Traveling by car to Altai for beginners. Roads of the Altai Mountains: asphalt quality, route descriptions and gasoline prices. To Altai by car: where to go and what to see
Altai is mysterious and beautiful! In our time, Altai is the combined name of two territorial units: the Altai Republic and the Altai Territory. Taiga, steppes, mountains and semi-deserts converge here. About 20,000 rivers and streams, about 7,000 lakes, the Katun and Biya rivers greet travelers in Altai.
Travel to Altai
The impregnable and proud Altai is beautiful at any time of the year. The uniqueness of the landscape, the presence of various natural zones, and nature practically untouched by human civilization will not leave any traveler indifferent. Everyone here will find something to their liking.
Let us note the main places for receiving tourists in Altai - this is Chemal, the Seminsky Pass area, Artybash. Fans of civilized recreation are better off staying in Chemal. Artabysh is suitable for lovers of water sports, and if you want to enjoy the beauty of the mountains, go to the Seminsky Pass.
How to get to Altai
In traditional ways, you can get to Altai by plane, train, bus, car. A great option is to travel to Altai by car. This way you can admire the beauty of your native nature and stop for the night or rest whenever you want. And such a trip also saves money.
All that remains is to get acquainted with some options for traveling by car from different starting points.
To Altai from Moscow
Let's start our journey from Moscow to Altai by car by plotting the route. There are two options for traveling from Moscow. First:
- Moscow;
- Nizhny Novgorod;
- Kirov;
- Permian;
- Ekaterinburg;
- Tyumen;
- Omsk;
- Novosibirsk;
- Gorno-Altaisk.
Second option:
- Moscow;
- Vladimir;
- Nizhny Novgorod;
- Kazan;
- Naberezhnye Chelny;
- Chelyabinsk;
- Mound;
- Omsk;
- Novosibirsk;
- Barnaul.
You will spend about seven to ten thousand rubles on gasoline, depending on the fuel consumption of your car and the cost of fuel.
Travel from Novosibirsk
Traveling to Altai by car from Novosibirsk will take relatively little time; the distance along this route is about 450 kilometers. You will spend five to six hours on the road, fuel costs will be one and a half to two thousand rubles.
Altai routes
The ideal choice for traveling from Novosibirsk would be a route along the Chuysky tract. We set off along the Novosibirsk-Biysk-Tashanta road (M-52). Along this route you need to overcome three passes: Seminsky, Chike-Taman, Durbet-Daba (if you go to Mongolia).
Among the major cities along the way - Biysk, the gateway to the Altai Mountains and the beginning of the Chuysky tract. The city was founded in 1708 by decree of Peter I.
Moving along the Chuysky tract, you will see Mount Babyrgan; if you wish, you can climb there. This will take about two hours. Next is a stele on the border with the Altai Republic. We cross the border, in front of us is the village of Maima - a suburb of Gorno-Altaisk. At the 452nd km there is the village of Rybalka and a large number of signs to recreation centers, campsites and other tourist sites. appears before you in all its glory on this section of the tract. The main tourist complexes of Altai are concentrated here.
At 455 km you can see a suspension bridge across the Katun, although it is not operational. A little further there is a new bridge that leads to Lake Aya and the village of the same name, as well as to the village of Altaiskoye.
Lake Aya is located on the territory of a natural park. Moving further, we find ourselves in the vicinity of the village of Manzherok. Here it is worth visiting the Manzheroksky spring, the river rapids - the Manzheroksky Gate and the landmark of the lake - chilim, or water chestnut, listed in the Red Book.
When traveling through the Altai Mountains by car, visit not far from Manzherok. In winter you can visit the ski resort, and in summer you will be offered ATV excursions, rafting and motor rafting.
Tavdinsky caves are another important point of the Chuysky tract. The first cave, Maiden's Tears, is located seventy meters from the road, then there is another one, from which there is a beautiful view of the Katun. There are about thirty caves in total.
You will come across a mineral spring with silver, copper and manganese, Arzhan-Suu, at 485 km.
