three masted yacht

Welcome aboard the yacht Atlantic

All about one of the most awesome classic yachts of all time, the three mast schooner Atlantic. Long time holder of the world record for the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean under sail, this one hundred and eighty-five foot schooner originally designed by William Gardner in 1903 has been relaunched and is sailing once more.

The Atlantic is currently in the western Mediterranean, and available for luxury sailing yacht charters.

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

The world’s biggest yachts – what’s behind the growth of the gigayacht

• Helen Fretter
• March 14, 2017

The last few years have seen launches of some of the world's largest yachts, truly gigayachts. Helen Fretter delves into the world of the gigayacht

Dwarfing not only any other yacht that happened to be on the River Eider, but even the buildings along the foreshore, the monolithic Sailing Yacht A made quite an impression when she was launched from the Nobriskrug yard in Hamburg in the autumn of 2016.

The 142m, eight-deck behemoth is the archetypal ‘gigayacht’, phenomenal not just in her dimensions but also in her radicalism.

The Philippe Starck-designed Sailing Yacht A , with her 20m freeboard, begs the question: is she even a sailing yacht? The last yacht to divide opinion, and attract the shock and awe of the non-sailing public in the same manner was Maltese Falcon , the glossy, experimental megayacht designed for Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins.

But the Falcon was launched a decade ago, and Sailing Yacht A is just one of a crop of extraordinary gigayachts, or sailing superyachts of 80, 90 or 100m plus, to touch the water in 2016.

Besides the 142m Sailing Yacht A , another three-masted design was launched from OceanCo this autumn, the 106m  Black Pearl , which looks set to become the largest sailing yacht in the world – for a while at least. Black Pearl represents a modern evolution of the rotating Dynarig pioneered by Maltese Falcon . Meanwhile in the spring, the largest Bermudan rigged yacht ever launched, the 86m ketch Aquijo , powered through sail trials in preparation for a global adventure.

There are more in the pipeline also. Royal Huisman announced this autumn that they had been commissioned to design and build the 86m Project 400 , another three masted design, this one more conventionally rigged. A proposal for the 114m Endurance has just been unveiled, an explorer concept designed to be able to cruise unassisted for three months. There is also the 86m Komorebi , an experimental wingsail-assisted hybrid trimaran design from the French multihull experts VPLP.

Rise and rise of the gigayacht

Why the sudden flurry of these stratospherically ambitious projects? In truth, it is not that sudden – initial pitches for what ultimately became Sailing Yacht A were invited back in 2008, and pre-studies began in 2011. A decade between projects seems rather shorter when design and build takes at least five years – gigayacht owners may be exacting, but they also have to be extraordinarily patient.

The 141m four-masted Dream Symphony is currently in build out of wood in Turkey, and includes vast living accommodation, and a swimming pool that converts to become a helipad platform.

What is remarkable, though, is how rapidly the yachts have grown in size – raising the upper ceiling from 88 to over 140m in a decade. Dutch naval architecture firm Dykstra has been instrumental in many of the world’s most innovative megayachts, including Sailing Yacht A , Black Pearl , and Maltese Falcon .

Managing director Thys Nikkels comments, “Ten years ago a big boat was a very different size than a big boat is now. I can still remember when I started working in ’91 a 40-metre yacht in those days was a big boat. In the mid-90s we started to design the yacht Athena , which we thought was the biggest boat we were ever going to see in our lives, as a sailing yacht she was 80 metres on the water.”

The largest single sloop rigged yacht in the world remains Mirabella V , launched back in 2003 and since renamed (and slightly lengthened during a refit) M5 at just over 77m. Rob Doyle, who worked on the project led by Ron Holland, recalls:

“We started designing her 17 years ago now. We hit a very natural sweet spot with Mirabella and that’s why it has taken so long for other boats to suddenly go over her length and over her rig height.

“ Mirabella still has the highest ‘P’ measurement [distance from boom to top of mast] and the longest boom in the world, though there are taller masts now.

“She set a bar and we didn’t realise we’d actually set it. It came down to a ratio of the rig weight to the draught and the keel weights, and everything else to be able to carry that amount of sail and that ballast to satisfy the rules.

“We pushed technology a lot – about 16 companies went bust over Mirabella  because the jump was so massive. We were jumping from a 64m to a 75m [yacht] and that jump was like learning to fly, then going to the moon!”

Article continues below

Video of Sailing Yacht A, the world’s largest sail-assisted vessel, during early sea trials

This video footage of Sailing Yacht A shows her with her towering free-standing masts and illustrates the jaw-dropping scale of the world’s…

A look on board the extraordinary 86m Aquijo, the world’s largest ketch

The largest Bermudan rigged ketch ever launched, the 86m Aquijo was designed by Bill Tripp and launched last year. The build came…

Ken Freivokh, who was responsible for the radical styling of Maltese Falcon , also points out that after the much publicised launch of the Falcon many buyers did not want to be seen to be emulating Tom Perkins’s unique style, preferring to wait, or opt for a conservative design. After the Falcon , Freivokh’s next radical Dynarig yacht was Black Pearl , which he began work on six years ago. At 106m Black Pearl dwarfs Maltese Falcon , with a 2,700GT volume that puts her just under the key 3,000GT limit.

Surprisingly, Dykstra’s Thys Nikkels says that the Dynarigs being built today are not markedly different to the one developed for Maltese Falcon a decade ago. “In concept it is not very different. In detail there are a number of improvements that have been made.

But Maltese Falcon was – for her time – years far ahead and she proved to be very successful in sail handling and sailing, so there are not many improvements to be done. Nowadays you just have different materials you can use, or different electronics and software systems that you can use for control.”

Maltese Falcon, launched in 2006, pioneered the Dynarig concept utilised on many of the next generation of larger gigayachts.

Sail handling

Meanwhile a decade of development in superyacht rigs and sail systems, means that Aquijo ’s owner could opt for a conventional ketch rig, which can deploy over 3,000m2 of sails in around six minutes.

Sail handling routines are necessarily different – the jib is furled when tacking. “Vitters organised a nice system that keeps just a nice amount of tension on the jib sheets furling in and out so that they are not flailing about,” explains Aquijo ’s designer, Bill Tripp. “So it’s not a dinghy tack, but it is safe and orderly.

“The spinnaker is on a fast furler and furls up in 30 seconds, making gybes less complex. There is the ketch choreography of bringing the main and mizzen in, but the steering is precise and there is no need to put too much sail up for the conditions.”

Aquijo master cabin

The forces generated on yachts such as Aquijo may be enormous – mast compression can reach around 580 tons – but are no longer beyond the realms of riggers’ experience. “When we started building boats like Saudade [the 2009 45m Wally], 14 tonnes was a very big load. Once we understood racing these boats, and understood they were controllable, you can take another step.

