Lake Baikal Ice Winter tour Siberia

Lake Baikal: Ice, Sun, Snow & Fun

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Once so remote that only the hardiest adventurers would make the gruelling 4,202km trip from Moscow to Irkutsk, capital of the Baikal region, now, a short flight and less than four exhilarating days are all you need to experience some of the most iconic sights and exciting activities that Lake Baikal winter tour offers, the “jewel of Siberia” has to offer. Don’t let the season put you off! Mid-winter is arguably when Lake Baikal is at its most visually stunning, completely covered in crystal clear ice that shimmers gem-like in the abundant winter sunshine.

The perfect combination of culture and adventure, this lake Baikal Winter tour packs in some of Baikal’s signature ice and snow-based activities and attractions, while offering downtime against a backdrop of some the most magical winter scenery imaginable.

Lake Baikal Winter Tour highlights:

  • Cosy up in the lovely lakeside village of Listvyanka, affectionately known as the “Riviera of Siberia”. While it’s become a hub for tourists visiting the Baikal region, Listvyanka retains an authentic feel. Standing close to the lakeshore are many timber houses in the traditional Siberian style, intricately decorated with wooden lace, brightly painted shutters and picket fences
  • Meet Siberia’s furriest and most lovable mascot, the loyal and adorable husky. In remote parts of Siberia, dog sledding is still a common form of transport. After a crash course with an experienced handler, you’ll get to try your hand at “mushing” a team of huskies yourself on a short but unforgettable ride through the snowy landscapes of the Baikal coast

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Trans Siberian winter tour Imperial Russia

Trans-Siberian Winter Fairytale

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

In Russia, life is as vibrant in winter as it is all year round. Explore Russia’s Golden Ring city – Suzdal, which features dozens of exceptional architectural monuments, including Russia’s iconic onion domes. Go on a troika sleigh ride or stroll through a snow forest under the winter morning sun. Sleep snugly on the Tsar’s Gold, your heated private train, on this 13-day private journey from Moscow to Ulan Bator via Lake Baikal!

Trans-Siberian Winter Fairytale tour highlights:

  • Explore Russia and Mongolia in a fairy-tale setting and experience a very special night in a Mongolian yurt
  • Marvel at rare Russian architecture and the impressive landscapes of Siberia
  • Enjoy the indescribable atmosphere and views of Lake Baikal in the winter. Take a stroll and a snowmobile or dog sled ride on frozen Lake Baikal

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St Petersburg Moscow Russia winter tour Christmas New Years tour

Moscow & St Petersburg Winter Escapade

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Arriving in Moscow and St Petersburg during winter has been likened to stepping into a novel – a land of exotic fur hats and snow-dusted cathedral domes. This tour will take place between December 29 and 5 January to include an unforgettable New Year’s Eve in Moscow, one of the most exciting cities in the world to celebrate with the locals and “party like a Russian!” Or you can choose any other dates.

While in Moscow you’ll discover some of the city’s most iconic attractions and lesser-known gems, including a guided tour of the Kremlin and a day excursion to the opulent royal estate of Kolomenskoye.

Next, we’ll travel by high-speed train to St Petersburg to experience the romance of one of the world’s most beautiful cities in dazzling white winter dress. Delve into the treasures of the Hermitage Museum (without the summer crowds!) and enjoy a traditional troika sleigh ride in Pavlovsk Park.

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Winter Murmansk Trans-Siberian Northen Lights Aurora Russia

Northern Lights in Russia - Railway Adventure to the Arctic Circle

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 21st Oct 2021

We invite you to enjoy a Russian New Years holiday and experience the magic of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk and Vologda.  Truly, an unusual and colorful journey, like the elusive Northern Lights themselves! The New Year is celebrated at the festive dinner with a colorful show program in the beautifully decorated hotel restaurant.

