Tips for travel to Tiksi

Time for travel to Far North of Russia:

Planning your trip you need to choose correct time for visiting Tiksi. It would be better to go there in summer months. This time you can see all beauty of polar summer, you will see many interesting exemplars of polar flora and fauna in tundra. And, of course, you will feel that we call "polar day" when sun is shining 24 hours a day.

Of course being hard extreme tourist you can go to Tiksi any time you want. But you must know that polar winters and winds are very hard and extremely dangerous. Remember you are only your own responsibility!

Your documents:

Visas and passports are required for all foreign visitors to Russia. To get one, you must show confirmed accomodations for virtually every night of your visit, though there are ways around this. It is imperative that you keep your visa safe as its loss can make it quite difficult to leave the country.

To apply for a Russian visa, you will need a passport that is valid for at least one month beyond the time of your stay. Full face photos, a completed application form, and a handling fee are all required. The longer you're willing to wait to receive your visa, the less you will have to pay; fees vary by consulate. Tourist visas are relatively easy to obtain, though they are also the most rigid in terms of what is permissible. Business visas require an invitation from a Russian firm, which can be issued for a fee. One month, On-the-Spot visas are available at certain airports. Cruise passengers can visit Russia for up to 4 days without a visa, provided they sleep aboardship.

Hotels require you to surrender your passport and visa upon check-in (it is returned when you depart). For independent travelers, all visas must be registered with the Otdel Viz i Registratsii (OVIR) within three working days after entering Russia.

Take care that all necessary documents are in order. Remember, you need to have not only russian incoming tourist visa, but also special permission to entry to Tiksi, because Tiksi is located in military zone very closely from state line of Russian Federation.

How to get to Tiksi:

Main way to get to Tiksi - by air. You can have direct flight from Moscow, but it is very difficult to catch airplan from russian capital. And there are not any regular flights from Moscow; only charters which don't have exact timetable.

Also you can fly to Tiksi from Yakutsk; to get to Yakutsk you can by air from Moscow, Irkutsk and some other towns. Distantion to Yakutsk from: Moscow - 5680, Saint-Petersburg - 6480, Ekaterinburg - 3980, Novosibirsk - 2400, Irkutsk - 1930, Chita - 1610, Vladivostok - 2250, Khabarovsk - 1600, Magadan - 1200 kilometers.

It is possible to get to Yakutsk from Moscow with Yakutia Aircompany, Domodedovo Airlines, Krasnoyarsk Airlines, Siberia Airlines. From Yakutsk to Tiksi - with Polar Airlines. Polar Airlines has regular flight to Tiksi once a week from the end of March till end of October.

Price for air tickets: round trip Moscow - Yakutsk - Moscow is about 500 USD, the same price for round trip Yakutsk - Tiksi - Yakutsk.
In summer time you can use passenger ship from Yakutsk and move by Lena River. This way will take 3-4 days.

But being hard extreme tourist you can go to Tiksi any way you want. Its known some cases when people go there as hitch-hikers, by motorcycle… And don't forget about responsibility!

What to take:

Think good about clothes you will take to your trip. Even is summer the weather may be very cold. So you need warm clothes like jumpers, trousers, knitted hat, scarf, socks. You must have good boots (ideally - with rubbery steps) for walking in the dirty.

For traveling in winter you need to have very-very warm clothes. If you are going to Tiksi without special expedition - I say "You are crazy! Don't go there. Stay at home and wait for summer!" ;o) But if you are member of polar expedition - you better know that to take with you.

Where to stay:

In Tiksi we have only one hotel. It is "Moryak" (Seaman) hotel. For booking rooms you can try to connect with personnel using these phone numbers: 007 (41167) 5-30-72. But really I'm not sure that somebody there can speak English or other foreign language ;o) But I'm sure that any time there free rooms are.

Where to go and what to do:

During the days you will stay in Tiksi it would be interesting and useful to visit museum, port, Sogo (old ruined settlement not far from Tiksi with abandoned coal mining; you can go there also from port using small boat). You can climb to Lyalkin Pup - there is beautiful view to Tiksi, Laptevs Sea, tundra opens from head of this small mountain (in russian we call it "sópka"). You can walk to Drinking Lakes - place where we grub the water. But remember - don't walk in tundra alone because it`s not very difficult to lose yourself there; you must walk around with people who know these territories very good.

Walking in tundra you can have picnic with kebabs. In August - September you can go to tundra for mushroom and berry picking. You will get unforgotten impressions having flight with helicopter above tundra.

Also may be possible excursions to polar station "Lena-Nordensheld" and "Ust-Lenskii" wild nature preserv.

Also you need to know:

When it's noon in Moscow, there is 6PM in Tiksi. And it may be very uncomfortable to feel such a difference in time of a day.

Advised by Blagovestnikova, a Tiksi.ru forum resident.
Have questions? Feel free to contact her.