Fam trip to the Ural region

Greatly impressed by the level of the capital infrastructure, quality of services in restaurants and hotels and of course cordiality of the locals.
Yekaterinburg was founded as a fortified ironworks in 1723. The city was named after St. Catherine of Alexandria (the patron saint of mining) as well as Empress Catherine I.

In the 19th century it was the only “mining town” in Russia. Metal produced at Yekaterinburg plants was used in construction of the most famous architectural structures and buildings around the world. The heritage of the 20t century was over 100 unique constructivist monuments and status of the country’s industrial heart.

Fam trip Borodino - Smolensk - Talashkino

We wanted with our colleagues to go to these places for a long time and finally our wishes came true. And in late April we started our trip in a quite a bit team – 18 participants in 6 cars.

Recce trip to Sochi December 2014

How lucky we (Helen Isaeva and me, Svetlana Paranko) are to find ourselves in sunny Sochi in December at least for 3 days! We did spend three unforgettable days in Russia's only subtropical resort city that stretches along the Black Sea coast for 145 km.

Our memorable trip to Sochi from snowy Moscow started with a very comfortable flight by Aeroflot air company (flight Moscow Sheremetyevo – Sochi actually takes 2,5 hours). Upon arrival at the Sochi airport we were met by our partner – Solis Sochi hotel and transferred very fast to Gorki Gorod resort at the height of 960 metres where our inviting property was located.

Recce trip to Karelia March 2014

A month has passed since our fam trip to Karelia and we are still under great impression of this north region of Russia! We took the overnight train Friday evening from Moscow to Petrozavodsk which is very comfortable and clean. On arrival in the morning we were met by our partner with the sign “2 happy days in Karelia” and these were really happy ones! After breakfast in 4* newly opened Park Inn located near the railway station we drove to waterfall Kivach place.

Recce trip to Caucasus Mineral Waters (CWM) region September 2014

After a very short flight (1,50 hrs) we arrived at city of Mineral waters from which it took us an hour to reach Kislovodsk where we stayed for 3 nights. This is a lovely resort town with variety of what locals and all visitors call “galleries” that offer you not the tour of the art collection but tasting of different types of mineral waters that come from variety of mineral springs here. In Soviet time it was one the most popular resorts for people from all regions of the country to come to for recovering health and spend vacation. The resort is witnessing the 2nd birth now with lots of private hotels, cafes opening each month as well as general improvement of the regions’ infrastructure and state investments here.

Recce trip to Golden Ring October 2014

At the end of October our friendly team managed to plunge into real Russian winter with minus degrees, splendid sun and white snow. We visited Golden Ring cities. Early morning we started from Moscow to Sergiev Posad – first point of our journey. We stopped at the private guest house where Matreshka Painting class is arranged. Then proceeded to Trinity Lavra of St Sergious – it was sunlit and so bright! There we entered Trinity Cathedrals where hallows of Segiy Radonezhsky are laid.

Fam trip Buryatia - Baikal October 2014

Our group stop on the way 2 months have passed since I returned from the trip but the memories are still fresh and the impressions are unforgettable! I was invited for fam together with some other Moscow based agents for an exciting trip to Butyatia-Baikal area in early October. We had an international team – apart from Russians there were guests from Germany, Brazil, Mongolia and China on the trip. By the end of it we made very good friends!