On the Kamyshla River it falls from a height of 12 meters. Here you can stop for a rest.
The end point on this route is the village of Ust-Sema. To the left, the Chuisky tract goes to the border with Mongolia, straight ahead - the road to Chemal.
This route is suitable for traveling to Altai by car with children, since there are enough places along the road where you can rest and eat, and the road itself is not very dangerous. Perfect for traveling with the whole family.
To Altai from Krasnoyarsk
If you go on a trip to Altai by car from Krasnoyarsk, you can, as with the option from Novosibirsk, get to Biysk and then follow a different route. But it is more suitable for a group of adults, as it involves walking, sometimes even dangerous.
From Biysk we go to Lake Teletskoye. The first point on the way is Artybash. It is better to get to it along an asphalt road through Gorno-Altaisk. Further Kazylozek, Paspaul, Choya, Verkh-Biysk, Artybash.
It is best to stop in Artybash, there are places to stay here. And from there we invite you on a trip to Lake Teletskoye. Stone Bay on the northern shore of the lake is the most visited place. Next is the Oyor River and the Altai State Reserve and Mount Cheptu, which forms a cape in the lake.
Cordon Baikazan. Here the slopes of the mountain go into the lake, forming huge stone screes. We move to Cape Azhi, and then the picturesque village of Yailyu.
From the village of Yailyu we move to Cape Chichelgan, then a large bay - Kamginsky. Two waterfalls, Korgu and Kamga, are on our way, and then the Ayukechpes River.
The Big Chili River, the village of Bele, Cape Verkhniy Kamelik, the Kyga River, the Chulyshman River are the main points of the route in the vicinity of Lake Teletskoye.
Route planning
In order to better plan a trip around Altai by car, the route must be thought out in advance. It is better to start your first acquaintance with Altai with the help of professionals, namely reliable guides. This way you are 100% guaranteed to see the best places, won’t get lost and won’t regret missing something important.
Traveling with children, what to take with you
Have you chosen to travel with the whole family? When traveling to Altai by car with children, choose the areas of Katun and Lake Aya, Manzherok or Belokurikha for a stop. Everything here is equipped for recreation, there are rooms, beaches, attractions and so on.
The main entertainment for children is swimming. You should not swim in the rivers, they are all very cold and have strong currents, which is unsafe. The best option for children would be lakes Aya and Mazherokskoye or swimming pools on the territory of recreation centers.
Together with your child, you can go horseback riding with trained horses and experienced instructors. ATVs, river rafting, bungee jumping, and boats - all this is offered by local entertainment services.
When going on a trip to Altai by car with children, you need to be very serious about collecting things and other necessary items. It is advisable to be vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis and have insurance. In May-June, ticks are very common. You should have a personal first aid kit with everything you need in your car.
If you go in the summer - sunscreen, creams, etc. At this time the sun is very active here. What else will you need:
- water and something for a light snack on the way;
- sleeping bag, even if you plan to stay at a hotel;
- raincoat, rubber boots, warm jacket and trousers;
- board games, coloring books and other things to keep your child occupied on the go;
- It makes sense to take a multimedia player or tablet with cartoons and educational games (just be sure to remember a portable charger, although you can charge the device from the cigarette lighter in the car).
Tourist complexes for families with children in Altai
A large number of complexes are at your service. On the banks of the Katun River there is the Eagle's Nest complex. There are houses here for 3,800 rubles per day for three people, breakfast is included in the price. Children under five years old are free, from five to twelve years old at a certain rate, from twelve years old - full price. The territory is equipped with a swimming pool, a summer cafe, and a children's playground.
“Three Bears” is an excellent option for a holiday near Lake Aya. There is everything for children! Children's town, mini-zoo, game rooms, pony rides, children's pool, creative workshops, children's animation. A room for two adults and a child costs four thousand rubles per night. Is breakfast included.
The Jolly Roger Bay recreation center is located on the banks of the Katun, not far from Lake Aya. Your children will be offered entertainment in the children's playroom, on a large trampoline, and in the children's playground. On the territory there is a huge Lego, a free evening cinema, a labyrinth, animation, and exercise equipment. The price of accommodation will be almost four thousand rubles per day without meals.
Tourist base "Bear's Corner" three kilometers from Lake Aya. The room stock consists of cottages and economy class options. At the base there is a cafe-bar, an island for walking with children, a summer children's pool, and a pool with a slide. For a junior suite you will be charged four thousand rubles per day + meals seven hundred or a thousand rubles.
"Altan" is a tourist base 800 meters from the Aisky Bridge. Four accommodation options:
- two-story cottages;
- two-story building;
- ten comfortable houses;
- 55 summer houses.
Payment - 3700 rubles per day with meals.
“Finskaya Dacha” is the most modern complex thirty kilometers from Gorno-Altaisk (pictured below). There are three outdoor swimming pools, a children's pool, a children's playground, animators, an art studio, and courses for children. The location in the cottage offers the option of both self-cooking and catering.
Other options
The Altika eco-hotel, the Tursib recreation center, the Svoya Usadba complex, the Mountain Fairy Tale tourist center, and the Aya park hotel are also suitable if you are traveling to Altai by car with children. And you can always stop by a cottage you like and find out the prices, what is offered, whether there is food, and so on. And traveling through Altai by car as a savage even involves spending the night in tents.
Sofia Glacier Gorge
Interesting places in Altai and how to get to them.
Altai is huge and different. You can come here every year for the rest of your life and discover something new every time. In this post I share with you my favorite places where you can drive an SUV and walk a little here and there. Altai will be completely on foot next time :)
When to go to Altai (seasons) and some features
You can travel around Altai all year round, but:
- In winter it’s certainly cold here, but it’s fabulously beautiful because everything is covered in snow. Avalanches are possible in the mountains and it is worth walking on them, understanding what avalanche areas are.
- At the beginning of summer it is good, but there is a lot of water on the roads of the gorges and ticks.
- There are many recreation centers in the foothills of Altai (Chemal, Lake Teletskoye, etc.) and it’s nice here all year round.
- The best time for hiking and traveling in Altai: August-September, when you can even drive to the Ukok plateau (less water) and the least number of ticks.
What else is important to know about traveling in Altai:
- In tourist Altai (Chemal, Teletskoye) there are many tourists, but also many amenities. It is easy to get here by hitchhiking and by public transport.
- The most interesting places in Altai are located where buses do not go and rides are very, very rare (not every day), and occasionally you come across houses with local shepherds within 100 km. You can get to such places partially by off-road vehicles, or walk through them.
- The off-road in Altai is magnificent. You can see many beautiful and different places. Let's see which ones exactly.
- (I’ll remember something else important, I’ll be sure to add it :).
Interesting places in Altai for traveling by car, coordinates and photos
Sofia Glacier Gorge
In general, from the village of Beltir you can go to different gorges and they are all beautiful. You can get to the Sofia Glacier in autumn. In winter there is a lot of snow, and in early summer there is too much water in the gorge. Coordinates: 49.794444°, 87.772222°
You can read how to use Google coordinates
Sofia Glacier Martian landscapes outside the village of Beltir
You will pass such landscapes on the way to the Sofia Glacier or Karagemsky and other gorges. This is not the popular Altai Mars that I write about below, but it looks even more real.
Martian Altai, Kyzyl-Chin gorge behind the village of Chagan-Uzun
And this is the “Martian Landscapes of Altai”, where they take you on excursions. You will have to find this place without coordinates, by looking on Google maps where Chagan-Uzun is located. After it there is a small puzzle in the form of branching roads and you are on Mars.
Vershina (repeater) behind the village of Aktash
Google Place coordinates: 50.34001,87.748672 You can climb here by SUV right to the very top, driving from Aktash past the abandoned one. The views from the top are amazing.
Night Teletskoye Lake
You can approach the lake from two sides. For those who are not interested in easy routes - the southern shore of Lake Teletskoye, which can be reached through the Katu-Yaryk pass and the valley of the Chulyshman River. The road is quite tiring, but the views here are more beautiful. There are houses on the shore where you can stay or pitch tents. Coordinates: 51.347994, 87.776104
An easier way to get to Lake Teletskoye is to approach it from the north through the village of Artybash, using public transport.
