Lake Baical and Irkutsk recommendations

[ckck]

Hullo FFers,

I am travelling to Irkutsk and I need some advice.

I am wanting to travel to Lake Baical and am wondering if anyone has been and if you can recommend some tours.

Also, do you have any recommendations of where to stay in Irkutsk (or places to avoid if you had a bad experience).

In your experience how long would you recommend staying in Irkutsk? Is there anything else worth seeing in the area?

Thank you in advance for all your advice.

ckck

 

[neil37]

Gosh, how long is a piece of string? Anyhow, I thoroughly recommend a trip to Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal, accessible by minibus from Irkutsk. We stayed at Nikita's Homestay, extremely comfortable, with good food included in the rate. Nikita's operate good tours of the island also.

As for accommodation in Irkutsk, we stayed in backpacker-type accommodation and travelled around by public transport. If you want me to be more specific I'm happy with that, but I'm not a business traveller to Russia and don't go for the expensive hotels.

 

[Happy Dude]

My wife and I did the same as Neil37 as part of month long trip across Russia by train in 2010, spending about a week in the Irkutsk/Baikal area. We stayed a nice backpacker place too, but it was a bit out of the town centre and navigating the little mini van transport became tiresome quickly.

I liked Irkutsk but it's quite industrial and there's not a lot of sights per se, but I recall some excellent food markets and coffee shops. Olkhon Island is fantastic and Nikita's is recommended. It's a great place to go slow and indulge in delicious smoked fish, fiery vodka and, best of all, banya. There's lots of lovely scenery and plenty of nice little towns to visit, each with cute churches and wooden houses, etc, and, like most of Russia, each seemingly the birthplace of a revolutionary movement or some notable political/literary/musical figure.

Activities/sights will be determined by when you're there, as will what sort of traveller/person you are. Travel in either winter or summer would yield interesting options but winter would definitely require more planning/patience. My philosophy, which applies to every location, is just grab the Lonely Planet and wing it when you're there.

 

[ckck]

Thank you both for your feedback, it's much appreciated. I am travelling there this Summer and appreciate the recommendations. I am finding it quite heavily booked (as to be expected at peak season) but I managed to organise a trip to Olkhon Island.

 

[RooFlyer]

@ckck how did you go at Irkutsk? Starting to look at a trip there and would appreciate any updates anyone has.