As one of the most important historical and cultural centres of southern Russia and the northern Caucasus region, Krasnodar is more ethnically diverse than Northern Russia.

The renovated tsar-era buildings make this a very pretty city that’s gaining popularity among tourists. Here are a few facts and figures to help you decide whether Krasnodar should feature on your bucket list…

By Дагиров Умар [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• Krasnodar was founded in 1794 by the Black Sea Cossack settlers under the guidance of Catherine the Great to guard the southern border of the Russian Empire from the Ottomans. The city was originally known as Yekaterinodar, meaning ‘Catherine’s Gift’.
• Much of the city was destroyed during the German occupation of late 1942, but was later rebuilt.
• Krasnodar International Airport is 12km east of the city centre. From the airport, you can take a trolleybus (1 hour) or minibus (40 minutes) to the main train station.
• Krasnodar has a dense network of trams, trolleybuses, city buses, taxis, the boat across the Kuban River and marshrutkas (shared taxis).
• Krasnaya (Red) Street is the city’s main street. Part of it is closed to vehicles during the evening, when the street becomes the centre of Krasnodar nightlife.
• Theatre Square has the largest splash fountain in Europe.
• The city contains a number of museums, including the Krasnodar Regional Art Museum of Kovalenko, Krasnodar Regional Showroom of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Military Technologies.
• There are plenty of religious buildings well worth visiting, including St Catherine’s Cathedral, St George’s Church, the Chapel of Alexander Nevsky and Krasnodar Mosque.
• Parks a-plenty can be found around the city, including the Rozhdestvensky Park of Culture and Leisure, Solnechny Ostrov (Sunny Island) Park and the City Botanical Garden.
• With a Children’s Puppet Theatre, Philharmonic Hall, Operetta Theatre and numerous entertainment complexes open 24 hours a day, water amusement parks and Ocean Park Aquarium, there’s plenty to keep the whole family entertained.
• For shoppers, there are numerous markets, shopping malls and countless individual stores.
• Krasnodar also has many restaurants, pubs, sushi bars, hookah bars, pizzerias, coffee/tea houses and fast-food outlets, including McDonald’s, Subway and KFC.
• The predominant Krasnodar cuisine is a mix of south Russian, Georgian, Armenian and Greek flavours with an emphasis on fresh locally grown produce, minimally spiced and mostly flavoured with parsley, dill and cilantro.
• Within travelling distance of the city are Novorossiysk (Black Sea port city), Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd and Sochi.

So if you want to say ‘da’ to Krasnodar, you know where to go – RNTO: your one-stop travel shop for all things Russian.