A chemists' town of 1943 on the shore of a salt lake: a bromine plant evacuated from Perekop, a straight-line steppe grid and the main steppe resort of Altai Krai.
Yarovoye
Yarovoye was founded in 1943 as a settlement at a chemical works: the bromine plant from Perekop was evacuated here, into the Kulunda steppe. The name comes from Bolshoye Yarovoye lake on whose shore the town stands; 'yar' means a high steep bank, a bluff by the water. Town status came in 1993. The town lies eighteen kilometres from the Kazakh border, 460 from Barnaul — but only 400 from Novosibirsk: Siberian logistics are closer. The plan is honest industrial: a residential zone, a sanitary buffer, an industrial zone; five- and nine-storey blocks along straight streets. Today Yarovoye is a steppe resort: sanatoria by the lake take guests for brine and mud therapy, in summer beachgoers from all around come to the shore, and a biopark operates. For the traveller it is a convenient base for Bolshoye Yarovoye and the Kulunda, with proper urban infrastructure amid absolutely open steppe.
How to get there
By train to Slavgorod and then about twenty kilometres; by car — from Barnaul, Novosibirsk or Pavlodar along steppe highways.
Best season
June to August — the resort season; in winter — silence and snow to the horizon.
Travel tips & stories
The sanatoria work all year: brine and muds are easier to book outside the summer peak.
The town's biopark is an unexpected steppe story — children love it.
From Yarovoye it is convenient to start for Kulunda lake — an hour of steppe road.
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Local guides
- TR
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