Reindeer herders festival

Reindeer Herders Festival in Yamal 2023

By Anna Schneider | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

The Reindeer Herder’s Festival is a one-day holiday, celebrated annually in the main cities and villages in the Yamalo-Nenets region in the Russian Arctic. For the nomadic Nenets people, a festival day is a major event, which offers a chance to meet with friends and compete in contests of physical skill and a variety of other competitions.

It has also become an event in which the Nenets are able to share with the world a fascinating slice of their unique culture, which has remained relatively unchanged throughout the centuries. On this tour not only will you witness the Reindeer Herders’ Festival in Yamal but you will also stay with a Nenet family far from the city, giving you an amazing opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the nomadic way of life and if you are lucky enough, to witness Northern Lights.

Reindeer herders festival trip highlights:

  • Salekhard (population 43,000) is the only city in the world located right at the Polar Circle. Despite its remoteness, it harbours a great deal of wealth as the city at the centre of one of the world’s richest oil and gas regions.
  • From Salekhard, we’ll travel to a nomad camp to spend two days living with the Nenets and sleeping in their chums (tepee-style reindeer skin tents). The Nenets are one of the last surviving grounds of reindeer-herding nomads, making this experience an extraordinary privilege. Take part in day-to-day activities around the camp, herding and lassoing reindeer, sledding into the forest to cut firewood and assisting in the erecting of new chums, with plenty of time in between to relax, socialise and just take in the atmosphere.

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Northern lights Murmansk, Russia aurora borealis

Northern lights in Murmansk - Quest for Aurora Borealis

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

To visualise the Northern Lights Murmansk experience, imagine a place that lives, works and plays above the Polar Circle. This extraordinary place is the Kola Peninsula in the far north-west of Russia.

Why do we visit Murmansk in the coldest part of the year? Well, the Northern Lights are best seen in the winter months. Murmansk city, being so close to the Arctic Circle, is one of the world’s premier destinations to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, one of the most breathtakingly beautiful natural phenomenon visible from Earth.

Northern Lights in Murmansk Tour Highlights:

  • Murmansk is the northernmost city in Russia, with a population of around 300,000 people, by far the largest city above the Arctic Circle, and it’s considered one of the best places in the region to view the Northern Lights.
  • Visit a Siberian husky farm. The local Saami people will introduce you to their beautiful dogs and teach you how to navigate a dog sled through a specially prepared route through the forest

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Reindeer herders migration Nenets of Yamal Peninsula, Russian Festivals

Reindeer Migration with the Nenets in Yamal

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

As the world gets smaller, we desire to travel further – and there are few places as enchantingly far away as Yamal. This cultural immersion transports you deep into Russia’s isolated Arctic region. ‘Yamal’ means ‘edge of the world’ in the language of the indigenous Nenets. The Nenets of Yamal carves out a unique way of life, seemingly at the limits of human tolerance.

Each spring, the Nenets migrate from winter pastures on the Russian mainland to the summer pastures in the Arctic Circle, a one-way journey of up to 1,000km. This is your chance to experience a small part of this epic journey alongside these extraordinarily resilient people. This is a remarkable extraordinary opportunity to get to know one of the world’s last true nomadic reindeer herders through their eyes.

Yamal Reindeer Migration with Nenets – expedition highlights:

  • Salekhard is the only city in the world located right at the Polar Circle. Among the highlights on our tour of the city is the Shemanovskiy Yamal-Nenets District Museum, which includes an exhibition on mammoth remains found in the region
  • Travel to the Polar Ural Mountains to an encampment of nomadic Nenets reindeer herders

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Northern lights in Russia tour Moscow Murmansk St Petersburg

Northern Lights in Russia: Arctic Winter Magic

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Russian winter turns cities a dazzlingly photogenic white, and reveal the true beauty of the Kola Peninsula, whose Arctic skies are often graced with the mythical Aurora Borealis.

