Lake Baikal Cruise

Lake Baikal Cruise - 6 Days Exploring Islands of the Sacred Sea

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

This Baikal Cruise will take you on a journey and show you that it is so big it makes its own horizon – little wonder it is sometimes mistaken as an inland sea!

Having formed some 25,000 million years ago, Baikal is the oldest and deepest body of freshwater on earth. Containing almost a fifth of the world entire unfrozen freshwater supply, the local people of southern Siberia have treated the ancient, life-giving Lake Baikal with deep reverence.

Covered in ice for much of the year, it’s during the balmy summer months that Baikal becomes a boating paradise, with brilliantly blue calm waters, shimmering azure bays and a shoreline hugged by dramatic mountain ranges, pristine forests and quaint ethnic villages. READ MORE

Lake Baikal Tour Siberia Russia

Lake Baikal: Two Shores, Four Cultures

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

One of the world’s oldest geographical features formed 25 to 30 million years ago, magnificent Lake Baikal, which is the highlight of Eastern Siberia, Russia. Ancient and mysterious, Baikal holds deep spiritual and historical significance for the four indigenous cultures that inhabit its shores. On this 9 day Lake Baikal tour, you’ll get acquainted with these long-surviving cultures as we visit the region’s most famous and picturesque places, both overland and across this majestic “inland sea”.

Lake Baikal tour highlights:

  • Cruise to Olkhon Island, the largest of Lake Baikal’s islands and the “capital” of shamanistic culture. On a day tour of Olkhon’s natural wonders, discover untouched Siberian forests, soaring capes and cliffs, pristine sandy beaches and jaw-dropping sunsets
  • Visit Ust-Orda village to experience the ancient customs of the Buryat people first hand. Feast on Buryati noodle soup and dumplings, hear extraordinary throat singers and participate in traditional games and dances

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Lake Baikal Ice Photo Tour Russia Siberia

Lake Baikal Photography Tour

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

This Lake Baikal Photography Tour will grant intrepid photographers the honour of focusing their lenses on some of Siberia’s most famously beautiful frozen landscapes. Summer sees the bulk of tourist activity in the area, but it’s in winter that the most devoted photographers make the pilgrimage, hoping to capture once-in-a-lifetime images of the natural world at its most powerful and surreal.

Lake Baikal Ice Photo Tour Highlights:

  • Enjoy a breathtaking panoramic view showing the true scale of Siberia’s “inland sea” from Khoboy Cape, which contains a labyrinth of grottoes where sunlight dances off ceilings jagged with icy stalactites
  • Khorin-Igri Bay: an ideal spot to photograph the natural phenomenon of frozen bubbles under Lake Baikal, rising to the surface in perfect discs suspended in the clear, dark water

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Lake Baikal Summer Tour Russia Siberia

Legend of Lake Baikal

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Dive into the Legend of Lake Baikal on this glorious summer excursion to the glittering Blue Pearl of Russia. Plummeting to 1,642m at its deepest point, Baikal is also the world’s most voluminous lake. Its mirror-clear waters are a reflection of Siberia’s wildness, its vastness, and its beauty. Baikal is a place where shamans still speak to the spirit world, wildlife-rich virgin forests thrive and lake-living seals fish and frolic in freshwater. Surrounded by jagged mountains and taiga of pine, fir, and cedar, Lake Baikal is a protected World Heritage site. Unsurprisingly, it is the most famous attraction in Siberia, but Baikal’s sheer size means there’s always an escape from the crowds.

Legend of Lake Baikal Tour Highlights:

  • The Taltsy Museum between Irkutsk and Listvyanka is a fabulously comprehensive open-air museum, set over 64 acres. Over 40 historical buildings from both the Russian and Buryat cultures of Baikal have been painstakingly reconstructed and authentically furnished. Wander through the streets of an 18th-century Siberian village and get a feel for life in a nomadic Buryat summer camp
  • Cruise to Olkhon Island, the largest of Lake Baikal’s islands and the “capital” of shamanistic culture. On a day tour of Olkhon’s natural wonders, discover untouched Siberian forests, craggy capes, pristine beaches, and jaw-dropping sunsets

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Lake Baikal Ice Winter tour Russia Siberia

Lake Baikal - Frozen beauty of Olkhon Island

By 56th Parallel | Last updated on 4th Apr 2022

Lake Baikal winter tours are rightfully upheld as Siberia’s most famous attraction – its clear-as-a-mirror waters are a reflection of Siberia’s wildness, its vastness and its beauty. The crescent-shaped lake extends for 636km from north to south and is up to 1,637m deep, making it the deepest lake in the world. In fact, 20% of the world’s freshwater is contained within Lake Baikal. The vast Baikal region is home to unique indigenous cultures such as the Buddhist Buryat people. Traditional villages are dotted along the lake’s shore, interspersed with taiga forest and rocky steppes.

This tour takes place at the end of winter to provide guests with the unique opportunity to experience winter activities on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal and a trip to the region’s spectacular ice caves. READ MORE

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About 56th Parallel

56th Parallel is a travel company specialising in providing packaged tours and travel services in Russia.

Our goal is to redefine travel to Russia, focusing on creating the most rewarding experiences, which help travellers unfolds the soul of this exciting destination.

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