A month ago, launched a direct train from Moscow to Sortavala, tickets for which are still very cheap. I went on a weekend in Karelia.
Train "Karelia" used to go only to Petrozavodsk, is now part of the wagon goes further, to the town of Sortavala, next to which are the Valaam Island and the mountainous park Ruskeala.
The journey from Moscow to the Sortavala 17 hours, 30 minutes, train departs from Moscow at 21:05, arriving at 14:35. Second-class tickets cost from 1841 rubles, coupe from 2830 rubles.
The return train departs from Sortavala at 15:29 and arrive in Moscow at 8:53. Tell you a secret, tickets to an intermediate point - Petrozavodsk cost almost twice as much.
The train is modern, portable toilets and outlets in each compartment. Vzhzhzhzhzhuh and I in Petrozavodsk.
The train stops here 1 hour 2 minutes and during that time you can walk to Lake Onega and get back on the bus, which I have successfully done twice - on the way there and back.
After Petrozavodsk road becomes single track.
And the names of the stations trudnovygovarivaemymi, Finnish: Essoila, Suojärvi Yanisyarvi.
Who would guess, as it is removed, the fellow. ;)
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Arriving in Sortavala, you can immediately transfer to retropoezd "Ruskeala eksperss" (Russia's only daily train to the locomotive traction) and go to the Mountain Park Ruskeala. The ticket costs only 299-499 rubles, travel time - an hour.
About Ruskeala eksperss park and be sure to tell apart.
And yet from Sortavala, you can go on a fast hydrofoil "Meteor" to the island of Valaam, it is also an hour on the road.
Train Moscow-Sortavala was launched as a pilot, and had to go only to September, but the demand for tickets was so great that the route is likely to be permanent. Now it is already included in the schedule until the end of the year.
While tickets for this train are cheap, it is worth to go on a weekend in Karelia. I really enjoyed the trip.
P.S. All photos and videos in this post shot on a smartphone Honor 20 Pro (ammo1.livejournal.com/1065910.html).
© 2019 Alex Nadozhin
The main theme of my blog - Equipment for human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. My second project - lamptest.ru. I test LED lamps and help figure out which ones are good and which are not.