“We were delighted when sailing Aquijo upwind in a lot of breeze that the load on the mainsheet was showing around 12 tonnes. It’s 2:1 so that’s 24 tonnes. I’m not saying that’s not a massive load, but it’s similar to what we have on Saudade ’s big sheet 1:1, and we have years of experience with handling that.” Custom built 40 ton carbon and alloy winches help manage the sheet loads.

Tripp notes that a Dynarig was never considered as an option. “What you’re really asking is do you want the ease of sailing or do you want to be able to access something exciting? And we wanted both of them.

“Sailors tend to like the more fundamental experiences, and when the technology allows them to access those more fundamental experiences, well that’s a great joy.”

Aquijo is the world’s largest ketch, with a mainsail that can be furled or unfurled in around four seconds

Finding the limit

Just how big can a sailing yacht go? Five years ago plans were unveiled for a 101m sloop, with a single 125m carbon mast, which raised a few eyebrows and discussions over whether it might be possible. Malcolm McKeon worked on the proposal and says that it was the cost, rather than technical limitations, which put the brakes on the project.

“It was an evolving process. The owner has a 50m-plus sailing superyacht, and he wanted a new yacht big enough that he could put a reasonably sized chase boat on board. He wanted an explorer type sailboat that he could go to the Pacific on, and carry all his toys with him, and not have to have a support boat.

“The design started at 65 or 70m and it just grew and grew and grew until it got to 100m, and then it basically just got too expensive.

Recent sail trials on Sailing Yacht A saw the 1,464m2 mainsail unfurled from the 27.5m carbon U-shaped boom. Incredibly she is designed to heel up to a maximum angle of 12 degrees under full sail.

“The big problem with the large sail boats is the mast price goes up by a bigger proportion to everything else so the rig price becomes a much bigger percentage of the overall build. Technically it can all be done, it’s just the value of that part becomes a much more significant part and sometimes more difficult for an owner to accept.

“If somebody came to me and said they wanted to build a boat with a 200m mast I would think well, is that really possible? Certainly rigs up to 100m and a bit more I think are possible today, but where we’re going to go after that I don’t know.”

Rob Doyle points out that sailing superyacht owners pay around a 30 per cent premium over opting for a motoryacht, yet the boats lose around a third of the equivalent interior volume. However, for him the biggest limitations are the humans onboard.

“I think we are coming to a stage where we need a new type of rig, to be honest, to be able to safely deploy these sails without killing people. I think we are getting very close to where the metal meets the flesh at the deck level where the people and the guests are hanging around.”

With the ever-increasing winch and line speeds needed to handle the huge loads, serious hand and limb injuries can happen in the blink of an eye. “There is a moral hazard there that keeps playing on my mind,” says Doyle. “We are building very dangerous machines and we have to be very careful of people.”

The newly announced Endurance concept design is a 114m four-masted explorer design with a 6,000 mile range under power.

More prosaically, the bigger your gigayacht, the bigger the challenge of just getting on and off it. “Once you are getting to a stage where you can’t get into anchorages you are in constant fear of drifting – even putting down an anchor you need a huge amount of space around you.

“So then you anchor further out into the slop and the big waves, so the owners find it difficult to get on and off the boat, and suddenly other problems can overwhelm the project,” Doyle points out. One increasingly popular solution to that particular problem is a luxury landing craft.

Too big for the Panama Canal

It might seem counter-intuitive, but it is Aquijo ’s owner’s focus on the sailing experience that has enabled the designers of the 86m ketch to push the size limits of a traditionally rigged yacht.

“ Aquijo is a sophisticated machine and brings most aspects of a 1,600GT motor yacht with her,” comments designer Bill Tripp. “But she does not aspire to helicopters or submarines, the feeling of the boat is one of use. She is for getting out there, and for going out sailing. In Greece this summer, she would go out for an afternoon of sailing in 35 knot Meltemi because it is so much fun to sail at 20 knots, as if on rails.

“We have always done sailboats that can get under the Panama Canal bridge, and the biggest we were happy to do and put under the bridge was really 46m because after that we didn’t have big enough sails for the boat.

“Then five years ago we launched A Better Place , and the owner said ‘I’ll go around, I don’t want to limit my boat because of the bridges.’ With Aquijo they said, we want to go to these places anyway, so let’s get the best sailboat we can. So suddenly, instead of having this 63m limit on the rig, that all opened up and we could start doing a sailing boat that had a gross tonnage like some of the bigger motoryachts.

“I think we’re going to see more of that. You can look at the Strait of Magellan [an alternative route to rounding Cape Horn ], as a place that’s a really long way away or a place you really want to go.”

The three-masted Black Pearl  has an angular ‘Pacman’ bow with a wave-piercing reverse sheer lower section, and extended traditional foredeck above

The wish list

Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko is keeping his Sailing Yacht A tightly wrapped under non-disclosure agreements, but a few intriguing details have been released, including magnifying windows which appear larger inside than outside, and a gimballed crow’s nest, accessible by lift, 60m high in the curved mast.

An observation pod embedded in the keel with foot-thick glass gives a mesmerising – and frankly terrifying-sounding – view of the propellers, and there’s a three-man submarine.

Gigayacht designers have come up with some imaginative solutions to meet owners’ foibles and demands. Drawings for the 101m sloop incorporated an entirely retractable hardtop to the flybridge to give the owner his requested uninterrupted view of the sails and sky.

Plans for the Japanese-influenced Komorebi design feature a live tree on the aft deck. Watersports toys are old news – now tender garages are specified to house motorbikes, amphibious quad bikes, even custom-built marinised supercars.

On Aquijo , the headline feature is the ‘beach club’ on the lower deck. “For a sailing boat it is a huge area, they have a sauna, hamman [Turkish Bath], a rainfall shower, a relaxing area, this huge whirlpool in the middle, a little pantry, and enough space for gym equipment around the pool,” explains interior designer Robert Voges.

Beach club on Aquijo.

Voges says the trickiest element on the yacht was the flawless high shine steel mast claddings which run through the interior. “It is like a piece of art. The mast was going through the main saloon and guest corridor, and we didn’t want to hide it. So we decided to make a feature out of it with seamless stainless steel cladding with integrated LED strip lights from top to bottom over two decks.”

One of the most radical projects in progress is the 141m Dream Symphony , a four-masted design currently in build in Turkey. Originally slated for launch this year, the project is progressing slowly – in part due to the fact the yacht is constructed of wood. Her design includes a large aft deck swimming pool that transforms into a raised helipad area.

