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Tashtagol is the capital of “Siberian Switzerland”, a not very famous, but very beautiful region of Mountain Shoria, whose decoration is the endless green seas of the taiga, cut by blue ribbons of rivers. Guests from other cities in Tashtagol are more likely to pass through, heading through it to the popular ski resort Sheregesh. Check clothesbliss for travel to Tegenekli, Russia.

The city is divided into three microdistricts: Tashtagol proper (or Old Tashtagol), Ust-Shalym (in everyday speech – Pospelova, like the name of the longest street in the microdistrict) and Shalym (separated from the main part of the city and located in the direction of Sheregesh village). The latter is the most interesting for tourists: there is a sports and tourist complex.

Tashtagol itself is a quiet and calm town. In fact, it is a long strip of development along the main city street, running parallel to the Kondoma River. Everything interesting is on the right bank: Soviet wooden tenements, the office of the Shorsky National Park and the Central Square with a monument to Lenin.

How to get to Tashtagol

The nearest major airports to Tashtagol are located in Novosibirsk (about 600 km), Kemerovo (390 km) and Novokuznetsk (180 km). All these air hubs daily receive dozens of flights from all over Russia, the cost of tickets depends heavily on the season, but flights to Novosibirsk are more profitable. Next – by train, bus or taxi.

The city itself also has its own small airfield, but it operates flights only to remote and hard-to-reach villages in the Tashtagol region, as well as to neighboring regions: Khakassia and Gorny Altai. More often it is used by fishermen, ordering helicopter transfers to “cool” (in every sense of the word) places. Pleasure is not cheap: for a helicopter for 12 passengers, you will have to pay from 160,000 RUB. The prices on the page are for February 2021.

By train

Unfortunately, there are no trains from Novosibirsk to Tashtagol. But from Novokuznetsk they leave every day, the journey takes 4 hours 40 minutes, the fare is 181 RUB.

Three stations are located on the territory of the city at once: “Kondoma”, “o.p. 572 km” (in the Ust-Shalym microdistrict) and, in fact, “Tashtagol” (in the old city).

By bus

Buses arrive in Tashtagol from many surrounding cities, skiers are interested in three options: daily night flights from the Novosibirsk bus station (about 11 hours on the way, from 1800 RUB), from Kemerovo (7 hours, from 840 RUB) and from Novokuznetsk (over 10 departures to day, 3 hours 15 minutes, from 350 RUB).

Transportation

The main form of urban transport is buses and taxis. The most useful is bus number 101, it connects the center of the town with the Sheregesh ski resort.

Hotels

Modest in size, the town has an equally modest number of hotels and guest houses. But the prices are acceptable. In the Russian guest house, a night in a double room will cost 2800 RUB. Also in Tashtagol itself on the street. Pospelova, 5A there is a motel, but the cost of rooms will have to be found out by phone or on the spot.

6 km from the city, in the Provincial Alpine Skiing Center, there is a modern “Castle Edelweiss” (off. site). Guests can book a room from 3400 RUB/day, order meals at a local restaurant, walk along the health path and even take antler baths. Away from the castle is the sanatorium-dispensary “Romashka” (Dalnyaya Kamenushka street, 1). Facilities here – in common areas, prices – by phone or on the spot.

Attractions

Perhaps the main and most noticeable attraction of Tashtagol can be called the Golden Shoria sculpture, which rises in the local park of Military Glory. It depicts an elk with branched horns, which carries a fragile girl on its back with a bowl in its hands, where an eternal flame burns. Together they symbolize the connection between the past and present of the Mountain Shoria region, the readiness of local residents to warmly welcome guests. The animal was not chosen by chance: moose are revered by the indigenous people of these lands.

Also in the Park of Military Glory, on the banks of the Kondoma River, you can see a monument to the miners who died in the workplace, and next to it is the elegant Church of St. George the Victorious, which houses a Sunday school and a library. A few minutes walk from the church, but already on the other side of the river, there is a monument to Labor Glory and a locomotive-monument L-0697.

The Tashtagol Museum of Ethnography and Nature of Mountain Shoria invites you to get acquainted with the life and traditions of those who inhabited and inhabit the territories of the region (off. site). Its guests will find interesting stories about the Siberian Old Believers and Shors, acquaintance with their culture and beliefs. A special pride of the museum is the section dedicated to the archeology of Mountain Shoria. Its pearl is the exposition “Kabyrzinskaya Princess”, a reconstruction of the burial of the 6th-7th centuries BC. e., where, as historians believe, the skeleton of a noble woman was discovered.

Since Tashtagol has its own mine, a large section of the museum’s exposition is devoted to the history of the mining industry of the city and the region.

The provincial center of skiing and snowboarding, which is a 15-minute drive from Tashtagol, is a mini-copy of the famous Sheregesh. Here, on Mount Tumannaya, there are only 4 tracks with a length of up to 1600 m with a height difference of about 330 m, ski lifts. Usually athletes of local ski schools ride these slopes, but other guests are also welcome in the Provincial Center. There is no entertainment, you can have a bite to eat in a cafe.

Tashtagol is surrounded by the Shor National Park, whose rivers are rich in fish, and the forests are rich in birds and animals. In summer, the park attracts lovers of rafting, hiking and horseback riding, naturalists who are interested in the rich local fauna: eagles, badgers, deer, muskrats, mallards, etc. Climbers are also frequent guests in the Shorsky National Park: there are curious mountain ranges next to it.