A Siberian tour operator offered its customers a river boat trip along the Ob River from Novosibirsk to Salekhard costing from 75 thousand to 230 thousand roubles.

      At the same time those who bought tours will have to go back on their own, most likely, by plane, as “Mir” inter-state TV and radio company reports. The final point of the route is located behind the Arctic Circle. The cruise will last 12 days; it will involve the ship “Remix” built in 1964, formerly known as “Mikhail Kalinin”. During the cruise the passengers will visit Tomsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Surgut and Khanty-Mansiysk. The cheapest ticket price includes meals and accommodation in a cabin with no amenities, and the most expensive ticket includes a separate deck.

      Novosibirsk Region is located in the center of Russia, in the southeast of the West-Siberian plain. The region borders with the Omsk Region in the west, Tomsk Region in the north, Kemerovo Region in the east, Altay Territory on the south, and Kazakhstan in the southwest. Due to its geographical location, the region has continental climate. Winter here is rather cold and long with occasional strong winds and snowstorms. Average winter temperature in Novosibirsk is about –18-20C. The lowest temperature (-54C degrees) was registered here in 1938. Summer is hot (about 100-130 days). Average summer temperature is about +18+20C.

      How to get there and away

      Air

      Luftbrucke can book you on regular one-way or return flights to/from Frankfurt and Hanover. There are Transaero and other flights daily to/from Moscow (4 hours), flights most days to Yakutsk (3,5 hours), Irkutsk (2 hours), Almaty (2,5 hours), Vladivostok (7,5 hours) and Abakan (1,5 hours).

      Train

      Numerous long-distance trains run through Novosibirsk daily. The trains go not only east and west across Siberia, but also south along the Turk-Sib line to Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bishkek and Tashkent. The Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Manchurian trains all come through. You may get to/from Yekaterinburg and Moscow by the best daily train ‘Sibiryak’ (51 hours). Eastbound there are usually 2 or 3 trains a day going as far as Vladivostok (4,5 days), 6 or 7 to Irkutsk (31-35 hours), and 9 or 10 to Krasnoyarsk (13-14 hours). The twice-weekly Moscow –Ulan Baatar service also comes through Novosibirsk. Services to places off the main Trans-Siberian line include trains to at least daily to Barnaul (6-10 hours), Biysk (11 hours) and Abakan (22 hours), and most days to Severobaikalsk (42 hours) and Tynda (74 hours) on the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) line.

      Bus

      There are 13 buses daily to Barnaul (5 hours), one daily to Biysk (7,5 hours) and nine daily to Tomsk (6 hours).