This is the type of concept which seemed fantastical just a few years ago, but is now reality in the motoryachts world where designs like the 81m Alfa Nero have deployed it successfully.

“It’s a good solution because you usually have to drop down all the stanchions and any elements that are higher than the helipad itself, whereas if you lift the helipad you don’t have to lower the other elements,” explains Dream Symphony designer Ken Freivokh.

The 141m four-masted Dream Symphony

“The brief did not call for a resident helicopter that would have its own hanger – it’s just a ‘touch and go’. You don’t want to set aside space for a helicopter permanently that’s almost never there, so if you have a reasonably sized swimming pool why not use the base of a pool to just receive the helicopter, and then once the helicopter flies away you can put it back to normal operations?” Why not indeed?

No matter how grandiose your ideas, however, not even the vast volumes of a gigayacht can be entirely filled with art galleries and Reiki studios. Robert Voges explains that, like any other ship, “We have to start with all the emergency exits, the corridors, staircases . . . and from there we can work with the other areas which are left over.”

Ken Freivokh estimates that at least 20 per cent of the interior space has to be allocated to the back-of-house systems required to maintain the equivalent of a small hotel – air conditioning, waste, media, and other unglamorous elements behind the touch-screen luxury.

Edge of reason

At 12,700 GT, Sailing Yacht A has the vastest volume of all. But can she be called a sailing yacht? She carries three of the world’s largest carbon rigs – curved, unstayed, capable of rotating a maximum of 70 degrees – featuring in-boom furling that can deploy 3,747 square metres of sail area (67 per cent more than Maltese Falcon ) from a finger tip command. And yet she cannot help but look implausible.

The hull has a maximum beam of 24.8m and includes 24 shell doors.

No matter how innovative the technology on board, or how vast the expense, the elements will not bend to the will of man or millionaire. Various estimates have put her cost at $400-500million, or in the region of £320 to £400 million – to put those sort of figures in context, the bill for the London Olympics Aquatics centre came in at under £300m.

Sailing Yacht A will be ‘sail-assisted’, not wind-powered. Confounding, aggressive in her styling, she’s a yacht that has attracted scathing opinions as often as wide-eyed wonder. But what is the point of creating a gigayacht that doesn’t?

“It is a creative process with the owner,” comments Aquijo ’s designer Bill Tripp, “They have this idea that they can make something that speaks to them. They don’t write symphonies, and they’re not great painters or sculptors, but on the other hand money is vital energy, and they can create these things that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

“It’s great when someone says, ‘Life’s short, I’m just going to do this.’”

A perfect replica of the three masted Schooner Atlantic, originally built to make the speed record of the Atlantic Crossing, which she did...

The Schooner Atlantic replicates the allure of the original three masted schooner built in 1903 and commissioned by the New York Yacht Club. While having the luxurious comfort of a modern yacht, she keeps the original charme and elegance, fulfilling the owners' expectations and those of anyone passionate about classic yachts. A fast, elegant, seaworthy three masted schooner that turns everybody's eyes, anywhere she sails. Don't miss the chance to charter Atlantic at least once in your life

The Schooner Atlantic can comfotably accommodate 12 guests in 3 staterooms with double bed and 3 staterooms with twin bed, all with en-suite bathrooms, including a large owner’s cabin with large double bed and an ensuite bathroom featuring a bathtub. She is sailed by her Captain plus 11 crew.

Commissioned by New York Yacht Club member Wilson Marshall, the Schooner Atlantic was launched in 1903. She was designed by William Gardner, one of America's foremost designers of large yachts.

From the moment Atlantic went to sea, it was clear that she was an exceptionally fast and beautiful schooner. When a yacht in 1903 hits twenty knots during her sea trials, she is a promising yacht, but even then nobody could imagine two years later this yacht would set a record that would stand unmatched for almost a century.

Nevertheless, whilst Wilson Marshall wanted Atlantic to be the fastest schooner on the water, he felt there was no reason to compromise on comfort. Unlike contemporary racing schooners, Atlantic was equipped with every imaginable luxury. Fitted out with the finest mahogany panelling, she had two steam driven generators to power electric lights, refrigerators and a large galley. On deck her halyard winches and primary sheet winches were also steam driven. She had two double and three single staterooms, a lobby, a large full beam saloon, a dining room, a chart & gunroom, three large bathrooms and in the deckhouse there was a comfortable observation room. She had retractable chimneys, so while under sail the below deck steam heating, lighting and refrigeration systems could keep running. Atlantic's fo'c'sle accommodated her thirty-nine strong crew and officers, who would live aboard throughout the year.

Kaiser Wilhelm II The Kaiser's Cup

During her first season Atlantic proved fast, winning both the Brenton Reef and the Cape May Cup hands down, but it was only in 1905 she made the headlines by winning the Kaiser's Cup, a Transatlantic race from Sandy Hook to the Lizard. Referred to as "The last Great race of Princes" the entries for this race included all the yachts that the rich and powerful from Britain and America could send to sea.

Richard Mille Cup

The second edition of the Richard Mille Cup is expected to be the same combination of passage and day racing  in spectacular venues on both the French and English sides of the Channel, which has proved to be extremely successful in the first edition, last year. The driving motivation is to create a challanging sporting event with c....

Vele d'Epoca Napoli

Naples, one of the world’s most extraordinary cities, becomes the location of a unique event which offers a mix of history, gastronomy and classic yachting. The exclusive Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia, is organizing the XVIII edition of the Vele d’Epoca Napoli....

Bailli de Suffren

So many important yachts have been intrigued by the idea to sail from Saint Tropez, to Alghero, Carloforte and Bizerte, ending up in Malta, this year calling at Sardinia and Tunisie, such as Lelantina, a John Alden’s like Puritan, Moonbeam III of Fife, the smaller sister of Moonbeam IV, and also Orion, Owl, a Fred Shepherd , the Sangermani Susanna ....

Corsica Classic

Conviviality and sport, elegance and adventure. The Corsica Classic has as a plus for those passionate of classic yachts who love sailing in the unspoiled nature. Corsica is the ideal destination for those who want to escape the usual routes in search of a wild b....

Copa del Rey

Since 2005 the Copa del Rey has become one of the most important event among the Regattas for Classic Yachts. The Copa del Rey reserved exclusively to classic and vintage sailing boats. at its 41st edition the Copa del Rey will host some of the most beautiful classic yachts of the Mediterranean, inc....

Vele d'Epoca Imperia

Since its first edition in 1986 the Vele d’epoca Imperia has always been considered the most important rendez-vous for classic yachts in Italy at the end of the season. Every year Imperia becomes the background of a marvelous fleet of classic....

