I am considering a trip on the Trans-Siberian from west to east (and maybe return by Silk Road) in the next 2 to 3 years. I have read through the LP guide on it but do not get a feel that there are many places orth stopping along the route. I would appreciate your (fairly current) experience.
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477 results for trans siberian
jacobvlacour
Hi LP,
I am a big fan of your books. I have visited 117 countries in the World, and always start my planning with your books. I have just taken the Trans-Siberian railroad and used your book there as well. For logistical purposes we stopped in Omsk, despite your description of the city which is as follows: "With its modest sights hidden behind busy roads, this big industrial city is not worth a special detour. You may find it a convenient stopover to break up long journeys. If you are looking to kill some time, the Fine Arets museum displays a lot of fussy decorative arts."
Have you been to Omsk at all?? I have never seen such a gross misrepresentation about any other city!! Luckily I took a drive through the city anyway, and there is so much to see that I am actually very sorry we didn't stop for longer. It is much more interesting than Novosibirsk, which you call a logical and worthwhile Trans-Siberian pit stop.
Please see this site: http://admomsk.ru/web/en/sightseeing/churches and http://admomsk.ru/web/en/sightseeing/parks and please amend your description in the next version of your guide.
1
kimdrx858176
*OLD VS. NEW TRAINS
There are a whole bunch of trains running on the Trans-Siberian railway which have probably been there for longer than I (Kim) have been on this planet – and I’m 31, in case you’re wondering. So, are we recommending taking one of the many newer trains? Heck no! If you want to feel like you have just entered the Hogwarts express in a Harry Potter movie, then take one of the older models for sure! They have (fake?) wooden paneling instead of clean white walls, may not always have power plugs inside your cabin and maybe are ever so slightly more noisy, but they are incredibly charming. ALL the trains we took were old trains and we LOVED them. All of our videos linked above show the older trains – and the “old world Russia” charm they’ll give you for your travels.
Newer trains are, well, newer… And generally much more expensive! When comparing the same class on newer vs. older trains, the newer ones sometimes can cost up to double (or more) of the older ones! I imagine they’re more modern and fancy, so it just depends on what you’re looking for, I guess.
How to tell if you’re booking an old or new train? Look at the train number while making the reservation, generally the new ones have the lowest train numbers e.g. n° 001, 002, 003. The older ones will have much higher numbers e.g. n° 845 – you get the gist of it: the older the train, the higher the number!
*I WANT NUMBERS, DAMMIT!!
Ok ok, I was working up to that. Here’s the price for each of the legs which we completed on the Trans-Siberian so far (all older trains, as mentioned above):
- Moscow to Yekaterinburg (26 hours, 1 night on train) in 2nd class: 68 EUR per person
- Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk (56 hours, 2 nights on train) in 2nd class: 115 EUR per person
- Irkutsk to Ulan Ude (7 hours, day train) in 3rd class: 24 EUR per person
- Ulan Ude to Ulanbataar (17 hours, 1 night on train) in 1st class: 123 EUR per person
- Total Moscow to Ulanbataar: 330 EUR per person
Generally, you can expect to spend 1,5x or 2x these prices for the same journey in the same class on a newer train (though there may be exceptions).
The section we have coming up from Ulanbataar to Beijing, China is more expensive than the previous legs though, especially the portion after the border crossing into China. It is A LOT cheaper to step off the train at the last city before the border, then cross by minibus into China and take a sleeper bus to Beijing. Still looking into this option ourselves, but just putting it out there for anyone currently planning the journey.
A must for any good trip: food & other supplies (plus, more food…)
You’ll get hungry on the train. There is a restaurant cart, but the train food is… let’s say not so good and not cheap either. The provodnitsa, i.e. your carriage attendant (think flight attendant on a train), sells some basic snacks on the train (instant noodles, instant mashed potatoes, instant coffee, cookies – those are not instant, thankfully) but you’ll probably want to bring some supplies yourself. The reason instant food is so popular on the Trans-Siberian railway is because every carriage has a samovar (free hot water dispenser). So bring some sandwiches or instant noodles to keep yourself fed. You can also get off at one of the stops along the way where there will usually be a small shop selling snacks (or, sometimes, full meals) on the platform.
Food aside, just bring everything you think you’ll need for a good night’s rest. Ear plugs could be a good idea if you’re staying in 2nd class – you’ll probably want to double up on the ear plugs for 3rd class!! Bedding / linens will be handed to you by your provodnitsa shortly after boarding the train. All classes except 1st class make their own beds (and then give the linens back to the provodnitsa before disembarking).
