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A travel route along the Golden Ring is a fascinating construction set that may include both “classic” cities and less popular but no less interesting ones. It all depends on your plans and preferences. The cities of the “classic” Golden Ring will always remain unchanged:
- Vladimir,
- Suzdal,
- Ivanovo,
- Kostroma,
- Rostov Veliky,
- Yaroslavl,
- Pereslavl-Zalessky,
- Sergiev Posad.
You can optionally add to them those cities that you would like to see and which in one way or another “dilute” this route.
Uglich should definitely become such a city , especially since several years ago it was officially included in this route.
For us, visiting Bogolyubovo (and Pokrov-on-Nerl) and Plyos, completely undeservedly bypassed by this route, but fit so well into the trip plan, became mandatory. All cities on our route on the map:
In 2022, a decision was officially made to create a new brand - the Big Golden Ring, which included both Ples and Bogolyubovo, since all the cities of the Vladimir and Ivanovo regions are already included in this brand. I tell you more about the Great Golden Circle and new routes here.
Travelers often wonder about the “entry point” to the Golden Ring. Where to enter from - everyone decides for themselves by looking at the map. Muscovites are lucky in this regard: they have direct transportation to any of the cities listed above. Everyone else was a little less lucky. I’m not discussing car travel here: everything is clear, just select a set of points on the map that interest you and go ahead. But traveling around Russia on public transport is quite a puzzle, so let’s take a closer look at how convenient it will be to travel by bus and train.
The beginning of the Golden Circle
Golden ring from Moscow
So, the most optimal entry point is Moscow, from here we take the train to Sergiev Posad - and then in a circle. Below I will look at all the possible options for moving between cities.
You can also start your journey from Vladimir: a little less than 2 hours by train from Moscow, and the trip has already begun.
The beginning and end of the Golden Circle
What else should you consider when deciding where to start? I repeat, theoretically, any city can become an entry point, just look at the map: I deliberately left our “ring” open. The fact is that, no matter how hard I tried, I did not find a single option for moving between Sergiev Posad and Vladimir - only through Moscow! Therefore, it is most convenient to start:
- from Vladimir
- from Sergiev Posad.
And then - a ride in a circle - around the ring! That is, both of these cities can become either the beginning or the end of the trip.
In order not to come to Moscow twice during the trip, we decided to go through Nizhny Novgorod . Direct transfer from Saratov to see the city - a wonderful city! — and a short direct transfer to Vladimir. This is the beginning of the Golden Ring!
Download route maps for the cities of the Golden Ring
Ivanovo
At 15:30 we left towards Ivanovo - an hour’s journey and we entered the city of brides. There was no plan to stop here, so we admire the city from the car window and move on. Today Plyos on the Volga awaits us, it’s still an hour away.
Having checked into the hotel at 18:00, we set off to wander around the evening Ples. We walk along the Volga embankment, take pictures with Sofia Kuvshinnikova (Levitan’s friend, immortalized in bronze), buy smoked fish and ice cream and climb first one hill, and then the second, to the church that served as the prototype for the painting “Above Eternal Peace.”
A tightly built wooden staircase with railings, arches and benches leads to Levitan Hill. At the top we are greeted by the bronze Levitan, thoughtfully looking at the sunset blazing over the Volga. The setting sun, breaking out of the clouds, turns everything around red. What a beauty!
We don’t want to leave, but our daughter quickly brings us back to reality - it’s time to go home. We arrived at the hotel without legs. For dinner we eat smoked fish, washed down with Suzdal mead, and go to bed!…
Golden ring on bus and train
I know how difficult it is to look for moving options, so I write everything that we have personally tested with a guarantee. I indicate all travel prices in the article Golden Ring of Russia: how much does an independent trip cost?
Vladimir - Bogolyubovo city bus.
Bogolyubovo - Pokrova-on-Nerl - on foot.