Les Regates Royales de Cannes

They may be from the America’s Cup, the Volvo Ocean Race, the Mini Transat, or they can simply be offshore or Olympic sailors. Or maybe all of the above. Many sail champions can be seen on the dock during the Régates Royales, ready to take on the helm of a beautiful classic yacht. All of them are passionate sailors and would not miss this top event of the classic ....

Les Voiles de Saint Tropez

If you love racing and yachting in general, you cannot miss Les Voiles de St Tropez, with its new formula of two weeks, including Maxi and Classic yachts, Wally, J class and all the modern cruiser/racers.  Everyone passionate of yachting will gather around the Gulf of Saint Tropez for the final rendez-vous before the Summer end. This year ....

• Builder: Van Der Graaf BV
• Type/Year: 2010
• L.O.A.: 64.50m (211'7'')
• Beam: 8.85m (29' )
• Cruise Speed: 11 knots
• Max Speed: 13 knots
• Engines: Yanmar 555kw at 1840 rpm
• Fast schooner
• Very spacious
• Observation room
• Palatial Lobby
• Beautiful classic design
• Air-conditioning

Pontine and Phlegrean Islands

Aeolian islands, 3 days to explore south of corsica, 3 days to explore elba island, 10 days to explore costa smeralda, 3 days in costa smeralda, sardinia, explore unknown greece, a yacht odyssey from vieste to the tremiti islands.

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Sailing Arabella with American Sailing

By: Zeke Quezada, ASA Charter , Destinations

There are eight sails on Arabella, and when she is fully outfitted to move in the wind, she is majestic. When you see her from shore, you ponder what it would be like to feel the movement on her decks. When you are on board, you sit in awe. She is elegant and poised as she adapts under full sail. While Arabella acts like a sailboat, she advances across the ocean like Audrey Hepburn would move across a crowded room in her little black dress.

Arabella moves with grace, sailing like the ocean is hers. When you watch from the bow, all you can see is the sails leaning away from the wind. You can almost see Bernoulli’s math being worked out and you can hear the wind being utilized to bring forth the experience.

Sailing on Arabella is still sailing, but it should not be confused with a dinghy on the lake or your first ride on a Catalina 27. 

As an ASA member, you get to experience Arabella firsthand. If you are up to it, you can even take the helm or raise a sail. 

Spots are filling up to sail on Arabella in 2022

Sail New England as part of your Labor Day Weekend! https://asa.com/arabella/grand-tour/

Sail the British Virgin Islands this winter https://asa.com/arabella/bvi-tour/

Discover the Chesapeake Bay https://asa.com/arabella/chesapeake-bay-tour/

Will You Be Sailing Arabella?

The arabella grand tour.

ASA members toured the waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island aboard Arabella this past summer. The voyage began in Newport, Rhode Island with stops at Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cuttyhunk before returning for a day in the sailing mecca of Newport.

Approaching Martha’s Vineyard on an elegant ship such as Arabella almost immediately puts you in the crosshairs of envy. As in, everyone looks at you green with envy. Her stature at anchor is not necessarily imposing in as much as it is distracting. Her masts rise above the deck and stand sleek against the horizon. Boats sail by to take a look at her — people wave. People stare. You smile. You raise your glass to them. 

See Photos of the Arabella Grand Tour

Anchoring in Nantucket, the tender ride into town allows for some gawking time. The number of beautiful schooners in the harbor is difficult to imagine. Your local marina would be hard-pressed to compare with the population in this harbor 30 miles out to sea. Enjoying clams and lobsters with a view of Arabella at the Sandbar at Jetties Beach proves to be an exercise in self-restraint.  You try not to boast how you came in on “your” yacht, but she was too large to anchor in the main harbor.

With 24 luxurious cabins and a salon large enough for fine dining, the ASA members aboard the Grand Tour take full advantage of the entire ship. The salon doubles as a dance floor. The hot tub is crowded each evening.  The bar is consistently a hotbed of tall tales and bad boat jokes as members wait for their libations. The group starts as 30 strangers and evolves into a large gathering of friends on the deck watching the sunset.

The Arabella Experience

I wave at a passing boat as the passengers on the small vessel circles Arabella. 

“That’s a beautiful boat,” they shout.

I smile and nod in agreement.

Such is an afternoon on this magnificent ship where even in these waters filled with experienced sailors, the beauty of the yacht attracts inquisitive eyeballs. When you are on the deck, the sailing community seems to envy you. They stare as if you are part of a different privileged class that sails on multimillion-dollar yachts to glamorous ports as part of everyday life.

For a week on an ASA sponsored sail, you are part of that class.

Arabella and The British Virgin Islands

If you enjoy the Caribbean, you’ll see it differently on an ASA charter on the Arabella. Seven days touring the legendary cruising grounds of the British Virgin Islands with plenty of time for beach bars, snorkeling and even a bonfire on the beach.

ASA members will get a crewed charter through the British Virgin Islands and that means leisurely breakfasts on the boat with a view of the islands, a semi-planned itinerary that allows each member the flexibility to explore on their own or time to join some new-found friends for on-island diversions.

What you’ll do in the British Virgin Islands

• Explore The Baths
• Have late night cocktails at Willy-Ts
• Dinner and plenty of Rum at Foxy’s
• Snorkel at Cooper Island
• Kayak the clear shallow waters of Jost Van Dyke
• Catch the sunset from the bow of Arabella
• Dance to Jimmy Buffet until the wee hours of the night
• Keep your money soggy at the Soggy Dollar Bar

The British Virgin Islands are a favorite spot for cruisers simply because of the multitude of options for fun both on and off the water. The crew of the Arabella will make sure that you have as much or as little of that fun as you want.

Have you ever taken the helm of a three-masted mega sailing yacht? Well, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to sail Arabella as the crew will guide you through the ease of navigating the majestic ship.

Interested? Take a look at sailing dates and availability .

Scroll through a gallery of what it’s like to charter on Arabella:

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• Jeff Bezos is constructing a 127-meter sailing yacht at Oceanco

Jeff Bezos Yacht

Oceanco project y721, the world's richest man.

Jeff Bezos' three-masted, $500 million superyacht will be one of the biggest ever built.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has ordered a massive yacht at Oceanco Shipyard in the Netherlands, according to international media reports. He has also placed an order for a wide (75 meter) support vessel.

Gerrit van Katwijk

The billionaire founder of Amazon , Jeff Bezos, is about to enter the illustrious ranks of the haves and have-yachts.

