Experience New Year's Eve at the Czar's Ball in St. Petersburg

  • July 21, 2011
Experience New Year's Eve at the Czar's Ball in St. Petersburg
Also included is an express train to Moscow to experience the capital before touring the Golden Ring towns of Vladimir and Suzdal. The Russian Winter Wonder Land: New Year's in St. Petersburg small group tour runs Dec. 29 to Jan. 7, 2012, and is priced from $5,095 per person. Also available is a Trans-Siberian winter rail journey on the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express, on one of two departures -- eastbound Moscow to Vladivostok, Feb. 18 to Mar. 3, 2012, or westbound Vladivostok to Moscow, Mar. 1 to 15, 2012.

The itinerary includes Red Square, the Kremlin and a tour of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow; two of Russia's oldest cities and UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Golden Ring cities of Vladimir and Suzdal; Ekaterinberg, the place where the last czar, Nicolas II, was executed; an exploration of Irkutsk and Lake Baikal with classic Siberian wooden architecture, ice fishing and dog sledding; multi-ethnic Ulan Ude and a village home experience; UlaanBaatar on the Mongolian steppe where Genghis Khan once roamed; and Vladivostok, Russia's Pacific Rim port. The 15-day program starts at $13,795 per person, double, and includes two nights in five-star hotels and 12 nights aboard the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express.

MIR Corporation, whose name means "peace" and "world" in Russian, has specialized in Russia (and neighboring countries) since 1986. Offering scheduled and custom journeys to Russia, along the Trans-Siberian and across the Silk Route, MIR's Seattle-based experts design imaginative trips that take travelers far from the familiar, and work closely with local affiliates in Western Russia, Siberia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to carry them out. For more information, visit https://www.mircorp.com/czarsball.asp.