Planning a trip on the trans-Siberian Railway is not difficult in itself. There are, however, certain aspects of the journey that one must weigh up before boarding the train and heading to Moscow, Beijing or Vladivostok. I have listed some of the most important points to consider when organising your own adventure under the following headings:
1. Choosing your route.
2. Choosing when to travel.
3. Choosing where to stop off.
4. Choosing your trains.
5. Drawing up a budget and itinerary.
6. Deciding how to get to Moscow.
7. Booking tickets, arranging connections, sorting visas.
1. Choosing your route.
The main Trans-Siberian line runs from Moscow in the west to Vladivostok in the east, but as well as this primary route, there is the possibility of taking one of two branches from the main route to Beijing, those being the Trans-Mongolian line or the Trans-Manchurian line.
The Trans-Mongolian line is said to be the most interesting route of the three. It departs the main route at Ulan Ude on Lake Baikal’s eastern shore and heads south to Ulaan-Baatar before making its way southeast to Beijing. The 7,621 km (4,735 mile) journey takes 6 days, taking in Siberian plains and forests, Mongolian steppe and part of the Gobi desert.
The Trans-Manchurian line, on the other hand, departs the main route at Tarskaya and heads southeast, to Beijing via Harbin in China’s north eastern provinces, taking just over six days to cover the 8,986 km (5,623 miles) nonstop. There is no direct passenger route along the Trans-Manchurian line to Vladivostok. Though with appropriate visas it is possible via a combination of trains. Some trains split at Shenyang, China, with a portion of the service continuing to Pyongyang, North Korea.
Neither Beijing or Vladivostok need be the ultimate termini of any Trans-Siberian trip however. Once in Beijing, for example, there is the possibility of taking the ferry from nearby Tianjin to Incheon in South Korea. From Vladivostok you can take the 36 hour ship to Fushiki, Japan. Or from Shanghai there are ferries to Osaka and Kobe.
Shanghai and Xian are only an overnight train ride away once in the capital. Hong Kong and much of South East Asia can also be reached fairly easily by train if you so desire. Thus, whether, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Hanoi or Singapore is your final destination, the Trans-Siberian railroad can act as the first leg of any such adventure.
Check out a map of the route here.
2. Choosing when to travel.
Trains on the Trans-Siberian Railway run all year round. The main tourist months are May through to the end of September when the weather is warmest and the days are longest. The peak of this period occurs during the holiday period between Mid-July and early September. As a result, travelling at short notice is not possible during this time and it is advisable to book a good time in advance to secure your place on your chosen trains.
During the low season, between October and April, on the other hand, booking at short notice is much easier. The coldest months and the heaviest snowfall occur in December and January with temperatures reaching as low as – 40ºC at their coldest. From late January to early April the weather is generally cold and clear but pleasant enough for city walking.
Average Trans-Siberian Temperatures:
| Moscow (ºC) | Irkutsk (ºC) | Vladivostok (ºC) | Ulan-Bataar (ºC) | Beijing (ºC) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan-Feb | -9.5 | -19.5 | -19.5 | -28 | -15 |
| Mar-Apr | 0 | -4 | 0.5 | 1 | 5 |
| May-June | 14.5 | 12 | 11 | 20 | 18 |
| July-Aug | 20 | 21 | 19 | 34 | 26 |
| Sept-Oct | 8 | 4 | 11 | 17 | 14 |
| Nov-Dec | -5 | -15 | -7 | -4 | -2 |
3. Choosing where to stop off.
Travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway would not be half the experience it could be if you did not allow yourself time to explore the many cities and places of interest along the way.
Travelling independently allows you to book each ticket as you go, stopping wherever and whenever you like, or, if travelling during the peak months, deciding on an itinerary and booking each ticket in advance. Starting in Moscow usually requires at least an overnight stop, though longer would be necessary to see the main sights. St Petersburg, one of Russia’s historically principal cities, is also well worth a detour (if it is not itself used as a starting point prior to Moscow) if time and finances allow.
