Baikal Sable Tracing
Departure dates:
2 August 2010 - 9 August 2010
Group size: 5-10
Duration: 8 days
Day 1 Irkutsk
Meet at the railway station/airport accompanied by our English-speaking guide. Check-in to the hotel “Irkutsk” (breakfast only). Shower/rest. Enjoy a 2-hour walking city tour. It starts at the historical part of the city: Epiphany Cathedral, the oldest stone-structure Church of our Saviour and the only Catholic Cathedral in Irkutsk, Polish Roman Catholic Church. The tour leads you through the Kirov Square and circus, taking you to the main street of Irkutsk, the Karl Marks Street. You’ll walk along the street to get to the Angara river embankment. Right there, where the monument to Alexander III is, all young people gather, so you’ll have a chance to see “the youth culture” of Irkutsk. Free time. Traditional Russian dinner (not included). Overnight.
Day 2 Listvyanka
Breakfast. Car transfer to the village situated only 60km away from Irkutsk - Listvyanka. On the way visit an open-air wooden architecture museum “Taltsy”. In the museum you’ll see the settlements of indigenous Siberian people of 17th-20th centuries. Some of the buildings presented in the museum were brought there from the villages that were flooded after building hydro-electric dams in the Irkutsk region. Check-in to a mini-hotel (breakfast only). Guided walk to a local biological museum that also has a set of aquariums amongst which there is one with the only mammal representative, the Baikal Seal, in it. Take a chair-lift to a nearby view point. There you’ll get a chance to take panoramic pictures of Baikal from above. Lunch (not included). Enjoy your visit to a local 19th century wooden St.Nicolas church and a local fish market where you’ll see a great variety of fish and different ways of cooking it. Free time. Overnight.
Day 3 Port Baikal
Breakfast. Meet your guide to take a ferry to Port Baikal*. Check-in to the resort “Nadezhda” (full board). Rest. Take an easy walk to the beach where you’ll get a chance to sunbath or swim. The guide will cook a lunch for you on a camp-fire. Return to the resort. Free time. Dinner. Walk around the village. Visit to a view point on the sunset. Enjoy your banya (Russian sauna) in the evening. Overnight.
Day 4 Circum-Baikal Railway trip
Breakfast. Check-out from the resort. Visit to a local museum and then get on the train to start your Circum-Baikal Railway journey. Lunch on the way served by a “Babushka” (old lady) who lives in a tiny station near the biggest 700-meter tunnel and serves delicious food and some home-made vodka called “Samogon”. Stop at Sludyanka station where you’ll see the only station building on Trans-Siberian Railway that is made of plain marble. Enjoy a brief tour around Sludyanka that includes a visit to the museum of minerals. Arrive at the Tankhoy village. Get to your homestay (full board) where you’ll be met by your hospitable “Babushka” (old lady). Dinner. Enjoy your banya (Russian sauna) in the evening. Overnight.
Day 5 Tankhoy
Breakfast. Start your guided walk around the village by visiting a local museum which has a unique exhibition of the Tankhoy railway station and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Walk down to the lake shore to take some beautiful pictures of Lake Baikal. Visit to the open-air museum of native Siberian architecture and the Museum of the Baikal Taiga forest. Enjoy an easy 6 km long hike called “The Taiga ring”. You’ll walk through the Taiga forest and on the way you’ll pass an abandoned coal mine that was providing the Circum-Baikal part of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the beginning of the 20th century. Picnic lunch on the way. You will rub shoulders with wilderness and even have a chance to encounter the Baikal sable, once almost extinct but now a well protected animal, a symbol of Siberia. Return to the village. Dinner. Overnight.
Day 6 Ulan-Ude
Breakfast. Transfer to Ulan-Ude. Check-in to the hotel “Geser”(breakfast only). Start your tour by visiting the square of the Soviets and the historical part of the city. Rest. Overnight.
Day 7 Ulan-Ude
Breakfast. Move on to the next part of the tour by exploring the Buddhism culture in famous Ivolginsky datsan.In the temple you’ll have a unique chance to see the incorruptible relics of the Dalai Lama whose body was buried in the 20th century. Enjoy your visit to the Old Believers village where you’ll listen to the folk songs of the community and find out many interesting details about their culture. Dinner in old Russian way.
Day 8 Ulan-Ude
Breakfast. Check-out from the hotel. End of the programme.
Attention:
The price above applies for the group of minimum 5 people.
The group departure is guaranteed if there are at least 3 people in a group, however the following surcharge is applied:
4 people in a group -
0 rub. or $0 or €0 / per person
3 people in a group -
0 rub. or $0 or €0 / per person
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