Where to go on holiday in Russia
Russia has thousands of holiday routes: seaside resorts, mountain destinations, historic cities, Lake Baikal, Kamchatka and both capitals. Planning is easier when the key details about a destination are collected in one place.
This section gathers guides to cities and resorts across the country, with short descriptions, seasonal climate, popular hotels with real guest reviews and selections of places to visit.
Choose a city from the list below, read the full guide and pick accommodation for your dates. The destination list is updated regularly.
Alushta
Alushta is a seaside resort on the southern coast of Crimea, where a town beach and a 4-kilometer promenade with the white Rotunda of 1951 give way to a mountain belt with the Valley of Ghosts on Demerdzhi and the Dzhur-Dzhur waterfall. In Professor's Corner along the sea stretches Crimea's longest concrete seafront — 7 km beneath Mount Kastel — and Simferopol Airport is only 50 km away along the trolleybus route.
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +12° at night
Popular hotels in Alushta
Feodosia
Feodosia is an ancient Crimean city with a long sand-and-shell embankment and a calm rhythm free of the Southern Coast's mountain switchbacks. The Aivazovsky Art Gallery, the 14th-century Genoese fortress of Kaffa and the Alexander Grin Museum will fill your cultural program, while Golden Beach — about 3 kilometers long — and trips to Koktebel and Karadag will add sea and lasting impressions.
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +11° at night
Popular hotels in Feodosia
Adler
Adler is the southern district of Greater Sochi and the main gateway to the coast: the international airport, the railway station, and the 2014 Olympic legacy are all here. The Imeretinsky Embankment and Olympic Park with Sochi Park and the Autodrom set the resort's rhythm, and the Lastochka train reaches Rosa Khutor in 45 minutes — the sea and beaches in summer, a short hop to the mountains in winter.
Air temperature in October: +20° during the day, +13° at night
Popular hotels in Adler
Anapa
Anapa is a Black Sea resort and spa town where the Kuban steppes meet the foothills of the Caucasus, and where ancient Gorgippia and the Russian Gates sit beside the sandy beaches of Dzhemete and Vityazevo. Walk along the Vysokiy Bereg promenade from the lighthouse to the Central Beach; nearby you'll find the Cypress Lake at Sukko, the Bolshoi Utrish nature reserve and the Abrau-Dyurso wineries. The swimming season runs from May to October, while…
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +12° at night
Popular hotels in Anapa
Arkhyz
Arkhyz is a mountain village in Karachay-Cherkessia that in the past decade has grown into a year-round resort with two resort villages — Romantik and Lunnaya Polyana — and 27 km of groomed pistes. In winter people ski here from December to April, in summer they hike to the Sofia Waterfalls and the Dukka Lakes, and 25 km down the valley stand the 10th-century Zelenchuk churches and the Nizhne-Arkhyz Settlement with its rock-carved Face of Christ.
Air temperature in October: +14° during the day, +3° at night
Popular hotels in Arkhyz
Dzerzhinsk
Dzerzhinsk is a Stalinist socialist city built for chemical workers, 40 km from Nizhny Novgorod and a 21-minute commuter-train ride away. Over a weekend, you can see the 128-metre Shukhov hyperboloid tower on the Oka, walk along Lenin Avenue past the Palace of Culture of Chemical Workers and the "collective farm house" with 17 entrances, and in summer head to the beaches and pine forest by the tower.
Air temperature in October: +9° during the day, +3° at night
Popular hotels in Dzerzhinsk
Evpatoria
Evpatoria is the westernmost resort in Crimea, with a long sandy strip, a gently sloping shallow shore, and a reputation as the peninsula's leading city for children and sanatorium stays. In the compact Old Town, the 16th-century Juma-Jami Mosque, the Karaite kenassas, and Saint Nicholas Cathedral stand side by side — which is why Evpatoria is called "Little Jerusalem." The Moinaki mud bath clinic has been operating since 1886, and the only…
Air temperature in October: +17° during the day, +11° at night
Popular hotels in Evpatoria
Gagra
Gagra is an Abkhazian resort with a five-kilometer pebble bay and a preserved early-20th-century "Russian Riviera" ensemble. On a single walk through Old Gagra you'll take in the colonnade, Primorsky Park, the 1902 Gagripsh restaurant, and the Abaata fortress, and on a day trip from town you can reach Lake Ritsa via the Yupshara Canyon or head up to the panoramic viewpoint on Mount Mamdzyshkha.
