Baykal — Hotel in Листвянское городское поселение

We stayed here for two nights as part of our Transiberian Express tour. We too were a little concerned about the distance from the village until we found a lovely local taxi driver who dropped us in and out of the village, several times a day, during our stay. We carried his card and just asked any nearby hotel reception to call him and he was there in a flash. Trips cost 200 rubles which was reasonable by our standards. Ask for Ivan at the reception desk, he's 100% trustworthy and honest. ||The hotel reminded us of the Overlook from The Shining - 70's kitch, surrounded by snow, lots of marble, and an errie, dark basement that housed the gothic style bar, which was open from late afternoon, and restaurant. ||Bedrooms are under refurbishment, ours was modern and fairly comfortable, although too hot like all russian hotels and have to say the beds were pretty hard. We had a balcony and fantastic views of the lake and distant mountains (remember to ask for a lake view when you check in) - quite magical. ||Reception staff had sufficient english and were friendly and helpful. ||Sadly, the restaurant lets this hotel down. After a poor breakfast, consisting of a small slice of spam, old cheese slices, bread with no butter, and a few tinned peaches, we played safe and ate lunch and dinner elsewhere. There's no menu and various dishes get plonked infront of you whether you want them or not. On day two the bread was really stale and inedible but we were given two fried eggs after the spam and cheese. You are offered just one small cup of tea/coffee and as there are no tea making facilities in the room, you can get pretty thirsty, particularly in the overheated rooms and you can't drink the tap water so keep plenty of bottled with you. It's also difficult if you have prepaid for your bed and board. On day three we were refused breakfast as we'd used up our quota, despite showing our room key and asking them to add it to our bill. A receptionist had to be called to interpret and we were given the eveining dinner menu for breakfast! After some more painful negotiations, we finally got another substandard breakfast (my request for butter to soften the bread was refused) which we had to pay for in cash before leaving the restaurant. Clearly, the restaurant doesn't communicate with the check out desk and this hotel needs to update it's inhouse communication systems - fast.||Listvyanka by the way is charming. Good place to eat is the Prosily Vek, reasonable too. The Hotel Mayak is overpriced and not as good but the small bar across the road is lively and good for a real slice of Siberian life. Don't miss a dog sled race here, you can book through Baikal Explorer and during the winter, there's lots of weekend fun activities on the ice. ||All in all, we liked this hotel, it's a shame the restaurant...

With views over the lake and situated below the ski runs, the soviet style hotel is some distance from the village. We were allocated a room overlooking the lake & whilst the main road is between the hotel and Lake Baikal, the hotel is high enough not to suffer any noise. Our room & bathroom was of a good size, comfortable beds, balcony and a good shower unit over the bath. Limited English is spoken at reception, there is a small shop, although we never found the bar functioning except at the behest of a tour group.||The breakfast was adequate - but could be done better!||This hotel is more suited to tour groups than individual visiters - it is simply too far from the village (which in itself is long and drawn out). I would add that we are wakers and we found the walk aside the main road extremly long - particularly when it rains. The local bus does not run every 10 mins as suggested and certainly not after 6.00 pm.||We always prefer to go out for meals and can endorse the recommendations made by Lonely Planet for meals. The Slury Mury, next door to the Information Centre in the village centre was an excellant cafe/ restaurant and the Proshly Vek, some 25 mins walk from the hotel towards the village centre, an outstanding restaurant and where you can watch the nouveau riche dining||It is because of the distance from the village that I cannot recommend this hotel for a summer stay unless you have your own transport; in the winter - it may be a different animal - the bar and other facilities...

Pros: ||+ location :|| 12 min by foot away from local ski resort Eastland,|| And Baikal museum is 15 min walk down||+ view is also admirable.||+ lake view lodges are highly isolated from each other||+ in winter there was high temperature in a room, we even opened a window to make it really comfortable||+ affordable room price (good breakfast incl.)||+ restaurant is a nice looking place and affordable in spite of name "Tsarsky"||+ they can give a child seat if requested||||Cons: ||-quite old building and therefore interiors||-thin doors and low noise isolation therefore||-only one tiny thrashbin||-no airfreshener in bathroom||-blinking lights||-Double bed consists of two single mattresses which is not comfortable at all||-got few bites after night spent here in winter: insects,...