Along the route, Ekaterinburg, home to more than sixty historical monuments makes an interesting early stop. While two days further along, Irkutsk, the eastern capital of Siberia, is just 60 kilometres from Lake Baikal and amongst the most popular destinations. The lake itself, an outstanding area of natural beauty and an opportunity for an array of outdoor activities, should not be missed.
Four days into the journey on the Trans-Mongolian branch, Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, is another of the most popular Trans-Siberian destinations. The city is situated on the bank of the river Tuur and is surrounded by four mountains that local people believe to be sacred. While sandwiched between Irkutsk and Ulan-Bator, and often overlooked for this reason, lies Ulan-Ude. The city is the centre of Tibetan Buddhism in Russia and home to a popular Buddhist monastery as well as the open-air Ethnographic museum. There is the opportunity to explore the less tourist-visited eastern shore of Lake Baikal from here and the largest head ever built of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin can also be found in the city.
Other towns of note include Novosibirsk, the capital of Western Siberia and the third main cultural and scientific centre in Russia after Moscow and St. Petersburg; Khabarovsk, located on the Amur river with China sitting on the opposite shore; and Vladivostok, the eastern railway terminus, located on the Pacific coast and one of the most important strategic centres in all of Russia.
4. Choosing your trains.
There are a whole range of trains that can be used to travel on the Trans-Siberian railway, from the faster, more expensive “skory” trains, to the slower, domestic passenger or “passazhirsky” trains. The former are numbered from 1 (the fastest with fewer stops) to 170 (the slowest with more stops). The latter are numbered from 171-400 in the same manner.
The service which runs from Vladivostok to Moscow, for example, is train No. 1. From Moscow to Vladivostok it is train No. 2 (also known as the “Rossiya” or Russia). Usually, the same train has two numbers. The first for the direction towards Moscow, the second for the opposite direction. The Rossiya leaves Moscow every second day for its 9,258 km (6,152 mile) journey to Vladivostok and, together with its counterpart, is classed as a “firmenny” (firm) train, meaning it is the most comfortable of all the classes of trains that run.
Other firm trains of note include:
• Trains No. 9 and No. 10 (also known as the Baikal train) from Moscow to Irkutsk.
• Trains No. 25 and No. 26 (also known as the Sibiryak train) from Moscow to Novosibirsk.
• Trains No. 55 and No. 56 (also known as the Enisey train) from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk.
There are also “comfortable” trains – such as trains No. 7 and No. 8 from Novosibirsk to Vladivostok and trains No. 43 and No. 44 from Moscow to Khabarovsk – which are classed as slightly less comfortable than firm trains and are therefore slightly cheaper.
International trains run along the Trans-Mongolian or the Trans-Manchurian lines. These include trains No. 3 and No. 4 from Moscow to Beijing through Ulan Bator, trains No. 19 and No. 20 from Moscow to Beijing through Kharbin, and trains No. 5 and No. 6 from Moscow to Ulan Bator.
Cheap and rough trains are also available but are slow and likely to stop at every stop. They are usually numbered higher than 171 and are in the “passazhirsky” class of train meaning they can often be much dirtier than other classes with a distinct lack of ventilation and other facilities.
For timetables and fares click here and here respectively.
5. Drawing up a budget and itinerary.
This is especially important if you need to book your tickets in advance rather than simply buying the ticket for the next leg of your journey when you arrive at the station you will be leaving from.
A useful itinerary and budget planner can be found here.
6. Deciding how to get to Moscow.
If you fancy adding an extra 3,097 km (1,924 miles) to you journey to make it even more intrepid, consider taking the train from London to Moscow rather than flying. Bookings for European trains only open sixty days before departure so it is probably advisable to book these tickets last. Click here for more info.
7. Booking tickets, arranging connections, sorting visas.
Click the following links for info:
Almost everything you need to know for a successful Trans-Siberian trip can be found at the following sites:
