Samara is a large city on a bend of the Volga River in southeastern European Russia. During the Second World War it served as the Soviet Union's reserve capital, and Stalin's underground bunker — built in secret beneath the city — can now be visited. The city's riverfront embankment, one of the longest in Europe, is the heart of summer life: locals swim in the Volga, barbecue on the sandy beaches, and stroll past the Art Nouveau mansions that line the waterfront.
The old centre pivots around Kuybyshev Square — one of the largest public squares in Russia — with its Opera House and the famous Chapaev Monument. The Samara Space Museum, housed beneath a full-scale Soyuz rocket mounted vertically on the building's roof, celebrates the city's role in the Soviet space programme — this is where the rockets that launched Gagarin into orbit were built, in factories whose existence was classified for decades.
Samara is a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway and a good base for boat trips on the Volga, including to the Zhiguli Mountains just downstream — a national park where the river makes a spectacular loop around ancient forested hills. The Monument of Glory at Slavy Square offers sweeping views over the river from the bluffs above.