Learn Hardcore Russian: Летом мы любим ездить в загородный дом к друзьям. - In summer we like to go to our friends’ country house.

Летом is the instrumental case of лето and is the standard way to say “in (the) summer / during summer” in Russian.
Russian often uses the bare instrumental (no preposition) for seasons and times of day:

зимой – in winter
весной – in spring
летом – in summer
осенью – in autumn
утром, днём, вечером, ночью – in the morning / day / evening / at night

В лето is archaic/poetic and not used in modern everyday speech in this meaning.

Why is the verb ездить used here instead of ехать or идти?

Ездить is the multidirectional verb of motion meaning “to go (by vehicle) habitually, repeatedly, in different directions.”
The sentence describes something you do regularly every summer, so the habitual, multidirectional verb is needed:

ездить – to go (by transport) regularly / back and forth / in general
ехать – to go (by transport) in one specific direction, usually right now or one trip
идти / ходить – the same contrast, but on foot (идти = one direction, ходить = habitual/multiple)

So мы любим ездить = we like (habitually) to go by transport.

What does загородный дом literally mean, and how is it different from дача?

Literally, загородный дом is “a house outside the city” (за городом = outside the city). It’s a general term for a country house.

Дача is a very common word meaning a country house / summer house, often modest, used for weekends, gardening, etc.
In everyday speech, загородный дом can sound a bit more neutral or even a little more “solid” or “proper house,” while дача tends to evoke the typical Russian summer place. In many contexts you could say either, but на дачу is more idiomatic if you specifically mean “to the summer house.”

Why is it в загородный дом and not в загородном доме?

The preposition в takes:

Accusative for direction / movement into: в загородный дом – to the country house
Prepositional for location / being in: в загородном доме – in the country house

Here the verb ездить expresses movement to a destination, so в загородный дом (accusative) is required.
If you said Летом мы любим жить в загородном доме, you’d use the prepositional, because you are describing living in the house, not going to it.

What case is к друзьям, and what does the preposition к add?

К друзьям is dative plural after the preposition к.

друг (friend) → друзьям (to [the] friends) – dative plural
к
- dative often means “to (a person / people)”, with the idea of going to someone’s place or to someone as a person:
  - к врачу – to the doctor
  - к маме – to (my) mom
  - к друзьям – to (our) friends (to their place)

So в загородный дом к друзьям is “to the country house, to (our) friends” = to our friends’ country house / to the country house where our friends are.

Could you say к нашим друзьям instead of к друзьям? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, к нашим друзьям is grammatically correct and means “to our friends.”

In Russian, possessives (мой, наш, твой, ваш, его, её, их) are often omitted when it’s obvious whose something is. Context usually makes it clear that друзья are our friends.
Adding нашим just makes the ownership explicit or slightly emphasized (e.g., if you contrast нашими друзьями with someone else’s).

Can the word order be changed, like Мы любим летом ездить в загородный дом к друзьям?

Yes, that word order is perfectly correct: Мы любим летом ездить в загородный дом к друзьям.

Russian word order is flexible. Different orders slightly change what is emphasized:

Летом мы любим ездить… – emphasis on in summer
Мы любим летом ездить… – emphasis on we like (to do this) in summer

In normal neutral speech both versions sound fine; the difference is subtle and often depends on context and intonation.

Why is любим in the present tense if the action happens every summer?

In Russian, the present tense is used for general truths and regular, repeated actions, just like English present simple:

Мы любим ездить… – We like to go… (in general, as a habit)

The sentence doesn’t talk about one particular summer, but about a typical, repeated pattern. So the present tense naturally covers “every summer” as a habit.

Could you drop любим and just say Летом мы ездим в загородный дом к друзьям?

Yes, you can say Летом мы ездим в загородный дом к друзьям.

The meaning changes slightly:

Летом мы любим ездить… – We enjoy / like going there in summer.
Летом мы ездим… – We (usually) go there in summer (stating a fact or routine, without explicitly saying you like it).

Both are correct; choose любим if you want to stress that you enjoy it.

Why not use ходить instead of ездить?

Ходить means to go on foot (habitually / repeatedly), while ездить is to go by vehicle (habitually / repeatedly).

A загородный дом is outside the city, so the default assumption is that you travel by transport, not on foot. That’s why ездить is normal here.
You would use ходить for shorter distances where walking is realistic, e.g. Я хожу в парк каждый день – I walk to the park every day.

Why is it друзьям and not something like другам?

Друг has an irregular plural:

nominative singular: друг – friend
nominative plural: друзья – friends

This irregular plural stem друзья- is used for the other plural cases too:

dative plural: друзьям – to (the) friends
genitive plural: друзей – of (the) friends
instrumental plural: друзьями – with (the) friends

So друзьям is the correct dative plural form, even though many other nouns would take something like -ам/-ям on their regular plural stem.

Does к друзьям belong more to ездить or to в загородный дом? How should I understand this structure?

Logically, both belong to ездить: you go (ездить) both to the country house and to the friends.

In practice, в загородный дом к друзьям is understood as one combined destination:
you go to the country house that belongs to (or is used by) your friends – essentially “to our friends’ country house.”

You can also say ездить к друзьям в загородный дом with almost the same meaning; the idea is still “going to our friends, to their country house.”