The weeks surrounding the summer solstice in northern Russia are known as the 'White Nights', when the sun barely sets and the country celebrates its round-the-clock glow. From May to July each year St Petersburg basks in the cultural light of ballet, opera and musical events. While in more remote regions the festivities may be a little less flamboyant, as Intrepid's Tara Kennaway discovered, seeing the sun almost set on Solovki is a very special experience...

The Solovetsky Islands, known commonly as Solovki, are filled with the awesome beauty of forests, lakes, windswept rocky bays and picturesque churches, conflicting with their horrific history. For hundreds of years this isolated region was home to one of the world's greatest monasteries, before the creation of the Russian empire turned it into a place of exile. During the Soviet years Solovki housed one of the USSR's most notorious prison camps, the tragedy of which is described in Solzhenitsn's 'The Gulag Archipelago'.

Full story: intrepidtravel.com