Especially on multi-day train journeys, make sure to bring a book, sudoku, etc. to keep you occupied.
Best stops along the way
If you’re covering long distances on the Trans-Siberian and your sanity matters to you, you’re going to want to break up your journey into several legs. As much as we loved those train rides (and for us they’ve been a highlight of our 8 month trip so far), spending say 1 or 2 days confined in a small space, possibly with roommates, is about the most we could do in one stretch (and as we said before, Moscow-Vladivostok is 7 days straight on the train if you do it in one haul).
Thankfully there are plenty of incredible places to visit dotted all over the Trans-Siberian railway where you can stop for a few days if you’d like. Starting in Moscow, we stepped off in:
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Yekaterinburg, a modern Russian city that surprised us with its beautiful, lush parks – and complete lack of tourist crowds!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0nrX_erA5M -
Irkutsk, the heart of Siberia and a 1-hour ride from the beautiful, massive Lake Baikal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cGdf0eSYBU -
Ulan Ude, a Russian town that’s a lot more Asian than the rest of Russia we visited
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Ulanbaatar, where we currently are. We’ll be spending 1 month in Mongolia before finally making our way to Beijing, China.
If you want to get a feel for these places, you can check out the videos linked above and we also recommend this article from The Culture Trip on the 10 most beautiful stops along the Trans-Siberian railway for planning your own journey: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/russia/articles/the-10-most-beautiful-stops-on-the-trans-siberian-railway/
Final thoughts…
Ow, you’re still reading on? Cool, thank you! A quick word about visas. Russia isn’t exactly the most lenient of countries when it comes to visa requirements. Depending on your nationality, you’ll likely have to apply for a Russian visa in advance – and that is no picnic. You’ll need a whole bunch of papers, including an invitation letter from a Russian travel agency (which pretty much any agency can get to you in less than a day for a small fee, regardless of whether you travel with them or not). Make sure to start this process well in advance.
What’s next for us?
Mongolia, baby!! It’s sometimes called the “Big Nothing” because it is considered to be the most sparsely populated sovereign country on earth. Mongolia is the 19th largest country by area at 1.566 million square kilometers, but there are only 3 million residents living here, half of whom live in the capital of Ulaanbataar (humans, at least – there are waaaay more animals. We strongly suspect goats are secretly running this country because they are everywhere).
If you’re curious to see what Mongolia is like, you can check out our video on the infamous Gobi desert here. Sleeping in a traditional ger (Mongolian nomadic tent) under the most beautiful starred sky we have ever seen, enjoying views of a desert canyon from atop the infamous flaming cliffs (dino eggs, anyone?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO3AgmHhFBY
After Mongolia, we’ll then head into China towards Beijing and after some time in this massive country, we’ll be exploring a few other places in South East Asia too.
Thanks for reading, hope you found it useful! If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask away – we’d love to help!! And if you’re interested in following the rest of our journey, we’d love to have you join the trip on our YouTube channel.
Have a great weekend,
Naick & Kim
cissello_alfi.930857
All pictures are posted in my profile on Facebook (Alfio Cissello), as soon as I can I’ll create a web site.
From 26.12.2019 to 13.1.2020
Nights: Verona (1), Mosca (2), Tobolsk (1), Novosibirsk (1), Severobaikalks (1), Yakutsk (1)
Nights in ship: 2
Nights in train: 9
TORINO – VERONA
VERONA – MUNICH – HAMBURG - LUBECK
TRAVEMUNDE - HELSINKY Finnish line
HELSINKY – MOSCA (Tolstoy train)
MOSCA – PERM – EKATERINBURG – TIUMEN – TOBOLSK – TIUMEN – OMSK – NOVOSIBIRSK – TAISHET – SEVEROBAIKALSK – TAKSIMO – CHARA – TYNDA – NERIUNGRI – NIZNHY BESTIAK – YAKUTSK
Some advice, we travel in family, with 7 years old daughter
FINNISH LINE TRAVEMUNDE – HELSINKY
Good room, good shower, excellent sauna, good game area for children. In the bar food is terrible, the buffet (specially for the price) is absolutely to avoid.
TOLSTOY TRAIN (Helsinky – Mosca)
Excellent service, good restaurant and good bed.
RUSSIAN TRAIN
They are better and better compared to many other coutries, specially for sleeping comfort (I travelled a lot in Italy, Germany, India, USA, Thailland).