Chulyshman River Valley and Katu-Yaryk Pass
Descent into the valley straight along the serpentine road, which is in the photo↓. The road is considered unsafe, but to be honest, I never felt in danger going down it. We go and eat for ourselves, admiring the views. Even pussies pass through here, although some have trouble getting up afterwards. Google Coordinates: 50.911640, 88.216379
And here is a video from those places:
Uchitel pass, Aktru gorge
Pass Teacher located in the Aktru gorge. Height is about 3150 meters. Difficulty category 1A. One of the easiest category passes in the gorge, which can be climbed and descended in about 4-5 hours.
Google coordinates: 50.084444, 87.778611
View from the rise to the Uchitel pass Mountain trails in the Aktru gorge area, trail to the Blue Lake and Aktru glacier
There are many places to go in Aktru Gorge. The routes here are very complex, where you can only go with equipment and in bundles, and simple, where you can “run away” in a few hours. You can ask climbers at the base about routes.
Aktru Base is a place worth visiting in itself. Firstly, because it’s not so easy to get here by car and if you’ve driven through, then that’s already cool, and secondly, it’s wonderful here...
Blue lake near Aktru glacier
Blue Lake is a transit point for climbers ascending to the peak or Aktru glacier. An amazing place that is worth a walk from the Aktru base. This will take about 4-5 hours. Google Coordinates: 50.077716, 87.724579
Peak Dome of Three Lakes
The difficulty of climbing to the top of the Dome is 1B. You can spend the whole day going up and down (about 12 hours). There are two ways to go here. It is recommended to climb with a guide. In winter - with cats. In any case, before the climb, you will have to talk with knowledgeable people at the Aktru base to find out the route and the safety of the climb. The ascent starts from the Aktru camp. The coordinates of the Dome are approximately here:): 50.044800, 87.806500
Glade behind the Karagem Pass
Location coordinates: 49.962720, 87.622576
The place is beautiful, but you can only get here in a prepared SUV and it’s better not alone, because sometimes you have to pull each other out. The road is difficult. There are many fords with large stones, slopes and...lack of a road. But it's definitely worth it. Get there from Beltir. There is a bathhouse in the clearing itself :)
The road from the clearing to the Karagem Pass.
Ukok Plateau
Ukok is a plateau located at the junction of the borders of Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Russia. The altitude here is 2200-2500 m, the wind blows, and in winter the temperature drops to -50. The highest point of Ukok is Mount Kuiten-Uul 4374 (the second highest in Altai).
Ukok is a place of ancient burials; it is here that archaeologists unearthed the princess of Ukok. The place is strange, cold, wonderful. It attracts you again and again... It is more likely to travel here in August-September. In spring and early summer there is a lot of water. You can get to Ukok either through the Teply Klyuch pass (the most likely way) or through the Dzhazator River.
Plateau coordinates: 49.268354, 87.413683
Warm key: 49.408177, 88.035687
“Road” on Ukok in August 
And this is an attempt to drive to Ukok across the Dzhazator River. The attempt failed) 
The way home from Altai. Chuysky tract *All other places do not fit here, because Altai is vast and there is always everything else that has not yet been explored... There is also Tuva through the Buguzun pass and many many gorgeous places.
The final part of the story about our psychedelic trip to Altai. It just so happened that this trip was another best one this year.
Today I will tell you about our route, about life on the road and life in tents, I will say a few words about the car and sum up the financial results.
The total mileage was no less than 3131 km. The budget turned out to be only 13,135 rubles per person, although without taking into account the cost of the flight from Moscow to Novosibirsk and back.
We decided not to spend a week traveling to Novosibirsk (round trip) and bought plane tickets. This time the map of movements turned out to be quite simple and understandable.
