The Volga makes a great bend at Samara, and the city sits at its elbow. Here the river, nearly a kilometre wide, swings around the Zhiguli Mountains, a long ridge of forested hills that is the only real high ground for hundreds of kilometres in any direction. The mountains form a peninsula inside the loop, known as the Samara Bend, and its cliffs, caves and pine woods are among the best riding country in the Volga region. The city holds more than a million people and spreads along the left bank.
Samara has a strange history. In 1941, with Moscow threatened, it was made the reserve capital of the Soviet Union and renamed Kuibyshev, and diplomats and government offices moved here. Stalin's bunker, built deep underground, still exists and can be visited. The embankment, one of the longest in Russia at about four and a half kilometres, is a fine place for an evening walk, with sandy beaches and views across the river. The city is also known for beer: the Zhigulevskoye brand dates from a brewery founded in the nineteenth century by an Austrian, Alfred von Vacano.
North of the city, the painter Ilya Repin spent a summer in 1870 at the village of Shiryaevo, sketching the barge haulers who pulled boats up the Volga, which became his famous painting. The cliffs there are a classic view, and the road to the village winds through fields and woodland. Further into the bend, roads climb through forest with bends and short climbs, passing old kurgans and viewpoints over the water. Surfaces vary, and trucks use the main roads, so choose side roads for a quieter ride.
Fuel and food are plentiful in the city, and smaller places such as Novokuybyshevsk and Rozhdestveno have basics. Summers are hot and dry, winters are cold and snowy, and the best season runs from May to September. Foreign riders should check what is currently possible before planning travel.