The town of Valday stands on the southwestern shore of the lake along the M10 Moscow - St. Petersburg highway.

The lake has almost a round shape with a large bay appended to it on the northwest end.

The lake is navigable, and the Zarya-211 (Russian: «Заря-211») cruiser ship sailed between the town of Valday and the Iversky Monastery until 2016.

[5] Since 2004, a road connects Valday along the shore of Lake Valdai over a 140 m (460 ft) bridge to Ryabinovy Island and then over a 30 m (98 ft) bridge to the 11 ha (27-acre) Selvitsky Island to the monastery over which buses, taxis, and cars travel, or, during the winter when the lake is frozen, it is only a 3 km (1.9 mi) walk between Valday and the monastery over the frozen Lake Valdayskoye.

[8] The property, also known as Valdai Palace, has been outfitted with several air defence systems amidst the rising threat of Ukrainian missile and drone strikes as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.