When you are in Irkutsk, a must do is to visit the nearby Lake Baykal. Travel agencies offer several tours to the lake and its islands. These tours sometimes take several days, where you have enough time to explore the pretty nature around the lake. If you don’t have much time and only want to do a one day trip to the lake, the best and cheapest option is to take the public bus to Listvyanka.
The bus ride from Irkutsk to Listvyanka takes about 1.5 hours. In 2010 the bus schedule looked like this:
Departure from Irkutsk bus station: 9:30, 13:30, 14:30, 16:30, 19:00, also 06:30 Mn-Fr, 07:30 Sat, Sun
Departure from Listvyanka: 7:00, 11:00, 15:00, 16:45, 18:00, also 08:00 Mn-Fr, 09:00 Sat, Sun, 18:40 Fr, Sat, Sun
A one way ticket costs 100 Rub. In Irkutsk it can be purchased directly at the bus station (at the ticket counters inside the building). The bus leaves just to the right outside the bus station building. You can find the bus station in Irkutsk on the linked map below, in section C1:
http://mappery.com/map-of/Irkutsk-City-Map
In Listvyanka you can purchase the bus tickets at the information center. However there are also many mini buses stoping along the main road in Listvyanka. They also go back to the bus station in Irkutsk and cost the same as the public bus (100 Rub), which you pay directly to the bus driver.
Another nice, but more expensive, option to get from Irkutsk to Listvyanka is to take a boat down the river.
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