The world's wealthiest man is about to become the proud owner of one of the most luxurious and lavish superyachts ever constructed. The boat, recognized only by its project code Y721 , will be as long as the Great Pyramid of Giza and filled with state-of-the-art treasures including an in-deck swimming pool and a "ambient" theater, all adding to a rumored $500 million price tag.

Jeff Bezos' $500 million superyacht will be one of the biggest ever built.

Bezos, who is worth an estimated $200 billion, will now be responsible for an average operating expense of $50 million. The luxury sailing ship's plans are being kept under wraps, but some reports have recently surfaced on the website of its Netherlands-based maker, Oceanco, as well as on enthusiast forums. According to the information available so far, it could be based on the 106-meter Black Pearl , pictured below, which is actually the world's largest and most technologically advanced sailing yacht.

It will be operated by three massive masts which will extend over many decks. Because of the sails, it will not have a helipad; instead, rumors claim it will arrive with its ownyacht, in a twist worthy of the richest Bond villain. A separate support vessel with a dedicated landing facility has been commissioned by Bezos and his colleague Lauren Sanchez .

As the urban elite invest in ever more expensive vessels to escape the masses in opulence and anonymity, the luxury yacht market has thrived during the pandemic .

After spending time on Eos , another three-masted schooner owned by film and Fox TV billionaire Barry Diller and his wife Diane Von Furstenberg , the celebrated fashion designer, in 2019, Bezos is said to have placed the order before the virus struck.

He was later photographed with model Karlie Kloss , Josh Kushner , and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein on David Geffen 's yacht in the Balearics .

Bezos isn't low on cash, and according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he contributed to his considerable fortune last week by selling almost $2 billion worth of his company's stock. Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone reveals more information about the ship in his upcoming book on Bezos, Amazon Unbound , which is also likely to play a central role in Bezos' life as he steps away from running the online behemoth he developed.

“What did the future bring for their founder?” he writes. At least a portion of the solution can be found in the shipyards of Oceanco, a Dutch custom yacht manufacturer. Outside of Rotterdam, a new development was quietly taking shape: a 127-meter-long, three-mast schooner about which nothing was understood, even among luxury boat makers, except that when it was finished, it would be one of the finest sailing yachts in the world .”

Sailing Yacht Y721

Bezos' superyacht is hull Y721 , which is currently being designed at Oceanco. We will reveal that the yacht will be styled similarly to Barry Diller's sailing yacht EOS (which measures 93 meters (305 feet) in length).

The 93-meter EOS is the largest three-masted schooner in the world

On the aft deck of the yacht, there would be a big swimming pool. The yacht is expected to hold 18 visitors, who will be served by a crew of about 40 people. In 2022, the yacht will be launced. The design of Bezos' yacht would be identical to that of the (smaller) sailing yacht EOS .

The 127-meter ship with three masts is expected to cost more than $500 million .

Support Vessel

According to reports in the international press, Bezos has also placed an order for a massive support vessel . This is the 75-meter (246-foot) Hull YS7512 , which is currently being designed at Damen Yachting .

In a press kit, Gerrit van Katwijk provided a photo of the Y721 Hull, as well as a rendering of the support vessel.

The custom-built vessel would transport all of the key yacht's toys and tenders. It has a helicopter hangar with enough room for a big helicopter. The vessel has a total capacity of 45 people, including staff, crew, and passengers. It will be the Damen Yacht Support 's largest vessel, with a volume of 1,900 tons.

Bezos is the president and owner of Amazon . With a net worth of $190 billion , he is one of the world's wealthiest men . He was said to be the owner of the yacht Flying Fox , but an Amazon spokeswoman disputed this. He does own a private Gulfstream G650ER jet . After 25 years of marriage, MacKenzie Scott and Jeff Bezos have divorced. On Friday, a judge in King County, Washington, signed an order formally separating the couple. This clears the way for MacKenzie to receive 19.7 million shares in Amazon.com Inc. in his name. In January 2019, the Bezoses declared their separation.

Shenandoah of Sark

The 1902 classic 3-masted sailing yacht.

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Biggest three-masted schooner of the Netherlands

You sail together on the Eendracht. Everyone – but especially young people – let sea sailing experience that is central to the Netherlands’ largest three-masted schooner. In addition to the programs for young people and special projects, Stichting Zeilschip Eendracht offers various trips for a wider audience.

Individual trainers can join, they have a wide choice of day trips and multi-day trips. Companies and groups can rent the ship for a cruise, reception or event. The Eendracht can therefore continue to focus on the objective. The hospitality of the professional and largely voluntary crew and tasty care from the galley are the ingredients for an unforgettable journey!

De Eendracht has a rich history dating back to October 5, 1938. In the thirties, motorized shipping nearly pushed professional sailing. A change that many people were worried about, because the knowledge of sea sailing was lost and with it the valuable cooperation that leads to team spirit and perseverance.

The founding fathers of the Eendracht have retained training opportunities on a large sailing ship with the establishment of the National Association ‘Het Zeilend Schoolschip’. The initiator and first chairman was Mr. C.J. Jaski. Scion from a famous sailor family and from Schiermonnikoog. In 2010 his name is still connected to the Eendracht. His immediate family member Mr. B. Jaski is the current chairman of the Sailing ship Eendracht. foundation.

Due to the Second World War and its economic consequences, the construction of a private sailing ship was delayed. Thanks in particular to the many volunteers and the support of patron Z.K.H. Prins Bernhard, the first Eendracht was launched in 1974. The current ship, the three-masted schooner, was baptized on 29 August 1989 by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix. The discovery of the elements of the sea is still central.

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White Nights of St. Petersburg, Russia

By Joshua Hammer

• June 3, 2011

THE motorized launch cruised toward the Hermitage , the former Winter Palace of the czars, passing underneath a low arched bridge that I feared would graze my scalp as we glided beneath it. Just ahead, a boisterous wedding party on the deck of a wooden cruiser filled the air with vodka-fueled shouts of “gorko!,” meaning bitterness, a traditional Russian encouragement to the bride and groom to kiss and thus provide the guests with the opposite of what was being proclaimed.

Then the canal spilled into the vast Neva River, and all of St. Petersburg spread before us. Pink, peach and violet clouds streaked the horizon. Across the river, on Zayachy Island — one of a multitude of small islands in the Neva that fall within St. Petersburg’s metropolitan limits — stood SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, burial place of Peter the Great, the three Alexanders and, most recently, the executed Czar Nicholas, Czarina Alexandra and their children. The golden-spired cathedral glinted in the fading sun. I breathed in the maritime air — a pungent mix of gasoline and ripe river smells — and checked my watch. It was 11 p.m., and the sky was still as bright as that of an early summer evening in New York.

