Touristic potential

Popular destinations for home and international tourism in the Smolensk Region:

• cultural-educational, event tourism
• recreational;
• religious and pilgrimage;
• rural and ecological;
• health.

Specially protected natural territories

Popular tourist destinations:

Cultural, educational tourism

Cultural and educational tourism is the oldest and most popular, visitors are attracted by the rich and diverse historical and cultural heritage of the region.

Event tourism

Cultural events attract a great number of visitors to the region with the help of bright and spectacular events such as annual international, interregional and regional festivals, forums, and competitions:

Religious and pilgrimage

Orthodox holy sites visited by many tourists help to develop religious tourism and pilgrimage in the religious centres of Smolensk, Vyazma, Boldino.

The most popular sites are:

Rural and ecological tourism

National park «Smolensk Lakeland»

• 35 unique glacial lakes
• The developed network of walking, water, cycling touristic paths and ecological routes has been created in the park for the last two decades. The are well equipped camping sites for resting. Numerous camps and guest houses are located near the lakes Sapsho, Baklanovskoe and Rytoe.

National park «Gagarinsky»

• proximity to Moscow
• The national park Gagarinsky, situated in the north-east of the region, is close to Moscow, the park was set up in 2006 in the basin of the rivers Vazuza and Yauza, the two largest rivers of the Smolensk Region. The park is a popular fishing centre, at present the large-scale investment project “Developing infrastructure of the touristic cluster Vazuza & Yauza Park” is being implemented in the Gagarinsky District.

Ugranskoe porechye (River country)

The Ugra river is one of the most popular territories for water recreational tourism in Central Russia.