Travel to Central Yakutia (8 days)

🌄 Day 1. Getting to know Yakutsk

9:00 Meeting with the guide in the hotel lobby. Airport meeting for those arriving on the day the tour starts. 
Time difference with Moscow is 6 hours. Check-in to the hotel from 14:00; if guests arrive on a morning flight, you can check in after the sightseeing program. Luggage can be left at the luggage storage.

9:30-10:45 Sightseeing city tour, walk through the “Old Town” district.

This is the historical center of Yakutsk, which used to host many commercial establishments, and features recreated examples of pre-revolutionary wooden architecture.

10:45-12:00 Visit to the exhibition “Treasure House of Yakutia”.

12:00 Set lunch at the restaurant “Muus Khaya” (additional orders from the menu are not included in the price).

14:00-15:30 Excursion to the Yakutsk State Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of the North named after E.M. Yaroslavsky.

          The exhibition includes departments of archaeology, ethnography, and natural history, including stuffed animals of Yakutia, skeletons of the Tirekhtyakh mammoth and Greenland whale, and much more.

15:30 Transfer to the hotel, check-in.

🌄 Day 2. Lena Pillars

09:00 Meeting with the guide, check-out, and departure from Yakutsk to the village of Tit-Ary (Khangalassky Ulus of the RS(Y), 180 km).

— Time for lunch (snacks with you or at a roadside cafe in Pokrovsk) — not included in the price.

12:30 Arrival in Tit-Ary and transfer to motor boats. River cruise to the Lena Pillars National Park (30 km, 1 hour).

13:30 Arrival at the Lena Pillars in the Labydya mouth area.

13:30-18:00 Free time in the park, climbing the observation platform along a 2-km equipped trail.

18:00-18:30 Drive to the tourist base in the village of Batamai, 3 km. Accommodation at the tourist base (hostel-style accommodation, bunk beds, separate dormitory for men and women).

— For an additional fee, you can stay at the “Lena Pillars” hotel (price depends on the room type, no dinner included)

19:00 Dinner, rest (field kitchen at the campfire).

Optional (additional payment): dinner, evening fishing on a sandy island, and an additional river cruise along the Lena Pillars in the light of the setting sun.

🌄 Day 3. Sinsk Pillars

8:00 Early wake-up, breakfast.

9:00 Transfer by motor boat to the village of Sinsk (31 km).

Along the way, view the “Petrovskoye” rock drawings on the left bank of the Lena River.

On the steep banks of the Middle Lena, many ancient sanctuaries have survived, attracting with their mystery. These are petroglyphs, altars, ritual complexes near cliffs with rock carvings. “Petrovskoye” is one of them, containing various drawings dating from the II–I millennium BC — I millennium AD and the late Middle Ages (graffiti, etc.). The preservation of all these petroglyphs is partially satisfactory. However, almost no entire rock planes with drawings have survived. They have all been subjected to intense natural destruction. Wannabe artists and vandals also have a detrimental effect on the ancient rock monuments.

10:30 Transfer by water-jet boat to the village of Sinsk (31 km). Ascent of the Sinyaya River with stops to view and photograph the Sinsk Cliffs – up to the Singing Rocks, 45 km. Locals call this natural monument the Stone Forest.

12:30 Arrival at the “Singing Rocks” 45 km, photo session, free time.

13:00 Departure to 25 km.

14:00 Lunch (sandwiches, 0.5 l water).

14:30 Climb up the trail to the top of the rock, photo session, descent.

16:00-18:00 Return to the tourist base.

— For an additional fee, you can stay at the “Lena Pillars” hotel (price depends on the room type, no dinner included)

— Free time, dinner, rest (field kitchen).

🌄 Day 4. Tukulaan, Wood Bison Nursery, and Buotama River

8:00-9:00 Breakfast, check-out.

9:30-10:30 Boarding the motor boat and departure to the village of Tit-Ary.

10:30-11:30 Transfer to the vehicle and continue to the village of Bulgunnyakhtaakh.

11:30 Arrival in Bulgunnyakhtakh, boarding a motor boat.

13:00-13:30 Departure by motor boat to the Sand Dune (Tukulan) “Kyhyl Elekhin”— fascinating in its uniqueness, a huge dune formed by winds over millennia.  The dune looks like a lying giant dragon, 1.5 km long. The dune’s height reaches 40 meters. The wind lifts sand from the bare vegetation-free bank to a height, forming a huge sand dune that, moving towards the taiga, like a predator, swallows living trees. The tukulan digests them in its body, and after hundreds of years, dried trees appear on the opposite side of the tukulan…

13:30-14:30 Excursion around the dune, free time.

— Snack (sandwiches, bottled water).

15:30-17:30 Excursion to the wood bison nursery.

Wood bison nursery. It was opened in 2006 at the mouth of the Buotama River. The animals were brought from Canada, as no bison remained in Yakutia after centuries of hunting. This nursery is a step towards restoring the native fauna of this region. It occupies a large area — about 100 hectares — so that the animals do not feel confined.

The wood bison, a contemporary of the mammoth, is an endangered species listed in the international Red Book.

17:30-18:00 Boarding the boat and departure to the other bank of the Lena River in Bulgunnyakhtakh.

18:00-20:00 Departure to Yakutsk. Transfer to the hotel (visiting the bison nursery adds +3-4 hours).

🌄 Day 5. Buluus Glacier and Kuruluur

Note: From August 20, the Buluus glacier completely melts, so it will be replaced by the open-air ethnographic museum complex “Samartay”.

9:00-9:45 Breakfast. Preparation for departure to the Buluus glacier.

