Lake Baikal Ice Adventure

Welcome to Siberia! You'll be met in Irkutsk airport from at 9:00am by our guide and transferred to the jeeps location. For the next 4 days, you are going to travel by an expeditionary Nissan Safari SUV on the frozen surface of the great Lake Baikal. Your first destination is the legendary island of Olkhon. At 72 km long, Olkhon stands out among the three dozen islands of Baikal for its sheer size and the monumental grandeur of its landscapes. Lunch (en route) will be in the form of traditional Buryat cuisine: with a banquet of buuz-dumplings and Buryat tea.

On arrival to Olkhon island, you will visit Buddhist Mortar at Ogoy island. Closer to the evening, you will stop for a night in a cozy hotel in Maloye More area.

In the spring, thanks to the thick layers of ice, you can freely walk right into the grottoes and admire the beauty of the ice shapes. During the day you'll make your way around most of the island and see beautiful spots such as Cape Shaman, Cape Sagan Khushun and Cape Khoboy.

For lunch, the group will enjoy a picnic on the ice of Lake Baikal, consisting of smoked cisco, saguday and Siberian tincture on pine nuts. After lunch, you will participate in the evening’s activities: tube riding and ice skating, ice golf, or just photo shoot with ice and a dedication to ice travellers!

Later in the afternoon, we’ll return to the hotel for dinner and an overnight stay.

Today, you will be heading south from Maloye Morye to Buguldeika village. The day promises to be quite eventful, as we will visit Mt Shebety, sacred Mt Yerd, and look at the famous ancient Petroglyphs on Sagan Zaba rock.

On the way, you will also enjoy a delightful experience of dining on the traditional Russian meal, “pelmeni”.

In the evening, you will discover the beauty of Buguldeika village and its surroundings. Spend the perfect night in a real hunters cabin hidden in the middle of the taiga.

Day four and our journey on the Baikal ice continues. Today, you are going to reach Listvyanka – a village, which is the most visited place by tourists on Baikal Lake (due to its proximity to Irkutsk). Get ready to be excited as today's transport is legendary hovercraft, similar to those James Bond was using in one of his adventures! Along the way, you will pass Skripper cliff, legendary Devil’s bridge and the famous Peschanaya bay, which is considered to be one of the most picturesque places of Lake Baikal. Since 1981, Peschanaya has had the status of state natural landscape monument. Unique taiga slopes with picturesque groups of rocks together with a clean sandy beach of a semicircular form are very picturesque.

Upon arrival to Listvyanka village, you'll be transferred to a guest house.

In the morning, we’ll visit the observation point – Chersky Rock, a lift-chair will take you up from there. From the observation point you will enjoy incredible views of the source of the Angara River and Lake Baikal.

No trip to Listvyanka is not complete without a visit to the Museum of Lake Baikal. Here you’ll discover more about Lake and its nature from the research staff of the Institute of Limnology. You will also view the aquarium with Baikal seals that inhabit the lake. Rest of the final day you will embark on one of the most beautiful and sublime privileges Lake Baikal has to offer its visitors – ice rafting!

We will gather on the lake and watch as our safety crew saw a huge chunk of ice from the surface of the lake - this will be our raft for the next activity. Our course takes us to the legendary Shaman Stone that separates Lake Baikal from the mouth of the Angara River. On board the raft, the group will toast with mulled wine and a feast of local chocolate and cheese fondue. After this unforgettable experience, you will relax in a real Russian banya with bathing in an ice-hole. After the banya, you will return to the homestay in Listvyanka.

Time to say goodbye to the oldest and deepest lake on earth. After breakfast, transfer to the airport.