8 days in Sri Lanka & Russia Itinerary

Shaped like a teardrop and located just below the southern tip of India, lush Sri Lanka boasts some of the greatest biodiversity in the world. Unless you time your Sri Lanka holiday for monsoon season, you can expect bright blue skies and plenty of sunshine, perfect for exploring tropical forests, historic temples, colonial forts, and many other buildings dating back to Dutch rule. Popular things to do in Sri Lanka include swimming, sailing, and surfing, though a growing number of visitors come here just to eat their way around the country. Greatly influenced by nearby India, the national cuisine also features many elements of European cooking--a result of the Dutch and Portuguese colonial years. Of course, a trip to Sri Lanka would not be complete without a cup of its world-famous Ceylon tea.

Feared and revered not long ago as the land "behind the Iron Curtain" and before that as "the land of the Tsars," Russia is a land of many contrasts. Spreading over two continents, it is also the largest country in the world and one of the most powerful. Founded by a group of East Slavs in the 10th century, it is home to over 160 different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples. They have all left their mark on the land, but the Slavic and Byzantine traditions hold a special place in Russia's rich historical and cultural legacy. The diverse natural beauty includes vast swathes of plains intersected with thousands of rivers, lakes, and dramatic mountain ranges along the southern borders. Arctic tundra, taiga, mixed forests, steppe, and desert-like areas successively carpet the land from the north to the south. Perfectly preserved ancient towns surrounded by mighty kremlins with colorful onion-domed churches attract tourists just as much as the nation's biggest metropolises, Moscow and Saint Petersburg.