Around Moscow
Moscow - the capital and the biggest city of Russian Federation - is located in the center of the East-European plain. It is surrounded with Moscow Region (so called Podmoskovye) and Moscow Region, in its turn, is surrounded with adjoined Tver, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga and Smolensk Regions. All the regions in spite of comparatively high density of population are fit and interesting for ecotourism as well as for cultural tourism.
The climate is temperately continental with respectively mild winter and warm and damp summer. The weather is rather changeable because of unsteadiness of winds. The temperature varies from -10...12oC in January to +18...19oC in July.
A sufficient part of the territory is covered with forests. Rivers and lakes form rather a dense water network, fit for water traveling by paddles or motor rafts. One of advantages is that the most of destinations are easily reachable by car or bus from Moscow. Four national nature reserves and five national parks are established to preserve nature of the region and all of them welcome ecotourists.
Highlights
- Centralno-Lesnoy Reserve (Tver Region): primary southern taiga, brown bears.
- Darvinsky Reserve (Yaroslavl and Vologda Regions)
- Oksky Reserve (Ryazan Region)
- Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve (Moscow Region)
- Losiny Ostrov National Park (Moscow and Moscow Region)
- Meschera National Park (Vladimir Region)
- Meschersky National Park (Ryazan Region)
- Plescheevo Lake National Park (Yaroslavl Region)
- Ugra National Park (Kaluga Region)
- Leo Tolstoy National Museum-Estate in Yasnaya Polyana (Tula Region)
