Sakhalin Island
This extraordinary new addition to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk's otherwise ho-hum architectural ensemble is a staggeringly impressive golden-domed cathedral, which…
Must-see attractions in Russian Far East
Zarya Centre for Contemporary Art
Vladivostok
The full renovation and repurposing of a former clothing factory into a giant creative complex containing offices, studios, cafes and work spaces is one…
Yakutsk
At Permafrost Kingdom, two neon-lit tunnels burrowed into a permanently frozen hill have been filled with dozens of fabulous, never-melting ice sculptures…
Vladivostok
A fully militarised zone for most of the past 150 years, this big island just offshore has been reinvented as a business and academic centre and is home…
Khabarovsk
Located in an evocative 1894 red-brick building, this museum contains an excellent overview of Russian and Soviet history, despite not having a single…
Vladivostok
This massive new development on Russky Island is one of Vladivostok's planned key attractions and opened with great fanfare in 2016. It's a vast space in…
Russian Far East
Tynda’s pride and joy has four rooms of BAM relics and photos – sadly all devoid of English labelling – as well as exhibits on native Evenki culture, WWII…
Land of the Leopard National Park
Russian Far East
Created in 2012 by the merger of several smaller reserves, this vast tract of forest wilderness is still slowly developing as a tourist destination, but…
Museum of Sakhalin Island: A Book by AP Chekhov
Sakhalin Island
Based on Chekhov’s seminal account of his few months working as a doctor on Sakhalin in the 1890s, this museum provides insight not only into life on…
Yakutsk
This park, on the site of the original hunting settlement that later became Yakutsk, contains a series of excellently preserved historic buildings that…
Sakha Republic & Magadan Region
Ernst Neizvestny's famous Mask of Sorrow, erected in 1996, is the stark and brutalist concrete rendering of the suffering of the tens of thousands of…
Yakutsk
This popular zoo is some distance from Yakutsk, but it's well worth the trouble of getting out here if you're interested in the fascinatingly hardy fauna…
Yakutsk Regional History Museum
Yakutsk
A good place to delve deeper into Sakha culture, the Regional History Museum contains local minerals, information on the region’s first Russian settlers…
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Housed in an attractive half-timbered building overlooking the bay, this museum features an imaginative mix of relics and murals that outline Kamchatka’s…
Vladivostok
This recently redone museum dates from 1890 and offers three floors of galleries, although there's little in the way of English labelling. Exhibits delve…
Yakutsk
If time is limited, don't miss this excellent museum, with Sakha-themed exhibits covering local craftmaking traditions (mammoth tusk carvings, reindeer…
Vladivostok
Vladivostok was building a massive new cathedral on its central square at the time of writing, and it's set to be one of the city's most recognisable…
Russian Far East
Run by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve is a unique slice of the Primorsky region and a vital remaining habitat for…
Sakha Republic & Magadan Region
As well as a standard and very detailed look at the lives of the local indigenous groups, this excellent museum displays a moving collection of artefacts…
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
This new museum was just about to open during our last visit to Kamchatka, and a quick peek inside as they were putting up the display revealed an…
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk's largest and most impressive church is this golden-domed stunner, which sits on an outcrop from where it is visible from all over the city…
Gaivoron Biological Research Centre
Russian Far East
The Far East is all about its Amur tigers, and you can see a couple here at the Russian Academy of Sciences biological research reserve, run by Dr Victor…
Russian Far East
This iconic and rather aggressive looking statue is Tynda's most obvious sight. It's dedicated to the massive human effort (both voluntary and not) needed…
Esso
The giant hillside towering over Esso makes for a rather tough and sometimes inelegant scramble through the trees, but the views from the top over the…
Esso
A pleasant and easy hike along the Bystraya River and through some thick woods (where you may encounter bears: be sure to bring flares to keep safe) will…
Vladivostok
If you’re a bit of a car (or Soviet) nerd, the Antique Automobile Museum is an absolute classic. A room full of Sovietmobiles (motorcycles too) from the…
Vladivostok
Of Vladivostok's multiple, numbered defensive forts, No 7 (14km north of the centre) gets our vote. It has 1.5km of tunnels, pretty much untouched since…
Vladivostok
This gorgeous tsarist-era building in the centre of Vladivostok is the latest big cultural institution to open a Far Eastern campus. Once complete, the…
Khabarovsk
The riverside Nanai village of Sikachi-Alyan is 77km northeast of Khabarovsk and makes for a good day trip. Here you can view the Sikachi-Alyan…
Khabarovsk
Built in 2002 this striking cathedral rose on the site of a far older church that was knocked down by Stalin during his antireligious campaigns.
Russian Far East
This wonderful mosaic devoted to nauka (science) can be seen at the Polytechnical Institute, a block east of Hotel Voskhod.
Yakutsk
This mid-19th-century church with gorgeous golden domes in Yakutsk's old town is the city's most attractive.
Sakhalin Island
The pagoda-roofed Sakhalin Regional Museum has a strong exhibit (sadly in Russian only) exploring the Japanese/Soviet overlap of the city’s history,…
Russian Far East
Housed in a former tsarist-era trading house and Soviet-era HQ for the Communist Youth League (Komsomol), this impressive museum has 26 halls containing…
Vladivostok
Vladivostok’s well-oiled funicular railway makes a fun 60-second ride up a 100m hill every few minutes (unless the old girl is experiencing one of her…
Archaeology & Ethnography Museum
Yakutsk
These two separately run museums are in the same building; sadly, neither enjoys the luxury of signage in English. On the bottom three floors you'll find…
Vladivostok
Perched near the waterfront, the S-56 submarine is worth a look. The first half is a ho-hum exhibit of badges and photos of men with badges (all in…
Yakutsk
Khomus (Jew’s harps) play a big part in Sakha culture. Concerts occur year-round, when performers imitate natural sounds such as a horse neighing. The…
Russian Far East
A five-minute walk west from the centre on ul Lenina is a complex containing Birobidzhan’s Jewish culture centre, Freud, and a synagogue with a small…
Khabarovsk
Undergoing a full renovation in 2017, this five-room museum displays tools and living essentials from early peoples. Pottery, animal-skin huts, dugout…
![Western Siberian Eagle Owl [Bubo Bubo Sibericus] in full flight](https://lp-cms-production.imgix.net/2019-06/531770715_high.jpg?auto=format&fit=crop&w=360&ar=1:1&q=75)
