Beetroot Trips

the inside track to Russia

 

Why Beetroot?

Beetroots are at the heart of Russian cooking – from a steaming bowl of borsch in winter, through to a tangy “herrings in an overcoat” salad in summer. Beetroot trips offer you the inside track to the real Russia – filling, wholesome, and traditional as Russian borsch!

 

About Beetroot trips

Beetroot trips are run by destination experts The Russia Experience. Unlike our Private Trips, which are run for individuals, Beetroot trips are operated for small groups (and, over the Christmas and Easter holidays, for slightly larger groups too). The social aspect of a small group trip appeals to many clients, and splitting the transport costs among a few more people puts more out-of-the-way locations within budgetary reach.

 

Moscow

Russia's enormous capital (the second-largest city in Europe, after London) has been the fortress-bastion of the medieval Tsars, the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church, the nerve-centre of Soviet power, and now once again capital of Russia. This jumbled history leaves a legacy in which outrageous Cold War prestige-project excesses sit cheek-by-jowl with medieval bastions and the mansions of Russia's billionaire merchants of old. Fused onto all of this is the pleasure-loving lifestyle of Europe's “nouvelles russes” - nightclubs, bars, eateries, sports bars, cabaret clubs – operating happily alongside the soviet legacy of state-supported Arts – ballet, opera, art-galleries and museums. It's a heady and rich mixture that leaves visitors reeling from the fast pace, enormous variety, and round-the-clock lifestyle of the city that never sleeps.

 

St Petersburg

One-time capital, St Petersburg was Europe's first-and-only purpose-built capital city – built with characteristic Russian swagger to prove that “anything you can do, we can do better”. Its palaces outdid Versailles or Schonbrunn; all of Europe's finest retailers opened branches here; the top architects were hired from Germany, Italy, and France; and to provide some elegant conversation, even Europe's most highly-rated philosophers were made handsome offers to relocate to the most scintillating Royal Court of the continent. The canals of Venice and Amsterdam were carefully replicated as working waterways, a powerful Royal Navy was built from scratch in the Royal Shipyards, and to entertain the elite a circle of country palaces of the nobility sprung-up around the city, each surrounded by elegant landscape parks and gardens. Under Communism the status of capital was moved back to Moscow (for strategic reasons – the time was WW1, and the German army had advanced to within 11 miles of the city). But Leningrad (as the city was known during the USSR period) prospered as the “alternative” capital of the country, away from Moscow's icy grip.. it was a city where underground rock and jazz clubs, unofficial artists, banned authors and even a nascent gay culture flourished in “refusenik” events and venues. The “arty” aspect of St Pete's is still one of the strongest reasons for visiting – alongside the legacy of Russia's ambitious Imperial-era architecture, and the sweeping riverscape views.