Russian winters are harsh yet extraordinarily beautiful, and it’s the lands above the Arctic Circle where winter’s transformational effects are most keenly felt. The Kola Peninsula is home to people and animals who not only survive but thrive despite the chilling temperatures. Ending in the ‘capital’ of the Arctic Circle, Murmansk, this Northern Lights tour shows you two sides to life in the Russian Winter, from the grandiose cities of Moscow and St Petersburg to the polar landscapes of the remote Kola Peninsula.

Northern Lights in Russia tour highlights: 

  • Moscow City Tour: Begin your journey in Russia’s mighty capital discovering Moscow’s highlights. Start with a guided exploration of the Kremlin in its finest winter decorations, before heading underground to discover the famous Moscow Metro system and its lavishly decorated subterranean stations
  • Armed with the knowledge of an expert guide, uncover some of the most esteemed treasures among the 3 million works of art in St Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum

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Lake Baikal Ice Photo Tour Russia Siberia

Lake Baikal Photography Tour

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

This Lake Baikal Photography Tour will grant intrepid photographers the honour of focusing their lenses on some of Siberia’s most famously beautiful frozen landscapes. Summer sees the bulk of tourist activity in the area, but it’s in winter that the most devoted photographers make the pilgrimage, hoping to capture once-in-a-lifetime images of the natural world at its most powerful and surreal.

Lake Baikal Ice Photo Tour Highlights:

  • Enjoy a breathtaking panoramic view showing the true scale of Siberia’s “inland sea” from Khoboy Cape, which contains a labyrinth of grottoes where sunlight dances off ceilings jagged with icy stalactites
  • Khorin-Igri Bay: an ideal spot to photograph the natural phenomenon of frozen bubbles under Lake Baikal, rising to the surface in perfect discs suspended in the clear, dark water

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Trans Siberian Winter Northern Lights

Arctic Rail Explorer - Quest for Northern Lights

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Experience a train journey unlike any other. An adventure on rails to the top of the world, the lands above the Arctic Circle where the mythical Aurora Borealis performs her breathtaking celestial dance in the velvet black Polar night sky. This compelling 12-day Northern Lights Train Tour showcases the unique contrast between two of Russia’s most majestic cities and the isolated yet charming communities deep within the Russian and Norwegian Arctic Circle. Commencing in St. Petersburg or Moscow, we visit some of the city’s most prominent historical and cultural sites, before embarking on this remarkable Arctic railway adventure in search of the elusive Aurora Borealis.

Northern Lights  – Arctic Rail Explorer Tour Highlights:

  • Admire the architectural splendour of one of Europe’s most beautiful cities on a guided two-day tour of St Petersburg that includes St Isaac’s Cathedral and the Hermitage, as well as a trip to Pushkin to visit the extravagant Catherine Palace
  • In the extreme north of Norway, above the Arctic Circle lies Kirkenes, a tiny frontier town near the Russian border. Ride a snowmobile across the frozen fjords outside town and try your hand at fishing for the Arctic’s most prized seafood, the king crab

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Lake Baikal ice adventure, Lake Baikal Russia tour

Lake Baikal Ice Adventure

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Our Lake Baikal Ice Adventure tour takes place during late February and March. The beginning of spring in the Baikal region, at this time of year, the temperature climbs above zero, but the surface of the lake is still largely frozen, covered by solid winter ice so clear you can see rocks and other objects at the bottom of the lake as far as 40m below. During spring, Baikal receives few visitors compared to the summer high season, allowing you to feel an inspiring sense of isolation and communion with undisturbed nature during this handcrafted 7-day tour. Be amazed by the frozen beauty of the world’s oldest and deepest lake and experience real-life walking on water. We’ve included a few activities exclusive to the cooler months such as ice skating snowmobiling to add a sprinkle of spills and thrills to this thoroughly enjoyable adventure.

