New Year at Baikal… The winter magic is in the air. Baikal is stricken by ice only in end January, and for New Year you have the unique chance to see what astonished the first explorers when they came to the shores of the lake – the legendary “boiling of Baikal”! The grand lake that has not frozen in strong frosts is attacking the shores with impressive waves, leaving bizarre ice shapes on the rocks, and the steam rises above the dark waters enveloping the nearby pines in the fairy white attire.
The Old Baikal will generously share his power and harmony with those travellers who came to celebrate New Year on His shores.
Day 1, 30 Dec
Arrive in Irkutsk in the morning by the night flight from Moscow. Meet your guide – and we are setting out for Baikal. Transfer to Listvyanka settlement located on the shore of Baikal, in the mouth of Angara-river, 70 km away from Irkutsk. On the way we will stop at the obo site, where an offering to the local master-spirits is usually made, and at the source of the never-freezing Angara, the only river flowing out of Baikal.
Arrive in Listvyanka where Baikal starts. The immense lake looks magic in its white steam rising from the dark waters, majestic mountain ranges surround it, and the trees on the shores are like in a fairy tale – each branch is white, enveloped in fresh snow.In the daytime, you will have an opportunity to do the dog sledding in the taiga forest (optional, for extra-charge: dog sledding along the winter track 10 km). Walk to the Dog Sledding Center of Listvyanka, and the local dog mushers would explain you how behave during dog sledding, describe the dogs characters, teach how to harness the dogs and do the mushing.
Now, it is time to visit the local St Nicholas church built without a single nail, and to continue discovering Listvyanka settlement on your own.
Return to the hotel. If you wish, you can have a good banya (traditional Russian steam sauna), with whisking yourself and each other with the birch-tree whisk and dipping in the snow.
Dinner and night in the hotel (DBL).Dinner and night in the hotel (DBL).
Day 2, 31 Dec
After breakfast, you shall put on the thickest clothes you have and walk to the already familiar Dog Sledding Center. The snowmobiles are waiting for you! After the safety briefing, snowmobile driving instructions and a short training, you will depart for a ride in the winter taiga (2 pax/snowmobile). Hot tea during the activities in the fresh air is specially appreciated.Return to the hotel. Lunch in the hotel restaurant.
There is enough time for you to prepare for New Year celebration.
At 23.00 we will be around the festive table, to see off the past year and greet the new one. The New Year entertainment programme with traditional Father Frost and his granddaughter Snowmaid, New Year games and contests, and fireworks are in store for this night. Baikal will share his energy with you, and we hope that you will be happy in the new coming year.
Night in the hotel (DBL).
Note: you spend this day without a guide. The snowmobiling instructor speaks basic English.
Day 3, 1 JanToday is, probably, the quietest day in the year in Russia: after the celebration and sleepless night, everybody is home having a rest or calling friends and relatives to wish them Happy New Year. There is nobody outdoors – except children who go sledding down the hill and have winter fun outside.
We recommend you today to have an unhurried walk along Baikal embankment and go up to the Chersky Hill to enjoy a marvelous panoramic view of Baikal lake and Khamar-Daban mountain range on its opposite shore. Baikal is a good place for meditation, and to feel it and take in Baikal’s vastness and power, you need time on your own.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner in the hotel restaurant. Night in the hotel (DBL).
Note: you spend this day without a guide. The snowmobiling instructor speaks basic English.
Day 4, 2 Jan
After breakfast, check out. We are leaving by car to Taltsy, the open-air museum of wooden architecture, which exhibits over 30 specimens of Siberian architecture of 17-19c brought from the different locations in this region, among them a Buryat yurt and an Evenk traditional tent.After the museum visit, we will have lunch of the traditional Russian cuisine in Sibirskaya Zaimka. Here, you can have a slide down an icy hill (natural toboggan), which all local children and adults enjoy during New Year vacation.
Now we are going to Irkutsk city. We will have a guided tour of the city. We will make acquaintance with the history of Irkutsk founded by the cosacks and will visit the oldest part of the city with its wooden houses, the embankment of the Angara river, Znamenski cathedral.
Dinner and night in the hotel*** (DBL).
Day 5, 3 Jan
Breakfast and transfer to the airport for departure by flight to Moscow
The Tour Operator reserves the right to introduce alterations to the itinerary due to weather conditions or other factors out of control by the Tour operator.
