| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 19/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 51 |
| Copyright: Other |
Market Overview by Brian Richards
Latest products hail from Russia with love
Inventive holiday packages are booming
Winston Churchill’s old quote, “It is a riddle wrapped inside a mystery inside an enigma,” was the view of Russia in the last century – but should not have any resonance today, with more Russian holiday packages on offer than ever before.The top-selling Russian products have traditionally been city-break packages to Moscow and St Petersburg, also twin-centres to the two cities. But operators including Crystal, Interchange, Intourist, Mastertours, Norvista, Regent, Sovereign, Time Off and Thomas Cook have developed their product beyond the cities. Add-ons now range from opera and ballet breaks to coach tours and the long Trans-Siberian rail haul. For nostalgic cold warriors there’s even a Spying Game package. Travel Weekly looks at the options:
Tallinn: the Old Town and Town Hall Square
Russia features on itineraries of two weeks upwards with the major coach tour operators; clients stay in Moscow and St Petersburg and usually spend a night in Novgorod.
Insight’s 16-day Northern Capitals and Russia tour, priced from £1,335, spends five nights in Russia.
Clients fly to Berlin and travel by coach through Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Scandinavia.
Two 16-day tours – Leger Holidays’ Great Russian Spectacular, from £899, and Wallace Arnold’s Magnificent Russian Experience, from £999, go by coach all the way from Britain. Leger spends six nights in Russia, including three in St Petersburg; WA’s tour has five Russian overnights.
Cosmos has two itineraries – the 18-day Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia tour from £979 (flying to Frankfurt) and 15-day Baltics, St Petersburg and Moscow tour from £968.
The two tours spend five and six nights respectively in Russia.
Major operators take in the sights by road
Straight to Helsinki and St Petersberg
Finnair-owned Norvista and Intourist pair Helsinki and St Petersberg, leading in from £602, including a 6hr rail transfer and flights.
Norvista marketing manager Graham Small said: “The cities are an intriguing combination – they complement each other.”
The package includes three nights in St Petersburg and two in Helsinki.
Intourist offers three nights in Helsinki and four in St Petersburg from £615. It can also tailor-make twin-centre or multi-centre itineraries with the Baltic states capitals – Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.
Operators combining Moscow and St Petersburg in flight-inclusive packages, with travel between the cities by overnight train, include Intourist (seven nights from £449) and Norvista (seven nights from £832). Interchange, Regent and Steppes East will tailor-make two-city combinations.
Culture is the key to unlocking the famous cities of Russia
The world-famous Bolshoi Ballet began as a dancing class at a Moscow orphanage, though the Bolshoi Theatre is just as renowned for its opera. Mastertours offer three-night Moscow packages that include a night out at the Bolshoi for either opera or ballet performances, leading in from £621. Intourist from £725.
Intourist also offers a three day package (from £725) and a seven-night Bolshoi package from £1,099, while Mastertours has three-night packages to a performance by the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) company in St Petersburg from £566.
Time Off can arrange Bolshoi and Mariinsky tickets with short breaks in its City Selection; Crystal offers a pre-bookable excursion to the Hermitage art museum in St Petersburg for £35.
There is more to Russia than tutus and point-work.
Abercrombie and Kent’s five-night break, which leads in from £1,879 for October 11 departures focuses on St Petersburg’s cultural highlights, including the Hermitage and the palaces of Peterhof, Menshikov, Yussopov and Catherine the Great.
Clients stay at the five-star Astoria in St Petersburg. A two-night Moscow extension by train is available from £510.
Departing Gatwick on October 11 is a four-night Hidden Interiors of St Petersburg break from Steppes East. Led by Katya Galitzine – a descendent of Catherine the Great – the tour is priced from £1,195, including flights. Steppes East focuses on folk art in its seven-night tour of the Golden Ring towns outside Moscow departing September 9. Studio visits to see wood-turning, filigree and lacquer work are included; the full-board tour is priced from £1,585.
The Bolshoi Ballet: began as a dancing class at a Moscow orphanage
Offering a different type of tour
New operator, Mastertours, has a weekend Spying Game package to Moscow where clients follow up clues in a treasure hunt-style event.
“Everyone is given maps, metro tokens, a camera and, in the best spying tradition, poison capsules,” said operations supervisor Tim Campbell.
The price, from £509 in the three-star Rossia or £655 at the five-star Marriott Royal, includes two nights’ accommodation, some meals, return Transaero flights and visa.
Operators featuring the mighty trans-Asian railway journeys across eight time zones include Intourist, Mastertours and Regent Holidays.
Regent offers the widest selection with prices from £380 for the Beijing-Moscow rail journey. The 12-day Trans-Mongolian trip from Moscow to Beijing, including hotel overnights in Moscow, Irkutsk and Ulan Bator, costs £770 (both prices exclude London-Moscow flights).
Intourist offers a 15-night rail package on the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Manchurian railways from Moscow to Beijing from £1,459; it includes two nights each in Moscow and Irkutsk and four nights in Beijing.
Mastertours’ 10-night Trans Mongolian Railway package includes one night in Moscow, three nights in Beijing and six on the train, from £1,399, including flights and visas.
Steppes East tailor-makes itineraries, including demand for the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east of the country. “It’s a fascinating and remote part of the country, with bears, pack wolves, reindeer and bird colonies,” said sales executive Paul Craven.
Mongolia: enjoy the wide open spaces