for your first three nights in this bustling city. Moscow is a city of enormous opulence where historic, iconic and cultural monuments mingle with modern businesses and bustling boulevards linked by a veritable spider's web of Metro lines.

Enjoy welcome drinks and dinner to better get to know your fellow travellers. D

Day 2 Moscow

Today you will explore the heart of Russia, Moscow. Tour the city, viewing Red Square and iconic St Basil's Cathedral with its highly decorative 'onion' domes. This afternoon you have the option to visit the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, often touted as the city’s premier foreign art museum. B

Day 3 Moscow

Following breakfast, you have the option of visiting the Tretyakov Gallery. This historical building is home to more than 1,300 pieces of artwork from the 11th century through to the early 20th. Admire the mosaics dating from the pre-Mongolian era, through to more recent landscapes, portraits and historical paintings.

Consider also an optional excursion to visit the city’s opulent metro stations, built to be the people’s palaces. B

Day 4 Moscow to St Petersburg

Unmissable during any trip to Moscow, and at the heart of Russian politics is the Kremlin. Following breakfast, we invite you to take a tour of the site, surrounded by 15th-century walls and featuring the instantly recognisable colourful domes of St Basil’s Cathedral. Stand in Red Square, used throughout the Soviet era to parade the Bloc’s military prowess, and visit Armoury Chamber, founded in 1511 to manufacture and store weapons and jewellery. Today it showcases treasures such as gold and silver objects created between the 12th and 17th centuries, and a small selection of jewellery from the House of Fabergé.

Your afternoon is spent travelling through the Russian countryside on board a high speed ‘Sapsan’ train. The destination of your travel will be St Petersburg, designed by Peter the Great to be a ‘window to the west’. Built on 101 islands and traversed by 350 bridges, St Petersburg gained the nickname ‘Venice of the North’. Check into your hotel, the locally-rated-four-star Courtyard by Marriott Vasilievsky (3Q) (or a similar hotel), where you will stay for the next four nights. B, D

Day 5 St Petersburg

Following breakfast, enjoy a city tour of St Petersburg.

Learn about its history - from the Tsars, through revolution, into Soviet control - and admire its abundance of alluring architecture. Capture the colourful domes of the Church of the Saviour on Blood - appearing similar to Moscow’s Cathedral of St Basil - on your camera and visit the Peter and Paul Fortress. This early 18th-century star-shaped citadel never fulfilled its defensive purpose. Instead, it played the role of a military base, prison and test site for several groundbreaking experiments. Its most eye-catching building is the impressive Peter and Paul Cathedral, featuring an unmissable 123-metre spire. The afternoon is spent at your leisure.

Consider taking an optional tour to visit Peterhof’s Grand Palace. B

Day 6 St Petersburg

Housing nearly 3 million artefacts and works of art, the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is the second largest museum in the world, after France’s Louvre. Your morning will be spent taking a tour of the Hermitage, partially housed within the splendid green, white and gold Winter Palace. Learn a little about the museum’s fascinating history - its role in the Revolution of October 1917 - and admire its staggering collection of artistic and historical treasures. B

Day 7 St Petersburg

Today head to the imperial estate of Pushkin, originally known as Tsarskoe Selo. In the 18th century two huge, ornate palaces were built with landscaped gardens created around them. One is the eye-wateringly opulent Catherine Palace, a gift to Catherine I. Tour the grounds and interior with a fascinating room-by-room headset commentary. The highlight is bound to be the famous Amber Room, decorated with engraved amber panels, jewelled mosaics and gilded wooden carvings.

In the afternoon, consider St Isaac’s Cathedral on an optional excursion. B

Day 8 St Petersburg to UK

Enjoy an optional excursion to visit Yusupov Palace before transferring to the airport and returning to the UK. B