BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this post but I'm don't know where else to put it.

Has anyone been on the TranSiberian Train? We're looking to start our RTW off going from Moscow to Beijing - mostly wanting to stop in Mongolia and around the Silk Road (if it goes there??) I haven't been able to find much out online except info and prices from tours. Does anyone know if there is a website that just gives info to individuals wanting to ride the train w/out being in a tour? Also, the prices seem high from the tour groups so i'm hoping that we can save $$ by doing ourselves. If anyone has any info at all it would be much appreciated! Thanks

I did part of it in 2004 (Moscow-Novosibirk-Irkutsk-Ulan Ude and then on to Mongolia but I didn't do that part by train). That route doesn't go by the Silk road but you can go on the Turk-Sib from Novosibirsk to Almaty if you want to go there. If you have any specific questions on Siberia or Mongolia you can ask me.

Websites that may be of help:

www.waytorussia.net - about Russia
http://transsib.ru/Eng/ about the trans-siberian railway
http://turksib.com/indexe.php about the Turksib
http://www.dostuck.com.kg/ about central asia

There have also been plenty of threads about it on this forum, I suppose most of them are in the Asia forum.

We are hoping to do this trip at some point, hopefully later this year.

This is our lose itinerary - Thailand

www.seat61.com seems to be the most hopeful site we've found so far.

Dante

I did the Moscow-Beijing trip last May - stopping in Ekaterinburg, Irkusk (around Lk Baikal), Ulan Ude, Ulan Bataar (Mongolia) and onto Beijing. We went through the Russia Experience based in the UK, which organized all train travel, home stays/accommodations, food, some activities, including staying in a Ger Camp in Mongolia, and guides. The cost was around two grand, but I thought it worth it b/c we didn't have to worry about figuring out the train schedule (some places the stops are only once a week) and I enjoyed the homestays. We did have time on our own as well. The only thing I was not happy with was we started in Moscow around Victory Day (May 7) and everything was closed to the public - Kremin, Red Square, etc.. The company didn't warn us about that or we would have flown our sooner.

I did the trip a number of years ago. I went to Moscow and bought a ticket to Irkutsk at the train station. The trip was about 4 days. Long ride, but lots of nice people. I spent a week in Irkutsk, and then bought another ticket to Beijing. That trip was about 3 days or so, and was also a lot of fun and mets some very cool people, many of whom I ended up traveling with for the next couple weeks in China.

I never used a tour company, just bought all my tickets right at the station. Prices were very cheap to Irkutsk, and a bit more expensive but still not that bad to Beijing. It was a wonderful, wonderful trip!

The cost was around two grand, but I thought it worth it b/c we didn't have to worry about figuring out the train schedule (some places the stops are only once a week) and I enjoyed the homestays.

how do you get homestays in it? did you pay 2k through an agency or through railways? do you have to book it a special way if you're a tourist?

The homestays and train travel were all arranged through the Russia Experience. We paid them directly for the whole package - and we arranged everything via email since they are out of the UK. They provided all necessary docs for the Russian Visa as well. Only thing we had to book were flights, but they even arranged transport from the airport. At each destination, a guide would give us our next train tix, and they handled transport/guides for part of the days. If you like to do things completely on your own, you may not dig it, but for a 3-week trek, we had little to worry about. Check out www.trans-siberian.co.uk . You can pick from a number of trips along that route (I think we did the Super Trans-Sib) and each includes different day trips of your choosing and we had homestays in Irkusk (in the City and on Lk Baikal) and Ulan Ude (she was a gourmet cook, too!).

If you are travelling independently, I also highly recommend homestays. I did one in Ulan Ude and that was the most comfortable place I stayed in Russia, for 15$ a night which is about the same as the cheapest single rooms.

Wow! Thanks for all the info!!

Sounds like everyone loved it, which is only going to solidify it further for us. I was also wondering if anyone who did it independently could tell us what they paid for the different legs they took. This is the beginning of our RTW and we will not have a tour guide and we're trying to figure out the cheapest way to do it. The homestays sound great! How do you find out about something like that?

Also, Seraphim, thanks for the info on the silk road - how do i find more info about that route you were talking about? Have you been to the silk road? if so, what did you think about it? Any other info you can give would be helpful! Mongolia is one of the places that I am looking forward to the most. For some reason I've had it in my head for the past 10+ years that i need to go there. I don't know much about it, so i would love any other info you have.

Thanks!

All,

I'm currently planning a Travel Project to lap the Earth on my way to Burning Man, blogging as I go. The idea is to start and end in San Francisco, then fly into the BRC Airport at summer's end.

Part of this trip will likely be on the Trans-Siberian railway. I was hoping I could solicit some opinions and advice from any intrepid vagabonding types who have made the journey previously.

Specifically-

Personal recommends. Must sees.
Pitfalls to avoid. Financial, linguistic, cultural tips.
Off the Beaten Path, odd and cool suggestions, (makes for better writing!)
Alternative Routes (I could be easily talked into the Silk Road..)

I am a serial Vagabonder with about 32 countries under my belt and Prefer to wing it where possible. I've been reading a lot of the Trans-Siberian threads already, So I don't want to make anyone parrot the same advice they are tired of giving. However I was just hoping someone might have some good testimonial and recommendations of their 'favorites'.

