Village Squire, 1977-05, Page 40TRAVEL
Number rushing to Russia
increasing despite cost
Travelling has always been inspired by a
fascination with the unknown, the promise
of discovery, the hope of filling in,another
blank spot in your mental view of the
world.
Of course, each traveller sets his own
limit on the level of adventure he expects in
return for the chance to make discoveries.
Which means that today's average
Canadian tourist doesn't set out for a
foreign land expecting the same problems
that old Chris Columbus and Frank Drake
ran into on their historic voyages. We
expect our transportation to run on
schedule and our advance hotel reserva-
tions to be kept.
That's why, until recently, venturing
behind the ominous "Iron Curtain" to a
mystery -shrouded country like the USSR
has seemed like an ordeal to all but the
more adventurous Canadians. It's also
been expensive.
However, during the last couple of years
the flow of tourists --as well as hockey
players --to Russia has increased enorm-
ously, to the point where parents are being
treated to thrilling accounts of one-week
and ten -days trips to the Soviet Union
which their sons and daughters have taken
with high-school groups.
To which the parents reply: "If it's that
interesting and uncomplicated, maybe vve
should look into a trip there ourselves.'t
Russia is a fascinating country for most
Canadians to visit, and it is less
uncomplicated to get there and enjoy the
major cities than some of our funny ideas
and hang-ups have let us believe. But a trip
there is still a bigger undertaking than
catching the morning commuter special.
First of all, flying to Moscow and living
there for a couple of weeks is considerably
more expensive than a hop across the
Atlantic to good old London or Paris.
American Express, a pioneer in package
travel to the USSR, has a 21 -day
wide-ranging tour of the Soviet Union in
which the land arrangements cost close to
S1,500 per person, double occupancy, and
the round-trip airfare from Toronto to
Moscow via Air Canada is between $630
and $730 (based on the 22-45 day excursion
and depending on season).
Accomtnodation is in first-class hotels (in
other words clean, no -frill comfort,
reasonable service) and includes three
meals a day. The price also includes guided
sightseeing, tickets to the opera, circus or
ballet, and complete services of an escort.
And it's a tour designed to cover the
immense variety of the Soviet Union. The
first leg is to Samarkand, Tashkent and
Bukhara (names to stir the imagination),
where Russia is not European, but Asiatic.
38, VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1977.
Then the tour moves westward to Tiflis,
and, Sochi; onto Kiev, before going to one
of the world's greatest and most beautiful
cities, Leningrad.
For those who want to take more of a
sample taste of the Soviet Union, rather
than the comprehensive immersion type of
tour, American Express puts together a
22 -day tour out of London following a
circuit from Hamburg through Sweden to
Leningrad, Kalinin, Moscow, Smolensk
and Minsk. The prices for the land tour is
$1,131 (per person, double occupancy)
including breakfast and dinner every day
and a number of lunches, as well as such
sightseeing extras as tickets to the ballet.
Another American Express tour which
also comes at the Soviet Union through
Scandinavia, features a short Baltic cruise
from Stockholm to Helsinki. Out of 17 days,
five are in the Soviet cities of Leningrad,
Riga and Moscow. Return is via
Copenhagen. The price: from $1,358 to
$1,500 (per person, double occupancy,
including airfare out of New York).
Obviously a growing number of
100
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