Second class in sure better, lots of space even in upper bed. Third class not so good, less pri-vacy, upper bed better to avoid, no space, every time I had to go to the bathroom I bumped the head.
Despite this, I always had a good sleep. May be I was tired …
I never experienced impolite staff, I can’t say if it is normal or I simply was lucky, all helpful. Many people I spoke said opposite.
Always police in the train, 100% safe.
All restaurant has good food, if you considere that is in the train.
RAILWAY STATIONS
100% safe, police inside.
Even in remote areas like Tynda and Severobaikalsk, plenty of service, always game area for children, even ping-pong.
RESTAURANT
Hotel Siberia in Tobolsk: excellent
Smoke house in Severobaikalsk: excellent
Self service in Taishet station: good
Self service in Severobaikalsk station: not good.
HOTELS
Volga apartment in Moscow: definitely too much expensive, good but not worth the price.
Hotel Siberia in Tobolsk: expensive but worth the price.
Hotel Spytnik in Severobaikalsk: excellent service, the property took usa t the station for free, they helped us for everything.
Hotel Azimut in Yakutsk: definitely okay, helpful staff, they allow enter the room at 9 am and have breakfast.
SIGHTSEEING
Really really amazing the Bam line and the Ayam line, wilderness, mountain, frozen lake.
Severobaikalsk: liked so much, very good path from the station to the frozen Baikal lake.
Sergev Posad: wondeful
Tobolsk: liked so much the Kremlin and the old town, with ancient siberian houses.
Moscow: wonderful the seven sisters and the Novodevichy monastery.
I was really sad to see Red Square full of food stand, full of play area, Red Square was not the same anymore.
Kremlin was closed …
Novosibirsk: nothing special.
GENERAL ADVICE
No problem travelling with children. My daughter was so happy, in all siberian cities was plenty of frozen game area.
Everywhere we felt safe. No problem at all with the police.
Almost nobody speaks english, even in big hotel (in international chain like Radisson they do).
It is important knowing some word in Russian: example, some times there no way to explain that we need to reach the railway station, but when I put in my mind to say “Vokzal” everyone helped us.
All russian people eas helpful.
It is strange, but in Neriungri and Yakutsk more people speak english.
All bankomat accept Visa and Maestro, even the shop.
TRANSPORTATION FROM NIZHNY BESTYAK TO YAKUTSK
No need to book a taxi, there a bus in front of the station.
Price of bus 450 rublees
Taxi booked from Visit Yakutia 5.900 rublees (overpriced, but honestly they told me the price before, and the driver was waiting for us, so I must blame only miself)
Taxi booked from Azimut hotel 3.000 rublees
talhajat1
Hey guys, I am a 20 year old solo traveller from Toronto Canada. Some backstory of my trip before I ask my question is that I am planning on doing the trans siberian from Moscow to Beijing in July. Anyways, since I want to overland, I will start my journey from London and make my way to moscow. My current route that I have planned is London - Amsterdam - Paris - Venice - Vienna - Warsaw - Riga - Moscow. The reason why I am making this route so long is because bus tickets are incredibly cheap and in total with train costs and buses it's going to cost me around $500 to get from London to Moscow via this route. Each city is a 1 day journey from each other, so journeys are from anywhere from 4 hours to 15 hour legs. I plan on spending 3 days in each city (3 days excluding the day I arrive) aside from Riga. In total it's going to take me around 28 days or so to make it to Moscow. Now my question is, between what budget range is this going to cost me to get to moscow, excluding transportation. Thanks
eurasiaoverland
The second in a three-part journey across Russia by car in 2017, from Kaliningrad to Magadan. This part covers the stunningly beautiful republics of southern Siberia, the most beautiful part of the trip. The full article with pictures may be found here:
https://eurasiaoverland.com/2017/09/16/43ii/
We start in Novokuznetsk, from where we head up into the Abakan Range, taking a small and little-known track, the Orton Route, through the mountains into Khakassia. Khakassia is amazingly rich in history, filled with Bronze Age menhirs (standing stones) and kurgans (tumuli), and we visit the magnificent menhir complexes of Safronov in the beautiful, rolling Khakas grasslands.