Lake Baikal Ice Adventure Highlights:

  • Embark on an over-ice expedition on and around Olkhon Island, the largest of Lake Baikal’s islands and the centre of shamanic energy for the Buryat people. Spend three nights on the island and discover pristine beaches, craggy capes, and untouched Siberian forests
  • Enjoy over-ice hovercraft expedition to Ogoy island – one of the sacred places in the region.
  • Enjoy one of the most popular winter activities – snowmobiling and dog sledding.
Kamchatka heli-ski Russia winter tour

Kamchatka Heli Ski

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

This Kamchatka heli-skiing tour takes you to soaring ridges blanketed in untouched deep powder snow, and to the top of the majestic volcanoes of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Your helicopter touches down in the middle of nowhere – the summit of a towering and very-much-alive volcano. The Mi-8 helicopter is the ultimate chairlift, and the volcanic slopes of Kamchatka are the ultimate free ride.

As the chopper disappears from view, the sense of isolation and the sheer silence of the mountains is profound. Take a moment to meditate on exactly where you are – one of the wildest, most remote places on Earth – then take a deep breath and away you go. Kamchatka is the ultimate winter wonderland for ski enthusiasts.

Kamchatka heli-ski tour highlights:

The exact volcanoes that will be flown to on this Kamchatka Heli-skiing trip will be dependent on the weather and conditions allow. Some possible highlights include:

  • Kamchatka’s trophy volcano for heli-skiiers is Mutnovsky (2,322m). Mutnovsky consists of several cones joined together. Thousands of years ago, the main cone collapses inside the volcano and formed a massive crater with glaciers, fumaroles and boiling mud geysers. And yes, it is possible to ski into the crater, directly into the fumarole fields!
  • Viluchinsky (2,173m) is a perfectly cone-shaped volcano that boasts dozen beautiful gullies and wide slopes. Landing on the top you’ll be greeted with an incredible panoramic view through the clouds to fijord-like valleys below

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Lake Baikal Ice Winter tour Russia Siberia

Lake Baikal - Frozen beauty of Olkhon Island

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Lake Baikal winter tours are rightfully upheld as Siberia’s most famous attraction – its clear-as-a-mirror waters are a reflection of Siberia’s wildness, its vastness and its beauty. The crescent-shaped lake extends for 636km from north to south and is up to 1,637m deep, making it the deepest lake in the world. In fact, 20% of the world’s freshwater is contained within Lake Baikal. The vast Baikal region is home to unique indigenous cultures such as the Buddhist Buryat people. Traditional villages are dotted along the lake’s shore, interspersed with taiga forest and rocky steppes.

This tour takes place at the end of winter to provide guests with the unique opportunity to experience winter activities on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal and a trip to the region’s spectacular ice caves. READ MORE

Kamchatka Winter tour, Russian winter holiday

Kamchatka Winter Adventure

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

A winter wilderness adventure like no other! This Kamchatka winter tour is your chance to visit one of the most remote and scenically stunning destinations on Earth – the Kamchatka Peninsula, an ancient volcanic region on the edge of the Pacific Rim of Fire. There are no roads or railways from Kamchatka to the rest of the world – the only practical way in is by air. One of the final frontiers of winter sports travel, unspoiled by commercial tourism, Kamchatka offers pristine mountain ski slopes, abundant wildlife and rugged natural scenery.

Kamchatka winter tour highlights:

  • Embark on a thrilling guided snowmobile safari to Three Brothers Rock, a stunning viewpoint on a spectacular stretch of the North Pacific coastline.
  • Ride a Snowcat (an enclosed vehicle with tracks designed to power through snow) across the foothills of the Avacha volcano to Camel Mount, a viewpoint commanding breathtaking panoramas of Kamchatka’s volcanic mountain ranges.

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About 56th Parallel

56th Parallel is a travel company specialising in providing packaged tours and travel services in Russia.

Our goal is to redefine travel to Russia, focusing on creating the most rewarding experiences, which help travellers unfolds the soul of this exciting destination.

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