Irkutsk + Ulan-Ude: Baikal from both shores and a Buddhist monastery in the steppe
A train runs between them along the southern shore of Baikal. On one side Olkhon and Listvyanka, on the other a datsan, Old Believer villages and an entirely different Russia.
Why two shores rather than one
Baikal is usually seen from the west: Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Olkhon. The eastern shore is different — that is Buryatia, Buddhism, steppe and almost none of the usual tourist infrastructure. A trip that takes both stops being «a visit to Baikal» and becomes a route through two cultures with a lake between them.
Irkutsk and the western shore
Irkutsk itself has wooden quarters with carved facades, the 130th Quarter, and the Decembrist museum in the Volkonsky house. Listvyanka is an hour away: the source of the Angara, the seal aquarium, the Baikal museum. The Circum-Baikal Railway is an old line with tunnels along the shore — excursion trains run it, and it is one of the most beautiful routes in the country. Olkhon is five or six hours from Irkutsk including the ferry: Cape Burkhan with Shamanka rock, steppe, wind, and the northern tip at Khoboy for a whole day.
Ulan-Ude and Buryatia
In the city centre stands the largest head of Lenin in the world — the calling card, though not the point. The Ivolginsky datsan forty minutes away is the centre of Buddhism in Russia, where the body of lama Itigelov is kept; there are teaching buildings, and people walk the grounds turning prayer wheels. Tarbagatai is a village of Semeiskie, Old Believers exiled here in the eighteenth century who kept their way of life. The eastern shore of Baikal at Gremyachinsk and Maksimikha has sandy beaches where the water warms more than in the west.
The train between them
Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude are joined by the Trans-Siberian; the journey takes about eight hours and runs along the southern shore of Baikal, with the lake in the window nearly the whole way. A night train saves a day, a day train gives you the view — choose deliberately. Tick «Train» in the planner form: within Russia overland legs are counted alongside flights.
When to go
July–August is warm with everything open, though Olkhon is overrun then. September is the best month: empty, clear, and the water by the shore not yet freezing. February–March is a genre of its own: ice, hummocks, hovercraft trips and the transparent Baikal ice people come for specially. May and November are the in-between seasons, when the ferry to Olkhon may not run at all.
How Olkhon works
You reach the island by ferry at Sakhyurta, and that is the bottleneck: in summer the queue can take hours, in winter an ice road is laid, and in between comes a period when the ice no longer holds and the ferry does not yet run, cutting the island off for weeks. Roads on the island are dirt, and the trip to the northern tip at Khoboy is made in UAZ vans in groups — the standard full-day excursion. Accommodation in Khuzhir is simple, and evenings are cold even in July.
The Circum-Baikal Railway
This old stretch of the Trans-Siberian along the southern shore runs 89 kilometres with 38 tunnels, stone galleries and bridges from the early twentieth century, built by Italian contractors. After the dam was built the line became a dead end, and now excursion trains run it: a whole day with photo stops. Part of the route is usually done by water on a Kometa hydrofoil from Listvyanka and part on rails. Summer tickets go early.
Practical matters
Distances here are of a different order: Olkhon is half a day one way, and day trips to it do not exist. Signal disappears on the island and outside the towns in Buryatia. You can swim in Baikal, but not for long — even in August the water is cold. Buryat food deserves a mention of its own: buuzy (pozy) are what you go to the simplest steamed-dumpling house in Ulan-Ude for.
Moscow → Irkutsk → Ulan-Ude
Route and nights go into the form — adjust the date and passengers.