Hot North of Lake Baikal

Baikal residence is the only 5* lodge hotel in Baikal. In 2017 it became the best country hotel in the world according to the international competition World Luxury Hotel Awards. The territory of the hotel is equal to 60 football fields, there is a spa complex, modern equipment and a view of Lake Baikal.

The hotel has three categories of rooms: “premier”, “premium” and “suite”. They are different in size and interior. One of the suites has a living room with a wood burning fireplace and a bath instead of a shower.

Spa treatments are made on the basis of professional cosmetics Comfort Zone, Thalasso.

The ice of Baikal is what attracts thousands of tourists from around the world. The area of ice mirrors equal to the area of Belgium and the length of the coastline is equal to the distance from Moscow to Vienna. The period of comfortable and safe travel on the ice lasts from February 20 to March 20 — the ice is the thickest and the weather is not so severe.

On the ice you can move almost by everything: cars, airboats, bicycles, skates and skis. At the tsarist's time on Lake Baikal there were even trains. Landscapes are also diverse — tens of kilometers of snowy desert are replaced by areas of clear ice, and the fields resemble mountains of broken glass, pass into a strip of ice sheets stacked on top of each other. Due to winds and underwater earthquakes, the ice is constantly shifting and cracking. Every day new landscapes are formed.

You can read more about travel on the ice in the report “The Course to the North”. We also went round Baikal several times by SUVs as part of the International SUVs Expedition Baikal Trophy. You can watch the film about it of the TV channel Drive.

Kotelnikovsky is the hottest spring on Lake Baikal. The temperature of the water outlet is 81 °C. There are two outdoor swimming pools and a hotel building for thirty people. The center is completely autonomous, you can get here only by water or ice. The buildings are heated with thermal water, like houses in Iceland.

There is a lot of fluorine and silicon in the water of the spring, you can not drink it. Before the water is supplied to the pools, it is mixed with Baikal water to lower the temperature to comfortable 45 °C. It is desirable to stay in the water for no more than 20–30 minutes, not to overheat.

Ludar is a cape 40 km from Severobaikalsk City. Here is a cave in which a settlement of ancient people of about five thousand years old was found. In this area, the remains of an ancient Mongol fortress and petroglyphs were discovered. During the digging, scientists of the Irkutsk University found here a jade axe and pottery of the iron age.

Angarsky Sor is a semi-enclosed bay in the North of Lake Baikal. It is separated from the lake by a ten-kilometer sandy island. A small depth and isolation from the open Baikal create a special ecosystem. There are a lot of fish in the bay: pike, perch, soroga.

Goudzhekit is a thermal spring forty kilometers from the Severobaykalsk City. The water temperature is on average 50 °C. The composition of the water is referred to "Dilijan" type — carbon dioxide, hydrogen, sodium. Similar to Borjomi, but with lower mineralization. It is used for diseases of the digestive system and urinary tract. On the territory of this spring hydropathic works. There are wooden pools with thermal water, where you can swim.

Khakusy from the Evenki is “hot”. The spring beats out of the rock and forms a stream that spills over the valley and fills the pools. One part of the water flows through the pipe into the bathroom building, another part goes to Baikal. A day on the surface comes about 4 tons of water — this is enough to fill 250 home baths.

The water temperature is 47 °C, it is used to treat skin and gynecological diseases, musculoskeletal system and endocrine system. It is desirable to swim with breaks for rest. The total stay in the pool should not be more than 20–30 minutes. There is also drinking water spring.

Irkutsk is the sixth largest city in Siberia with a population of more than six hundred thousand people. It is located on the banks of Angara river, 70 km from Lake Baikal. Since the beginning of the 17th century, merchants conducted trade with China and mined gold. There was an office of the Russian-American Company — monopolist in fur trade in the East of Russia.

There were Chekhov, Fidel Castro, Indira Gandhi, Kim Ir Sen and Tsarevich Nicholas in Irkutsk. Here, the Decembrists served the penal servitude and Admiral Kolchak was shot. In the Irkutsk drama theater actors Leonid Bronevoy, Mikhail Svetin, Gleb Strizhenov and film director Leonid Gaidai worked.

You can spend a day walking through the main streets with historical buildings and the embankment, to drink coffee in the picturesque 130th quarter among the merchant estates. The city has many restaurants, cafes and pastry shops, there are modern shopping malls with brand stores. You should also go to the Angara Chocolate Factory and Angaria Ice Cream Factory. Among the cultural objects of interest is the gallery of Victor Bronstein there are works of the world famous Buryat sculptor Dashi Namdakov.

Kupechesky Dvor Hotel is a modern reconstruction of a merchant's estate. It is located in the historical center of Irkutsk. The windows from rooms overlook a pedestrian street with shops, pastry shops and restaurants. The hotel has fourteen rooms of three categories: “standard”, “junior suite”, “studio”.