BDA1. Baikal Weekend

We offer you this tour if your dream is to see Baikal Lake but you haven't enough time for long trips. In this case we recommend you just to visit Listvianka. This small settlement located at the Baikal Lake shore is is considered a tourist gate of the Baikal and its tourist capital. In Listvianka you can to submerge to the bottom of lake and watch original nerpa (Baikal seal), to see fantastic view of Baikal Lake and the Angara River source from the Tchersky Stone panoramic platform, to acquaint yourself with original wooden architecture of Baikal region and to travel by Circum Baikal Rail Road – the most picturesque part of legendary Transsiberian Rail Road.

 

Itinerary:

Day 1 (Fr). Arrival in airport of Irkutsk. Transfer to the Zvezda hotel ***. Rest. Irkutsk city sightseeing tour with lunch at local restaurant included: you can see the most interesting places of the city (squares, parks, churches, embankments, the oldest brick building of Irkutsk – The Church of Our Saviour (17^th century), Kirov Square – place at city centre where Yakov Pokhabov's Cossak detachment established wooden fortress in 1661). Free time. (L)

Day 2 (Sa). Breakfast. Circum Baikal Railroad fullday tour (the most picturesque part of Transsiberian Rail Road where tourists have a chance to watch rail road engineering works of the beginning of the 20^th century) by rail bus with lunch in box included. Arrival in port Baikal in the evening. Transfer to Listvyanka by ferry. Transfer to the Krestovaya Pad hotel ***. Accommodation. (BL)

Day 3 (Su). Breakfast. Baikal Ecology museum tour. At the museum aquariums you can see fishes of the Baikal Lake, famous nerpa (Baikal seal) and dive to the bottom of lake by virtual bathyscaphe . After museum you can visit local market where you have a chance to purchase souvenirs made by Siberian skilled workmen with stone, wood, birch, glass and to taste smoked Baikal Lake fish (omul, grayling, whitefish). Lunch at local restaurant. Walking tour for the Tchersky Stone panoramic platform (700 m high). Transfer to Irkutsk with stop at the “Taltsy” open-air ethnographic museum. Museum is located at the picturesque Taltsy Tract at the Angara River shore. Tourists can see more than 40 samples of East Siberian wooden architecture. Accommodation at the Zvezda hotel ***. (BL)

Day 4 (Mo). Transfer to airport or railway station. Departure from Irkutsk. (B)

Legend: B – breakfast, L – lunch, D – dinner.

All the times are local

Fixed dates in winter 2012:

08-11/06, 15-18/06
22-25/06, 06-09/07
13-16/07, 20-23/07
27-30/07, 03-06/08
10-13/08, 17-20/08
24-27/08, 07-10/09
14-17/09, 21-24/09

Costs netto for tour operators and travel agents – 2012:

€478 per person for joining in a fixed group.

Included:

• TWN accommodation in STD rooms

• meals per program

• all transfers per program

• excursions by vehicle with English-speaking guide (other languages on request)

• 1^st class ticket for tourist rail bus on Circum Baikal Rail Road tour

• visa

• insurance

• luggage rooms in hotels, airports and train stations

• spirits

• banya

Supplements:

• Single accomodation — +112 EUR per person.

All the costs are valid at the date of publication and are subject to reconfirmation at the time of booking.