Guide to Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Asian countries
Unique attractions — lighthouses, volcanoes, bays, capes and natural landmarks
Belye Skaly (the White Cliffs of Iturup)
Twenty-eight kilometres of white-pumice cliffs on Iturup's Okhotsk coast — slot canyons and a graphite-coloured beach
Turquoise Blue Lakes (Near Marble Quarry)
Flooded quarry pits in central Sakhalin: cobalt-blue water over 100 metres deep
Unnamed Bay (Shikotan)
A nameless cove on Shikotan's Pacific coast — basalt columns and the location of the 1972 «Robinson Crusoe» film
Buruny Bay (Southeast Sakhalin)
An open-ocean Pacific beach 8 km from Tikhaya — sea caves, sea stacks and waterfalls visible only at low tide
Dimitrova Bay
A wild beach on Sakhalin's southwest coast — reachable only by 4×4
Snezhkova Bay
A small stone-and-sand cove on the Krilon Peninsula — by jeep and on foot
Tikhaya Bay (the Quiet Bay)
A quiet cove on Sakhalin's eastern coast under the Zhdanko Ridge — named by Krusenstern in 1805
Devil's Bridge
A stone railway viaduct in the hills above Kholmsk — Japanese 1920s engineering, abandoned in 1945
Mendeleev Volcano Fumarole Fields, Kunashir
Four active solfatara fields on the flanks of Mendeleev volcano — sulfur vents at 100–200 °C in silver-fir forest
Mount Klokova
An 865-metre peak above Patience Bay — stone-pine ascent and east-coast Sakhalin panorama
Gorny Vozdukh Ski Resort
A ski resort inside Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk — the gondola runs twelve months a year
Zhdanko Ridge
A 13-km razorback of solidified magma above Tikhaya Bay — Mount Zhdanko, 682 m
Golovnin Caldera
The southernmost active caldera of the Kurils — Boiling Lake at pH 2.2 and broad Hot Lake in one crater
Sea Stacks «Devil's Finger» and «Devil's Gates»
A 40-m basalt needle and a twin-pillared sea gate on Sakhalin's east coast — the island's most theatrical sea stacks
Klokovsky Waterfall
A 49-metre waterfall in a forested gorge above Tikhaya Bay — heard before it is seen
Busse Lagoon
A 40-km² brackish lagoon on Sakhalin's southeast — forearm-sized oysters and the first Russian post on the island
Yankito Lava Plateau
A black-basalt shoreline on northern Iturup — lava flows that froze in the Pacific
Steller Sea Lion Rookery, Nevelsk
Up to 800 Steller sea lions on the working breakwater of Nevelsk port — a year-round, urban-scale haul-out
Aniva Lighthouse
A Japanese 1939 concrete tower on Sivuchya Rock off Cape Aniva — reachable only by sea
Sakhalin Regional Museum
A 1937 Japanese-era castle museum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk — «Imperial Crown» style and a 200,000-piece collection
Cape Evstafiy
A cliff-edged cape on Sakhalin's southeast coast — a 51-metre drop, a thin neck of land and the Sea of Okhotsk to the horizon
Cape End of the World
The eastern cliff-edge of the Kuril Chain on Shikotan — 40 metres of basalt over the open Pacific
Cape Krilon
Sakhalin's southernmost point — an 1894 Japanese-brick lighthouse and 43 km of strait to Hokkaido
Cape Kuznetsova
A protected headland on the western Krilon Peninsula — Sakhalin's only year-round wild sea lion and seal haul-out
Cape Slepikovsky
A working 1934 Japanese lighthouse on southwest Sakhalin — operating for more than ninety years
Cape Stolbchaty, Kunashir
A shoreline of thousands of hexagonal basalt columns on south-west Kunashir — a Kuril twin of Giant's Causeway
Cape Vindis
"Kovrizhka" rock 35 km south of Shebunino — a 78-metre basalt column on a sand isthmus
Cape Sima
Cape Simau, Simau River
Bakhura River
A rivermouth on the Okhotsk coast near Dolinsk — sandy beach, quartz boulders and a relaxed family half-day
Reydovo Fish Factory
A working salmon cannery on Iturup — annual fish calendar and a live production line
Shikotan
An island of the Lesser Kuril Chain — 27 by 13 km, a 412-metre peak, a 1994 earthquake fault and Cape End of the World
Lyagushka Rock (the Frog)
An 8-metre Cretaceous sandstone block on the Susunai foothills — an Ainu Temple of Wisdom 70 million years old
Torii of Vzmorye
A 1940 Japanese marble torii on the Sea of Okhotsk shore — the remains of the Higashi-Shiraura Inari-jinja shrine
Baransky Volcano
An active 1132-metre stratovolcano on Iturup — fumaroles, acid-turquoise pools and hot springs at the foot
Maguntan Mud Volcano
Maguntan mud volcano — three grey eyes on a 4-km field and the endemic Deschampsia tzvelevii
Kasatka Bay
An uninhabited Iturup bay from which thirty-one Imperial Navy warships sailed for Pearl Harbor on 26 November 1941
Want to see it all with your own eyes?
We organize tours and excursions to all of the attractions