Someone decides to visit Lake Kavgolovskoye, checks the timetable, sees a train "to Toksovo" and boards it. Forty minutes later the train arrives at Toksovo, switches off its lights and goes no further, because only the trains running on towards Vaskelovo, Sosnovo, Priozersk or Kuznechnoye stop at the Kavgolovo platform. One stop apart, and the next service can be over an hour away.
Toksovo and Kavgolovo are the closest place to St Petersburg with real relief underfoot: hills, slopes dropping to the water, pine forest. Autumn suits it better than summer — no mosquitoes, half the crowd, yellow birches along the slopes. But October here is tricky, because much of what people come for in winter is not running yet.
Getting there
Trains leave from Finlyandsky station on the Priozersk line. According to the carrier's own timetable, the fastest service reaches Toksovo in 28 minutes and ordinary trains take 40 to 43; Kavgolovo is 44 to 47 minutes away. The 2026 full fare is 109 roubles to Toksovo and 120 to Kavgolovo, with a bicycle or oversized luggage adding 48 roubles.
Toksovo station sits next to the village itself, with shops, cafes and buses. The Kavgolovo platform is already forest, on the northern approach to the lake. Choose before you buy the ticket; walking between the two means following the tracks.
The bison park
The main local attraction is Zubrovnik, a park keeping hybrids of European bison and American buffalo. Entry to the grounds is free; the mini-farms, horse rides, rope course, trampolines and shooting range are charged separately, and a family ticket for up to five people costs 1700 roubles on weekdays and 1900 at weekends. In autumn and spring the park opens from 10:00 to 19:00.
One detail catches out most visitors: cards are not accepted. The park explains this by poor mobile coverage, so bring cash. Dogs are not allowed inside. The bison belong to the Vsevolozhsk forestry service rather than to the park, so sightings are never guaranteed — the animals may stand by the fence or stay deep in the enclosure.
Ski slopes without snow
The Severny Sklon resort stands on the shore of Lake Hepojarvi, with four downhill slopes and five lifts. Its season, as the resort states, runs from November to April, so in October the lifts stand idle and the pistes are grassy hills. Year-round there are the restaurant, the bathhouse and sauna, equipment rental and 38 forest cottages with breakfast included.
Skip the trip in heavy rain. The whole point of Toksovo is the terrain, and wet clay on a slope is treacherous; viewpoints over the lakes show nothing but grey haze, and there is almost no shelter along the way.
Photo: Liendain / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
