The Great Sayan Ring: Krasnoyarsk Territory, Tuva, Khakassia. Ethnotour

After an early breakfast, the group says goodbye to Krasnoyarsk and heads south through the city of Divnogorsk, along the way you will see one of the world's largest dams – the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric power station.

Lunch will take place at the Abakan restaurant, and after that you will have an excursion to the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP (external inspection) and transfer to the village of Shushenskoye.

You will spend this night in the architectural and ethnographic complex of the Shushenskoye Museum-Reserve, which has preserved the customs and traditions of the Siberian village of the late 19th century.

The estates of the hotel complex have been recreated while preserving the cultural styles of the Angara region and the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The realities of peasant life are successfully combined with the modern comfort of living.

Dinner with traditional dishes of Russian cuisine.

In the evening, a visit to the sauna is possible (optional for an additional fee).

Accommodation in guest houses of the Shushenskoye Museum-Reserve, breakfast at the hotel, lunch at the Abakan restaurant, dinner at guest houses.

The mileage is 620 km per day.

After breakfast, you will have an excursion to the museum-reserve "Shushenskoe".

The history of the museum is inextricably linked with the name of V.I. Lenin, who lived in exile in Shushenskoye in 1897-1900.

You will visit a real Siberian village at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. This corner of antiquity is located on the banks of the Shusha River, not far from its confluence with the Yenisei.

Numerous monuments of rural architecture are located on an area of 7 hectares: peasant houses, a merchant's shop, a prison, a tavern, about 200 wooden buildings in total.

This is an amazing place with an atmosphere that takes your breath away even from inveterate skeptics.

You will visit a tavern, visit a real merchant's shop and get acquainted with the craftsmanship of artisans.

After lunch, you will drive through the mountains of Western Sayan, observing the mesmerizing landscapes.

You will meet with the owner of these places, the Sleeping Sayan.

If you look closely, you can see him in the outlines of the mountains: he is lying on his back with his arms folded on his chest.

The road to Tuva runs along the famous Ergaki Nature Park.

Arrival in Tuva in the late afternoon.

It's amazing, but as soon as the bus crosses the border of the republic, even the landscape changes dramatically.

It feels like you're on another planet and at another time. There are almost no signs of modern civilization on most of the territory of Tuva, steppes stretch for hundreds of kilometers, interrupted by the ruins of mountains with sharp ridges.

The group stays in a 3* hotel in Kyzyl, the capital of the Republic of Tuva.

Dinner at the hotel.

Accommodation at the Buyan Badyrgy 3* hotel.

Breakfast and lunch in guest houses, dinner in the hotel restaurant.

The mileage is 350 km per day.

On this day, you will have a tour of Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva.

You will visit the geographical center of Asia, which is symbolically located near the confluence of two rivers – Biy-Khem (Big Yenisei) and Kaa-Khem (Small Yenisei).

Then the famous Great Yenisei River begins, crossing the whole of Siberia from south to north.

Visit to Thubten Shedrub Ling Buddhist Monastery.

Visit to the National Museum of Tuva (guided tour of the "Gold of the Scythians" exhibition). The tour is dedicated to the famous Arzhaan-2 mound, which was excavated in 2000-2003 by Hermitage specialists in cooperation with the German Archaeological Institute.

The treasures found in the mound (more than 20 kg of gold items in total) have become a real sensation in the archaeological world.

Visit souvenir shops, a mineral spring in the vicinity of Kyzyl.

In the evening, guests will enjoy a dinner with dishes of national cuisine.

To ensure that the lives of our guests are as bright as white milk, that the spirits of heaven and earth contribute to the successful resolution of cases, and that travel is unhindered, we invite you to the Tuvan tea ceremony.

During the ceremony, you will hear a story about the ways of brewing Tuvan tea with milk and salt, learn about the history of tea in Tuva, tea legends and parables.

Together with tea, you will taste the rich culture of the Tuvan people, experience the amazing land of the steppes and open spaces of Tuva.

After dinner, you will receive a performance by performers of the traditional Tuvan throat singing "khoomey".

Throat singing is a fantastic ability of Tuvans and some other ethnic groups of Siberia to simultaneously produce two or three musical sounds of different heights and at the same time pull them for 25-30 seconds without taking a breath.

If you listen with your eyes closed, you can't believe that these sounds are made by a person and not a musical instrument.

Accommodation at the Buyan Badyrgy 3* hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel, lunch at the restaurant, dinner at the cafe.

The mileage is 40 km per day.

After breakfast, the group sets off from east to west, following the path of ancient nomads.

Before lunch, stop at the breathtaking Khayyrakan Mountain, one of the most revered places in Tuva.

In 1992, it was chosen as an energetically strong place and consecrated by the Dalai Lama XIV. At least once a year, local shamans come here to recharge their batteries, strengthen and purify their spirits.

Lunch-picnic. Walking, relaxing.

On the way you will see the center of Buddhist culture of Tuva, the restored Ustuu–Khure monastery.

The temple became the crowning achievement of Buddhist construction in Tuva. There was no such thing not only in Tuva, but also throughout the former Soviet Union.

