Sakhalin Kaleidoscope and Kunashir Island

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

Transfer to the airport. Departure to Kunashir.

The flight schedule for the 2025 season will be released in March, after which routes on flight days can be adjusted.

Arrival in Yuzhno-Kurilsk.

Meeting at the airport, transfer to the hotel, accommodation.

Let's go say hello to the Pacific Ocean!

The endless Pacific Ocean... with a serious character and a powerful energy.

A short walk along the coast — kekur "Devil's finger", "Devil's Gate".

Dinner at the cafe.

Return to the hotel.

09:00 Breakfast at the cafe.

10:00 Departure for the medium-difficulty route "Large fumarole field of the Mendeleev volcano".

By car for 30 minutes, then trekking for 2-2.5 hours through bamboo with a constant climb, 3 km in one direction.

A path with stops for short rest.

Parking on the fumarole field ~ 2 hours.

Fumaroles and solfatars are among the largest, if not the largest, on all the Kuril Islands.

Portals to the bowels of the earth.

From the erupting hum and high-temperature gases, it's even scary to imagine what's going on inside.

Lunch (dry ration).

Dinner at the cafe.

Return to the hotel.

09:00 Breakfast at the cafe.

10:00 Departure by car to the Veslovsky peninsula, Golovnino settlement, the southernmost part of the island.

Visit to the memorial sign at the site of the founding of the Russian settlement on the island of Kunashir in 1778.

Golovninsky Cliff is an extremely impressive natural site.

The giant outcrops of this unique relief form capture the main stages of the Golovnin volcano's activity and climatic events over the past 2 million years.

The structure of the cliff deposits is very complex: the ashes of ancient volcanic eruptions alternate with strata of marine sediments and include peat bogs of different ages.

The cliff is "alive", constantly crumbling, and autumn storms play a particularly important role in this.

It is possible to drive directly to the cliff only at low tide.

Lunch on the route.

Dinner at the cafe.

Return to the hotel.

09:00 Breakfast at the cafe.

10:00 Departure for the route of medium difficulty "Volcano Golovnina. The Lakes are Boiling and Hot."

40 minutes by car, then trekking 2.5–3 hours along the path, 7 km in one direction.

The entire journey is accompanied by beautiful fields of cedar elderberry and Kuril bamboo, completely impassable to humans.

The volcano is a caldera about 4 km in diameter, surrounded by a ridge with a max. height 541 m.

There are four small domes and two crater lakes at the bottom of the caldera, Boiling and Hot.

The parking time in the caldera is ~3 hours.

Lunch (dry ration).

It is forbidden to swim in Boiling lake, there are hot springs, mud boilers and hot steam at the bottom of the lake and along the shores.

You can swim in the lake Hotter. The water is cool, but it is not a hindrance to the brave. Moreover, you can't buy anywhere else in the volcano caldera of a distant Pacific island.

Return to the hotel in the evening. Dinner at the cafe. Return to the hotel.

Room release. Breakfast at the cafe.

Taking the route of medium difficulty "Cape Columnar" is one of the most amazing and unique places on earth.

Residents of Kunashir say, "Whoever has not seen Cape Columnar has not seen Kunashir."

Millions of years ago, as a result of the eruption of the Mendeleev volcano, basalt lava flowed towards the sea.

Physico-chemical processes have created such columnar structures in the form of five-hexagonal columns.

But once you get here, it's impossible to accept that nature created it.

A mystical place with its own music.

The cape, open on three sides, is located on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk.

There are many sea urchins in the littoral lagoons.

From Cape Stolbchaty, walk 2 km along the shore to our cozy parking place, where a bonfire lunch will be organized – delicious fish soup.

The total mileage of the walking part of the route is 6 km.

18:00 Dinner at a cafe.

19:00 Registration on the ship.

22:00 Departure of the motor ship "Igor Farkhutdinov" to Sakhalin.

Breakfast and lunch on the boat on your own.

20:00 Arrival at the port of Korsakov.

Transfer to the hotel.

08:00 Breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

09:00 Departure from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk by bus.

Travel time with stops is approximately 3 hours, 135 km, paved federal highway.

On the way, we will stop at the amber coast and collect amber, watch the seals resting on the rocks.

We will visit the Japanese Torii gates of the Karafuto governorate period, which were installed in front of Shinto temples.

An intermediate stop in the village of fishermen "Vzmorye", where you can buy freshly boiled crabs and taste them during lunch.

There is a quiet walk along the coast in the bay, after which you will have a hot gastronomic lunch – delicious Sakhalin fish soup with red fish, Far Eastern delicacies, caviar, tea with herbs, Sakhalin sweets.

19:00 Return to the hotel. Dinner (on your own).

The Tatar Strait separates Sakhalin Island from mainland Eurasia.

09:00 Breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

10:00 We are heading to Nevelsk with a guide, federal paved highway, 90 km.

Beautiful valleys and island hills will open up on the serpentine through Lovetsky Pass.

Nevelsk is a small port city.

Perhaps the only city that has been both a Russian and a Japanese city for twenty years.

From 1855 to 1875, Khonto (as Nevelsk was then called) had a dual administration.

This is one of three cities in the world where red—book sea lions, the largest representative of long-eared seals, rook in the city limits on the waterway from February to July.

And a boat trip to the breakwater will enhance your emotions.

These roaring sea lions will swim in your immediate vicinity.

City tour.

Lunch at a cafe.

18:00 Return to the hotel.

Dinner (on your own).

Breakfast at the hotel.

Transfer to the airport.