Air temperature in October: +20° during the day, +14° at night
Popular hotels in Gagra
Gelendzhik
Gelendzhik is a Black Sea resort at the foot of the Markotkh Ridge, with an almost perfectly round bay and a promenade about 14 km long. The Safari Park cable car carries you up to the ridge in twenty minutes, while the Old Park in Kabardinka and the Château de Talu winery on Tolstyi Cape add up to a full itinerary over several days. The airport has been running again since July 2025, and Moscow is just four hours away by air.
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +12° at night
Popular hotels in Gelendzhik
Kabardinka
Kabardinka is a resort village on the Black Sea coast between Gelendzhik and Novorossiysk, where pebble beaches and a green promenade sit alongside the driest microclimate in the area. The main draw is the Old Park, with two dozen architectural eras packed into half a hectare, and half an hour away are the Abrau-Dyurso wineries and the Utrish nature reserve. In summer the water in the bay warms to +25–26 °C, so most travellers come between June…
Air temperature in October: +17° during the day, +10° at night
Popular hotels in Kabardinka
Kazan
Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan, where the white Kul-Sharif Mosque and the Annunciation Cathedral of the UNESCO-listed Kremlin stand next to Bauman pedestrian street and the one-and-a-half-kilometer Kremlin Embankment. A weekend easily fits in the Old Tatar Quarter with echpochmak and chak-chak, the view from the Söyembikä Tower, and a trip to the island-town of Sviyazhsk. In June people come here for Sabantuy; in winter — for Russia's longest…
Air temperature in October: +9° during the day, +3° at night
Popular hotels in Kazan
Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk is the main balneological resort of the Caucasian Mineral Waters and at the same time a "garden town": life here revolves around narzan and walks along terrenkur trails. Kurortny Boulevard with the Gothic Narzan Gallery, six national park routes with the Valley of Roses and the Red Stones, and day trips to the Honey Waterfalls and Mount Koltso — the holiday turns out to be unhurried yet full.
Air temperature in October: +16° during the day, +6° at night
Popular hotels in Kislovodsk
Kostroma
Kostroma is the Volga hub of the Golden Ring, with the cradle of the Romanov dynasty at the Ipatiev Monastery and a "fan-shaped" city center laid out under Catherine II. A weekend fits in Susaninskaya Square with its Fire Tower, the Merchant Rows, the embankment with Ostrovsky's Gazebo, and Snegurochka's Terem. In summer people come for the Cheese Festival; in winter — for the Ice Room and Yuletide programs.
Air temperature in October: +7° during the day, +1° at night
Popular hotels in Kostroma
Makhachkala
Makhachkala is the capital of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea and a convenient base for trips around the republic. Inside the city itself: the Central Juma Mosque, the pedestrian Rasul Gamzatov Avenue, Rodopsky Boulevard between the national theaters, and a kilometer-long sandy beach in the central district. In a day from Makhachkala you can reach the Sulak Canyon, the Sarykum dune, and ancient Derbent, while at the Second Market you can try urbech,…
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +13° at night
Popular hotels in Makhachkala
Minsk
Minsk is the compact capital of Belarus, where the Stalinist Empire style of Nezavisimosti Avenue sits alongside the colourful houses of the Trinity Suburb and the Upper Town by Freedom Square. A weekend is enough to cycle the 27-kilometre path along the Svislach, drop by Loshytsa Park and try draniki with machanka at Rakauski Brovar or Vasilki. From Moscow, the Lastochka train takes 7 hours, or you can fly in just over an hour.
