Winter tour of Lake Baikal

We get up early and, after breakfast, set off right from the hotel pier on a Khivus hovercraft for a journey across the ice of Lake Baikal. Along the way, we see a unique monument of engineering – the Circum-Baikal Railway – and take photos of its arched bridges, stone viaducts, and tunnels. We will approach the source of the Angara, the only river flowing out of Baikal and never freezing even in the harshest frosts.
Today we will see Baikal’s fantastic ice, stop at a major pressure crack, and listen to Baikal’s booming sounds. We will look for those very magical methane bubbles in the ice. With an ice axe, we will make a small hole and drink the purest Baikal water.
Today’s lunch is a picnic in the fresh air: magical fish soup cooked over an open fire, smoked Baikal fish, sagudai, and a warming tincture on Baikal herbs and berries. We will take lots of photos, listen to Baikal, enjoy the crystal-clear ice, and skate on it. In the evening, we return to the hotel, where a delicious dinner awaits you.

Watching the sunrise over Baikal is a unique spectacle we strongly advise you not to miss. Today you will set off on a journey to Siberian Lapland: we head to the foothills of the Khamar-Daban range, where prepared snowmobiles are already waiting to take us up the mountain peaks.
We will have lunch in a cozy yurt, enjoying mulled wine to the crackle of the stove. Then we will walk through a snow-covered forest buried in fluffy snow — in the mountains, snowfall can reach up to 5 meters.

After breakfast, we drive by jeep to the Baikal Biosphere Reserve, located about an hour from the hotel. The reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On its territory there is a visitor center dedicated to Lake Baikal, which was visited by Vladimir Putin in 2017. The center features many interactive installations where you can learn a great deal about the history of Baikal — for example, how the Circum-Baikal Railway was built.
The reserve also has enclosures for the Baikal sable, where you can observe the animals and feed them. Since the tour is long, about 4 hours, we will also have lunch at the visitor center. Afterwards, we return to the hotel.

We will say goodbye to the crystal-clear ice and make a wish to return in summer, because Baikal has no bad weather and is unique at any time of year.
Towards lunchtime, we return to Irkutsk, have dinner in an authentic quarter of the city, and then transfer to the evening flight.