| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 19/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 50 |
| Copyright: Other |
Cruising market
Setting sail: the Volga river is a good way to see Russia’s famous sightsWith so many historic ports of call en route, a cruise down the mighty Volga is a good way to journey into Russia’s past.
Russian cruises usually focus on Moscow-St Petersburg itineraries, linked with hotel stays in both cities.
Ports of call predominantly include Uglich, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Goritzy, Irma, Kizhi island, Svirstroy, Petrozavodsk and Valaam.
Intourist has 14-night and 11-night cruise options, from £1,389 and £1,025 respectively. The longer itinerary spends three days each in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Mastertours has an 11-night Moscow-St Petersburg cruise package from £1,618. Page and Moy covers a similar 11-night itinerary between the cities from £1,095. Cosmos Tourama does likewise from £978 while Scantours offers an 11-night cruise package from £990 with SAS flights going via Copenhagen.
For some Finnish flavour, Norvista combines the Moscow-St Petersburg cruise with two nights in Helsinki – one inbound and one outbound.
The 10-night package costs from £1,285.
There is also a single 19-night Volga cruise package from Intourist for those keen to explore the vast Russian hinterland by river.
It departs on September 9 and costs from £1,789.
Abercrombie and Kent is offering a White Sea cruise on the MS Explorer out of Longyearbyen, Spitzbergen for summer next year. The cruise will explore the region around Archangel close to the Arctic Circle.
The cruise itinerary includes the Solovetsky Islands, Severodvinsk, the Dvina River delta and Archangel.
It departs on July 28 next year and costs from £5,910, including return flights from Heathrow via Oslo.