Baikal ice and lavender fields: what to see during seasonal travels in Russia

Every year before the pandemic, thousands of tourists from all over the world flocked to Japan to watch the beautiful but short-lived cherry blossoms. However, in Russia there are many places and phenomena for which it is worth traveling thousands of kilometers. About the directions of seasonal travel in Russia - in the material RT.

Polar Lights

The most accessible place in Russia where you can see this natural phenomenon is the Kola Peninsula.

Demand for Chasing the Northern Lights tours peaks around New Years.

The season when you can observe the radiance: late November - early February.

This does not mean that the phenomenon does not exist at other times of the year.

But it is best to do this in winter, when the Kola Peninsula has very short daylight hours and very long nights, which greatly expands the possibilities for observation.

And the atmosphere of the North is complemented by snow cover.

Polar lights on the Kola Peninsula
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© Jeff Dai/Stocktrek Images

The minimum that is needed in order to catch the aurora is a flight to Murmansk, two days of living in the city and 5 thousand rubles for an excursion to the place where solar activity and clear skies will allow you to see this miracle.

As RT was told in the Committee for Tourism of the Murmansk Region, the hunt for the northern lights can be planned with any of the 64 official tour operators in the region.

In fact, the contemplation of the northern lights can be a weekend tour.

This allows modern scientific methods.

“In order to catch the northern lights, it is important for us to collect several criteria: clear skies, solar flares, solar wind speed and proton density.

One of the main sources where we watch activity is the Norwegian observatory.

We are looking for clear skies at local weather stations.

Before leaving for the northern lights, I sit down and analyze five models from satellites, look for a window in the sky, determine what time it will be, and decide in which direction to move forward, ”one of the leaders of the travel agency“ Course on North" Vyacheslav Vorobyov.

Baikal ice

Lake Baikal is covered with ice in winter.

And it is this unique ice, absolutely transparent, in places with bubbles frozen in it, that becomes an attractive phenomenon for many tourists.

As the guide on the Baikal ice, the head of the MyWay tourist club and a former employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergey Zavoda, told RT, the ideal time to travel to winter Baikal is from early February to early March.

Ice on Lake Baikal
Instagram
© Photo by Sergey Zavoda

This is due to the fact that it is necessary to wait until the ice finally rises, which allows you to safely get by car to the most picturesque places on the lake: “Until this time, the ice is still unstable.

And from mid-March, the ice begins to melt.

So it is in February and in the first ten days of March that the ice is strong, beautiful, you can not be afraid to fail in a car.”

In order to see exactly the very ice that looks so beautiful in numerous photos with bubbles frozen in it, you need to go to Olkhon Island.

“The microclimate around Olkhon Island is such that there is little rainfall and 300 sunny days a year.

At the same time, there are quite strong winds.

Therefore, even when it snows, it does not linger on the ice.

That is why there, in the strait separating the island from the large coast (it is also called the “small sea”), there are huge expanses of pure ice, where the so-called “mirror” is formed - this is the most beautiful Baikal ice, ”explains Plant.

He also said that numerous cracks and methane bubbles, which in some places rise from the bottom of the lake and freeze in bizarre patterns, add beauty to the ice.

Ice on Lake Baikal
Instagram
© Photo by Sergey Zavoda

The minimum time limit for such a trip is 4-5 days.

For the price, excluding the road to Irkutsk, everything will cost at least 40 thousand rubles.

Tulip fields

In Kalmykia in April you can see the flowering of tulips.

Programmer Sanji Buvaev, founder of the KalmykiaTour portal, which he created on his own initiative to promote his native republic, told RT about this phenomenon: “Wild tulip fields are unique in their huge size and the fact that they are far from civilization.

That is why they have been preserved intact.

We can say that no human foot has set foot there.”

The timing of flowering depends on the intensity of the onset of spring.

“If spring beats winter earlier, then tulips bloom earlier.

On average, you need to focus on mid-April, ”Sanji clarifies.

Blooming tulips in the Kalmyk steppe
RIA News
© Grigory Sysoev

In the republic, a holiday is dedicated to this phenomenon - the Tulip Festival.

The holiday has no fixed date.

