A little north of Samara is the village of Volzhsky, known as Bolshaya Tsarevshchina. The village was founded in 1702. Next to it rises the famous Tsarev Kurgan. One of the legends says that the mound was poured on the grave of one Tatar khan by his soldiers, the other – that the army of Tokhtamysh was located on the mound before the decisive battle with the Russian army, the third – that the soldiers of Ivan the Terrible poured the mound to intimidate the nomads. Under Peter I, a wooden cross was erected on the top of the mound, which is why it is called Tsarev. Once upon a time there was a monastery on the top of the mound, it has not survived to this day, only at the foot of the mound is the Church of the Nativity of Christ (1833). Behind the Tsar’s mound there are numerous Volga oxbow lakes – the remains of the ancient riverbed of the Volga. To the north-east of the village of Volzhsky, the village of Kurumoch is interesting with a church in honor of the Baptism of the Lord made of red brick (late 19th – early 20th century). If you go higher along the Volga, then you will find yourself in the region of Mastryukovsky lakes, where the famous Grushinsky festival of bard songs takes place annually in early July.

According to APARENTINGBLOG, the second city of the Samara region is Tolyatti . It is located 100 km northwest of Samara on the left bank of the Volga River. The fortress on the site of the modern city was founded in 1737 by Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev for the Kalmyks in order to transfer them to a settled way of life. Initially it was called Stavropol. In 1780, the fortress with the settlement received the status of a city. The heyday of Stavropol came in the middle of the 20th century, when the construction of the Volga hydroelectric power station and the AvtoVAZ automobile plant began. During the construction of the hydroelectric power station, the city was flooded and it was moved to a new location. In 1964, Stavropol was renamed Togliatti in honor of the Italian communist Palmiro Togliatti. Attractions in Tolyatti few, most of them are in the Central region. Here is the main square of the city – Freedom Square. The Eternal Flame burns on it, in front of which rises the Obelisk of Glory in honor of the heroes-compatriots who died during the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. Near the Central Square there is also a monument to Nicholas the Wonderworker, a belfry and the Nativity Chapel. On the observation deck of Tolyatti, which is installed on the banks of the Volga, there is an equestrian statue of the founder of the city, V. N. Tatishchev. There are several museums in the city. The technical museum of the AvtoVAZ plant invites visitors to look at a variety of plant products – from sewing machines to ballistic missiles, a 90-meter submarine, aircraft are exhibited here., helicopters, engineering equipment, diesel locomotives, artillery, tanks, radars and AvtoVAZ models, more than 3,500 exhibits in total. Be sure to visit the museum of historical and cultural heritage of the city of Togliatti, the local history museum of the city of Togliatti and the art museum “Togliatti Picture Gallery”. One of the oldest sanatoriums in Russia, the Lesnoye sanatorium, operates in Tolyatti. Its buildings are located in a pine forest, not far from the banks of the Volga. The main direction of the sanatorium is anti-tuberculosis treatment. The main treatment factor is koumiss, which is made from cow’s milk. Not far from Togliattiin the village of Fedorovka there is the Annunciation Skete (19th century), where you can look at the Varvara Church of 1846, the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Intercession Cathedral.

In the Trans-Volga region, it is also worth visiting the city of Chapaevsk with the Center for Historical Modeling “Ancient World”, which presents reconstructions of dwellings of the Stone and Bronze Ages, the village of Gavrilovsky, where the former estate of Leo Tolstoy is located, the village of Alakaevka with the house-museum of the Ulyanov family, where memorial items are exhibited this family, the village of Alekseevka with the municipal museum of local history, the village of Nikolaevka, where there is a monument to vodka and a private museum of vodka, and the village of Utevka, in which stands the Holy Trinity Church (1885) with unique murals, which were made by painter Grigory Nikolaevich Zhuravlev, an invalid with no arms and legs.

120 km northeast of Samara is the most famous resort of the Samara region – “Sergievsky Mineral Waters”. The resort was opened in 1833 on the basis of local mineral springs of Sulfur Lake and mud of Lake Molochka. Sulfur Lake is fed by four sources with hydrogen sulfide sulfate-hydrocarbonate calcium-magnesium water, which also contains argon, helium and light hydrocarbons. At the outlet of the springs, therapeutic mud is accumulated, which is used in treatment along with the sulfide silt mud of Lake Molochka. In the sanatorium “Sergievsky Mineral Waters” diseases of the circulatory system, nervous system, blood vessels, skin and gynecological diseases are treated. Visitors are offered more than 70 types of baths, mud applications and body wraps, aerosolarium, laser therapy, magnetotherapy, therapeutic sauna, electrosleep, medicinal electrophoresis, psychotherapy, reflexology and phytotherapy.

160 km west of Samara on the right bank of the Volga River at the confluence of the Syzranka, Krymza and Kubra rivers is the city of Syzran . The Syzran fortress was founded in 1683 to protect trade routes from Samara to the central part of the state. In 1796 the fortress received the status of a city. Today the city is stretched along the Volga for 30 km. In Syzran the remains of the Syzran Kremlin, the ensemble of which was formed in the 18th century, have been preserved. The stone Spasskaya Tower, 27 meters high, has survived to this day. It was built in 1683. Now inside the tower there is a museum of the Syzran Kremlin, and on the tower itself there is a belfry from which bell concerts are given. Another ancient building of the Kremlin is the Church of the Nativity of Christ in 1717. Unfortunately, the rest of the buildings of the ancient fortress have not survived, or are in a ruined state. From the Kremlin, Sovetskaya Street begins, on which Art Nouveau buildings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are located, mostly the former mansions of wealthy merchants. On the same street stands the Drama Theater named after Alexei Tolstoy. Across the Syzranka River, the area of Mongor (Monastyrskaya Gora) is interesting, where the Ascension Monastery once stood, which was founded in 1675. To this day, the temple of the Ascension of 1738 has been preserved from the monastery. From museums Syzran is worth highlighting the exhibition hall in the former merchant’s mansion Chernukhin. The building itself is a monument of wooden architecture. Inside, paintings by Syzran artists and reconstructions of several rooms of the merchant’s mansion are exhibited. The local history museum of Syzran tells about the past and present of the city, it presents everyday, ethnographic and arts and crafts exhibits, as well as paintings and sculptures. In the museum of the Syzran icon-painting school, which is famous for its works, you can buy icons of the best masters.

Northeast of Syzran, on the banks of the Kuibyshev reservoir, is the village of Usolye.. In 1583, Tsar Ivan the Terrible granted the land on which the current city is located to the Stroganov merchants. The Stroganovs were engaged in the sale of salt, and in these places, near numerous salt springs, they began to cook salt as early as the Bronze Age. Later, by decrees of different rulers, the village passed from one noble family to another. The Orlovs became its last owners. The Orlov Manor, which was built in the early 19th century, has survived to this day in Usolye. It was a whole palace complex, which included the main three-story mansion, an extensive library, some of the works from which are now stored in the library of the Samara Pedagogical University, an office building, a stone outbuilding for the manager, a large horse yard, a kennel, a poultry yard, a menagerie, a picturesque park and a lilac garden. The estate is currently being restored. but most of the buildings are lost forever. In Usolye there is a regional municipal museum of the history of the Usolye region named after Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov. Antiques are exhibited here, among which an ancient cauldron for boiling salt is interesting. Every year at the end of July, the museum holds a “Salt Fair” of folk crafts.

Numerous reservoirs, lakes and rivers of the Samara region are a great place for fishing. Tench, pike, roach, zander, perch, carp and ide are found here. Fishing is best between April and September.