In St. Petersburg, the grand city of the czars, they call them the “White Nights”: those 80 or so evenings, running from May to the end of July, when the city emerges from long months of cold and darkness and celebrates the brief return of nearly round-the-clock daylight. Residents of Russia’s cultural capital — situated a few latitudinal lines south of the Arctic Circle, at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland — have been welcoming the summer with relief and celebration ever since Peter the Great founded the city in the early 18th century. (The czar named the new capital after his patron saint, St. Peter the apostle.)

For most of the 20th century, however, these celebrations were muted by wars, revolution and the grim imperatives of the Soviet state. The Russian Revolution broke out here in October 1917, when the city was called Petrograd. Only a few decades later, between 1941 and 1944, as many as 800,000 people died of hunger, disease and exposure during the nearly 900-day Nazi siege of the city that the Bolsheviks had renamed Leningrad. Under Joseph Stalin and his Communist successors, White Nights were disciplined affairs, limited to a smattering of classical music concerts. Even after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, St. Petersburg’s summer remained subdued: the economy had deteriorated so sharply after decades of misrule that many people became dependent on food rationing. For a time, St. Petersburg, which regained its original name in 1991, was even forced to accept humanitarian food aid from foreign donors — hardly the economic environment in which to stage all-night, citywide revelries.

During the last decade, however, Russia’s booming economy has rejuvenated St. Petersburg, and the White Nights have become more and more lively. Russian entrepreneurs have poured money into new bars, restaurants and hotels. Growing numbers of visitors from abroad, along with well-heeled Russian tourists — their wallets fat with petrodollars — and members of the increasingly mobile Russian middle class head here for summer vacations. The city fathers have seized the initiative, pumping city and state financing into organized events.

Long summer days exist elsewhere in Russia of course, from Moscow to Yekaterinburg to Yakutsk, but the White Nights have become an intrinsic part of St. Petersburg’s identity — a celebration of the city’s unique beauty and its role as the country’s artistic epicenter.

No other city in Russia enjoys such a breathtaking location. St. Petersburg was constructed on what originally were more than 100 islands formed by a latticework of rivers, creeks, streams and natural canals that flow into the Baltic Sea at the mouth of the Neva River. The Neva, the main artery through the city, snakes an east-west path across St. Petersburg, basically dividing it in half. The southern half, the part most reminiscent of Venice or Amsterdam, is cut by a grid of canals and includes many of the city’s most familiar landmarks. Among them: the Hermitage, Russia’s greatest museum and the former Winter Palace of the czars, along with Palace Square and the Alexander Column; the Kazan Cathedral, modeled after St. Peter’s at the Vatican; and the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood, a monument marking the spot of Czar Alexander II’s assassination in 1881. Here, too, runs the Nevsky Prospekt, the city’s main commercial street.

ACROSS the river, the northern part of St. Petersburg consists of a cluster of islands, including Vasilyevsky, Petrogradsky, Dekabristov and Krestovsky. Four drawbridges across the Neva connect the northern and southern parts of the city, while 342 smaller bridges, built over four centuries and made of materials ranging from wood to brick to iron, cross the city’s canals and tributaries.

You’ll find celebrations of St. Petersburg’s White Nights in virtually every corner of this sprawling, watery metropolis. Dance clubs and “beach clubs” — including the most exclusive, the Royal Beach Club on Krestovsky Island, a forested park that draws many of the city’s affluent young people — stay open until at least 6 a.m. on White Nights weekends. Throughout the night, the Nevsky Prospekt teems with revelers. There is a profusion of cultural events, from the daylong Dostoevsky festival on July 3 — a round-the-clock celebration of the local author whom many consider to be Russia’s greatest novelist — to the White Nights Festival , a combination of classical music, opera and ballet performances held from May through the end of July. The “Scarlet Sails,” a city wide high-school graduation party dating back to the end of World War II, takes place at the end of June, and draws revelers of all ages. The celebration includes an hourlong fireworks display over the Neva and the passage down the river of a graceful three-masted schooner modeled after one used by the imperial family in the late 19th century. And that doesn’t even include the variety of street theater, jam sessions and gatherings along the banks of the Neva just before 2 a.m. every day to watch the four main drawbridges, all illuminated, rise to a 90-degree angle to allow barges and other big vessels to pass. This happens throughout the year, of course, but the warm weather and the still-bright skies give the White Nights spectacle an especially celebratory feeling. “When you’ve got only 80 days of sunlight, you’ve got to make the most of them,” I was told by Sergei Bobovnikov, a dealer in Soviet-era antiques and propaganda art who was born in Kursk, a city near Moscow, but moved to St. Petersburg to attend college three decades ago.

Mr. Bobovnikov keeps two apartments in St. Petersburg: one on the island of Petrogradskaya Storona, the other across the Neva, one block off the Nevsky Prospekt. This means that, unlike many other revelers stranded on the wrong side of the river after the drawbridges rise, he is always guaranteed a place to sleep. (Mr. Bobovnikov rented me and my traveling companion his Petrogradskaya Storona apartment for the duration of our weekend stay.)

Daytime during the White Nights is usually devoted to sleeping late to recover from the long night before — perhaps mixed in with some sightseeing — or sipping cappuccinos at the cafes that line the Nevsky Prospekt and some of its side streets. My own exploration of St. Petersburg’s White Nights began on a Saturday evening in early July last year, a couple of weeks past the summer equinox. I was joined by Anna Nemtsova, a Moscow-based Newsweek correspondent and White Nights devotee who had lived for many years in St. Petersburg. Over the last several years, the White Nights have become a hugely popular draw for Russian tourists from as far away as eastern Siberia, she told me. But the largest representation of visitors comes from Moscow. “More and more Muscovites are making the weekend commute to St. Petersburg during the summer,” said Anna, who had arrived to meet me via a new high-speed train, which covers the route in four hours and charges 3,000 rubles (about $110, at about 27.6 rubles to the dollar).

ANNA and I made our way by taxi to the city center for an early evening meal — and free vodka shots — at the Idiot , one of St. Petersburg’s more popular bar-restaurants. This five-room basement establishment, located off St. Isaac Square and alongside the Moika Canal, one of the Neva’s many tributaries, reflects a new, nostalgic fascination for Russia at the turn of the 20th century. The Idiot was designed to resemble a Dostoevsky-era apartment: old oak furniture, Singer iron-pedaled sewing machines, clunky typewriters, shelves of antique books and the occasional, anachronistic bust of Lenin. We were joined by Mireille Massip , a French author who was in town to attend, among other events, a big White Nights gathering of returned St. Petersburg nobility.

