A Belarusian Woman Organized A Trip To The Solovetsky Islands "from Scratch"

• 25.10.2026, 9:16

A woman from Minsk planned her own road trip and set off on a 10-day journey.

Anastasia Kovaleva /b>, a resident of Minsk, planned a road trip to the Solovetsky Archipelago from scratch and set off on a 10-day journey in June with a small group of friends. The publication MYFIN.

The itinerary was broken down by day in a Google Sheet

The Solovetsky Islands, or Solovki, are an archipelago in the White Sea in northern Russia. They are part of the Arkhangelsk Oblast. People come here to visit the Solovetsky Monastery, the ancient stone labyrinths, and the northern wilderness. In the summer, near Cape Beluzhy, you might spot beluga whales in their natural habitat.

The Solovetsky Islands had been on Nastya’s personal bucket list for many years. The archipelago drew her in with its blend of history, untamed nature, and remote northern isolation.

“Besides the Solovetsky Islands themselves, I had another dream—Cape Beluzhy. You can see beluga whales there, but the season is very short: roughly from mid-June to early August. So she had to plan her trip dates not only around her vacation time and the cost of lodging, but also around the natural calendar.

Nastya mapped out the itinerary day by day in a Google Sheet—from the starting and ending points to check-in times at the apartments and the tours. She spent 3 to 4 hours a day on this for a week. As a result, she calculated the distances, picked the ideal dates, studied the ferry schedules, bought tickets in advance for the motorboats and ferries to Kizhi Island and the Solovki Islands, booked accommodations along the entire route, and put together an excursion itinerary.

— The most challenging part of the preparation is keeping the information up to date. In the North, a lot depends on the season, the weather, navigation conditions, and the specific carrier. In some cases, schedules are released closer to summer; in others, the information on the website is updated with a delay; and in still others, it’s better to call or email directly. I checked everything related to water transportation especially carefully. Kizhi and Solovki aren’t the kind of destinations where you can just show up at the pier and hope you’ll be able to get a ride somehow.

Ferry service on the Kem–Solovki–Kem route begins on June 1. Ticket sales for the summer season usually open closer to the start of the navigation season, but the exact dates depend on the carrier. Given the high demand for Kem–Solovki tickets, these were the first tickets I booked, and my itinerary and lodging reservations were built around them.

Discount on tickets for reposting information on social media

Our group of four—three adults and a 13-year-old teenager—traveled about 4,000 km during the trip. At the beginning and end of the trip, the drive took 7–9 hours each way, and the view out the window changed every day. Along the way, the Belarusians visited Veliky Novgorod and Petrozavodsk, Kizhi Island, Karelian waterfalls and mountains, a volcano, and petroglyphs.

Before the trip, Nastya researched the situation with mobile internet and access to her usual services.

“I had a Russian MTS SIM card and a trusted VPN. But it turned out that, starting June 7, most VPNs were no longer working. In the end, I paid for the hidemy.name VPN. A month’s access cost 11.36 EUR. Almost the entire time, I was the only one in the whole group who stayed connected. This turned out to be critically important: opening a map, checking a reservation, contacting our accommodation, looking up a schedule, finding a café, or resolving a sudden logistical issue.

But even with a good service provider, there are “dead zones” in the North, so be sure to save offline maps, addresses, phone numbers, and screenshots of your reservations and tickets in advance.

The company paid for the tickets to Solovki on the day of departure right at the pier. It’s important to confirm your reservation two weeks in advance.

— Cost: 3,000 RUB (about 110 Belarusian rubles) one-way, regardless of which boat you choose (there are six options in total). In June, there was a 10% discount, so a round-trip ticket cost 5,400 RUB (198 rubles).

Tickets to Kizhi must be purchased in advance online. There is a much wider selection of carriers here. The cost is roughly the same—5,200 RUB round-trip for an adult and 3,150 for a 13-year-old child. We received a discount for reposting information about the carrier on social media, and the total cost of tickets for three adults and a 13-year-old child came to 18,180 RUB (665 rubles).

A separate ticket is required for the Kizhi Nature Reserve. Nastya recommends buying tickets online to avoid wasting time waiting in line at the ticket office.