Vladimir - Suzdal - bus. Schedule
Suzdal - Ivanovo - minibus. They go frequently and strictly on schedule, don’t be late! We saw the “tail” of our minibus and sat at the bus station for an hour, drinking Suzdal mead. Schedule
Ivanovo - Ples - bus, runs frequently, see the schedule here
Ples - Kostroma. Unfortunately, there is no such bus. But! Not far from Plyos there is the city of Privolzhsk (you will go through it from Ivanovo), and the Ivanovo bus goes through this city to Kostroma. This means that you will need to get from Plyos to Privolzhsk, and from the bus station go to the outskirts of the city, to the highway, there is a stop overlooking the church - buses to Kostroma stop here. It will be better than going to Ivanovo and back! Schedule
Ivanovo - Kostroma - bus. Schedule
Kostroma - Yaroslavl - bus, runs every hour and even more often. Schedule
Yaroslavl - Rostov - bus, there are a lot of options, it runs very often, which is convenient. Schedule
Rostov - Uglich - Rostov - bus, tickets are sold before boarding (the bus leaves from Yaroslavl). This bus runs through Rostov only once a day; you need to plan carefully so that you are on time and not late. The bus leaves Rostov at 14.05 and arrives in Uglich at 16.05. View the schedule The bus leaves Uglich early in the morning - at 7.20 - (also the only option to go to Rostov). Or return to Yaroslavl. Schedule and tickets
Rostov - Pereslavl-Zalessky - bus, runs frequently, so if you didn’t have time to see everything in Rostov, you can stay longer. Schedule
Pereslavl - Sergiev Posad - minibus. Check the schedule, come to the bus station in advance to buy tickets: there may not be enough seats! Schedule
Sergiev Posad - Moscow - train, runs very often.
Suzdal
Second day.
I woke up at 7:00 am completely sleepy. It was a beautiful morning, and swimming gave me energy and a good mood. We have breakfast, get ready and leave at 9:20. Heading to Suzdal.
Half an hour later we are already parking near the shopping arcades.
It’s still sunny, but ominous black clouds are already roaming along the horizon. So we decide to first walk along the earthen rampart towards the Kamenka River.
Then we’ll see the open-air museum of wooden architecture, and then it’s your luck.
Along the way we taste mead - delicious! The Museum of Wooden Architecture is reminiscent of Kostroma and Novgorod; they are probably all designed in the same way. Peasant huts from the poor to the wealthy, a merchant's house, windmills, wooden churches - everywhere you can look in and take a closer look.
I was pleased with the exposition of cereal fields, useful for a city dweller - plots sown with wheat, oats, rye and other crops. Everything is signed for those who are not in the know.
Meanwhile, the clouds on the horizon thickened, the wind blew, and it began to rumble. We realized that it was time to go somewhere under a roof. They took their legs in their hands and ran towards the Suzdal Kremlin. And just in time. As soon as we managed to reach the museum, a real hurricane broke out: thunder, lightning, rain like buckets. But we are already warm and cozy, or rather, in a museum.
This time, along with tickets, we bought a children's quest around the museum. In each hall of the Kremlin, according to the guidebook, you need to discover something interesting, guess, solve puzzles, find differences with the picture. At the end there is a crossword puzzle. An hour and a half flew by unnoticed, and then the rain stopped. Having completed our visit to the Kremlin with a hearty lunch, we moved along the shopping arcades to the red walls of the Spaso-Efimovsky Monastery.
We walked around it, from the high bank we admired the Kamenka River and the white stone monastery on the opposite bank.
Top attractions of the Golden Ring
Top 5 most beautiful cities
Here I’ll tell you about our impressions and preferences, based on our route and not focusing on “included or not included” in the classic Golden Ring, we got the top 5. This is a rating based on the beauty of a place - a combination of natural and man-made attractions:
- Rostov.
- Suzdal
- Bogolyubovo and Pokrova
- Plyos
- Pereslavl-Zalessky
This doesn’t mean that we didn’t like all the other cities, it’s just that these places made the greatest impression.
