Trans-Siberian Tours

08-17^th September 2008

-         Evening departure.

-         Breakfast on board the train

-         Arrival to Nizhny Novgorod

-         City tour including visit to the Kremlin, Archangel Cathedral.

-         Lunch at a local restaurant followed by the visit to the world famous Nizhegorodskaya trade fair.

-         Departure

-         Dinner on board the train

-         Breakfast on board the train

-         Arrival in Perm

-         City tour followed by the excursion to the Belogorodsky Monastery.

-         Lunch at a local restaurant

-         Excursion to Kungur to see the nature attraction – IceCave

-         Dinner at a local restaurant in Perm

-         Departure

-         Breakfast on board the train

-         Arrival in Yekaterinburg

-         City tour: Open-air Museum; Opera Theatre; Railway Station to which the Romanovs arrived in 1918; Temple on Blood; built in 2003 on a place of the Ipatiev House; where the whole Romanov family were executed by shooting; Ganina Yama (complex of temples, built on the first burial place of the Romanovs)

-         Lunch at a local restaurant

-         Excursion to the boarder of Europe and Asia, meeting with the local Bashkir dancers, sample of traditional Bashkir cuisine.

-         Transfer to the 4* Hotel for accommodation

-         Dinner at the hotel

-         Breakfast in the hotel

-         Departure to Nevyansk (founded by Russian manufacturer Demidov).

-         Visit to the LeaningTower of Nevyansk.

-         Lunch

-         Return to Yekaterinburg

-         Departure

-         Dinner on board the train

-         Arrival in Omsk

-         Breakfast at a local restaurant

-         City tour with the visit to the Fortress

-         Excursion to the Achair Monastery

-         Departure

-         Lunch on board the train

-         Free time

-         Dinner on board the train

-         Breakfast and lunch on board the train

-         Arrival to Krasnoyarsk

-         City tour including visit to regional museum

-         Trip to the famous viewing point to see the hydropower electro station

-         Dinner with folklore show at the local restaurant

-         Departure

-         Breakfast and lunch on board the train

-         Arrival in Irkutsk

-         Transfer to the 4* hotel for accommodation

-         Dinner in the hotel

-         Breakfast in the hotel

-         Transfer to the train station

-         Train trip along the old rail way, which goes along the shore of Lake Baikal,

-         Picknick (Barbecue)

-         Ferry crossing to Listvyanka

-         Transfer to Irkutsk by bus

-         Festive dinner at a local restaurant

-         Transfer to the hotel

-         Breakfast in the hotel

-         Check-out

-         End of trip

Package price per person in RUB

191100

-         Up to 35 days prior to departure: no cancellation fee is charged

-         34 to 22 days prior to departure: 30% charge,

-         21 to 15 days prior to departure: 50% charge,

-         14 to 1 day prior to departure or no show: 100% charge.

-         10% refundable deposit plus 3600 RUB non-refundable service charge which is already included in price are to be paid after receipt of the invoice

-         Final payment 35 days prior to departure

 -         Train accommodation in the 1^st class compartment for 2 people

-         3 overnights in the hotels with breakfasts on twin basis

-                                     Irkutsk 3*super/4* hotel – 2 overnights

-         Full board

-         Continental breakfast including hot meal and drinks – tea, coffee and juice water

-         Lunch – 4 courses, including tea, coffee and water

-         Dinner – 3 courses, including tea, coffee and water

-         Sightseeing as per itinerary on air-conditioned buses

-         Entrance fees to the mentioned museums

-         2 guide-lectors on board (European languages)

-         Local guides in each city (European languages)

-         Entertainment on board

-         Welcome Champagne on Day 1

-         Information kit

 Train consists of 8+2+1+1 carriages:

-         4 carriages – 8 compartments each, 1^st class compartments for 2 people

-         4 carriages of 9 compartments each, 1^st class compartments for 2 people,

-         2 restaurants,

-         1 shower carriage

Guided group journey with stops in
Moscow, Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Ulan Bator, andBeijing

 22 days/21 nights

 August 6-27th, 2008

   

 

 

The Trans-Siberian railway (usually called TransSib in Russia) is the world's longest and the most famous train route that goes through Russia. It crosses the whole continent, starts in Moscow, passes through the European Russia, crosses Urals mountains (which separate Europe and Asia), continues into Siberia's taiga and steppes, and finishes in Vladivostok — the Russian Far East coast on the Pacific Ocean.

