Around Novosibirsk
You can learn which means of transportation are preferable for traveling inside Novosibirsk and in adjacent areas in the Transport section of our website, whereas the topic of this article is where to go.
Here is an ordinary picture a traveler may occasionally come across in the Novosibirsk region: fields, birch groves, a brook and a tiny village nearby. Such delightful landscapes can be observed as far as only 10 km away from the city line. If one gazes at the direction of South-East long enough he or she might soon find that some massifs start peeping in the distance. The West, in its turn, is well-known for its salt and mud lakes. The greatest advantage of traveling in the Novosibirsk region is that it takes one day to get to the destination and return back. Unfortunately, local tourist agencies hardly offer any tours around the region with the only exception of trips to the abovementioned lakes. So, the best choice would be finding a guide (at our forum, for instance) who could help you to explore surroundings.
 Such delightful landscapes can be observed as far as only 10 km away from the city line. Photo by Rodion Lomivorotov.
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If you are keen on the sights of Nature, than you probably should follow the route of Leninsk-Kuznetskaya (M52) and Barnaulskaya (M53) highways. There you will be able to contemplate endless fields, Berdsk’s rocks (on the river Berd), the caves of the Salair mountain range, bald peaks of Bugotak (known as Bugotakskie sopki), and numerous lakes.
Apart from significant natural sights, the Novosibirsk region is saturated with industrial landscapes enchanting a viewer with the grandeur of their scales. The enormous water power plant, which has given birth to the Ob Sea, is located inside the city borders. There are also a lot of quarries, resembling ancient amphitheatres in shape, in vicinity of Iskitim.
Many of them have been abandoned, so they are apt for walking. Others have turned into waterfalls and lakes in time. By the way, the waterfalls are of specific importance in the Novosibirsk region since there are so few of them in Russian steppes.
The rapidly spreading globalization has left many settlements deserted. Some of them are nothing more than just ordinary tiny villages consisting of houses with broken windows, while others can impress with their architecture. Here, for example, the settlement Irba which was left by the villagers around 1980. Pay attention to the fact that the buildings are made of solid pieces of stone and clay.
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 Waterfalls on river Suenga. Photo by Rodion Lomivorotov.
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 Waterfall in Belovo. Photo by Rodion Lomivorotov.
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 Ruins at Irba.
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The Altai Mountains is the highest mountain range of Siberia and the major recreational centre for the citizens of Novosibirsk. Mountains, lakes, the wilds, clear air – all make Altai a perfect place for summer and winter vacation, not to mention such facilities as modern hotels, the availability of means of transportation, quite a developed infrastructure, and supplementary services for tourists.
A 600 km drive on a highway makes it easy to get to Altai either by car or by buses rented by tourist agencies in order to deliver their clients to the destination. Since 2008 there is regular flight to Biisk (Biysk) from Tolmachevo Airport- depart from Novosibirsk on friday, arrive back at sunday.
If you have enough spare time, we recommend you to undertake a trip to Baikal. The uniqueness of this place is best described in Wikipedia. It is advisable to stay at the northern part of the lake, since the shoreline there has not yet been littered by tourists. It takes one and a half days to get to Severobaikalsk from Novosibirsk by train. There, a few companies based in the city’s small hotels organize different guided tours around the area. To sign up for such a tour, one can address practically any tourist agency in Novosibirsk.
 Lake Baikal (near Froliha)
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 Bank of Lake Baikal.
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 Lake Baikal (near Froliha)
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Mountain skiing and snowboarding are popular among the youth in Novosibirsk. The ski centers in Novosesodovo and Klyuchi (7 km from the city) feature good quality mountain ski tracks, but the most popular place is Sheregesh in the Kemerovo region. Plus, there has been recently launched a new ski resort called Tanay on the halfway to Sheregesh.