In 1930, after the adoption of a special decree, Ustuu-Khure was closed, and in 1937 it was demolished. In 1999, the Russian government, recognizing the historical and architectural value of the unique Ustuu-Khure temple, decided to restore it.

In July 2012, during the celebration of the music festival of the same name, the Ustuu-Khure Monastery was officially opened.

Khakassia begins at the Sayan Pass, at an altitude of 2214 meters above sea level.

You will spend the next two days at the Snow Leopard campsite surrounded by mountains and fabulous cedar taiga.

After dinner, you will meet the Snow Leopard instructors, amazing people who are in love with nature, the taiga, who know all the surrounding paths, and who understand the healing properties of herbs.

For the rest of the evening, guitar songs and soulful conversations are waiting for you until late at night.

Accommodation in wooden cedar houses with stove heating.

Accommodation at the Snow Leopard base (private).

Breakfast at the hotel, lunch-picnic, dinner at the campsite.

The mileage is 440 km per day.

A day in the taiga will surprise you with the silence that you have long forgotten about in the city.

After breakfast, walk to the Love Suspension Bridge (2 km one way).

The suspension bridge crosses the Bolshoy On high mountain River.

The river flows swiftly, overcoming rapids and ripples, among the centuries-old cedar taiga.

After lunch, you can pick mushrooms, berries, cedar cones and medicinal herbs.

The taiga is so generous that you don't have to look for mushrooms and berries, everything grows literally under your feet.

Siberian cedar is a unique tree.

Those cedars, surrounded by which you will find yourself, have survived for centuries, have fed dozens, if not hundreds of generations of taiga inhabitants.

The taiga gives a different sense of time and a sense of unity with nature, which you will want to experience more than once.

The clean taiga air is healing, but the true panacea for all ailments is the Russian bath.

In the evening, you will find a steam room with brooms made of coniferous branches and birch, an ice font in the taiga river and the taste of herbal tea.

Accommodation at the Snow Leopard base (private).

Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the campsite.

The mileage is 4 km on foot.

After breakfast, the group says goodbye to the "Snow Leopard" and goes to the very heart of Khakassia – the village of Kazanovka.

The ancient land of Khakassia is ahead of the whole of Siberia, if not the whole of Russia, in terms of the concentration of archaeological monuments.

Here, right by the road, you can see rock carvings depicting sacred rituals, burial mounds or stone sculptures that are still worshipped by local residents.

On the way, you will visit the Hurtuyakh Tas stele, the "stone mother" as the locals like to call it.

By lunch, we arrive in the Kyug Valley, which means pleasure in Khakass.

In the silence of the Khakass valley, you can truly relax your soul, and the fragrance of beautiful irises will give you new strength.

The yurt complex in which the group will be accommodated is located on the banks of the small Askiz River between the Altai and Sayan mountain ranges.

After lunch, a guided tour of the Khakass State Archaeological Museum-reserve "Kazanovka".

The reserve was founded 15 years ago on the initiative of Leonid Eremin, a historian, archaeologist, and simply caring person who sincerely loves Khakassia.

Kazanovka is an example of how to treat historical and cultural heritage, it is a brand in demand by scientists and tourists from all over the world.

They will show you rock carvings that are 3-5 thousand years old, teach you how to copy them on paper, and you can take these rare souvenirs home.

In addition, you will learn the purpose of mysterious vertical stones sticking out of the ground throughout the territory of Khakassia.

Dinner with elements of Khakass national cuisine.

After dinner, a performance by the Khakass national folklore ensemble.

Accommodation in the Kyug yurt complex (without amenities), breakfast at the campsite, lunch and dinner at the yurt complex.

The mileage is 242 km per day.

In the morning, you will continue to get acquainted with the archeology of Khakassia in the Kazanovka Museum-Reserve.

After lunch, departure to Abakan, the capital of Khakassia.

Guided tour of Abakan.

In the Khakass National Museum of Local Lore you will see a unique collection of stone sculptures – the echoes of ancient cults and beliefs.

It is believed that many of these statues still have not lost their power.

Check-in at the Asia 4* hotel.

Accommodation at the Asia Hotel, breakfast and lunch at the yurt complex, dinner at the hotel.

Mileage is up to 160 km per day.

After breakfast, the group goes to the Valley of the Kings, where there are about 30 burial mounds of the III-IV century BC.

The culmination of the whole trip will be a visit to the Large Salbyk Mound, once built over the grave of a noble family of the Tagar tribe.

The mound had a circumference of 0.5 km and a height of 11.5 m, and the weight of vertically standing stones reached 60 tons.

A picnic lunch will be held in the steppe under the open sky.

Arrival in Krasnoyarsk in the evening.

And don't immediately try to make sense of everything you've seen during the journey.

It will come later.

To begin with, the most important thing is the strongest emotional charge.

And let it last until the next trip to Siberia.

Accommodation in a hotel in Krasnoyarsk, breakfast at the hotel, lunch-picnic, dinner at the restaurant.

The mileage is 450 km per day.

At 04:00 group transfer to the airport.

Tourists are escorted to flights departing from 06:00 local time.

If you leave before 06:00, you will not be able to arrive at the airport during the group transfer.

In this case, and if it's too early for you, you can book a private transfer.

A packed breakfast.

The mileage is 50 km per day.