Dagestan. Family trip

After a delicious breakfast, we head further south along the Caspian Sea, to Derbent, one of the oldest cities in Russia. 

The move is short-lived, it will take about 2 hours, on the way you can sleep, look out the window or make riddles to each other with the whole family. 

In Derbent, we check into apartments, have a little rest and go to see the Naryn-Kala fortress. We will look at the excavation sites of ancient settlements, admire the views of the city from the height of the walls, find out how the church on the territory of the fortress became a water reservoir. 

After an interesting tour, we have lunch in a cafe and go to the village of Arblyar. 

Here, on the sand by the water, the Soviet Lun ekranoplane is resting and waiting for its finest hour. The Ekranoplan is a bizarre hybrid of a ship and an airplane, developed by Soviet military designers. In the evening we return to the apartment, share our impressions, chat and play. 

• transfer: 2 hours;
• Accommodation: 6-bed apartments, rooms with 2 beds.

Dagestan continues to surprise us. Today we will go further into the mountains, to the cozy village of Gunib. 

Translated from the Avar language, "Gunib" is a pile of stones. The village fully justifies its name, located on a mountain plateau at an altitude of 1500 m. 

The road here lies along a steep mountain serpentine, and outside the window there will be stunning landscapes of peaks, valleys and stormy rivers. 

On the way, we will stop at the Salta Gorge to see a unique underground waterfall, the only one in Dagestan. 

We arrive in Gunib in the afternoon, check into a separate house, have dinner and relax. At night we will listen to national Caucasian fairy tales and go to sleep sweetly in our beds.

• transfer: 5 hours, with stops;
• accommodation: a separate house for the whole group.

Today we can lie in bed more – we take a break from moving and walk a lot. Guniba has the purest mountain air and 300 sunny days a year, so the place is ideal for long walks with the whole family. 

You can explore the village, which lies on three tiers of mountains. 

We offer you to look into the Gunib fortress, pick up cones for crafts in the Upper Gunib Nature Park, visit the White Cranes memorial, opened by the poet Rasul Gamzatov (this departure day falls on May 9). 

The most active and restless can arrange a mini-hike in the mountains with a picnic on the observation deck. 

In the evening, we will gather the whole company in the house, share our impressions, take part in a creative master class with our parents or play board games. 

• without moving, we walk a lot;
• accommodation: a separate house for the whole group.

Get your cameras ready and gasp with delight! Today we will visit the business card of Dagestan – the abandoned village of Gamsutl. 

You will not be able to drive close to the village, so you will have to take a long, but extremely picturesque walk into the mountains. If desired, it will be possible to drive jeeps. 

Not so long ago, life was in full swing in Gamsutla, and children were playing ball on its streets. But gradually all the villagers moved closer to the big cities, and the last indigenous inhabitant of the village, Abdulzhalil Abdulzhalilov, died in 2015. Now only tourists and mountain winds walk along the streets of the ghost village. 

And we will also walk through the medieval streets between houses closely glued to the rocks and look at the neighboring mountains and gorges from a height. 

In the evening we will return to our big house, have dinner, play and fool around to our heart's content.

• Transfer: 1 hour.

We say goodbye to Gunib and move even higher into the mountains, to the village of Hunzakh (1700 m). 

Here we will admire the incredible canyon and the Tobot Waterfall. In winter, it freezes, turning into a giant icicle, but we will see the waterfall in late spring during the period of maximum high water. 

If we have the strength and desire, we will stop at the Karadakh gorge on the way. Let's warn you right away that a walk through the gorge for children can be very difficult! 

In Hunzakh, we check into a cottage, in the evening we can go to one of the observation decks on the edge of the canyon and watch the sunset. 

Before going to bed, we will arrange a reading of traditional Avar fables and nursery rhymes by roles. 

• transfer: 1.5 hours;
• Accommodation: in a cottage.

Today is the day of a big road trip back to the capital of Dagestan. 

Along the way, we will stop to look at the famous Cherkess hydroelectric dam, take pictures of the azure expanse of the Irganai reservoir and the rugged shores of the Chirkeysky reservoir. 

In the middle of the day, we will make a long stop at the observation deck overlooking the Sulak Canyon. We will make a stop at a fish restaurant to see the farm, have a snack and go boating. 

If desired, you can go by UAZ to the canyon itself and ride along it by boat. 

Well-fed and rested, we rush to Makhachkala on a good road. We check into a familiar hotel, where we have dinner and go to bed. It was a long and eventful day! 

• moving: about 5 hours + long stops;
• Accommodation: hotel, rooms with 2 or 4 beds.

In the morning we will have the last breakfast together, and then we pack our things, gather our thoughts and go towards the airport.

If time permits, we recommend staying in hospitable Dagestan. It's warm, sunny and delicious here!

• Transfer: 40 minutes to the airport.

This tour is held for the first time in the "exploration" format. We will open a family Dagestan together!