In the morning we will meet you at the airport in Gorno-Altaisk.

First, we will get acquainted and then transfer you to the hotel. You will have time to rest, as we do understand that the night flight is quite exhausting. In the afternoon you will visit the National Museum of the Altai Republic. It exhibits the famous “Siberian Ice Maiden” and other interesting items about the past in the Altai Republic. We will end the day with a dinner together in a national yurt and will enjoy a concert of kaichi.

Night: hotel | Meal: 3 times | Driving: no Walking: in the city

Highlights: excursion to the museum and around the city, kaichi concert

After breakfast we will travel along the famous road – Chuiskiy Tract – which connects Russia with Mongolia. The National Geographic magazine named Chuiskiy Tract as one of the world’s most beautiful roads. During our drive we will stop at several picturesque and interesting places.

In the afternoon we will arrive to the Karakol valley, which is considered a sacral place among Altaians. There you will enjoy beautiful views and have a look at the historical monuments of different epochs – petroglyphs, burial mounds and stone stelas.

This night we will stay at the home of a local woman, where you can get acquainted with the way of life in Altai and customs of modern Altaians.

Night: guest houses | Meal: 3 times | Driving: 200 km asphalt road| Walking: moderate

Highlights: excursion in the valley, way of life in Altai 

Today we will have horse riding in the real taiga. We will drive to the village Kulada, from where our horse trip will start. After meeting the horses and being instructed, we will pack the things we need for the rest of the day. Our route will be not difficult, all horses are calm and well-trained. So, even people without any experience in horse riding can easily do it. We will go through the forest, stop at nice viewpoints, have a picnic at the Arukem lake and enjoy as much of the nature as possible in this beautiful place.

Night: guest houses | Meal: 3 times | Driving: 50 km | Activity: intense horse riding

Highlights: taiga, viewpoints, Arukem lake

Today we continue driving to our main destination and we will have a lot of interesting places to visit, enjoy the views and make wonderful pictures. We will pass the Chiketaman pass, followed by the confluence of the Chuya and Katun rivers, the river Katun terraces and the Inya Bridge. An excursion around the famous Kalbak-Tash rocks with petroglyphs is included.

In the afternoon we will enter the Kurai steppe, a very beautiful intermontane basin where you can admire, depending on the weather conditions, impressive views of the mighty North-Chuyskiy Ridge with eternal snow and glaciers.

We will cross the whole steppe and just after it, we turn to the right to go to our place to sleep. We will stay in very nice guesthouses in the middle of nowhere.

Night: guest houses | Meal: 3 times | Driving: 250 km asphalt road| Walking: moderate

Highlights: excursion over petroglyphs rocks, a lot of stops at beautiful places, North-Chuyskiy Ridge

In the morning we drive to the coloured mountains of Kyzyl-Chin. Some people call this place “Mars on Earth”. Clay layers of yellow, white, orange, red and burgundy colours make the hills really fantastic.

After exploring so called Mars-1 we will drive to Mars-2. Finally, we will see in the distance striped mountains which resemble the Rainbow mountains in Peru.  

We continue our route through the mountains and will pass a moonshaped area on our way to Beltir. We will have lunch here before we even go deeper into the wild nature. We will see 2 beautiful lakes – Akkol (White Lake) and Karakol (Black Lake) and finally will arrive at the place where we will put our tents.

Night: tents| Meal: 3 times | Driving: 55 km mountain road | Hiking:moderate

Highlights: Mars-1 and Mars-2, Kyzyl-chin, Moon, Beltir, Akkol, off road driving

It is a day of a very interesting hiking up towards the snow mountains and glacier (7 km one way). On our way you will admire beautiful views of the Sophia glacier and rock towers over it. You will be able to touch eternal snow and watch how the River Akkol impressively emerges from the glacier.

When we arrive at the glacier, we will have lunch, a very nice place. Here you see only beautiful wild nature and nothing manmade. After taking the time to walk around and make great pictures it will be time to walk back to the tents. Dinner is waiting there.

Night: tents| Meal: 3 times | Driving: no | Walking: intense (15 km)

Highlights: a path through moraine, Sophia glacier, wild nature

We start the day driving across the Chuya Steppe to our next destination.

In Kosh-Agach (district center) you will visit the market where you can shop for souvenirs and goods from Mongolia.

During crossing the steppe we will stop at several picturesque places and archeological monuments. Luckily this night we will sleep in yurts, and they even have a banya for us.

Night: yurts| Meal: 3 times | Driving: 100 km mountain road | Walking: moderate

Highlights: Chuya steppe

Today we will drive to the place that is the farest that we will get during this trip and in a few kilometres from it there is the border with Mongolia. We will pass along the River Yustyd where many ancient burial mounds are situated. We will stop and have a look at stone “pictures” – rectangulars, circles and other figures made by people centuries ago, the purpose of which is still unknown to scientists. After driving off-road the whole day, we will arrive at a beautiful Kindyktykul lake. This is also a place of nesting of rare kinds of birds, including Himalayan griffon.

Here we will set up the tents. If the sky is clear, this is the place to watch the stars during the night, it is an absolutely stunning view to look at the Milky Way here.

Night: tents| Meal: 3 times | Driving: 100 km mountain road | Walking: moderate

Highlights: Yustyd valley, kurgans, mengirs

After a good breakfast we will get our day-pack to go for a hike up the mountain. It will take us the whole day and we will get higher than 3000 meters. Halfway we will have a pick-nick. At the highest point we will have a great view over the endless steppe on one side, and black rocky mountains on the other side. A little bit deeper in the mountains Snow Leopards and Pallas’s cats live. 

Night: tents| Meal: 3 times | Driving: no| Walking: intense

Highlights: great views

Sorry to say – our way home begins. But you have a consolation as we will drive along a very beautiful road and still have enough interesting places to stop.

You will visit the Tarkhata megalithic complex. The megalithic complex is a place where huge rocks are put in a circle with a diameter of 60 meters. Some of them are engraved with petroglyphs. Most of the scientists consider it as an ancient astronomic observation and sacral place.

We will drive over the Chuya steppe and enter the Kurai steppe. We will arrive at the guesthouses which are situated in the middle of the steppe. A fantastic view at the mountain range during the evening and also in the morning is at your disposal.

Night: guesthouses| Meal: 3 times | Driving: 150 km  | Walking:  moderate   

Highlights:  megalithic complex, North-Chuya ridge

Today we continue the drive along the Chuiskiy tract in the direction of Gorno-Altaisk. In the evening – dinner together in Gorno-Altaisk.

Night: hotel| Meal: 3 times | Driving: 400 km  |

Highlights: Viewpoints, any place we would like to stop once more

After breakfast we will transfer you to the airport for your flight home or your next destination.