Korsakov Sakhalin Island Russia
Russia
Frequently Asked Questions
Usually at anchor, in Aniva Bay: tenders take passengers ashore among the cranes and installations of a working fishing and cargo port. Korsakov is a working harbour, not a cruise terminal.
At the southern tip of Sakhalin Island, in the Russian Far East, facing the coast of Japan. Sakhalin stretches nearly a thousand kilometres, and at its end Aniva Bay traces a broad grey-blue crescent.
Most excursions head for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, about forty kilometres away. If you stay near the port, the hills above it give fine views over Aniva Bay, and the local table is worth the time.
Yes for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk: forty kilometres of road through hills and birch forest. Around the port itself you can walk, but the streets are steep and there is no tourist centre as such.
The regional museum, housed in a 1937 building topped with a traditional Japanese roof, the only one of its kind in Russia. Its collections cover the indigenous Nivkh and Ainu peoples, the wildlife and the penal colony.
Because its southern half became Japanese in 1905 under the name Karafuto, before passing to Soviet administration in 1945. Korsakov was then called Ōtomari and served as the maritime gateway to that vanished province.
The writer travelled here in the late 19th century to investigate the penal colony, and produced 'Sakhalin Island', an account that shook the Russia of his day. That book is how the island entered the national consciousness.
Hills giving broad views over Aniva Bay, where freighters, gas carriers and fishing boats pass. In summer the slopes fill with wildflowers and dwarf pine. Some excursions reach coastal lakes or wind-beaten headlands, the domain of gulls and sea eagles.
Whatever the sea gives: king crab, scallops, smoked salmon and red caviar, often with steaming pelmeni or black bread, and tea served very strong. A tasting at the port or in town teaches you more than a museum.
The Russian rouble and Russian. Bring cash, as foreign-issued cards do not work. English is very rarely spoken: on this island a guided excursion is far simpler than improvising.
