Krasnaya Sloboda's identity is inseparable from its Mountain Jewish heritage, and the most rewarding way to spend time here is simply walking the streets and taking in the synagogues, cemeteries, and grand private houses that speak to a community that has endured for centuries in these mountains.
The Six Dome Synagogue is the architectural centrepiece — an unusually grand building for a town of this size. A short walk brings you to the Museum of Mountain Jews, which gives the historical background needed to make sense of what you are seeing. The old Jewish cemeteries, spread across the hillside, are worth a quiet hour.
The footbridge to Quba over the Kudyal River gorge is both practical and scenic — the view down into the gorge from the middle of the bridge is the best in town.
For a more ambitious excursion, the drive up to Khinalig village takes you into a different world entirely: a high Caucasus settlement where people speak their own language and where the outside world has arrived only recently.