Air temperature in October: +11° during the day, +4° at night
Popular hotels in Minsk
Moscow
Moscow is a capital with a thousand-year history and a density of landmarks on every block. The Kremlin and Red Square, Zaryadye Park right beside the Moskva River, the Tretyakov Gallery in Zamoskvorechye and the 325 hectares of VDNKh let you build a programme for any budget and season. The 1935 Metro, the MCC and four MCDs link one end of the city to the other in about an hour.
Air temperature in October: +9° during the day, +4° at night
Popular hotels in Moscow
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod grew on the steep bank where the Oka meets the Volga: the 16th-century Kremlin stands above the river, and from Minin Square the 560 steps of the Chkalov Stairs run down to the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment. After the restoration for the 800th anniversary, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, Rozhdestvenskaya, and Zapochainye have turned into lively pedestrian quarters, and the summer Strelka hosts festivals — from "Strelka" in June to VK Fest in…
Air temperature in October: +8° during the day, +1° at night
Popular hotels in Nizhny Novgorod
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the capital of Siberia and the gateway to Altai, where in a single day you can catch a performance at Russia's largest Opera House, walk Krasny Prospekt from Lenin Square to the embankment, and see the Ob from the world's longest covered metro bridge. Beyond the city, Akademgorodok in a pine forest and the beaches of the Ob Sea await, while winter brings snow sculpture festivals and the Trans-Siberian Art Festival in March.
Air temperature in October: +5° during the day, -2° at night
Popular hotels in Novosibirsk
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient Russian city at the confluence of the Velikaya and Pskova rivers, where the stone Krom and ten churches of the Pskov school of architecture from the UNESCO list have been preserved. Over a weekend you can walk around the Kremlin with Trinity Cathedral, head down to the Golden Embankment and take day trips to Izborsk, Pechory and Pushkinskiye Gory. In summer the "Dovmont of Pskov" reenactment takes place, and in autumn there is…
Air temperature in October: +9° during the day, +4° at night
Popular hotels in Pskov
Pushkin
Pushkin — the former Tsarskoye Selo, 25 km from Saint Petersburg — is one of the main palace suburbs under UNESCO protection. The Catherine Palace with its restored Amber Room, Alexander Park, and the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum fit into a full weekend, and a suburban train from Vitebsky Station gets you here in half an hour. In autumn the alleys of Catherine Park turn golden, and on 19 October the town celebrates Lyceum Day.
Air temperature in October: +8° during the day, +3° at night
Popular hotels in Pushkin
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city of orderly embankments, palaces, and museums all within a couple of kilometers of Palace Square. People come for a weekend for the Hermitage and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the White Nights with bridge openings in June–July, and day trips to Peterhof, Pushkin, and Kronstadt. In winter the Mariinsky Theatre and queue-free museums join the lineup.
Air temperature in October: +9° during the day, +4° at night
Popular hotels in Saint Petersburg
Samara
Samara is a city of over a million on the left bank of the Volga, with the river's longest landscaped embankment, running more than five kilometers. A weekend fits in a walk from the Ladya to the Leningradsky Descent, the Art Nouveau quarter around pedestrian Leningradskaya, the "Samara Kosmicheskaya" museum with a real Soyuz rocket, and a trip across the river to the Zhiguli Mountains.
Air temperature in October: +10° during the day, +2° at night
Popular hotels in Samara
Sevastopol
Sevastopol links ancient Chersonesus and the museums of the 1854–1855 defence with the open sea: the formal Count's Landing and Primorsky Boulevard lead to boats across the bay, while 15 kilometres away lies the narrow Balaklava Bay with the Cembalo fortress and an under-cliff submarine base. Beach season runs from May to September, with a milder "velvet season" through mid-October. Reach the city by train across the Crimean Bridge or via…
Air temperature in October: +17° during the day, +12° at night
Popular hotels in Sevastopol
Sirius
Sirius is Russia's first federal territory and the Olympic legacy of Sochi-2014, now transformed into an independent resort. Here you'll find the Olympic Park with its singing fountains and the Fisht Stadium, the Sochi Autodrom track, the themed Sochi Park with the castle-hotel "Bogatyr" and the nearly eight-kilometre Imeretinskaya Embankment by the sea. From Adler Airport it's 12 minutes by "Lastochka" train, and about forty to Krasnaya Polyana.