I plan on leaving June 15 and Need to be back in SFO by Aug 28th. How I slice up that time is very flexible at this stage.

That being said, if any of you Siberian Summer Riders would like to sync up and travel in tandem for a while, I'm all for it.

Thanks In Advance,

Caleb

Hi Caleb,

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this here so i can get more info as well! I love your questions about recommendatios, pitfalls and off the beaten path. That is what i would love to know about too! I really want to do the silk road but have really no idea how to get there at this point. I think you'll have a great time and it sounds like an awesome "trip" w/ the Burning Man ending!

Great quote too!

I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's responses

LittleMustard, I haven't been to the Silk Road yet, so I'm afraid I can't help there.

I think I found out about the homestay by just googling and then I found the e-mail adress of the company and they were very helpful. They were called Naran tour, I don't know if I still have their e-mail adress somewhere but you should be able to find it on google. I also took a tour to Ivolginsk Datsan with them while they took my passport to the Mongolian embassy to arrange my visa for no extra charge. You can read more about it on my blog: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/karlien/archives/003978.shtml

Caleb, the one place I would recommend above everywhere else in Russia is Ulan Ude, see the same blog post above.

In Mongolia I would recommend staying in a family ger for at least one night, it really is a unique experience, though camping in Mongolia is great too.

I would recommend trying to learn as much Russian as you can, what I learned during a 1-month summer course in Novosibirsk really made my trip a lot easier. At least learn the alphabet and some simple phrases.

The most off the beaten path thing I did in Russia was going to Nikolaevsk-na-Amure. There was not much to see there (don't believe Lonely Planet) and the only hotel was full, but it was an adventure. I took an overnight train from Khabarovsk to Komsomolsk-na-Amure, then a boat to Nikolaevsk, then returned to Khabarovsk by boat as well. You can read more about that here: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/karlien/archives/004004.shtml

Also somewhat off the beaten path, but nicer and easier to get to was Kyakhta on the Mongolian border. From there I hitch-hiked across the border (there's no busses and you're not allowed to walk so that's you're only option really) and on to Ulaan Bataar. More here: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/karlien/archives/004311.shtml

Fantastic, thanks much for your time and expertise!.

I have a term of school left before I leave and I'm seriously considering replacing Japanese with a Russian course. I expect that will tip my scales toward spending more time in Russia.. Which is really fine by me.

When looking at the rail maps of the region I've often wondered how viable it would be to patch together a trip between Moscow and the far ocean, piece-meal. Buying tickets as I go and moving vaguely eastward. The Tran-Siberian for all of it's iconic glory, strikes me as a bit of a canned recipe; 'Get on. Go for 5 days.off,on again, Presto! China!'(fortune cookie optional).

I, for one like a little more spice in my meals.

Karlien, (A great name ,BTW) I'm Curious if that's what you did?. Just felt your way along, ticket-by-ticket?. Did you go alone, Do a lot of camping. Was it exponentially more expensive to grab tickets as you went.?.

I don't mean to badger with so many questions, but I've found all the homework in the world is a poor substitute for genuine testimony. Or perhaps I'm just aching to hear some great travel stories . Any road, I'm grateful for all the insight.

I think I'll strap on my bib and dig into your travel journal.. Or maybe I'll get some lunch, I seem to be making a disturbing number of food references..

Ciao!
-C

Great post Caleb. I was pretty much wondering/thinking the same thing. I don't want to just ride the rails straight into Asia, i want to get out, explore, stay or not stay and then keep riding.

It is hard to find info as to whether or not that would be a very expensive way to do things. Especially since there is so much info about tours, which i do not want to do. Also, i was wondering at some stops do you have to prebuy your ticket because it is a very busy stop or does that not matter?

Thanks!

yeah, i did just buy the tickets as I went along. it`s very doable and i never bought them more than 2 or 3 days in advance. i never had a problem getting the tickets i wanted in russia, and i think the worst that could happen is having to take another train a few hours later, maybe a day later if it`s not on the main west-east (or vice versa) route.

i didn`t camp in russia, though it`s quite possible and camping rough is allowed in most places, but i did in mongolia, which was a great experience.

i`ve never looked into tours but would be very surprised if it was cheaper to take a tour than to travel independently in a more improvised manner. getting the train tickets in advance might save you some headache and time, but it also leaves you with zero flexibility and for me would take away much of the fun.

oh btw, i didn`t travel to China myself but heard from other travellers that tickets from Ulaan Bataar to Beijing did sell out weeks in advance. But that wasn`t a problem, they just bought tickets to Erlian just across the border and would continue from there by local train or bus.

Hey I'm organising a trip from Manchester (UK) to Shanghai for the summer. I've got most of my information from seat61.com and gone through waytorussia for my train tickets from Moscow to Beijing.

I've got my stay in Mongolia sorted with a stay in a ger camp with a night in with a mongolian family which I am really looking forward to.

I'd defo recommend organising it yourself if you have the time/inclination but I can appreciate the ease which agents bring

Cheers,
Chris

So, has anyone done the BAM line? I traveled the trans-sib last year and loved it, but I never thought that I would go back to Russia. However, the more I think about it the more I want to go back and see some of the even more remote parts of the country.