Yes, there are no ancient world-famous cathedrals in Plyos, but the amazing combination of hills, Volga open spaces, churches (and even delicious corners with bream) makes this city the most beautiful of all visited. This is where we will definitely return!
The amazing Church of the Intercession on the Nerl in the middle of the flooded Bogolyubov meadows is a sight that will take your breath away.
And I don’t want to talk at all, but just absorb this beauty and be glad that it didn’t occur to anyone to build everything here. In general, many sights in Russia were saved only because there was no money to tear down and build. And good.
Suzdal is beautiful not only with top monasteries (which also need to be seen), but also with impassable overgrown paths with observation platforms, where there are almost no tourists, but which are on our maps - and they are the whole charm of this amazing city.
Rostov with an obligatory overnight stay in the Kremlin - and you are guaranteed to love this small but elegant miracle. Walking along the shore of Lake Nero, twilight and reflections...
Pereslavl-Zalessky is also a combination of natural beauty with monasteries and the place where Peter built his first boat.
In general, small towns are in my personal top list. In the big ones, the wonders of the Middle Ages are so built up that there is neither air nor a chance to enjoy them alone - the endless stream of tourists, cars and urban development pretty much spoil the impression.
And yet - perhaps my rating was influenced by the fact that the vast majority of the attractions of the Golden Ring are churches and monasteries; already on the third day of the trip, fatigue sets in, which by the end of the 8th day grew into a great desire to see a piece of Art Nouveau or Gothic, in general - something completely different. And it was nature that very well diluted these impressions, which is probably why I liked such places most of all.
Therefore, perhaps, I will not change the top, but will simply write about each city separately - what is a must-see, and what can be done without.
Alexandrovsk
The first day.
Early Sunday morning we left Aprelevka. Heading towards Yaroslavskoye Highway. But bad luck - we forgot paper maps (it’s still unusual without them) and other little things, so it was decided to make a short technical stop at a Moscow apartment. This didn’t delay us too much, and at 8:00 we started off fully equipped.
Yaroslavka on the way out of Moscow was pretty dug up, and even on Sunday morning we weren’t driving fast. The construction is encouraging - in a couple of years it will probably be good. Polya’s sleep-deprived daughter quietly mutters that “again they’re taking us somewhere, and our route is unclear...”. I had to take a break from contemplating the surroundings and tell them that the route was still clear, and the first point was the city of Alexandrov, the temporary capital of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
I heard about the Terrible Field, saw Repin’s picture, watched a film about Ivan Vasilyevich, so I stopped appearing and got ready to listen. In the stories, the rest of the journey flew by quickly, and at 9:50 we parked near the Alexander Kremlin.
The museum (and therefore the ticket office) of Alexandrovskaya Sloboda opened at 10:00, and we decided to go to the Church of the Holy Trinity, where the Sunday service was just ending.
At the beginning of 11 o'clock we set off on a journey through the museum complex of Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, which consists of several diverse museums on the territory of the Kremlin.
And the first of them is the dungeons of Ivan the Terrible. The best way to explore a dungeon when traveling with a child is to look for a treasure, and in this case, the famous library of Ivan the Terrible, which, according to one legend, is hidden in the settlement. Inspired by our search, we look into each place. They didn’t find the library, but they cheered up and became interested in exploring.
The next museum of everyday life. We quickly scan the exhibition and invite the child to find griffins, a lyre and two cylinders, after which we leisurely explore the museum. From time to time Polya reports on another find - a kind of quest. Next, the peasant hut - very relevant - Polya and I recently discussed the structure of a peasant hut: a red corner, a children's corner, a woman's kut, and so on. In conclusion, there are the king’s chambers with a dungeon, a refectory, a torture chamber and other necessary attributes of the life of a ruler.