Air temperature in October: +19° during the day, +13° at night
Popular hotels in Sirius
Sudak
Sudak is a compact resort in south-eastern Crimea, where a 14th-century Genoese fortress towers above Sudak Bay and Cypress Alley leads straight to a long beach. In 20 minutes you can drive to Novy Svet and walk the 5-km Golitsyn Trail to the Chaliapin Grotto, and the sea here stays warm until mid-October.
Air temperature in October: +17° during the day, +10° at night
Popular hotels in Sudak
Suzdal
Suzdal is a museum-town in Vladimir Oblast, where nine thousand residents share more than two hundred architectural landmarks — and not a single factory. A weekend fits in the kremlin with the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, four working monasteries, and the Museum of Wooden Architecture on the bank of the Kamenka. In early August people come here for Cucumber Day; in winter — for snowy panoramas and a tasting of ten varieties of…
Air temperature in October: +8° during the day, +2° at night
Popular hotels in Suzdal
Svetlogorsk
Svetlogorsk is a Baltic resort on the site of German Rauschen, where a wave-shaped promenade renovated in 2019 with the largest sundial in Europe sits alongside early 20th-century villas and a 1908 water tower. A weekend fits in the beach below the cliff with its cable car, a concert at Yantar-Hall, and a side trip to nearby Yantarny to the world's leading amber mine.
Air temperature in October: +13° during the day, +10° at night
Popular hotels in Svetlogorsk
Tyumen
Tyumen is the first Russian city in Siberia and the Urals’ leading thermal destination. The four-level Tura Embankment, with a height difference of 24 metres, the Lovers’ Bridge and Tsvetnoy Boulevard form a compact walking route, while the Verkhny Bor, LetoLeto and Avan hot springs await outside the city — you can bathe in them all year round, even in the January frost.
Air temperature in October: +5° during the day, -1° at night
Popular hotels in Tyumen
Ufa
Ufa is the capital of Bashkortostan at the confluence of the Belaya, Ufa and Dyoma rivers: a million-strong city with no metro but with a four-tier embankment stretching 7 km and Russia's largest equestrian statue of Salavat Yulaev. Over a weekend you can fit in the historic centre with its Gostiny Dvor and Art-Kvadrat plus the northern district of Chernikovka with its Stalinist Empire architecture and the Lyalya-Tulpan Mosque, and with a couple…
Air temperature in October: +8° during the day, 0° at night
Popular hotels in Ufa
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is the capital of the Urals, where the historic center around the 1723 Plotinka dam lives side by side with the glass Yeltsin Center and the observation deck of the "Vysotsky" tower. A weekend is enough for a walking route from the Church on the Blood to the pedestrian Vainer Street, while within an hour of the city you reach the border of Europe and Asia, Ganina Yama and the leaning Nevyansk tower. The best time for a visit is late…
Air temperature in October: +6° during the day, 0° at night
Popular hotels in Yekaterinburg
Yeysk
Yeysk is an Azov resort on the Taganrog Gulf with a shallow warm sea and steady winds. The Yeysk Spit stretches 10 kilometers into the sea and offers three spots for different wind directions for kite and windsurfing. The embankment with a monument to the vareniki dumpling, Poddubny Park and the therapeutic muds of Lake Khanskoye round out the picture with family holidays and a mud clinic dating back to 1921.
Air temperature in October: +16° during the day, +10° at night
Popular hotels in Yeysk
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is Russia's only Baltic city, where the Gothic Cathedral with Kant's grave, the half-timbered Fishing Village and the villas of Amalienau share space with the B-413 submarine at the Museum of the World Ocean. People come for the weekend to catch organ concerts on Kant Island, see the amber and take radial trips to the sea — to Svetlogorsk, Zelenogradsk and the Curonian Spit.
Air temperature in October: +13° during the day, +7° at night
Popular hotels in Kaliningrad
Krasnaya Polyana
Krasnaya Polyana is a resort valley on the Mzymta River, 42 km from Adler Airport, where three mountain resorts stand side by side: Rosa Khutor, Krasnaya Polyana Resort, and Gazprom. In winter, visitors come for skiing and snowboarding; in summer, for the cable car up to Rosa Peak, the Mendelikha waterfall park, and the 72-metre Polikarya falls. The Lastochka train links the village with the sea in under an hour.
