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Samara


If you are looking for the best beaches, the hottest beach babes, and the coolest beach boys, look no further than Samara. Russia's sixth largest city and a major industrial center, it is located on the broad waters of the River Volga. The bend in the river here has blessed Samara with a long fringe of gorgeous sandy beaches. It has made the most of these beaches, backed by pleasant parks and embankment gardens, and with temperatures averaging over 26°C (80°F) in the summer. With a climate similar to the Mediterranean south of Spain, it is not surprising that Samara has become a popular tourist destination. Young crowds flock here from all over Russia to sunbathe, take a dip in the cool waters of the Volga, hang out by the letny kafe (summer cafes), or go for a wild night out in one of the city's many nightclubs.

In the summer there is a host of activities, with a string of festivals culminating in the famous Samara Carnival in honour of the mighty Volga. If you visit on the first Saturday in July, you will catch the Grushinsky Festival, Russia's equivalent of Woodstock. As many as 200,000 people come to sit on the spectators' hill in the Samara Bend National Park. The Grushinsky Festival began in the 1960s and was named after the Samara hippie Valery Grushin, who tragically drowned in 1967 trying to rescue children in a river in Siberia.

If all this activity proves too much, you can catch the hydrofoil up the river to the pleasant, atmospheric village of Shiryaevo, where Russia's greatest painter Ilya Repin painted the “Barge Haulers on the Volga.” After that, cross the quiet Volga to hike in the beautiful Samara Bend National Park. If that still does not relax you, take one of Samara's famous raft trips zhigulyovskaya krugosvetka (around the world), an exciting 10-day camping trip through the park's backwaters.

Samara's origins date back to the 16th century, but legend has it that its great future was foretold two centuries earlier by St. Aleksiy on his way to meet the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan. Since then it has had a turbulent past, ravaged both by Stepan Razin in the sixteenth century and Pugachev's rebellion in the next, and then serving as the starting point of the Russian Civil War in the 1920s. During World War II Samara became Russia's second capital, and you can still visit the extraordinary bunker Stalin built nine stories underground, able to accommodate up to 600 people. It was at this time that Samara became a major oil and aviation center, and was briefly renamed Kuybyshev.

Samara's turbulent past means that it has very few historic sites, though it does boast Europe's largest square: the Kuybyshev Square. On summer weekends, people often watch newly married couples leave flowers on the war heroes’ monument by the St. Martyr George Cathedral. There is plenty of cultural activity in the city's various museums, concert halls, and theatres. But for most people visiting Samara, it is a place for simply relaxing on the beach and having fun.

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