— Basic admission ticket — 1,200/600 RUB. Buying a combo ticket for 1,900/1,300 RUB will save you some money, since admission to certain sites on the island is charged separately, and the combo ticket already includes these fees.

Prices for dining on Solovetsky Islands

We planned the trip on short notice, making the decision just three weeks before departure. Because of this, our accommodation options were very limited, since the best and most affordable options were already booked during peak season. For a single night for four people, booking aggregators quoted a price of 31,500 RUB (1,150 rubles).

To find something more affordable, Nastya called about 15 places and found a guesthouse just 5 minutes from the Solovetsky Monastery. For three adults, they charged a reasonable 7,500 RUB (275 rubles), and the child stayed for free.

Eating on the Solovetsky Islands turned out to be, as expected, more expensive than on the mainland—due to the challenges of island logistics. However, the Belarusians didn’t notice any shockingly high prices. Locals confirmed that food, fuel, and basic necessities cost about 20% more on average. Add to that a limited selection and guaranteed crowds at restaurants during peak season.

— There aren’t that many places to eat on the island. Lunch in the monastery refectory cost 925 RUB per person. Lunch at the “Varyag” café (soup of the day and freshly caught fried cod) — 1,100 RUB. Breakfast at the “Kayut-Kompaniya” café (omelet and pancakes with pinagor caviar + coffee on the house) — 670 RUB. Ice cream is a particular rarity on the island. We managed to find some at the “Chaynaya Bukhta” café—250 RUB.

Let’s calculate the trip expenses

The expenses per person, excluding personal purchases and health insurance, were as follows:

lodging — about 10,750 RUB (395 rubles);

meals — nearly 15,000 RUB (550 rubles);
Kizhi (Meteor ferry and admission ticket) — around 7,100 RUB (260 rubles);

Solovki (round-trip ferry + excursion to Cape Beluzhy) — 8,400 RUB (310 rubles);

museums, tours, and admission tickets along the route — about 6,000 RUB (220 rubles).

Total: approximately 47,000 RUB (about 1,720 rubles).

By the way, these figures matched those from the Google spreadsheet almost exactly.

However, Nastya advises bringing more money and budgeting about 55,000–65,000 RUB per person. On a trip to the White Sea, you definitely need a financial cushion, since motorboats may not be able to set out due to storms, wind, or fog. It’s important to allow extra time for such situations and to pack the right clothes. You should also budget separately for fuel, insurance, toll roads, parking, and car expenses.

— We set aside a reserve of about 20% on top of our main budget. This money was for situations where we might need to extend our stay, change our route, buy additional tickets, or wait out bad weather. We were lucky: all our flights were on schedule. But just a couple of days later, a storm hit the sea, and tourists from the “mainland” got stranded on the island and had to find emergency accommodations.

Even the perfect plan always needs a “Plan B”

Organizing the trip on their own and strict planning helped the Belarusians save a decent amount of money. Traveling as a large group solved the problem of expensive lodging—the cost of the apartments was split evenly among everyone. They bought transportation tickets well in advance—this protected them from seasonal shortages of seats and price markups. The itinerary was mapped out almost down to the minute, which completely eliminated spontaneous overspending on taxis and accidental stays at expensive hotels along the way. Cooking breakfast in the apartments also cut costs and saved time in the mornings.

But even thorough preparation can’t protect you from small travel expenses like coffee, snacks, medicine, or souvenirs. However, if major expenses are calculated in advance, spontaneous little purchases won’t break the bank.

If Nastya were finalizing the itinerary now, she would add a “Plan B”: she’d include alternative accommodations, ticket refund policies, pharmacies, offline addresses, and detours around roadwork on Murmansk Highway.

— The most useful part of the spreadsheet turned out to be the column showing what had already been paid online and how much still needed to be paid. This saved a lot of time: we didn’t have to recalculate every time who owed whom and how much. The “budget vs. actual” breakdown was also helpful. Even if not all expenses were entered into the spreadsheet perfectly right away, the structure itself helped us understand where the company was staying within budget and where it might go over.

Kizhi, Karelia, Kivach, and the long journey from Belarus turned our vacation into a truly grand adventure. Solovki doesn’t have to be expensive. But they don’t take kindly to spontaneity. The better you prepare, the fewer unnecessary expenses you’ll have—and the more energy and money you’ll have left for the experiences themselves.