Stretch your legs and explore the natural beauty on today’s visits to the Botanical Gardens, or Dendrarium part of the Caucasian National Reserve.

Travel along the coastline just a mile or so to Sochi’s Dendrarium, founded by Sergey Skudenkov in 1892. Spend an hour exploring the grounds, featuring a wide-ranging collection of trees and shrubs from around the world. The upper park is formal in style, laid out around the founder’s Italianate villa. Classical pavilions and fountains stand amid specimens from the Mediterranean, Far East, Australia, the Americas, even the Himalayas. The lower park is more English in style, with eye-pleasing displays of trees and plants intermixed with flowing streams and small lakes. A collection of statues provides sometimes stark contrast to the natural beauty.

Continue your drive to the Yew and Box Tree Grove, a primeval forest not far from the city centre. Covering some 300 hectares (750 acres) in the Khosta River Valley, the park is blessedly undisturbed.

Box trees are evergreens with small, variegated leaves. These slow-growing trees can live 500-600 years in the wild. Some of the giant yew trees in the grove are over 700 years old. Your walk in this natural sanctuary, home to a variety of small animals and birds, passes by the ruins of an ancient fortress. From here, the drive back to the pier is about an hour.

NOTE: Comfortable walking shoes are suggested.

PRICE:

$ 80 25-29 participants

$ 100 20-24 participants

$ 110 15-19 participants

W3: Strenuous activity. Tour requires physical effort, walking long distances over uneven or steep terrain or on steps.