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 August: +29° during the day, +22° at night
Popular hotels in Alushta
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 August: +28° during the day, +21° 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 August: +31° during the day, +22° 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 August: +22° during the day, +12° at night
Popular hotels in Arkhyz
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 August: +29° during the day, +22° 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 August: +30° during the day, +22° 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 August: +29° during the day, +20° 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 August: +24° during the day, +15° 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 August: +26° during the day, +16° at night
Popular hotels in Kislovodsk
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 August: +23° during the day, +13° 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 August: +23° during the day, +14° 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 August: +23° during the day, +14° 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 August: +23° during the day, +13° 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 August: +21° during the day, +13° at night
Popular hotels in Pskov
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 August: +21° during the day, +13° 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 August: +28° during the day, +16° at night
Popular hotels in Samara
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 August: +22° during the day, +13° at night
Popular hotels in Yekaterinburg
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 August: +22° during the day, +15° at night
Popular hotels in Kaliningrad
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 August: +32° during the day, +21° 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 August: +29° during the day, +21° at night
Popular hotels in Lazarevskoye
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 August: +28° during the day, +21° at night
Popular hotels in Sochi
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 August: +21° during the day, +13° at night
Popular hotels in Veliky Novgorod
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 August: +28° during the day, +21° 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 August: +22° during the day, +13° at night
