Yakutsk Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus & taxi

Hardened souls can venture to Neryungri on a very rough 1200km highway. The Yakutsk bus station (avtovokzal; 355 987; ul Oktyabrskaya 24) sends buses there on Tuesday and Friday morning only (R1200, 20 to 24 hours). Slightly more regular, more expensive (and less comfortable) taxi vans to Neryungri are advertised on STS and TNT TV channels, or call 366 847.

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Boat

June through September it's possible to boat between Yakutsk and Lensk (R4000, 32 hours to Lensk, 26 hours back to Yakutsk) by hydrofoil, timed to jump on another boat to Ust-Kut on the BAM line. (It's possible the previously available direct service to Ust-Kut may resume in the future.) The boat for Lensk left at 5am Tuesday at research time. The Yakutsk river port (rechnoy port; 219 013), 2km northeast of the centre, has information. Cruises north to Tiksi, on the Laptev Sea, go twice a summer (R6415 each way).

At research time, service to Sottintsy (R313, 2½ hours) was suspended. It normally runs twice-daily Friday to Sunday, with return times allowing a day trip.

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Air

Reminding you that you are in fact in Asia, the often frantic airport, 6km northeast of centre, sends daily flights to Moscow (R15, 000, six hours); four weekly connections to Khabarovsk (R6200, two hours); three weekly to Novosibirsk (R7500, four hours); two to Irkutsk (R7000, three hours), Blagoveshchensk (R8500, two hours) and Vladivostok (R8500, three hours). The weekly flight to Magadan was suspended at last pass.

The main air ticket office (425 782; ul Ordzhonikidze 8; 8am-7pm Mon-Fri, to 4pm Sat & Sun) also sells boat tickets.

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