Sakhalin Island

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Orthodox church, Sakhalin island, Russian Far East

Getty Images/Flickr RF

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Overview

El Dorado for present-day businessfolk and ‘hell’ to Anton Chekhov in 1890 (not to mention the thousands and thousands of prisoners shipped here from the late 19th century), Sakhalin Island these days is defined by its booming oil and gas hub, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. But there's much more to this often beautiful island, which is filled with a wild terrain of forests, islands of seals, streams full of fish, slopes for skiing and lots and lots of bears. Relatively cheap flights can get you here, but prepare to open the purse strings once you’ve arrived: Sakhalin is no place for shoestringers.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

Cathedral of the Nativity

Sakhalin Island

This extraordinary new addition to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk's otherwise ho-hum architectural ensemble is a staggeringly impressive golden-domed cathedral, which…

Sakhalin Regional Museum

Sakhalin Island

The pagoda-roofed Sakhalin Regional Museum has a strong exhibit (sadly in Russian only) exploring the Japanese/Soviet overlap of the city’s history,…

Museum of Sakhalin Island: A Book by AP Chekhov

Sakhalin Island

Based on Chekhov’s seminal account of his few months working as a doctor on Sakhalin in the 1890s, this museum provides insight not only into life on…

Art Museum

Sakhalin Island

This museum has a modest permanent collection of pre-Soviet Russian oil paintings and Korean and Japanese textiles upstairs, and changing exhibits…

Chekhov Statue

Sakhalin Island

This attractive statue of Anton Chekhov, whose visit to Sakhalin in the late 19th century put the little-known penal colony on the map, shows the great…