Arrival in Irkutsk. You will be met at the airport and transferred to your hotel. After a short break and rest, take a guided city tour to discover this appealing Siberian settlement. Irkutsk was founded in the middle of the seventeenth century and is now famous for its great number of wooden architecture buildings and monuments preserved in the town. Also, it is a gate to Lake Baikal—the largest fresh water lake in the world, containing twenty percent of our planet’s fresh waters. In fact, the Irkutsk historic centre is one huge open air museum! Irkutsk is located on the banks of the mighty Angara river and was once used as a place of exile for revolutionary noble men from St. Petersburg and Moscow, for their participation in riots or civil disobedience. The biggest in Irkutks’ history new arrival happened after the famous Decemberists riot against the tsar in December 1825 where some of high-profile rebels ended up travelling to Siberia with wives and families. Decembriest aimed to eliminate the monarchy in Russia.

The high concentration of noble, well-educated inhabitants in this remote corner of Siberia gradually changed Irkutsk and its appearance. As a result, we can now spend a day walking the streets and not come across two homes that are alike! Every house is completely unique and represents quite an original Siberian style. Classic stone architecture is of the “Siberian Paris” style—Russian nobles spoke French and preferred France to any other country. Our schedule today is flexible; your guide will recommend authentic local restaurants to try Siberian dishes: Siberian “manty” (dumplings) and pancakes, Baikal fish and traditional Russian soups.

Breakfast at the hotel. Today we remind you how huge a part of the Asian continent Siberia really is, as we tour to a Buryat town of Ust-Orda and visit the Datsan monastery to meet the Buddhist Lama. Ust-Orda village is home to the indigenous Buryat people. The Ust-Orda Museum has a rich collection of exhibits on Buryat history and culture. Here in Datsan you will meet the Lama, Renchen, who has been commissioned to start the reconstruction of the Buddhist Monastery, destroyed during Soviet times.

Lunch with traditional Buryat food (salad, soup, pozy (Buryat steamed meat dumplings), dessert, and drinks, including traditional vodka.

After breakfast, we depart to Lake Baikal, to Listvyanka village, one of the first settlements of the Russian people on the shores of Lake Baikal (70 km).

We stop en route to visit a real Siberian Zaimka (hunter’s house) for a cup of Siberian tea and then visit the museum of wooden architecture "Taltsi" with thirty-six perfectly preserved wooden buildings from the nineteenth century. Lunch at a local restaurant with traditional Baikal food.

Listvyanka city tour: Visit Baikal Museum and the aquarium, where you will see Baikal fish and freshwater seals—nerpas, Shaman Rock, St. Nicholas church and a Fish Market. Baikal Museum is a splendid museum where information about lake Baikal wildlife is kept, studied and exhibited: including the origins of the lake, the endemic flora and fauna from the surface of the lake to its maximum depth, an excellent model of the lake, etc. Shaman Rock is a natural boundary between the deepest lake in the world and the only river that flows out of the lake—the Angara river. Locals have thousands of legends about this place, which is believed to be the house of one of the Buryat gods.

Transfer to a private small and cozy hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel, full day to explore the lake. Ride to the Old Circum-Baikal Railroad. The Circum-Baikal Railroad, “a golden buckle on the silver belt of Russia” as it is often called, is an outstanding landmark to the arts of engineering and construction.

The Railroad was built around the south of Lake Baikal more than a hundred years ago, to connect the two ends of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It contains forty tunnels and sixteen separate galleries, and four hundred and seventy viaducts, bridges and pipes.

And here is more, breathtaking huge capes and cliffs, picturesque valleys and amazing Lake Baikal views are always here!

After breakfast, we transfer you to a very remote and isolated taiga house, accessible only by 4X4 or helicopter. Russian bears inhabit the area in abundance and you will have a guaranteed wilderness bear sighting. We stay at a traditional wooden lodge, same as those used by hunters a century ago.

Bear viewing locations are numerous in the area and it takes no more than fifteen minutes of four-wheel driving to reach them. We stay outside till late evening to get great sunset pictures. A hot Russian “banya” will be prepared for you in the taiga, our endless Siberian forest.

We will drive and walk in the taiga with our armed guide, to encounter the amazing and rich fauna of this area. In the afternoon, deep in the forest, we will meet a real Shaman, who will perform a traditional ceremony to introduce us to the gods of the forest, to facilitate the bear viewing. In the early days, Shamans always asked permission from the gods to hunt bears.

We will practice traditional local archery, and Buryat locals will put on a traditional Wolf dance and music performance (throat singing and national music instruments). Shashlyk (BBQ) and herbal liquors will be served at the fireplace.

Early wake up to get us to the bear viewing locations by sunrise, and to catch the best morning light for photography. After a few hours here in the forest, we will drive to Lake Baikal shore settlement and board a private boat. We will sail along the shore with a few stops en route in the most picturesque places, bays and beaches to make sure you get great photos. We will visit the most famous Sandy Bay and Skriper cave. Late lunch will be served onboard the boat or at one of the isolated beaches nearby. Fishing equipment is available onboard the boat.

We return to our forest lodge for a farewell BBQ, with local spirits infused with Siberian pine tree nuts.

Depart at leisure for your outbound flight from Irkutsk.