City at the foot of the complex

The city at the foot of the complex

Sakhalin Oblast is a unique region, generously endowed with beauty and natural resources, tourist delights and excellent conditions for winter sports.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is the administrative center of the Sakhalin Oblast, the only region of Russia located entirely on islands. This is a city in which Soviet panel houses are adjacent to Japanese buildings, in which you can climb a mountain in the center or drive to the sea in 40 minutes. Travel guides to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk call it a pan-Asian city with a Russian soul.

Why should everyone see the capital of the Sakhalin region?

Japanese architecture.

From the Karafuto period, when Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was the Japanese city of Toyohara, few buildings have been preserved. But this makes them look even more colorful.

Amazing nature.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is separated from the Sea of Okhotsk by mountains — trails lead directly from the city to some peaks. The nature here is more like Japanese — in the spring you can see cherry blossom alleys. And in the summer to go to collect an unusual berry krasnika.

Active entertainment.

There is a ski resort in the city limits — you can ski with a view of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In the vicinity there are extensive opportunities for tourists to engage in active recreation: dog sledding and snowmobiling, trekking to mountain peaks, surfing in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Seafood delicacies.

In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, you can taste the freshest seafood, which are considered exotic on the mainland: scallops, trepang, crabs, oysters, squid and octopus. Seafood is prepared with minimal processing, preserving the natural taste and useful properties.

Island flavor.

The usual sandwich of the locals is bread with a thick layer of red caviar, and everyday entertainment is crab fishing or collecting ferns. Residents of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk are seaside people, good—natured, resilient and with a huge collection of stories about the wonders of local nature.

The cultural center of the Far East.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk honors the memory of Chekhov, who glorified the island in his documentary essay "Sakhalin Island". The city has a theater center named after him and a museum of books about Sakhalin. The collections of Local History and Art Museums are rich and interesting. In summer, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk hosts one of the most important international film festivals — "The Edge of the World. The East."

In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk you will get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the indigenous population of the island, try pickled burdock and sea urchin caviar, find out why Sakhalin is the second Sochi and what the capital of the Sakhalin region has in common with Chicago. Does it sound tempting? A trip to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is a completely feasible dream for all lovers of the romance of distant islands!

How to get there?

The distance between Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and the Russian capital is 6644 kilometers. The most comfortable and fastest way to get to the capital of the Sakhalin region is by air. But there are other, more exotic and time-consuming ways.

Airplane

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport named after Anton Pavlovich Chekhov has the status of an international air harbor. But most of the flights are domestic destinations. The airport receives daily Aeroflot flights from Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. The flight time is 8.5 hours. Also, direct flights to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk are operated from Russian cities: Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk. The flight from the cities of the Far East will take from 1.5 hours from Vladivostok to 3.5 hours from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The flight from the cities of Eastern Siberia takes from 4.5 hours, from Western Siberia — from 5.5 hours.

Direct flights to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk are operated from Japan. The flight from Sapporo (Hokkaido Island) will take 1 hour. There are also non-stop flights from the capital of Japan (Tokyo) and from South Korea (Seoul). Helicopter communication and small aircraft flights connect Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with the settlements of the Kuril Islands. Flights to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan depart from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Airport.

Train

The first railway to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was built by the Japanese in 1906. She connected Toyohara with the port of Korsakov (then — Otomari). By 1945, it was possible to get to Toyohara by train from most of the major cities in the southern part of Sakhalin. In Soviet times, the development of railway communication on Sakhalin was also strenuously underway. But in the 90s, many paths were in a neglected state, and later they were dismantled.

Now Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is connected by passenger rail with Korsakov, Poronaisk, Nogliki and Tomari. Long—distance trains run to Nogliki - the road takes about 9 hours. A commuter train runs to Tomari.

Bus

There is a fairly developed bus service inside Sakhalin Island. You can get to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk by bus from almost every relatively large settlement on the island. Almost every hour flights depart to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk from Aniva (40 minutes on the way) and Korsakov (1 hour 10 minutes). The road from Kholmsk, where the interregional passenger port is located, takes about 2 hours, from Poronaysk — 4.5 hours, from Alexandrovsk-Sakhalin — from 9.5 hours.

Ferryboat

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has no direct water connection with the mainland, since it is not a port. On mainland Russia, you can take a train to the port of Vanino in the Khabarovsk Territory, which stands on the coast of the Tatar Strait. To Vanino, the journey from Khabarovsk by train will take about 25 hours, from Vladivostok — 40 hours. The train arrives at the station, located in the same building with the port. Ferries to Sakhalin Island, the city of Kholmsk, run daily, several times a day (with the exception of days with adverse weather conditions). Transportation is carried out by the ferry company SASCO. The waterway takes from 13 hours. You can get from Kholmsk to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk by bus No. 516 or by taxi. Travel time is about 2 hours.