Korolevskaya Gavan Guest house

I am not sure how this place stacks up in summer but in winter it was a cosy and welcoming guesthouse. I stayed 2 nights here with a small group taking a few nights out from an epic winter trans Siberian railway journey. Enkheluk is a couple of hours drive from Ulan Ude where we had parted company with the train and we were very ready for some down time. The town seemed deserted in the winter season but Korolevskaya Gavan was a beacon in the otherwise empty town. The guest house consists of several separate buildings, a central dining hall and a banya and is within very easy walking distance of Larked Baikal. More about the banya later on. Our small group occupied one of the buildings filling most of the rooms. I lucked out getting a room with double bed, sofa and en suite bathroom. The other rooms on the ground and 1st floor (2nd for Americans) shared a single bathroom. My room also had a fridge and a kettle with coffee and tea making stuff. There was a huge hot water cylinder in the bathroom that only allowed for a deceptively short hot shower and took some time to heat up again - but the water was hot and very welcome after time in the sub-zero outdoors. The building had a common living room on the ground floor with sofas and chairs and a TV. The wifi worked reasonably well in my bedroom and the common room. The buildings were well heated by individual radiators in all rooms but I was still just a little cool. Not unusual for me and others felt less frosty. Our package included all meals which were taken in the dining room. We soon learned to add 10-15 minutes to any scheduled meal time because they were invariably late. The food was plain Russian fare and mostly okay. Nothing special but enough and some variety. The highlight of the guest house was the traditional banya which was in a separate, dedicated building across a snowy area that is probably grass or a paved courtyard during the summer. The owner or manager (I am not sure where he fitted in the guesthouse hierarchy) stoked up the woodburning furnace until the central room was piping hot and those of us with that sort of bent broiled ourselves. There was a very reasonably cost for each hour of broiling. Between hot room sessions we raced outside to an area behind the building where the more hardy members rolled around in the snow. Rolling in the snow or not steam wafted off all of us in clouds as our hot bodies met the freezing air. Very, very good. Overall this guesthouse was a good place to spend a couple of non-train nights and I expect others would also find it satisfactory.