“In the early years, they tried to make dates exactly in time for flowering.

says Sanji Buvaev.

“But then we decided that in order to preserve the tulip fields, it would be better to make a date independent of flowering.

Previously, for example, it was approved only 5-6 days before the start of the festival, watching the tulips.

Now they began to determine without forecasts.

With this approach, it was possible to resolve the issue with tourists planning their departure in advance.

This allows them to be sure that even if they do not catch the very peak with flowering, they will certainly get to the colorful festive spectacle of the Tulip Festival.

In 2022, the preliminary date is April 23-24, but due to the pandemic, the government may shorten the holiday to one day.”

Blooming tulips in the Kalmyk steppe
RIA News
© Grigory Sysoev

The tour costs from 7500 to 12500 rubles for a small group.

Everyone determines the rest for himself - the class of flight to Elista, the "star" of the hotel and the length of stay.

In anticipation of the beginning of flowering or in the days remaining after visiting the tulip fields, in Kalmykia you can visit Pink Lake, the Sacred Tree, singing dunes, a burning spring, and taste delicious Kalmyk cuisine.

Flowering maralnika in Altai

Maralnik blooms every year.

And every year, the pink-covered mountains of Altai attract more and more tourists.

This is one of the most popular seasonal tours also because it falls on the May holidays.

The flowering period of this plant, like sakura in Japan, is very short.

Wind or precipitation accelerates the fall of the petals.

The beginning of flowering, as in the case of tulips, can be shifted due to warm or cold weather.

The scientific name of the maral is Ledebour's rhododendron.

On average, the flowering season falls on the end of April - beginning of May and lasts about two weeks.

At the same time, just like with sakura, you can extend the period of contemplation of this phenomenon if you move behind a flowering deer, but not, as in the case of sakura, from south to north, but vice versa, from north to south.

The guide of the tour operator "Ethnotour" Armangul Karybaeva explained to RT that the name "maralnik" has nothing to do with deer - deer.

The name has a different etymology: earlier in the Altai language the word “maral” was used in the meaning of “bright, juicy”.

Flowering maralnika in Altai
© Photo by Armangul Karybaeva

The cost of a tour lasting 5-7 days is about 70 thousand rubles, not counting the flight to Gorno-Altaisk.

Guides meet tourists at the airport and take them to where the flowering has already begun.

Blooming Crimea

Crimea begins to open in all its glory already in mid-April, when peach and apricot trees bloom on the peninsula.

“In Crimea, spring and summer are a series of beautiful locations: mid-April is peach blossom, mid-May is poppy fields, mid-June is lavender.

For three months in a row, you can observe the beauty of the Crimean nature, ”Alexey Fedorov, general director of the Spring Solutions agency, told RT.

— The blossoming of peach trees is a sight no less impressive than cherry blossoms in Japan.

At one time, we began to popularize this phenomenon by inviting symphony orchestra musicians to the peach orchards, arranging classical music concerts in the open air.

There was even an idea to make a holiday dedicated to this phenomenon.”

From mid-May, closer to June, poppies begin to bloom in the Crimea.

The brightest and most saturated fields can be seen in the Sevastopol region and in the Bakhchisaray region.

“It is amazing that the first poppies bloom by May 9, the Victory Day.

This is very symbolic.

In Crimea, there is even such a legend that each scarlet poppy flower is a soldier who died during the war, ”Fyodorov said.

He also explained that poppies tend to "wander", and therefore it is very difficult to name a permanent guaranteed location of these flowers with the same cover density from year to year.

In addition, the flowering of poppies is very short.

“But the sight is absolutely amazing - fields of poppies going beyond the horizon.

For that alone, it's worth coming.

It must be seen."

Poppy fields in Crimea
© Photo by Vitaly Eremenko

Lavender bloom, which has become the hallmark of Provence, can be seen not only in France.

Flowering begins and ends in June.

In Crimea, there are lavender fields that have existed on the peninsula for a very long time.

As Aleksey Fedorov explained, they began to be widely grown back in the Soviet Union: “The first lavender was planted in the Crimea about 200 years ago in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, and in the 1930s they began to be grown en masse.