Golden Circle routes
The routes of the Golden Ring have long gone beyond the classic route invented by journalist Yuri Bychkov. You can plan a trip in different ways; I will give examples and analyze several options for possible travel routes. so, here are all the possible ways to travel along the Golden Circle:
- The classic route of the Golden Ring (small Golden Ring) - I discussed it above.
- Large Golden Ring (I talk about it separately here).
- Traveling through one area.
Yaroslavl: museums, embankment, monastery, planetarium
Then we went to the embankment. Undoubtedly, this is the most picturesque place in the city. There are several Yaroslavl museums located on the embankment. We chose two of them to visit. First, at the Museum of the History of Yaroslavl, we were told about the city and the pages of its life from its inception to the present day, about famous Yaroslavl residents and their contributions to science, culture, and sports.
Then we got acquainted with a large collection of bells, irons, and gramophones by John Mostoslavsky in the “Music and Time” museum, praised on the Internet. By the way, his son is now running the museum. There are non-stop tours of the exhibition: lovely young ladies with the text memorized to the point of automaticity will guide you through it, and give you a sticker as a souvenir.
In the Museum "Music and Time"
Then we went to the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery (25 Epiphany Square), it has always played an important role in the development of the city. On the square near the cathedral there is a monument to Yaroslav the Wise. In his hands he holds a model of the future city and a sword, a symbol of protection.
At the monastery's ticket office we were given a diagram of it with brief information and we went for a walk around the territory. In addition to walls, towers, cathedrals, cells, belfries and other religious buildings, there is the stele “Oath of Prince Pozharsky” (it was in Yaroslavl that his militia gained real power), a monument to a penny and the most attractive thing for children - an enclosure with the bear Masha.
In the evening we returned to the embankment again. Now it has become crowded here, there are many people riding bicycles, scooters, and rollerblades. Special paths are allocated for them. And we went down to the park on the Volga and Kotorosl spit, to its singing fountains and 20-meter stele.
Park on the Volga and Kotorosl Spit
The children really wanted to cross the bridge from Kotorosl embankment to Dalmansky Island - there is a children's amusement park there. The park of the 1000th anniversary of Yaroslavl is also nearby, but we didn’t have time. In general, in good weather, Yaroslavl is a paradise for walking.
The last point of the program that day was the Yaroslavl Planetarium. It was built according to the most modern standards for the 1000th anniversary of the city and bears the name of V. Tereshkova. This first woman to be in space comes from the Yaroslavl region, studied and worked in Yaroslavl itself. We watched a fulldome show about black holes and then went up to the observatory to look at the Moon through a telescope. We were lucky, there were no clouds, and we also saw Jupiter.
Yaroslavl Planetarium
We were the last group, which is probably why it was very small; besides us, at that hour, the night sky interested four more students, tourists from London. So we fully satisfied our curiosity and were able to approach the telescope several times. Then we were given binoculars, and we went out to the observation deck to study the panorama of the city.
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Sights of the Golden Ring
In general, the route of the Golden Ring has long gone beyond the classical route invented in the 60s of the last century. And when choosing cities for a trip, you can focus on one thing.
If you are passionate about history and art, then choose iconic landmarks:
- the first white stone churches of the pre-Mongol period: Pereslavl, Pokrova, Kideksha, Vladimir;
- ancient frescoes of the 13th-17th centuries in churches and monasteries (Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Vladimir);
- masterpieces of wooden architecture (yes, they are not only in Karelia) in Suzdal, Rostov, Pereslavl-Zalessky;
- Kremlins.
What you must see in the cities along the route (where you need to go and look (that is, buy tickets in most cases), and not just take pictures in the background).
Vladimir:
- Dmitrievsky Cathedral,
- Assumption Cathedral,
- Bogolyubovsky Monastery,
- Intercession on the Nerl.
Suzdal:
- Spaso-Evfimievsky Monastery,
- Suzdal Kremlin.
Yaroslavl:
- Spassky Monastery.
Rostov:
- Rostov Kremlin.
Uglich:
- Church of Tsarevich Dmitry on Blood.
Pereslavl-Zalessky:
- Goritsky Monastery
- Botik Museum of Peter I
- Nikitsky Monastery
- Cathedral of the Transfiguration
Natural beauty
If you are looking for soul-stirring landscapes of central Russia, then a different logic of travel awaits you.
The route includes three large cities - Vladimir, Kostroma, Yaroslavl - churches and monasteries surrounded by a large city, traffic flow, crowds of people. For the Golden Ring, these are the main centers, many important attractions. In terms of natural beauty, there are beautiful viewing platforms, but there is practically no silence. Any of them can be “taken out” of the route and focus on nature, of which there is a lot in Suzdal, Ples, Rostov, Pereslavl, and Bogolyubovsky Meadow, of course.
Ivanovo is the cheapest housing, and all you can see in the city is a view of an old textile factory
and several churches. If you are not interested in architecture and museums, then there is nothing to do in the city.
Day four: Rostov the Great
60 kilometers from Yaroslavl is the ancient city of Rostov the Great, famous throughout the world for its bell ringing. In addition, the Rostov Kremlin Museum-Reserve has a unique collection of enamel, a museum of church antiquities, and an exhibition “Treasures of the Rostov Kremlin.” In Rostov the Great there is also a large lake Nero, on which you can ride on a pleasure boat.
There are many cafes in the city with reasonable prices and a good range of dishes. You can eat inexpensively and deliciously in the Tavern canteen and the Appetit cafe. To fully immerse yourself in the old days, we recommend staying at the Dom na Pogrebakh hotel.
Route along the Golden Ring for 2-3 days (weekends or holidays)
In our country, we really love 2-3 day holiday weekends: this is an opportunity to break the everyday routine and go somewhere nearby, but interesting, to reboot, so to speak.
The Golden Ring in this context is an ideal option, since you can choose 2-3 cities within one region and see them during such a short holiday vacation. The weather in the cities of the Golden Ring is the weather of central Russia: classic snowy frosty winter, hot summer, and not very comfortable off-season (especially spring, this is worth considering: on March 8, if a thaw has already begun, it will not be very comfortable underfoot).
Ideal for such short trips
- Vladimir region (Vladimir + Bogolyubovo + Murom or any other city),
- Yaroslavl region - there is a huge choice here: either Yaroslavl + 1-2 small cities, or just a trip to unpromoted places,
- Ivanovo region,
- Kostroma region
We reviewed all the areas and lists of the most interesting places a little higher, we will not repeat ourselves. Maps will help you, and I also have a ready-made collection of landmarks for all cities of the Golden Ring:
Download route maps for the cities of the Golden Ring
Golden Circle Cruises | Excursions around the Golden Ring of Russia | Insurance
Kostroma
Half an hour later we were there. We spent the whole day in Kostroma 2 years ago, so we decide to limit ourselves to lunch and a short walk around the city center.
Over the past two years, Kostroma has changed for the better, it has become more well-groomed or something, there are a lot of people and children on the streets
At 15:30 we leave towards Yaroslavl-Rybinsk, discussing where it is better to spend the night in Rybinsk. But our plans are not destined to come true - on the ring road of Yaroslavl we get stuck in traffic jams. When we finally break out of the tenacious embrace of Yaroslavl, we understand that it no longer makes sense for us to go to Rybinsk. We decide to spend the night near Tutaev, and at the same time once again visit the wonderful Tutaevsky Church of the Resurrection.
I think this is one of the most beautiful temples I have ever visited.
The ferry to the Romanovskaya side of Tutaev leaves at 18:30.
10 minutes, and we are on the Romanovskaya side, starting for the night two years ago near the village of Novoe - a pine forest on the banks of the Volga and sandy beaches. At the beginning of eight we are there. We swim in the Volga, have dinner and admire the barges and white steamers sailing past.