10:30 Meeting with the guide in the hotel lobby. Departure to the ferry crossing across the Lena River “Darkylaakh” (Yakutsk – Nizhny Bestyakh village) or, depending on the day and the ferry loading, the crossing will be made via the village of Mohsogollokh.

— Then we drive towards the Buluus glacier (95 km from Nizhny Bestyakh).

— Lunch at a cafe (or lunch box), not included in the tour price.

          Buluus Glacier — a unique source of groundwater forms ice formations of pure fresh water that do not melt even on the hottest days. In some years, the thickness of the ice in July reaches up to 3 m. The place is quite popular among tourists. The ice kingdom seems like a complete fantasy on a hot summer day among green grass and tall coniferous trees. And in winter, even in severe frosts, water appears on the surface of the blue ice, spreading over the ice and freezing. All these permafrost phenomena cause amazement and enjoyment of beauty.

From August 20, the Buluus glacier is replaced by the Samartay Museum.

Ethnographic Museum “Samartay” has been operating since 1991. It houses unique exhibits telling about the life and culture of the Yakuts, the flora and fauna of our region, documents, photographs, and exhibits on the history of the region and the village. The museum grounds feature historical and architectural monuments: the Kachikatskaya Nikolskaya Church from 1890, an old grain dryer, a hexagonal hut “babaaryna”, other buildings from the 18th century, and the barn of the Yakut bay (rich man) Kirill (Kirile baay ampaara), built for protection from the “robber” Vasily Manchary.

— Departure to “Kuruluur” — a small but deep cascade of waterfalls with rapids and rocky banks, located on the Mende River.

— Visit to the sacred mountain “Turuk Khaya” (meaning steep cliff) — one of the holy places of the Khangalassky Ulus. A monument created by nature itself (Lena Pillars in miniature). 80m high, over 100m long.

18:30 Departure to the city of Yakutsk.

21:30 Arrival in Yakutsk. Transfer to the hotel.

🌄 Day 6. Druzhba Museum-Reserve*

* (The program can be replaced with a trip to meet a shaman in Namsky District)

7:45 Meeting with the guide in the hotel lobby.

8:00-9:00 Departure to the village of Kangalassy (45 km).

9:00-11:00 Crossing the Lena River channel by vehicle ferry from Kangalassy to the village of Ogorodtakh (30 km).

11:00-12:30 Departure by car to the museum.

— Time for lunch at a cafe (not included in the price).

— Excursion to the Lena Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve “Druzhba”.

The historical and architectural open-air ensemble is located in a very picturesque place of the former Lensky Ostrog (Yakutsk), founded on the initiative of the national writer of Yakutia, Suorun Omollon. Famous explorers passed through the ostrog, including Semyon Dezhnev, Ivan Moskvitin, and Yerofey Khabarov.

• In the center of the museum is a copy of the Spasskaya Church of the Zashiversky Ostrog, built in 1700.
• A replica of the boat of sotnik Pyotr Beketov, the founder of Yakutsk.
• Ancient examples of 17th-century wooden architecture of the peoples of Yakutia.
• Household items of the peoples of Yakutia.
• Works of folk art.

16:30-19:00 Departure to Yakutsk.

🌄 Day 7. Culture and traditions of Yakutia in Yakutsk

8:00-10:00 Breakfast at the hotel.

10:00-11:00 Meeting with the guide in the hotel lobby, departure for an excursion to the ethnographic center “Us-Kut”. Conducting the ancient blessing ceremony “Algys” and presenting Yakut amulets.

          The Us-Kut tourist complex, located in the vicinity of Yakutsk, is famous for its good traditions and is based on the hospitality and hard work of the Atlasov family, who put their love for their native land into it. Tourists can get an idea of the ancient culture of the Sakha people: hear the khomus and toyuk, see national rituals — treating spirits, purification, greeting the sun. On the territory of the center there are buildings typical of Yakut life.

11:15-11:45 Excursion to the underground complex “Kingdom of Permafrost”.

          The tourist complex “Kingdom of Permafrost” is a complex in a glacier located inside a mountain, with the residence of the Yakut Winter, Chyskhaan – the Lord of Cold, the room of the Master of the North, exhibition halls of the Ice Sculpture Festival, a large paleontological exhibition of mammoth fauna objects, an ice slide, and an Ice Bar.

12:00 – 13:15 Climb to the observation deck of the sacred mountain “Chochur Muran”, walk along the mountain.

          From the mountain, a beautiful view of the Tuymaada Valley opens up, where the city of Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is located.

          Chochur Muran — translated from Yakut as “pointed hill”. The hill is revered as a sacred mountain. According to legends, the first progenitor of the Yakuts in the middle reaches of the Lena River, Elley Botur, organized the first Ysyakh (national summer holiday) here.

13:30 – 15:30 Lunch at the restaurant of the Chochur Muran complex (not included in the tour price, payment according to the menu). A short tour of the complex.

Located in a very picturesque place under the Chochur Myraan mountain, made as an exact copy of the Yakut Cossack ostrog. The tourist complex “Expedition 16.32” is named after the founding of Yakutsk. The complex features authentic, original things and objects from those times from private collections, which are rarely found even in museums.

16:00-17:15 Excursion to the International Khomus Museum (may be replaced by another museum).

The museum features collections of Frederick Crane, an American jew’s harp expert, professor, and Gotovtsev Innokenty Nikitich, a folk master of the RS(Y), and master manufacturers of Yakutia. To date, the museum collection includes 1613 khomuses (jew’s harps, trump, maul trommel, jyus harp, bamboro, etc.) from 52 countries. Overall, the khomus is common among more than 200 nationalities of the world.

17:30 Visit to the farmers’ market, where you can buy meat, fish, and souvenir products from local producers.

18:30 Transfer to the hotel.

🌄 Day 8. Journey home

— Transfer to the airport.