Legend of Baikal — Hotel in Листвянское городское поселение

This is one of the more prominent and iconic landmark hotels set at the junction between Lake Baikal and the Angara River. It's older and the facilities and services are rather basic. ||Do not expect modern, updated interior. Rooms are comfortable enough if your expectations are adjusted to this. ||Some staff speak English. Most rooms have nice views. There is also a tower on the 5th level with a 360 degree lookout. ||Local landmarks: it's a 2km walk to the Anastasia Hotel which is more modern and has a great restaurant but perhaps does not have the same traditional design and character as the legend. ||It's about 1.5km walk to Eastland ski resort where you can walk or take a chairlift ride up to the Chersky Stone lookout which is a must-see local attraction with awesome views. ||It's about 1km walk to the baikal museum and a jetty where you can catch a ferry or hydrofoil across to Port Baikal. Alternatively, if you're brace enough, you can try to get locals with a boat to take you around the area. ||Look out for the Shaman Stone in the middle of the river just directly in front of the hotel halfway across to the other side. This stone juts out of the water a couple of meters but you have to look carefully to find it as it is some distance from the shore. There is a story behind it. ||Some staff members make greater effort that others to be helpful. Special mention to Katya at the front desk. Also some restaurant staff are helpful. ||Taxi to most local areas is 150rubles and hotel staff can call the taxi which usually arrives within...

We stayed in July 2016 as a family in 2 rooms.||||The Legend of Baikal is an old soviet-era hotel that in many ways is still living in the past. It's main advantage is location - right on the edge of the river feeding into lake Baikal; but it is also outside the main town and so a long walk or drive to the town (which to be honest isn't worth visiting). Unfortunately when we where staying lake Baikal was shrouded in some sort of smog so we really couldn't see all that much; though the view did improve the following morning. The room my wife and I shared was huge and even had a chandelier, as well as a very large old-style bathroom. The fixtures and fittings were old, and the curtains covering the windows were thin and didn't fully cover the window (instead of two separate curtains per window there was only one so it only covered the central portion leaving the edges exposed). A very noisy wedding was taking place when we where there - luckily the music didn't go on too late. Breakfast was very poor - a very limited selection and only instant coffee (definitely the worst breakfast we had in Russia on our trip). The reception staff were not very friendly nor helpful. The hotel also doesn't have a lift and there are many stairs and long corridors - so not ideal for anybody who has a lot of luggage or mobility issues.||||If you do wish to visit Lake Baikal, I would recommend either doing it as a day trip from Irkutsk as neither the hotel nor the nearby town of Listvyanka are...

Went as part of a Trans Mongolian tour - they put two of us in a tiny tiny room with no space to unpack even our suitcases and a view of the street even though there were rooms available with a lake view and we had paid for a lake view. Thankfully we had a Russian with us who yelled at them until they moved us. They could have cared less saying "it was already paid for." If you have big suitcases, god help you - there is NO ONE to help you with your bags and the stair case is a treacherous spiral staircase and there are lots of stairs. You can go up a steep hill to the back of the hotel and enter via the second floor but no one will tell you that and you have to ask them to open that door. The restaurant staff were very friendly and helpful but the front desk staff were unhelpful. The Hotel Manager or Owner also just stood and stared at us in an unfriendly way when we were complaining our tiny awful room and could have cared less. At least they changed it. Watching the changing light over the lake was spectacular but if you can find anther place to...