The fact that there are still fully nomadic people on Earth always blows my mind. I’ve always had a fixation on reindeer herders, because it’s probably the most isolated, harsh way of life on Planet Earth. So in March we went to visit the Nenets people, deep into the Polar Ural. I was lucky, since I was working above the Arctic Circle the whole winter. Spending my time outside with the dogs, the cold was not a problem. Even at the end of March, the temperature can easily drop below -10 °C (14 °F), since we were more or less on the geographical Arctic Circle.
Nenets family - Somewhere deep in the Ural mountains
IMMIGRATION / VISA
The visa process for most Europeans is pretty straightforward: you apply online and the whole process doesn’t take more than 4 days and costs about 50 USD and it is 16days visa. So, technically 14 days and 1-1 day arrival and departure. As of 2026 if you have a lot of stamps in your passport be prepared to get some questions in the border what can eat up few hours, can feel a little stressful, but nothing to worry about.
ROUTE
The most common flight routes to Moscow are through Istanbul, Baku and Dubai. From there you can fly to either Salekhard or Vorkuta. I recommend Salekhard, since it is a developing city and actually a pleasant surprise. You can easily spend 2 days there discovering a few interesting aspects of the culture they even have a mammoth skull.
HOW TO FIND THEM
The main difficulty comes when you want to find an authentic way of life. Be aware that many Nenets families stay around the towns to make a living from tourists. In general, they are overpriced and don’t really live authentically anymore, usually sticking close to settlements.
Your best shot is to ask around among locals, because many of them have connections in one way or another. If you are stubborn enough, you can still find real people who are full-time nomadic and practice nomadism in its fullest form. Obviously it helps a lot if you speak some Russian and in general it’s very easy to win a Russian heart if you can say more than 5 words in their language. So after 3 days of going up and down, and enjoying the kind hospitality of the people of Salekhard, it was time to move on.
First, we had to go to the last settlement close to the eastern part of the Ural, and from there it took 1.5 hours on a snowmobile to reach the winter camp of the family. The Nenets people have their own snowmobiles, and also snowmobile trailers, which I fell off of twice
It was pretty rough terrain, and our guy drove like the Hamilton of snowmobiles.
Their winter camp is nicely located surrounded by mountains so the winter storms are not that harsh, with fresh water next to the camp, and also a railway nearby, so they can move fast if necessary.
Your best shot is to ask around among locals, because many of them have connections in one way or another. If you are stubborn enough, you can still find real people who are full-time nomadic and practice nomadism in its fullest form. Obviously it helps a lot if you speak some Russian and in general it’s very easy to win a Russian heart if you can say more than 5 words in their language. So after 3 days of going up and down, and enjoying the kind hospitality of the people of Salekhard, it was time to move on.
First, we had to go to the last settlement close to the eastern part of the Ural, and from there it took 1.5 hours on a snowmobile to reach the winter camp of the family. The Nenets people have their own snowmobiles, and also snowmobile trailers, which I fell off of twice
It was pretty rough terrain, and our guy drove like the Hamilton of snowmobiles.
Their winter camp is nicely located surrounded by mountains so the winter storms are not that harsh, with fresh water next to the camp, and also a railway nearby, so they can move fast if necessary.
Nenets man fixing his snow mobile
FOOD
Their diet is reindeer, fish and a little bit of vegetables, mostly cabbage, which they can get when they go to the nearby village.
Be prepared: a lot of meat will be served, including unusual parts of the animal and often raw. If you are picky, bring some extra snacks.
Be prepared: a lot of meat will be served, including unusual parts of the animal and often raw. If you are picky, bring some extra snacks.
CLOTHES
Winter:
Get big boots and expedition clothes, because it can be really harsh. Even though the chum is nice and toasty during the day, at night, when the fire dies out, it can get pretty cold. Get a light sleeping bag
Get big boots and expedition clothes, because it can be really harsh. Even though the chum is nice and toasty during the day, at night, when the fire dies out, it can get pretty cold. Get a light sleeping bag
CULTURE
Their daily life during the winter has its rhythm. The women fix clothes, prepare animal skins and food, while the men repair snowmobiles and sleighs for migration. This is their quiet time of the year, because when the season starts, all the animals join and they migrate every 2 to 3 days to a new location. That means they take their chum down, move, and set it up again. So actually there is a pay off it is easy to reach them, but not all of them spend their time with the reindeers.
We spent 4 days and 3 nights with them. At the beginning it wasn’t easy they had to open up a bit. No surprise: nowadays there is 4G everywhere, so they were on their phones quite a lot. In the chum there was one 3-year-old kid, Eva, one 14-year-old kid, Vale, who is during the week in school and just arrives back at the chum on Fridays, two brothers, the mother of the kids, and the grandma. That’s how they live together. They are almost completely self-sufficient, except for their snowmobiles and generator. If anything happened in the world, they could survive forever.
During the summer they are far away, some of them so far you need a special border permit, which is truly a pain in the ass.
We spent 4 days and 3 nights with them. At the beginning it wasn’t easy they had to open up a bit. No surprise: nowadays there is 4G everywhere, so they were on their phones quite a lot. In the chum there was one 3-year-old kid, Eva, one 14-year-old kid, Vale, who is during the week in school and just arrives back at the chum on Fridays, two brothers, the mother of the kids, and the grandma. That’s how they live together. They are almost completely self-sufficient, except for their snowmobiles and generator. If anything happened in the world, they could survive forever.
During the summer they are far away, some of them so far you need a special border permit, which is truly a pain in the ass.
Nenets kid - Eva