 

We offer you a great opportunity to experience an unforgettable journey. The guided tour on the train (a regular working service, not some 'tourist special' train) and many visits to our friends at each stop guarantees this journey to be unique. We will meet local people and learn about their culture and way of life, yet be part of it. You may find yourself draining a bottle of vodka with a Russian soldier in exchange to a piece of chocolate, or discussing business and politics with Mongolian traders on the train. Meeting point on the train is the dining car where borscht and fish with lots of potatoes and cabbage are served. On each station where the train stops, local peasants and traders offer their products for sale.

 

Our trip will include Moscow as a start place, then the Ural Mountains, the divider of Europe and Asia, Irkutsk, the capital of Siberia, where we will spend a few days on the world's largest and cleanest lake Baikal. Then we will continue to Ulan Bator, where we will experience the Nomadic life and sleep in gers, and finally the train will take us to Beijing, the capital of the Chinese empire, where our journey ends.

 

The journey will be guided by one of our guides. In addition to our main guide, who will be with the group throughout the journey from Moscow to Beijing, there will also be the local guides in Irktusk, Ulan Bator and Beijing (natives from the respective cities) and they will explain you the details on culture, history, and the daily life of "their" cities. This is a unique opportunity to get to know Russia, Mongolia and China while traveling the Trans-Siberian route in a small group. We look forward to having you on board!

 

   

 

 

After arriving in Moscow, you will be transferred to the Hotel Belgrad. For the following four days, we will travel with the Moscow metro (some metro station themselves are worth a visit) to explore the city: Kremlin, Red Square, Pushkin house, Tretjakov Gallery, Lenin Library, Arbat Street, Kolomenskoe and much more. An excursion to Sergiev Posad (formerly Zagorsk, 50 miles from Moscow), the capital of the Russian orthodox church with an impressive array of churches and a still working abbey will be organized.

 

Upon request, we may reserve tickets for a Russian ballet performance, the opera or the circus. For the rest, we will just enjoy the city of Moscow, which has undergone an incredible transformation from a grey and dark city to a modern metropolitan capital with bars, illuminated streets and luxurious supermarkets everywhere.

 

Before leaving to Siberia, we will have time to make a few provisions on the Arbat street and the large shopping mall (GUM) next to the Red Square. In the afternoon, we will leave Moscow and board on the Trans-Siberian express train Nr 10, called "Baikal" and one of the most luxurious regular trains on this route.

While we settle into our comfortable compartment and enjoy a cup of hot tea from the samovar, the first hours on the train take us passing Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, (previously called Gorky), and Perm, old Russian towns of which we will catch some glimps from the train station, where the train is stopping for a while.

 

After a total of three days on the train passing the Ural Mountains through forests, beside lakes and rushing rivers, swamps and remote villages of painted wooden houses, we will arrive in Irkutsk at 9am. Irkutsk is also called 'Paris' of Siberia for its pulsing street life and people's elegant clothes. Still a major trade center for furs, Irkutsk enjoys today a certain economic wealth. Short but hot summers and very cold winters, however, make life here a real challenge. We will transfer you to the hotel Irkutsk in the city center, check-in early and enjoy the rich buffet breakfast. In the afternoon, a walking tour through the city of Irkutsk will be organized.

 

We will depart for Listvyanka and Bolshie Koty, a small village on the shore of lake Baikal, which we will reach on a hydrofoil from the port of Irkutsk in about 90 min.

