Although now in Ukraine, Crimea has always been a favourite holiday destination for Russians. Best known to the British for the infamous charge of the Light Brigade, the Crimea juts out like a triangle into the north of the Black Sea. Its Mediterranean climate, warm sea, abundant fruit and vegetables and pretty landscape led the Romanovs and the nobility to build palaces and villas all along its coast line.

Aside from the battlefields such as Sevastopol and Balaklava, you will also find the Vladimirsky Cathedral, the second largest in the Ukraine; the palace of Bakhchisaray, immortalised by Pushkin in The Fountain of Bakhchisaray; the Tsars palace at Livadiya, site of the Yalta Conference of 1945; vineyards, botanical gardens, boat trips, swimming and some delicious food.

Relatively few foreigners have visited the Crimea as until recently much of it was closed due to Sevastopol being the site of the giant underground submarine pens of the Black Sea fleet. It is well worth a visit in either the Spring or Autumn.