Hundreds of White Russians — descendants of both the pre-revolutionary aristocrats and the anti-Bolshevik military officers who fled to Western Europe and the United States during the consolidation of Bolshevik power in 1919 and 1920 — have returned to the city since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some have taken up residence in the same apartments their families lived in in czarist Russia. Over a bowl of borscht and a glass of Chablis, Ms. Massip, who had recently finished a biography of a White Russian exile in America, told us that she returns to St. Petersburg “every second year,” always during the summer.

White Nights in St. Petersburg

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Tipsy after our round of vodka shots, Anna and I left the Idiot and commenced a White Nights ritual: the downtown walkabout through the area around the Moika. This original part of the city began to take shape in the early 18th century, when Peter, who was enamored of Dutch culture, laid out a grid of intersecting canals that flow into the Neva and hired Western Europe’s most celebrated architects to line them with palaces and cathedrals. Peter died in 1725, and the capital that he founded rapidly expanded. In 1728, Peter II moved his seat back to Moscow. But four years later, the Empress Anna again made St. Petersburg the capital of the Russian Empire. It remained the seat of the Romanov Dynasty for nearly two centuries, until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

We turned left along the Moika and crossed a short span nicknamed the Drunk Bridge, a rickety iron crossing from which assassins threw the still-living Rasputin — the faith healer to Nicholas and Alexandra — into the river in 1916. Along the nearby Nevsky Prospect, the new multi-ethnic Russia — sushi bars, Middle Eastern shisha bars, Chinese tea rooms — was drawing a crowd of customers from around the globe. We found our way to Rubinstein Street, a trendy boulevard that has exploded in recent years with curio shops, theaters and ethnic restaurants.

Here, at a newly opened Georgian restaurant, we discreetly fortified ourselves for the night ahead with a bottle of sweetish red Georgian wine, officially illicit, because Georgian wine imports had been banned by the Russian authorities since before the 2008 war in the south Caucasus, in which hundreds of soldiers and civilians died. It was still too early for most Russians to sit down to dinner, and we were the only guests in the spartan place. The owner and her daughter tended to us solicitously, as traditional Georgian folk music played in the background. They served up a nonstop procession of heavy, exotic dishes: lobio, a thick red bean soup; piles of meat-filled dumplings, known as khinkali; a cheese and herb bread called khachapuri tarkhunit; and spicy meatballs called abkhazura.

It was around 11 p.m. by the time we left the restaurant and headed back toward the Neva. The sky was streaked with fiery wisps of cloud. We walked through the eerily deserted Palace Square to a plaza beside the river, facing Vasilyevsky Island, site of the Italianate-style Kunst Chamber, an ethnography museum that includes Peter the Great’s bizarre collection of deformed embryos preserved in formaldehyde. Hundreds of people had gathered in the plaza, one of the most popular vantage points to watch the raising and lowering of the four drawbridges. All eyes were focused on a juggling team that tossed flaming sticks in the air, their acrobatics accompanied by the rhythmic beating of tom-toms played by musicians clad in billowy Ali Baba pants. The look, Anna explained, was inspired by the traditions of the Indian state of Goa, an increasingly popular destination for young Russians on holiday.

THE Neva itself was abuzz with activity: People took in the view sitting on the stone steps that ran down to the river, splashed from time to time by wakes from a constant stream of sightseeing vessels. The pleasure-boat owners have been among the biggest beneficiaries of the White Nights’ popularity. For 4,000 rubles, visitors can enjoy — as I did the following evening — an hourlong private cruise, sipping wine and gazing at sites like the landmark Mariinsky Theater on the Kryukov canal. “The number of boats on the river has quadrupled in the last couple of years,” Mr. Bobovnikov, the antiques dealer, told me. It’s a short season, however: throughout St. Petersburg’s seven-month winter, both the Neva and its tributaries are covered by a solid sheet of ice, and the waterways often don’t thaw entirely until the beginning of April.

The energetic scene on the plaza — illuminated bridges, teeming crowds, stands selling ice cream and American-style hot dogs, the pungent smell of diesel fuel, the hypnotic drumbeating, riverboats fighting for space on the wide Neva — reminded me a bit of the scene alongside the Nile in Cairo, with a similar sense of energy and controlled chaos.

As 2 a.m. approached, Anna and I crossed the Palace Bridge and the Stroiteley Bridge to Petrogradskaya Storona, on the northeast side of the city, across the Neva River. We found a large riverboat restaurant called the Flying Dutchman, its wooden-plank deck providing a panoramic view of all four main spans. The sky was darkening, and a huge, butterscotch half-moon loomed just above the Hermitage.

Then, as we sat on a couch on the restaurant deck in the gathering dusk, sharing a shisha and drinking vodka tonics, the Troitsky Bridge beside the museum began its slow ascent. It rose to a 90-degree angle above the Neva, and then, one by one, at 15-minute intervals, each of the three other spans followed. The graceful upward movement of the bridges, each following another with what seemed like perfect synchronicity, the sense of anticipation that suffused the crowds, the interplay of lights and water, all conveyed a magical effect.

Traffic ground to a halt, people gaped from promenades along the river, and then the first of what would be many barges, coming from the Gulf of Finland, swept into view. In near darkness now, Anna and I sipped our drinks and savored the scene — the moment when all of St. Petersburg seemed to stop and enjoy a brief respite from the endless whirl of its summer nights.

MIDNIGHT OIL NOT NECESSARY

“The Stars of the White Nights 2011” International Ballet and Opera Festival runs through July 24 and consists of a huge variety of musical events open to the public. Many events take place at the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and Opera Theater, but there are operas, ballets and concerts at performance halls all over St. Petersburg. For the full schedule, check balletandopera.com.

WHERE TO STAY

The Grand Hotel Europe (Nevsky Prospekt, Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa 1/7; 7-812-329-6000; www.grandhoteleurope.com) is widely considered the best place to stay in St. Petersburg. The luxurious, 130-year-old establishment with an ornate facade and a prime location has played host to a procession of European monarchs as well as to many great men and women of culture, including Tchaikovsky and Pavarotti. Rates for a standard double start at 15,300 rubles, or about $557 at 27.6 rubles to the dollar.

The Hotel Astoria (39 Bolshaya Morskaya;7-812-494-5757; www.thehotelastoria.com) makes a fine second choice. Owned by Sir Rocco Forte, it has grand, old-Russian style interiors and another excellent location on St. Isaac’s Square in the heart of the city, a few blocks from the Hermitage. The 210 rooms and 42 suites at Hotel Astoria start at 20,000 rubles.

WHERE TO EAT

The Idiot (82 Moika Canal; 7-812-315-1675), popular among both expats and St. Petersburg’s artist crowd, consists of four rooms crammed with antique furniture, oil paintings, chess and backgammon sets, English-language books and assorted Russian bric-a-brac. The menu features excellent Russian and vegetarian cuisine.