Then its south, across the Sayan Pass into the wilds of western Tuva, an area I had some pretty bad experiences in on my first visit to Tuva ten years earlier. We pass through Ak-Dovurak and Chadan, stopping at the ruins of Ustuu-Khuree, an early twentieth century Tibetan-style Buddhist temple which was destroyed by Stalin and is somewhat emblematic of the former repression of the Tuvan people. In the capital Kyzyl we are hosted by a Tuvan family, which is a very nice experience. I then make a side trip, with a pre-arranged border permit, down the M54 into the magnificent and ever-changing landscapes of the Tes Valley, filled with sand dunes and Bactrian camels. I then head off-road into the sandy steppe, camping alone at the shore of Lake Tore-Khol which straddles the Mongolian border and is one of the nicest places I have ever found in Russia.
We then leave Tuva, after nothing but positive experiences, and drive through rural Krasnoyarsk Territory before hitting the main Trans-Siberian Highway and making the long and rather dull drive to Irkutsk, and on to Posolskoye, overlooking Lake Baikal in the Selenga Delta. Reaching Ulan Ude, we head into the Uda Valley, avoiding the main road once more, and find a beautiful, wide, golden valley under an enormous sky, with Buddhist temples and friendly Buryat people.
Eventually we rejoin the highway just outside Chita, driving the relatively new M58, a road which for one section did not exist until this century. We make a final stop in historic Nerchinsk, a former wealthy trade and latterly mining town now gone to seed, but with a splendid museum housed in an old tycoon's palace.
From Nerchinsk we take the long road skirting the northern bulge of Manchuria in China, heading for the Russian Far East.
Thanks for looking,
EO
Lluevo
My first question is, do larger train stations in Russia (Novgorod , Kazan, Yekaterinburg) have offices or lockers to deposit one’s luggage for a day or half-day trips to the city?
My second question is, with the increasing forest fires in Siberia, and with smoke as of now reaching to some of the cities on this route, is there any danger of service being disrupted because of this? I’m hoping the fires calm down soon as it seems to be quite a bad problem.
Thanks
maureen2014
Hi to Fellow travelers,
I am currently retired, I would love to go on a Trans Siberia Train ride from Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia.
I found that joining a tour company will cost too much, since I am currently retired, I would love to plan and travel independently.
Please tell me how and where to purchase train tickets from San Francisco, California.
My main concern is how do I plan for numerous stops at some famous cities like Lake Baikal, Ulan Ude, UB and I able to get back on the next train to the next stop.
How do I plan a local tour and hotel?
What is the limitations on carry on luggage for train
How to handle exceeded luggage
Duration: 3-4 weeks
Travel Date : September 2019
Many thanks in advance.
Maureen
123
dutch_uncle
Coalcliff- I graded St Petersburg on an improvement scale. My baseline was a trip on the Trans Siberian in the early 1980's, and two years in East Germany, in the mid-1980's. Yes, that is a low standard indeed, but it was my baseline expectation. Three years ago we did a Baltic tour, and we took an extra day in St Petersburg. That required a real visa, and that process did bring some Cold War flashback. Military service? Explosives and firearms experience? War zone time? Occupations, foreign travel, and residences for the last ten years? We totally lucked out because the museums were free on that extra day. The customs and immigration folks were disinterested but not hostile, several cuts above the prevailing Soviet standard. The food servers and guides were actuality congenial. A taxi driver less so. At any rate, it is a new program.
The day that came with the tour was fine, no complications, but I am glad that we did the second day. I suspect that the rural areas have not changed so much. One enduring experience from the Trans Siberian jaunt as when we stopped in a rural area, and watched the harvest crews cut hay with a scythe, rake it up with wooden rakes, and then pitch it onto a haystack with the help of wooden pitchforks. It looked like something out of a Flemish painting from the 1500's. Surely those workers burned more calories in gathering the hay than the cows who ate it would provide in milk and meat. The workers were not actually working that hard, however. I also noted a marked absence of places to store grain, which was a contrast with most agricultural areas. Some parts of the Asia leg also looked profoundly overgrazed.
Anyhow, good trip, a chance to recalibrate from the 1980's
5
Chicagobest2
I don't think any of the Trans-Siberian trains offer first class compartments, with the possible exception of the direct trains to Vlaidivostok and Beijing, and I am not sure about them either. Only about 40 trains in all of Russia offer Luxe class, which has 2 berths in a compartment. I have only had a luxe cabin once. You may be able to book all 4 berths in Kupe (2nd) class, but you need name and passport number so I don't know if the system will take this or not.
Why spend all this money? The trains are safe and clean. I have never heard of an instance of theft or violence on any Russian train. Share with 3 other people. It is very interesting.
Go to Rzd.ru, click the English flag at the top, then click passengers. You can book tickets at the local price using a credit card. If you have problems come here and you can get advice.