Tver, on the Volga 150km northwest of Moscow, was capital of an unruly ministate that was Moscow’s chief rival in the 14th and 15th centuries. Little evidence of Tver’s medieval heyday remains, as it subsequently went through a series of upheavals. It was punished for rising against the Golden Horde, conquered by Ivan III, savaged [...]
Independent before WWII, fascinating Tuva (???? in Tuvan) is culturally similar to neighbouring Mongolia but has an international cult following all of its own. Philatelists remember Tannu Tuva’s curiously shaped 1930s postage stamps. World-music aficionados are mesmerised by self-harmonising Tuvan throat-singers. And millions of armchair travellers read Ralph Leighton’s Tuva or Bust!, a nontravel book [...]
When the clouds clear, sawtooth Sayan peaks rise spectacularly above the cute Buddhist villages of the wide, rural Tunka Valley, which starts about 30km west of Kultuk and continues all the way to the Mongolian border near Mondy. Smoke rising gently from cottage chimneys adds to the wisps of romantic morning mist. Beyond justifiably popular [...]
The grand imperial estate of Tsarskoe Selo (Tsar’s Village; 465 2281; eng.tzar.ru; Sadovaya ul 7) in the town of Pushkin, 25km south of St Petersburg, is often combined on a day trip with the palace and sprawling park at Pavlovsk, 4km further south. This is a pity because both are gorgeous places that deserve a [...]
Tiny Tyungur village sits in an appealing valley. Although lacking viewpoints itself, it’s the normal staging point for treks towards Mt Belukha (4506m), Siberia’s highest peak. Surrounding valleys and lakes are among Russia’s most spectacular but access requires strenuous guided hiking.
Although there are faster weekend expresses, the daily Ulaan Baatar-bound train from Irkutsk is excruciatingly slow, taking a mind-numbing 11 hours to clear the borders. It’s just one or two kupe carriages appended to train 364, which has no restaurant car and doesn’t make food stops between Naushki (on the border) and Ulan-Ude (six to [...]
Just 260km from Novosibirsk, but light years ahead in terms of history, ambience and tourist appeal, Tomsk is one of the most enjoyable cities in Siberia. It combines endless examples of fine wooden mansions, some grand century-old commercial buildings and a dynamic, modern outlook. Tomsk’s relatively intact architecture was in part preserved by a ghastly [...]
Tobolsk was once Siberia’s capital and remains its most memorable city. Highlights are its handsome kremlin and a charmingly decrepit old town. Tobolsk is off the trans-Siberian mainline but direct overnight trains to both Yekaterinburg and Omsk make stopping here a perfectly viable option when crossing Russia.
The Ural Mountains - the celebrated division between Europe and Asia - stretch 2000km from the arctic Kara Sea in the north to Kazakhstan in the south.
Descriptions of Taganay as the ‘Russian Switzerland’ are - again - a bit exaggerated, but the park’s forested mountains and rocky protrusions are nonetheless splendid. The most convenient starting point for walking in Taganay is the steel town Zlatoust. If you need to stay in town, the lakeside Hotel Taganay(3513-651 225; pr 30 let Pobedy [...]