Trip to Golden ring. Legend tour.
TOURS TO THE CITIES OF RUSSIA
THE GOLDEN RING OF RUSSIA
TRIP ON CITIES OF THE GOLDEN RING
The 'Golden Ring' (Zolotoe Koltso) is a modern name for a loop of very old towns north-east of Moscow that preceded
the present capital as the political and cultural heart of Russia. The towns' churches, monasteries, kremlins (city forts) and
museums make an incredibly picturesque port-folio of early Russian craftwork. Another attraction of the region is that some
of the towns are really little more than villages, providing a peaceful glimpse of country life as it is lived all over European Russia.
Best known is little Suzdal, officially protected against industrial development and littered with
so many protected buildings that it's almost one big museum. The other towns are more lived-in but are equally rich in old
buildings such as churches, monasteries or kremlins. Made from stone, these buildings have outlived most wooden structures.
You do run the risk of 'old Russian church' overload here, so it pays to travel selectively. The most visited places are
Sergiev Posad and Suzdal, but Vladimir
and Bogolyubovo, Plyos, Kostroma, Yaroslavl,
Rostov - Veliky and Pereslavl-Zaiessky, in their different ways, all have big attractions too.
Most places in the Golden Ring can be visited individually on day or overnight trips from Moscow, but a better way to
absorb the region's beauties and history, if you have time, is to devote a few days to taking in a combination of places.
Transport and accommodation are easy enough to find as you go along. One or two-day excursions are also available from
Moscow, and Golden Ring visits are a standard item on many package tours to Russia.
This section covers the Golden Ring going anticlockwise, though if you're doing a full circuit you might prefer to
travel in a clockwise direction, as the distances between the first few destinations are shorter that way.
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