Lake Baikal is a unique biosphere, the world's deepest, largest (in terms of volume) and presumably oldest (25 million years) lake containing more than 20% of all running fresh-water on the earth. Lake Baikal is home to a fresh water seal (the Nerpa), and an incredibly rich in flora and fauna. The lake is 400 miles long, 40 miles wide and about 1 mile deep. Unlike other deep lakes whose bottom waters are poisoned by hydrogen sulphide and other gases, Lake Baikal's water is saturated with oxygen from its surface to the deepest point and therefore, living organisms can be found at all levels. We will enjoy a bath in the 'Old Man', as local people call the lake. Its water is amazingly transparent: Stones and fish can be seen to a depth of about 50 m and they seem so close that a first-time visitor may be tempted to reach out and pick one up. One of the secrets is that there are millions of microorganisms living in the lake whose main purpose is to clean the water of all pollutants. We will learn about the lake from one of its true experts and 'native of the lake', Prof. Maximov (called Max), the director of the local Limnological institute (a water watch institute) near Listvyanka. Our home is a wooden house near the lake where local food will be prepared by our host. We will have time to hike along the lake, explore small valleys where relicts of old (as rumors go still secretly working) gold-mines can be found, and enjoy relaxing on the shore and swimming in the lake. Those who are interested are also invited to join Max for a tour through the Limnological museum. A Russian steam bath right on the shore of the lake invites you to experience a typical Russian sauna.

 

In the afternoon, we will return to Irkutsk and visit the Architecture museum on the way back, where old churches, shaman houses and a fortress are going to be seen. In the evening, we board the Trans-Monoglian train to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. The landscape gradually changes from wide forests and rivers to a uniform steppe, where the great Khans have been riding their heroic horses.

 

After arrival in Ulan Bator, the capital city of Mongolia, we will transfer to hotel Bayangol in the city center and enjoy buffet breakfast. After check-in, we are exploring the historic city with our guide from Ulan Bator. We will visit the palace of Bogdo Khan, the Gandan abbey, and the natural history museum with the remains of the biggest dinosaurs ever found on earth in the Mongolian desert.

 

Our local guide will introduce us the Nomadic way of life of still many mongolians today. On a jeep, we will travel to a Mountain Camp in a remote area, where we will sleep in gers and enjoy a hike in the hills by foot or on the back of a horse. On our way we will visit the Mongolian family living in gers at their Summer place, where we can taste mare's milk and eat delicious kebabs.

We are returning to Ulan Bator to stay another night at hotel Bayangol and enjoy the Mongolian cultural performance in the evening.

 

Our train leaves at 9 am again in the morning towards the Chinese border through the Gobi Desert. Erlyan, the border town is nothing more than a military post. Since the Chinese railway operates on Standard Gauge and Russia/Mongolia on a narrower Five Foot Gauge, the boogies of all wagons are changed while hydraulic lifts raise the carriages. After a night in the train, we will find ourselves climbing on narrow serpentines into the Chinese mountains. The Great Wall is visible from many locations and frequent stops of the train.

 

Beijing, the capital of China, is the final destination of our railway journey, that has led us across two continents. With our local guide, we will visit the Forbidden City, the Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace of the Imperial family. Beijing is home to millions of small shops and street traders, the place to shop for souvenirs and bargains, and the last opportunity to taste the delicious Chinese food in all its variations. For those interested in the old-style culture, Opera, Theater or Comedy tickets are available from our local guide. In Peking, we will have ample time for our own exploration of the old and new town. We will stay at hotel Hademen, which is located in a walking distance from the Tiananmen Square and the main shopping centers.

 

Individual return flights back home or to wherever your journey takes you ….

 

- A Trans-Siberian journey needs both physical and mental preparation. We are going to send you more details about what to pack and take with you. Backpacking is required, however, we will never need to walk more than a mile with all our luggage. Please check our What to take with you list. Good general physical health is required. However, the most important part is to be prepared for a possible culture shock, as you will meet many different people and cultures which may differ significantly from yours. That is why, we suggest you reading about Russia, Mongolia or China in advance. Participants should also have a strong sense for team-work and communication. Traveling in Russia, Mongolia and China requires patience and a sense for adventure.

- The size of the group is limited to 14 persons

- The age does not matter. Our clients vary from 20 year-old students to senior managing directors and even a retired 71 year-old lady made it safely. So, why don't you join us for this life-long experience?

- Application deadline is May 27^th, 2006. The number of applications is limited to 14 and places reserved on a 'first come, first served' basis.