A day trip to Yasnaya Polyana

Yasnaya Polyana Trip Highlights
 

• Take a leisurely walk around the estate's peaceful gardens with apple orchards, ponds, and hills.
  
  Yasnaya Polyana is fabulously beautiful in spring when apple orchards bloom, and nightingales sing. It is lovely here in summer when the trees and meadows are dressed with bright greenery. Golden autumn brings bright colors and a tasty harvest of apples. If you visit the estate in September, you can try delicious apples from the estate's orchards. Snowy winter will be full of charm too.
• 

  Tolstoy in his house in Yasnaya Polyana
   Discover the house of Leo Tolstoy, which remains untouched since he died.
  
  Tolstoy spent over 50 years in this house, it is here where he wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
   
• 

  Tolstoy with peasnat kids in Yasnaya Polyana
   Visit the former peasant children's school.
  
  Did you know that Tolstoy converted a building in his estate into a free school for kids? He developed his teaching technique, created his famous "ABC," and gave lessons on reading, writing, Russian history, etc. Overall he established  13 schools for Russian peasants.
• Find the grave of the famous writer.
  
  It is so simple that you might not even notice when you pass it. Tolstoy didn't want any headstones, and his grave resembles a green mound.
  

  Tolstoy in front of his house in Yasnaya Polyana
• Learn more about Tolstoy's life and creative work. Did you know that he never completed his university studies and that teachers described him as "both unable and unwilling to learn"?
• Did you know at the end of his life, Tolstoy became a pacifist and a vegetarian? You will learn more interesting facts during the tour.
• Try  Ankovsky pie cooked according to the Tolstoy family recipe. It is a lemon-filled sponge cake. You may find it   in the cafe "Preshpekt" at the exit from the estate

Yasnaya Polaya tour itinerary

08 am    Meet your guide and driver, driving to Yasnaya Polyana
11 am - 1 pm Touring Yasnaya Polyana estate, visiting Leo Tolstoy house memorial museum and Kuzminsky Wing exhibition hall.
1.30 pm - 2.30 pm Lunch in a local cafe.
2.30 pm - 5.30 pm Driving back to Moscow

As an alternative, you can get to Tula by train and then take a taxi to the estate. It'll take you around 2 hours by train and 30 min by taxi. A convenient Lastochka train leaves Moscow at 8.47 am and arrives at Tula at 11 am. Return trains leave Tula at 16.45 or at 18.35, you can also find some later options.

 

Optional tour extension

A walking tour of Tula with its Kremlin and the museum of Samovars.


A hundred years ago Yasnaya Polana was a mecca for Russian cultural people. And today it is still a very popular place for everyone interested in the heritage of Leo Tolstoy.  We also recommend you to visit Tolstoy's museum in Moscow during your Moscow tours.

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