Khutor Vodogray (Ul. Karavannaya 2; 7-812-570-5737) is a handsome restaurant with whitewashed walls and dark beams suggesting a Ukrainian cottage. Ukrainian delicacies include homemade sausages, and black bread with salo, a traditional dish made from salt-cured pig fat.

Probka/Il Grappolo (Ul. belinskogo 5; 7-812-273-4904; www.probka.org) is a modern wine bar and restaurant offering memorable views of the Church of St. Simeon and St. Anna through its large picture windows. The wine list includes top-flight reds and whites from a dozen countries, and the menu features Italian and European food. Recommended are the pizzas topped with rucola.

JOSHUA HAMMER, a freelance foreign correspondent based in Berlin, is a frequent contributor to the Travel section.

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Three Marvelous Days in Moscow

April 3, 2017 by Robert Schrader 2 Comments

I’ll never forget the sense of anticipation I felt looking down onto Moscow as my flight from Warsaw descended, the city shrouded in the pitch black of early winter. The Russian capital had long been on my bucket list, and in just a couple of hours I’d be walking across Red Square toward St. Basil’s Cathedral, hopefully with some snow falling, to begin my 3 days in Moscow.

My Moscow itinerary lived up to all of my expectations. Well, except for one—I imagined a city as grand as Moscow would be difficult to comprehend in a short period of time, but that was not the case. Indeed, seeing Moscow in 3 days provided me a nuanced impression of the city, albeit one I want to build upon with future visits.

Where to Stay in Moscow

Moscow has a reputation as one of the most expensive cities in the world, which means it should be one of the most expensive cities in the world for hotels. Thankfully, at least as of early 2022, the Russian ruble is still very weak, which means that prices for even “nice” hotels in Moscow or comparable to or even lower than their counterparts in the rest of Europe.

If you’re looking for a boutique stay in Moscow, I recommend the Stoleshnikov Boutique Hotel ; otherwise, the city is full of hostels and budget hotels that will serve you during your three days in Moscow itinerary.

How to Divide Up Your 3 Days in Moscow

Day 1: moscow 101.

Although Moscow is a sprawling metropolis, many of the city’s key attractions are centralized—namely, around Red Square , located just north of the Moskva River . The obvious sights here include the impressive Kremlin and iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral but extend north, to the Bolshoi Theatre and also southward, to the river itself and the dramatic vistas the bridges over it provide.

To be sure, you should spend most of your first of three days in Moscow in close proximity to Red Square, in spite of how much more geographical ground there is to discover. Punctuate visits to important points of interest by getting an ice cream at the grandiose GUM department store, or treat yourself to a panoramic view of central Moscow by heading up to the roof of Children’s World department store.

Day 2: Beyond Red Square

Your strategy changes on the second of your Moscow 3 days itinerary, when your focus broadens. How this happens, of course, may vary. If it’s art and culture you’re after, for example, you might make a visit to the Russian State Library and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts . For architecture, you could visit less-celebrated Moscow churches such as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior , make a tour of the so-called “Seven Sisters” (a.k.a. Stalin’s Skyscrapers ) or even ride the Moscow Metro to Moscow City , which is home to some of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe.

Moscow is also home to a great number of green spaces, most notably the massive Gorky Park , but most dramatically VDNKh —located near the base of the Ostankino TV Tower , it features monuments to all the former Soviet republics. Tverskaya Street , a thoroughfare that extends northward from Red Square.

Day 3: Exploring the Golden Ring

Moscow is large and full enough of things to do that you could remain in the city center for the entirety of your third of Moscow 3 days, but I recommend traveling instead out into the so-called “ Golden Ring ” of historical cities around it. Well-known cities include Suzdal , Vladimir and Kostroma , and are all defined by colorful and well-maintained kremlins, which feature dramatic and picturesque churches and other structures that will be highlights of your Moscow 3 day itinerary.

If you’re traveling independently and using public transport, the easiest Golden Ring city to see as part of your 3 days in Moscow itinerary is Sergiyev Posad , which is accessible via direct suburban commuter train from Yaroslavskaya Railway Station —the journey time is about one hour. Sergivey Posad’s Kremlin is not only picturesque (my Russian friend commentated that one church within it, Mikheevskaya Tserkov , is “Russia’s Sistine Chapel”) but is a great place to enjoy a traditional, filling and warming Russian lunch, specifically at the dumpling house Varenichnaya . Both sweet vareniki filled with sour cherries, or hearty potato and chicken pelmeni will fuel you as you explore Moscow in three days.

Is 3 Days Enough in Moscow?

I can’t lie: This Moscow itinerary is packed full, even by my standards. You’ll have to wake up early every morning and sleep late every night in order to fit it all in, to say nothing of how much more difficult it will be if you travel to Russia in winter like I did (more on that in just a few paragraphs).

Of course, whether you pare down my recommendations to a more appropriate curation of Moscow in 3 days or can devote 5 days or even a week to Moscow from the outset, one thing is for certain: Moscow is far more beautiful and dynamic than the Soviet reputation that precedes it would suggest.

Other FAQ About Travel to Moscow

How much money do i need per day in moscow.

Depending on the exchange rate, you can expect to spend anywhere between 75-200 USD per person, per day in Moscow. How much you spend also depends whether you’re traveling individually or as part of a couple or group, how many meals per day you enjoy in restaurants (versus on the street/in shops) and the relative luxury or simplicity of the Moscow hotel you choose.

Do they speak English in Moscow?

The good news? You can get by only speaking English in Moscow, particularly in the immediate and heavily-touristic center of the city. The trick? While English-language signage is increasingly common, and while you may not need to speak Russian, being able to read the Cyrillic alphabet will make your time in Moscow (and in Russia more broadly) a great deal smoother.

When is the best time to visit Moscow?

Traveling to Russia during colder months not only forces you to move slower (and look less stylish—well, for most of us) as you explore what to see in Moscow in 3 days, but the lack of daylight can make it difficult to squeeze everything into a particular day, and even to stay awake. The good news? Summer, while not necessarily as iconic as winter, is an absolutely gorgeous time to visit Moscow.

The Bottom Line

Is a Moscow itinerary 3 days in length enough? Although Moscow is a huge, sprawling city, you don’t need a huge amount of time to get to know it. Spend day one exploring Red Square and surrounds, day two exploring Moscow’s secondary attractions and day three taking a day trip into the so-called “Golden Ring.” You’ll get a colorful impressive of Moscow—and, more importantly, a nice introduction for your trip to Russia , since it will likely start here.

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