Trans-Siberian Railway (Russia)

I finally got round to carrying out my trip of a lifetime in July this year. Instead of writing about the journey in general, I will stick to tips in the hope this will be useful to travellers doing the same route. I travelled from Moscow to Beijing, stopping off at Irkutsk and Ulaan Bataar. 1) Take a Nalgene bottle. Nalgenes can carry boiling water, so I used mine for water, for hot drinks, and also as a shower (sterilising between uses of course). There was no hot water in the bathroom I used, so I mixed water from the hot water samovar with the cold water in the tap and hey presto, instant shower. 2) Take a head torch or reading light. Our ...  Read the complete review

There are 3 routes on the trans-siberian line, the siberian, manchurian and mongolian, the latter 2 ending up in Beijing. We decided on the trans-mongolian route as it was supposedly the most interesting. After scouring the internet we found that it is near enough impossible now to get tickets by just turning up as they are usually bought out by agencies. Seat61.com provides lots of excellent information. Decided on a 1st class cabin in the end which is a 2 bed with a chair and a shared shower and wash basin with the room next door. Plenty of space for luggage in a nook over the door and under the beds. Toilet at the end of the hall and hot water ...  Read the complete review

Yaroslavski Station in Moscow is not the most comfortable place in which to wait for a train. Unsure of ourselves - of our local knowledge, of our feeble grasp of the language, of procedures - we made a point of being there early, two hours in advance of the 23.30 departure time scheduled for the No 10 "Baikal" special to Irkutsk. Procedures. Always an important aspect of life in Russia, although the need to know the ropes is much less critical these days than in the past. You are no longer in danger of being frog-marched off into oblivion for having the wrong papers or saying the wrong thing. I am told, and I believe, that it is perfectly possible ...  Read the complete review

Before we started our trip from Beijing to Moscow, I think the longest train hourney I had undertaken was about two hours when something (as per usual) went wrong on the trains to work. I was not entirely convinced that a six plus one day train ride was going to be much fun. Our trip took us from Beijing through China for one day arriving at dusk in Mongolia. At this point the train is stopped for Border Control and also the rather bizarre reason that the railway in Mogolia and Russia are different widths than those in China. This meant that the entire train has to be lifted up and put down onto different wheels. This whole performance takes about three ...  Read the complete review

Myself and 2 friends travelled from London to Hong Kong by train a few years ago, which incorporates the Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Manchurian. There are three/four routes that you can take on this epic train journey. We chose to go through Moscow, Siberia, Mongolia, China and down to Hong Kong. There are several classes of sleeper accommodation, we went 'hard sleeper' which meant we shared with one other person from Moscow through to Beijing (obviously stopping off on the way). It comprises a compartment with four bunks, the bottom ones are the seats during the daytime. There are armed guards patrolling the trains through Russia due to ...  Read the complete review