Baikal Facts

Location:

Lake Baikal is located in Siberia’s Irkutsk region. Irkutsk lies 5000 kilometers and four time zones east of Moscow. The city has a population of some 700,000. Historic neighborhoods are worth visiting to see old wooden buildings which are notable but unfortunately poorly maintained. Baikal is east of Irkutsk and Olkhon Island is in the middle of the lake.

From Irkutsk, it takes about 90 minutes to drive to the edge of the lake, and six to eight hours to reach Olkhon.

You can get to Irkutsk by air (approximately six hours from Moscow) or train, via the TransSiberian railway (about five days, but time varies depending on the train).

Public transport to the lake is available, since it’s a popular destination, but only in the summer. In the summer a ferry travels to Olkhon several times a day. In the winter, make arrangements in Irkutsk for a driver.

Lodging

Hotels are quite expensive in Irkutsk. We tried the Hotel Angara in the city. It’s not the cheapest, but it was clean and comfortable. angarahotel.ru.

On Olkhon, we strongly recommend Nikita Bencharov’s usadba (“estate”) in Khuzhir, olkhon.info. For R1000-1200 a day, you can have a warm room, three meals and twenty minutes of banya, which makes up for lack of running water. For the moment, this estate is the only one on the island, but others are under construction.

Reservations are not a problem in the winter, though it’s still a good idea to make them. In the summer, finding lodging is more difficult. Nikita may help you out even if his cabins are full. No credit card payments on the island, so make sure to take plenty of rubles, because there is also no bank.

Best time to go

If you want to discover Baikal in the winter, March is the best month. The lake freezes between January and February, and in January it is covered by a thick fog. March is stable in terms of weather and is usually dry. In April, temperatures rise and it rains frequently.

If you prefer to see Baikal in a different season, September and October are rather calm, after the hectic tourist summer months. The weather is usually fair and the colors are pretty.