Winter in Sakhalin, Russia's largest island
Sakhalin is the largest Russian island. It is larger than Ireland, yet, barely half a million people live on it, most of them in the capital, that lies at its southern tip.
I had wanted to visit this far-flung part of Russia for already quite some time and the opportunity just came up during winter time, which is sort of low season there, but, on the other hand, allowed me to discover a proper snowy wonderland where few tourists venture.
Right after my trip I published this article on CNN, where I compiled some of my impressions from my visit to the island, but I was left with the feeling that one single piece was not enough to describe this very interesting, off-the-beaten path destination as thoroughly as I would have wanted.
So, I decided to pen yet another post with some extra pictures and additional information that didn’t make it to the CNN article.
Visiting Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
This was a quick, 3-day trip to Sakhalin.
Take away jet-lag recovery (Sakhalin is 10 hours ahead of Moscow, the city I was flying from) and the morning transfers and waiting time at the airport and I was left with something like 48 hours “effective” hours to explore the island.
So my visit was focused on Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the capital city. However, I could arrange a private tour: a half-day excursion along the Eastern coast of the island. And this was a great decision, the experience certainly did not disappoint me! (more on this further in this post).
How to get to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Sakhalin is just 40km north of the island of Hokkaido and there is a ferry that travels between this northernmost Japanese island and Korsakov, a port in southern Sakhalin.
The most practical way to get to get to Sakhalin, though, is by air.
Although rather small, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has an international airport with regular connections to Japan, South Korea and China, in addition to Vladivostok, the capital of Russia’s Far East, on the mainland. For travellers coming from Europe, though, the easiest and cheapest way is, in most case, via Moscow.
There are daily direct flights between Moscow and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, operated by both Aeroflot and its subsidiary Rossiya, and it is possible to find very reasonably priced tickets if you fly off-season. For example, I could get a ticket for some €350 return, which is rather good for a 10-hour flight!
The airport is not far from the centre of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. There is little in the way of public transportation, but a taxi ordered through the Yandex.taxi (an app that I recommend downloading to everyone visiting Russia - it is also the local Uber partner) application should cost no more than 500 rubles (or around €7-8, less than $10).
If travelling in Winter, get some warm clothes, since it can be pretty cold! You have been warned!
By the way, the region of Sakhalin includes also the Kuril Islands (as this poster at Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport conveniently reminds us). This is definitely a destination I would consider for another trip, although foreigners need a special permit to be able to visit (the southern Kurils have been the object of a territorial dispute with Japan since the end of WW2).
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk airport is far from grandiose. In fact, at the time of my visit, its old terminal was showing quite evident signs of ageing and decay. The good news are that a new terminal is already being built next to it following modern standards. It should be ready sometime in 2020.
(You can find more about commercial aviation and traveling by air in the Russian Far East in this article)
Things to do and things to see in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
One of the first sights one comes across when driving into Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the gleaming towers of the Cathedral of the Nativity.
This is, apparently, the largest Orthodox church in the Russian Far East and it was inaugurated as recently as 2016!
It is located on a hillside elevation on the eastern side of town, right next to two other attractions of the city: the WW2 museum and one of the access points (via lift) to the ski resort of Gorniy Vozdukh (“mountain air” in Russian).
The contrast between the traditional, rather majestic, religious architecture of the cathedral and the, also monumental, military museum next door, makes for quite a few impressive perspectives, particularly on a sunny morning, when the snow and the cupolas reflect the rays of the sun!
City Center and War Memorials
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a city of wide, straight avenues forming a grid. The buildings are , for the most part, Soviet-style residential blocks, although not as tall or dense as those found in Moscow or other cities in the Western part of Russia. Scattered all over the place you can find also some more modern constructions, offices and commercial centres, I’d say of a rather uninspiring architectural style.
The dimensions of the city mean that most of downtown is walkable, though.
Pretty much all avenues are fitted with broad pedestrian sidewalks that allow for rather pleasant walks when the weather is sunny. The reticular pattern of the streets means that it is relatively easy to find your way around.
You can also extend the walk into Gagarin Park, the city’s main urban recreation area. It has quite an amusement park, a reservoir and its very own miniature railways.
Sakhalin Railway Museum
Talking about railways, next to the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk’s railway station (there is one single rail line in Sakhalin, that runs along the whole length of the island) there is what looks like a rather interesting railway museum with several historical locomotives on display outdoors.
Unfortunately, I did not have time to step inside, but i could check some of the historical locomotives from the outside.
Sakhalin Regional Museum
This is yet another must-see place in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Don’t be misled by the rather humble, unassuming name.
This is a small museum, granted. But it is a great place to get in a relatively short time, quite a comprehensive view of the natural and human history of the island of Sakhalin, with a special mention to the role of Sakhalin as a bone of contention between the Russian and Japanese empires (in fact, the Southern half of the island, including Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, was under Japanese rule for several decades until the end of WW2)
To add interest to the museum, the building where it is housed is one of the few buildings left from the time of Japanese rule, as it is pretty obvious from the style if was built in.
A Japanese, WW2-era light tank
During WW2, Sakhalin went from being as far as it gets from the front (while the Soviet Union was fighting Germany in Europe) to becoming a front line in the last few weeks of the war, when the Soviets joined the fight against Japan.
Military history is very present all around the city. In addition to the dedicated WW2 museum, there are quite a few places where it is possible to see all sorts of vintage military hardware, from tanks and artillery to fighter jets, as you can see in these images.
