Mongolian Express dilemma & Nomad Festival Sept 2012

Heather, These are the prices we got from RR for the UB - Beijing leg:
Deluxe sleeper (two berths soft sleeper/ shower compartment) currently cost £205 one way per person
Soft sleeper (four berths soft sleeper) currently cost £191 one way per person
Hard sleeper (four berths hard sleeper) currently cost £144 one way per person
Your $ quote is around £150 which is pretty damn good for 1st class (is that deluxe?)

We tried to organise the whole thing ourselves a few months ago and found some of the Russian railways sites pretty difficult to get prices (this could have been because we were doing it far in advance, not within the 45 days) so we opted for Real Russia who, incidentally, have been fantastic and as long as we get the berth promised and there are no problems I won't mind having paid a little more. Just means we have to rough it a little later on in the trip.

The issue comes when you have to time all your visas, make sure you've got all the required bumpf and hope that you get your desired date on the train because 45 days isn't long when you're dealing with the Russian, Mongolian and Chinese visa offices!

We went for a Russian transit visa as we are just flying into Moscow and boarding the train. They said, in the visa office, that there isn't such thing as a transit visa but there is. I guess if you're stopping off in Russia you'll have the tourist visa though.

Hi Peep_squeak - funnily enough I found some of your postings earlier today and see you are doing a similar journey. Below is the info from Solid Ways - they have been excellent. Real Russia have also been fantastic - quick responses and very helpful

From Ulaanbaatar to Beijing
Train # 24 at 07.15, departs on 27 Sep, Thu in Ulaanbaatar and arrives on 28 Sep, Fri in Beijing at 14.04.
First class /2 berths in 1 cabin/ -220 $ per person
Second class /4 berths in 1 cabin/ - 145 $ per person

From Ulaanbaatar to Beijing
Train # 04 at 07.15, departs on 30 Sep, Sun in Ulaanbaatar and arrives on 01 Oct, Mon in Beijing at 14.04.
First class /2 berths in 1 cabin/ -220 $ per person
Second class /4 berths in 1 cabin/ - 145 $ per person

Like you, we will probably try and claw back some money whilst in SE Asia. I am having a bit of a headache with visas as we need Russia, Mongolia and China. To compound that we leave for our RTW trip on 30th July to Norway so need to get it sorted before we go ideally. All part of the fun.

Keep in touch, would like to hear about your plans and if I can reciprocate I will. Heather

peep_squeak
>We went for a Russian transit visa as we are just flying into Moscow and boarding the train. They said, in the visa office, that there isn't such thing as a transit visa but there is. I guess if you're stopping off in Russia you'll have the tourist visa though.

To get a transit visa you would need to show your plane tickets and your train tickets and you would not be permited to stop more than 2 nights in Moscow before boarding the train and no stops along the way. Because it is so difficult to get and show the train tickets, transit visas for this purpose are almost unheard of but not impossible.

Ruth

I looked into transit visas for Russia one year but decided against it because the cost was exactly the same as that of the tourist visa....except we had a shorter time frame and couldnt' deviate at all. In the end we got LOIs and just went for the tourist. It was much easier and no questions were asked of us as we went through Russia on our way to Mongolia.

jpyrek - depends upon your passport whether the cost is the same. For US passport holders it is but for many others the cost is about half the cost of the tourist visa.

Ruth

Thanks Ruth. Are you sure we are allowed 2 nights in Moscow on a transit visa? If that's the case that would really help as the flights on the day are arriving at 1645 and the train leaves at 2130 but we've to get to the opposite side of Moscow in rush hour so I'd prefer to arrive the day before if we can.

We've got the train tickets and are yet to book the flight to Moscow....which opens up another question, how to get to Moscow.

Cheap flights = getting into Moscow with very little time to get to the train station
Earlier flights = £250c. each
Overland (and sea) option = http://www.seat61.com/Finland.htm#Route%20map to Helsinki or Tallinn then train from there. Or you can even get to St Pete's. I can't seem to get train prices from Esbjerg - Helsinki/Tallinn.

Anybody got a opinion on this? It certainly looks like a great trip.

If we are allowed a couple of days in Moscow on a transit visa we will take the cheap flight the previous day.

To get a transit visa with train tickets, you must actually present the train tickets. What is your actual routing? then I am more likely to be able to tell you what will be permitted.

Ruth

Hi, I just picked up the tickets at the weekend so will be going to the visa office next week. Our route is London to Moscow (flight) then onto the Trans Mongolian train with a 5 days stop in Mongolia and back on to the train to Beijing. No stops in Russia.

When I went to the Russia visa office a few months ago they, firstly, said there isn't such thing as a transit visa then when pushed they said you can get one but the length of the visa is determined by your transit route so she said we could get 10 days (the train is only 5) but I didn't have much confidence in the girl's info by that time.

She is correct, the maximum for a transit visa in 10 days but that is usually only given when people board the train to/from Vladivostok. It is one night in Moscow, 7 nights on the train and one night in Vladivotsok. Nine nights is 10 calendar days.

The problem for you is that you MUST show the tickets for travel into and out of Russia. So I seriously doubt that you can do this.

A maximum of two nights are permited on a transit visa IF it is required for connections. So, for example, if your flight arrived on a Sunday but your train to Mongolia did not depart until Tuesday, then you could spend Sunday night and Monday night in Moscow.

The train from Moscow to Ulan Bator does take 5 days (actual travel time is 4d, 8h 55 m) so in this case were you able to show the tickets, you should be able to get 7 days for your transit visa.

Ruth