Our Chinese department:
The journey starts in Sortavala, where you need to get to on your own on the first day of the program.
We recommend purchasing tickets for train No. 160B with arrival from Moscow to Sortavala at 08:25.
After meeting at the station in Sortavala, you will have breakfast in a cafe and go to the Black Stones Zoo.
The Karelian Zoo is the only place in the region where you can see rare animals in their natural environment. More than 450 species of animals and birds, including those listed in the Red Book, live here, among the Karelian forest of picturesque reservoirs.
You will be able to chat, pet and feed some of them with special treats (for an additional fee). This is a fascinating encounter with nature, which will give vivid impressions to both adults and children.
Lunch at a cafe in the zoo.
Transfer to Ruskeala Mountain Park. A guided land tour awaits you here.
Ruskeala marble quarry is a monument of cultural heritage of Russia. Development here began in 1765.
The walls of the famous St. Isaac's Cathedral, Ladozhskaya and Primorskaya metro stations in St. Petersburg are decorated with Ruskeal marble. The quarry is a huge system of underground tunnels and tunnels connected by vertical shafts. Most of them were flooded after the Great Patriotic War, and the quarry turned into an amazingly beautiful lake with turquoise-tinged water, the transparency of which reaches 15-18 meters.
After the guided tour, you will have free time to walk around the park.
You can take a ride on the famous Ruskeala Express (for an additional fee) to Sortavala Railway Station (travel time is 1 hour).
The Ruskeala Express is the only regular steam–powered tourist train in Russia. It runs along the route of the land road that transported Ruskeala marble to Lake Ladoga.
Transfer to the Yagodnaya Village country complex, which is located on two islands of Lake Ladoga separated by the strait.
Dinner at the complex's restaurant with Karelian cuisine.
You will spend the night in cozy cabins with all the amenities.