Air temperature in October: +19° during the day, +13° at night
Popular hotels in Krasnaya Polyana
Krasnodar
Krasnodar is southern Russia's capital and a convenient base for trips to the sea and the mountains of Adygea. The pedestrian Krasnaya Street, the reconstructed Triumphal Arch, and Galitsky Park with the FC Krasnodar stadium make for a self-contained weekend storyline, while Sennoy Market and the signature food scene make it one of the south's leading gastro hubs.
Air temperature in October: +19° during the day, +9° at night
Popular hotels in Krasnodar
Lazarevskoye
Lazarevskoye is a large resort village on the Black Sea coast of Sochi, with a kilometre-long promenade and Pavlov Park, home to a Ferris wheel 83.5 metres tall. On a single holiday you can venture out to the 33 Waterfalls and to Svirskoye and Mamedovo gorges, while across the resort's 161 hotels prices start from 1,680 ₽ per night. From Sochi Airport it's about two hours on the Lastochka train.
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +12° at night
Popular hotels in Lazarevskoye
Loo
Loo is a seaside village in Greater Sochi, a 20-minute Lastochka train ride from the city centre, between Dagomys and Vardane. A five-kilometre pebble beach, the indoor AquaLoo water park and the ruins of a 10th–12th-century Byzantine church on the hill above set the tone for a quiet family holiday, while trains and the A-147 highway make the village a convenient base for trips along the coast and up to Krasnaya Polyana.
Air temperature in October: +20° during the day, +17° at night
Popular hotels in Loo
Pyatigorsk
Pyatigorsk is the main resort of the Caucasian Mineral Waters and a compact city at the foot of the five-peaked Beshtau. In a day you can fit in the cable car up Mashuk, a walk along Kirova Avenue with Tsvetnik Park, and the Lermontov trail with the Aeolian Harp and the duel site. In a week — sanatorium pump rooms with narzan water and day trips to Kislovodsk, Yessentuki, and Zheleznovodsk.
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +7° at night
Popular hotels in Pyatigorsk
Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don is a southern city of over a million on the high bank of the Don, where the imperial Bolshaya Sadovaya and the Fyodor Ushakov Embankment sit next to the twenty-kilometer recreational strip of Levberdon. A weekend fits in a walk through the historic center, Armenian Nakhichevan with the Surb Khach Monastery, and an evening with Don crayfish at a floating restaurant on the left bank. In summer it reaches +33 °C with river boats…
Air temperature in October: +18° during the day, +7° at night
Popular hotels in Rostov-on-Don
Ryazan
Ryazan is an old Russian town on the Oka, two hundred kilometers from Moscow, where a Kremlin preserved without rebuilds — with Russia's tallest seven-tier iconostasis — sits alongside the pedestrian Pochtovaya Street and the country's only Airborne Forces Museum. People come here for the weekend for the Assumption Cathedral, walks above the Trubezh, and kurnik pies, and from Ryazan they head out to piney Solotcha in Paustovsky's footsteps and to…
Air temperature in October: +10° during the day, +2° at night
Popular hotels in Ryazan
Sochi
Sochi is Russia's largest resort, stretching for 145 kilometres along the Black Sea: the beaches of Adler and Lazarevskoye, the subtropical Arboretum, the Olympic Park and the Stalin-era Sea Port. In an hour the Lastochka whisks you from the sea to Krasnaya Polyana, where cable cars and slopes climb to 2,320 metres. Summer brings the beach season and festivals, winter the skiing and Matsesta.
Air temperature in October: +19° during the day, +12° at night
Popular hotels in Sochi
Tula
Tula is a regional capital two hours from Moscow on the Lastochka train, with a 16th-century kremlin, Kazanskaya Embankment along the Upa, and the Oktava creative cluster inside a former microphone factory. Metallistov Street and Belousov Park fill a walking day in the city, while the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate 14 km away and Kulikovo Field 130 km away offer material for day trips.