For a car trip, Altai, in my opinion, is an ideal place, since almost everywhere there is a modern road surface, and the views from the windows are simply mesmerizing. Everywhere you can easily find a place to eat and spend the night. Unlike the Alps, you can stop everywhere and admire the views. If you wanted, you turned and drove along a country road or just through fields and meadows. In Europe there are prohibitory signs everywhere (passing is prohibited), and stopping on the highway is not allowed everywhere.
The main disadvantage of these mountains (and at the same time their advantage) is their significant distance from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Few people from the European part of Russia dare to go on a road trip over such distances. From Moscow to Gorno-Altaisk 3,700 kilometers one way.
The quality of the roads may not be as good as the European Alpine serpentines, but in general for our country their condition can be assessed as excellent. Almost everywhere there are good and logical markings, which are comfortable to drive even at night.
The Novosibirsk Chevrolet dealer gave us a white Captiva, which performed very well. It quietly accommodated all our camping gear, tents, foam and sleeping bags. We covered long distances on asphalt in comfort and without fatigue and climbed into the wilderness without any problems.
Thanks to the sunroof Ilyukha negrook managed to shoot a number of good video sketches that were included in.
Spending the night in tents by the fire is the most suitable option for Altai. Of the ten days of our journey, five we lived in tents. Calmness, silence and tranquility - this is what you can go to these parts for.
Of course, the tent life of a nomad also has its drawbacks, but they are not significant:
- you need to plan your day so that you can set up camp in the evening before dark. Looking for a suitable clearing at night is a dubious pleasure.
- you need to stock up on provisions, water and firewood in advance. And accordingly, take with you the necessary utensils, burners, gas.
- assembling/disassembling the camp and preparing food/washing dishes takes more time than collecting breakfast from the buffet in the hotel restaurant and checking out of the room.
- mosquitoes.
- instead of a warm bath - invigorating mountain streams.
We got a rather power-hungry Captiva with a gasoline engine. Without demonstrating dynamic miracles during acceleration and overtaking, the car greedily ate fuel, without any hesitation. The result was a high consumption of 10.4 liters per hundred kilometers.
But I was very pleased with the ground clearance. We never once touched protruding stones and boulders with our bellies, did not scrape in deep ruts or hit bumpers on steep descents and ascents.
The car's handling is ideally suited for quiet driving - be it on a highway or a field of cow dung. The steering wheel is moderately informative and light, and the suspension handles even the slate ripples of a grader well.
Another art object "Loaf". Over the course of this year, we have seen this box so many times in completely different landscapes that there are enough photographs for an entire report)
Travel schedule:
July 15. Flight from Moscow to Novosibirsk. Overnight at the hostel.
July 16. Transfer to the Bachatsky coal mine. Overnight at a hotel in Belovo.
July 17th. Driving to Gorno-Altaisk. Overnight at the hotel.
July 18. A whole day of beauty of the Chuysky tract. Overnight in tents near the village of Ongudai.
July 19. Transfer to the village of Aktash, overnight in tents on Lake Uzunkol.
July 20. Transfer to the Katu-Yaryk pass. On the same day we returned back to Lake Uzunkol, where we spent the night in tents again.
21 July. Road to Kosh-Agach. Overnight at the hotel.
July 22. Long way to the border with China. Overnight in tents near the Dzhumarlinsky warm springs.
July 23. Transfer to the village of Beltir. Overnight in tents.
July 24. We really liked Lake Uzunkol. Overnight in tents again.
July 25. Transfer to Gorno-Altaisk and overnight in tents in the botanical garden near the village of Kamlak.
26 July. Return to Novosibirsk.
In total, we drove 3131 km and consumed 324 liters of gasoline.
Average fuel consumption is 10.4 liters per 100 km.
Accounting notes.
Expenses in rubles for three:
8870 - housing
11435 - food
10339 - gasoline
7346 - miscellaneous (mobile communications, washing, gas for burner, etc.)
1414 - alcohol
Total for three people is 39,404 or 13,135 rubles per person, excluding flights.
A flight to Novosibirsk for one person cost 8,000 rubles. But it turned out that we were not flying from Moscow, and then we went in a completely different direction.
That's all I have. Thank you for your attention!