Now these fields are in a different state.

There are ennobled private lavender plantations, there are abandoned ones.

Lavender fields.
Turgenevka village, Bakhchisaray district, Republic of Crimea

Since last year, organized excursions have been carried to the lavender fields.

“There are places where rows of lavender are adjacent to fields where rye and wheat grow, and it looks especially amazing when even contrasting rows of fields go beyond the horizon,” says Alexey.

lotus blossom

Lotus bloom begins around mid-July and lasts until early September.

The peak is at the beginning of August.

You can see the lotus fields in the Volga delta, where before flowing into the Caspian Sea the river forms the largest delta in Europe.

It is here that the world's largest natural thickets of the Caspian lotus (nut-bearing) are located.

The uniqueness of the place is also in the fact that this is the northernmost point where the lotus grows.

As Tatyana Gavrilova, head of the development and educational tourism department of the Astrakhan State Reserve, told RT, there are several hypotheses for the appearance of the lotus in the Volga delta: “According to one of them, the lotus was brought here by birds during migration.

According to another, it was brought to the delta by nomadic Kalmyks.

According to the third version, the lotus is an aboriginal of the Volga delta, preserved here since the Cretaceous period.

Lotus blossom in the Astrakhan Biosphere Reserve

Tatyana Gavrilova said that on the territory of the Astrakhan Biosphere Reserve there is a walking ecological trail “The New Delta”: “This eco-trail, the only one on the Lower Volga, is laid in such a way that its route passes through the Caspian jungle of gallery forests and lianas, and through the lotus thicket, so that anyone can get a closer look at the large waxy leaves, thorny stems and pale pink petals of this magical flower.

In our reserve, lotuses have been guarded for more than a hundred years, its thickets stretch for several hectares, leaving behind the horizon a continuous pink carpet of fragrant flowers.

In addition, visitors can see a lot of birds that live here in the Volga Delta.”

She recommended that visitors stock up on drinking water, sunscreen and a hat, as it is very hot in Astrakhan at this time.

Excursion along the ecological path

To see the lotus fields, you need to fly to Astrakhan for at least two nights.

As Elena Nekozyreva, director of the Sputnik-Astrakhan tour operator company, told RT, the cost of a trip to the lotuses will be from 2,300 to 3,300 rubles, depending on the services included.

There is no shortage for individual travelers, and for large groups of tourists Elena recommends booking a tour in advance.

Thus, Astrakhan becomes the point of arrival.

Further, tourists one day follow to the recreation centers located above the delta, from where they sit down in boats and follow to the goal of their journey - lotus fields.

Lotus blossom in the Astrakhan Biosphere Reserve

Spawning of sockeye salmon in Kamchatka

From the end of July to the middle of August in the Kurile Lake in Kamchatka, one can observe the so-called "running passage" - the most massive movement of sockeye salmon to spawn.

“These salmon give life to the entire south of Kamchatka.

Bears, foxes, minks, otters, Steller's sea eagles and other fish-eating animals feed on them, ”Daria Panicheva, head of the scientific department of the Kronotsky State Reserve, told RT.

Excursions to the Kuril Lake in the South Kamchatka Reserve are possible on foot from the village of Ozernovsky.

As Yana Pchelova, director of the Win & Travel travel company, said, the easiest way to get to Kuril Lake is a helicopter tour from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: in like boiling water, it is easy to see already from a helicopter - and on the Kamchatka bears, which come to the shore of the lake in search of easy fish prey.

The Kuril Lake itself is a picturesque place of exceptional beauty, framed by volcanoes.

Excursions are realized daily, take 6-7 hours.

The cost of a helicopter tour is at least 50,000 rubles per person.”

Taking into account the insufficiently developed hotel infrastructure in Kamchatka, there is a shortage of rooms during the high season.

It is advisable to plan a trip and make reservations well in advance of the trip.

In total, for one person, a trip with a visit to the Kuril Lake and other natural attractions of Kamchatka will cost 150-170 thousand rubles.

In addition to the Kuril Lake, you can visit the Valley of Geysers, active volcanoes, the Pacific Ocean, swim in hot springs, raft down the rivers and go fishing.