Air temperature in October: +10° during the day, +2° at night
Popular hotels in Tula
Tver
Tver stands on the Volga 170 km from Moscow — the ancient capital of the principality that rivaled Moscow, and a "little Petersburg" with a regular street plan after the fire of 1763. The Imperial Travel Palace, pedestrian Tryokhsvyatskaya Street, the Volga embankments and the monument to Afanasy Nikitin will fill a day; a weekend easily extends with a trip to Torzhok, Staritsa or Lake Seliger.
Air temperature in October: +8° during the day, +2° at night
Popular hotels in Tver
Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod is one of Russia's oldest cities, where the Kremlin with its 11th‑century St. Sophia Cathedral and the merchants' Yaroslav's Court sit on opposite banks of the Volkhov. Over a weekend you can walk the Detinets with its Millennium of Russia monument, make it out to St. George's Monastery and the Vitoslavlitsy open‑air museum of wooden architecture 10 km from the center, and try local medovukha and Ilmen pike‑perch. Even a short…
Air temperature in October: +8° during the day, +4° at night
Popular hotels in Veliky Novgorod
Volgograd
Volgograd is a memorial city stretched for dozens of kilometres along the right bank of the Volga. Mamayev Kurgan with its 85-metre "Motherland Calls", the "Battle of Stalingrad" panorama museum, and the 62nd Army Embankment together form the main route of any trip here. Add to that the metrotram — Russia's only underground tram — the 18th-century German colony at Old Sarepta, and a hot steppe summer with sunsets over the Volga.
Air temperature in October: +15° during the day, +5° at night
Popular hotels in Volgograd
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city of a million people and the "capital of the Black Earth Region," where Peter the Great built Russia's first regular fleet, and where the museum ship "Goto Predestinatsia" now stands at Admiralteyskaya Square. In a single day you can walk from the constructivism of Revolution Avenue to the Petrovskaya Embankment, and in June the city hosts the Platonov International Arts Festival. Beyond the city await the chalk pillars of…
Air temperature in October: +12° during the day, +4° at night
Popular hotels in Voronezh
Vyborg
Vyborg is the only Russian city with a surviving medieval castle and layered traces of a Swedish, Finnish, and Russian past. A weekend fits in St. Olaf's Tower, a walk along Krepostnaya Street with the Round and Clock Towers, and the rocky Mon Repos Park on Tverdysh Island. In August the city hosts Window to Europe, the St. Olaf's knights' tournament, and City Day, while the Lastochka train from St. Petersburg gets you there in 1 hour 15 minutes.
Air temperature in October: +9° during the day, +5° at night
Popular hotels in Vyborg
Yalta
Yalta is the main resort on Crimea's Southern Coast, with a subtropical climate, imperial palaces and a kilometre-long seafront promenade. In summer daytime temperatures stay at +25…+28 °C, and in September the velvet season leaves the sea warm but without the crowds. Livadia and Vorontsov palaces, the Swallow's Nest, the Ai-Petri cable car and the Nikitsky Botanical Garden are all within an hour of the centre.
Air temperature in October: +17° during the day, +11° at night
Popular hotels in Yalta
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a thousand-year-old center of the Golden Ring at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl, whose historic center is included in the UNESCO list. The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, the Church of Elijah the Prophet with 17th-century frescoes, and the three-kilometer Volzhskaya Embankment add up to a full weekend, and the Lastochka train from Moscow gets you here in three hours.
Air temperature in October: +7° during the day, +1° at night
Popular hotels in Yaroslavl
Zelenogradsk
Zelenogradsk is the former Prussian resort of Cranz on the Baltic coast, 30 km from Kaliningrad and four kilometres from the Curonian Spit. The pedestrian Kurortny Prospekt, a multi-kilometre promenade, the 1905 water tower with the Murarium cat museum, and a free mineral-water pump room fit into a short weekend, while the dunes, the Dancing Forest, and Efa Height add a day out in nature.
Air temperature in October: +13° during the day, +9° at night
