Adventure Travel in Russia: Small Group Tours of Siberia and Beyond

As intriguing as it is vast, Russia’s wild expanses beckon true adventure seekers.

Perhaps Doctor Zhivago is to blame. Or maybe it’s the term “Cold War.” It might have started with the jokes you heard about where people were sent to get them out of the way. Whatever its origin, the word Siberia calls to mind vast, lonely spaces; windblown plains; and icy climes. When you go to Russia, however, you’ll discover that Siberia is a lot more.

Siberia extends all the way from Russia’s Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the borders of China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia in the south. This immense region accounts for 77 percent of Russia’s landmass, but only 27 percent of its people. What it lacks in population density, however, is more than made up for by its robust natural communities and features. One of them is the world’s oldest and deepest lake: Baikal.

Travel aboard the fabled Trans-Siberian Railway during your trip to Russia, and you’ll visit Lake Baikal, a Mongolian word, in fact, for nature. One hundred thousand freshwater seals, called nerpa, inhabit the northern, pristine waters of this Russian attraction — located not on a coast, but in the middle of this gigantic continent. Stand in the Baikal Rift Zone, and you’ll be in the presence of a depression seven times as deep as the Grand Canyon.

The Trans-Siberian crosses eight time zones and traverses 6,600 miles as it traverses Russia, from Moscow to the country’s major Pacific port, Vladivostok, a city fiercely shielded from the outside world during the Cold War. On this great railway, you’ll roll to the Russian Far East, where you’ll pass through the mesmerizing, seemingly infinite Siberian forest — the taiga — and make stops at places such as Kazan, whose kremlin is a UNESCO World Heritage site. You’ll explore Yekaterinburg (or Sverdlovsk, during Soviet times), founded in 1723 by Peter the Great as a gateway for his expansion into the Siberian wilds. Or take a tour of Russia aboard the Shangri-La Express, and you’ll trace one of the Silk Road’s most important branches: the route from Moscow to Beijing.

For Dr. Zhivago fans, however, Russia probably just wouldn’t be Russia without winter. So pick up a few good books, pack a few sweaters, and schedule yourself on the Golden Eagle in the last season of the year. This train will stop long enough so you can make calls on towns such as Vladimir and Suzdal, where onion-domed churches will provide the true-life setting for your Russian adventure novels.

Scroll down to learn more about adventure Travel in Russia, including our small group tours of Siberia.