And these are Soviet tanks, also from WW2
But the most gripping, solemn, of all the military-related points of interest in Sakhalin is the war memorial dedicated to those fallen in WW2, or “Great Patriotic War” as the Russians prefer to call it.
Skiing in Sakhalin
Another interesting and rather unique thing you can do in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the opportunity to ski in a semi-urban setting..
The ski resort of Gorniy Vozdukh is located on a hill side overlooking the city and you can, actually, take the lift pretty much from the city centre, since the base access point is located next to the cathedral, as you can see in the photo below.
It is a small resort, but it has the views! Where else can you ski within sight of a city of half a million?
Despite there being plenty of snow (or perhaps because of this) when I visited, in early December, the slopes were not open to the public yet. Workers were rushing to get everything ready for the season’s opening.
Shopping in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Although Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is not exactly a great shopping destination, there is the one thing that you can’t miss: fish and seafood!
Sakhalin is a sort of seafood-lovers paradise (and in fact all over Russia, seafood from Sakhalin and the country’s Far East enjoys a well deserved reputation).
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk fish market is, thus, another must for any visitor. Here you will find all sort of seafood: fresh, canned, dried…some of it, perfectly packed and ready to take with you to the plane.
Two of the most celebrated products: giant read crab and caviar. Each of these two products is available in multiple variations and permutations. There is also plenty of salmon of all sorts.
Here is the address of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk main fish and seafood market:
Uspekh Market
Sakhalinskaya Ulitsa, 71
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk 693005
A great find, and one that is not too expensive and easy to bring with back with you on the plane, are the small chunks of dried salmon and other types of fish (sold perfectly vacuum-packed), which make for delicious snacking!).
There are also plenty of street vendors offering frozen fish and seafood next to other sorts of (non-edible) merchandise. Since the air is so cold, no natural refrigeration is needed. People would just get it wrapped in any sort of paper or cardboard to take home!
Day Excursions from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
If you get the chance, do not hesitate to arrange some excursion out of the city to experience the unspoiled nature of this island!
To do so, I’d recommend contacting one of the local tour agencies, which will provide a guide an a car. Usually these run tours for groups (if you are travelling alone you may either join a group or you can arrange a private tour).
I booked my tour with Druzya Pokhodniki (http://pohodniki.net). A day excursion in a 4x4 vehicle cost around 10,000 rubles, although the fee per person is lower if you travel as part of a larger group. The manager, Ekaterina, is fluent in English and she may bring her lovely dog “Yasha” to the excursion too!
(btw, they also have a great and rather popular Instagram profile where you can get a feel of the excursions: @druzia_pohodniki)
The initial idea was to do a day trip to Cape Giant, a peculiar rock formation on the coast south-east of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, yet, due to the weather and road conditions in the area, we finally opted for another destination: Bukhta Tikhaya (“Quiet Bay”) some 50km north of Yuzhno, on the east coast of the island.
And “quiet” it was!
This is a secluded bay that, at the time of our visit, was covered in ice and snow. This rugged, frozen coast could well have been somewhere in Antarctica!
And no one on sight for miles and miles! It is quite amazing to think that this unspoilt nature is literally less than a hundred miles away from densely populated Japan and less than two hours away from hundreds of millions of potential visitors.
To get there you had to drive along the only road along the east coast of the island, with magnificent views of the mountain range that runs all along the centre of the island. Although Sakhalin is quite a narrow (some 40 miles at the narrowest point), it is very mountainous. The only roads run along the coasts and the area in the middle is just a pretty much impassable forested wilderness, covered in a velvety, thick powdery mantle, almost cotton-like.
We also stopped at a long open sandy beach, dunes and sand covered in snow, where amber is often found (and indeed we did find a crumb of amber!)
Along the way, nested on the side of small hill overlooking a small fishing hamlet, we stopped to see another of the vestiges of the Japanese era in Sakhalin: a ceremonial “torii” gate dedicated, back at the time when it was built, to the Emperor.
Its lonely presence, overlooking the ocean from the top of a hill, that you need to climb knee-deep snow, made it quite a sight!
And right after we visited the torii gate, we stopped again. But this time it was in order to get some provisions in the form of freshly caught giant crab.
Some local women from the fishermen’s village engage in fierce market competition here, selling freshly caught amazingly large red crabs to passers-by.
When you have selected the ones you want to take home, they pack them for you in some cardboard boxes. In this rudimentary packaging I managed to get two of them on the plane to Moscow for the long flight back…a tasty souvenir from Sakhalin!
Where to stay in Sakhalin
There are not many places to stay in Sakhalin. These are possibly the two nicest hotels, catering to an international clientele:
Mega Palace Hotel
https://megapalacehotel.ru
Pacific Plaza Hotel
http://www.sakhalinpacificplaza.ru
As the number of good quality hotels in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is somehow limited, a good alternative is to rent an apartment. With many new residential buildings being built at the moment in Yuzhno-Sakhalin, it is possible to find modern, furnished apartments for a good rate on Booking.com (as I did) or on other major hotel and apartment booking sites.
Where to eat in Sakhalin
It was a short visit but here are a couple of spots that I tried when in town:
Bambu Restaurant (inside Mega Palace Hotel)
Great for Asian food and local seafood specialities (more upmarket)
https://www.megapalacehotel.ru/services/restoran-bamboo/
Assorti
International cuisine, but with a focus on Japanese food and sushi. Rather casual.
http://cafe-assorti.com