Trans-Sib through Russia - Mongolia - China

16 days and 15 nights

Itinerary

Tour can be started on any Saturday

Moscow - Yekaterinburg - Novosibirsk - Irkutsk - Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

Explore Russia, Mongolia, and China with this extraordinary tour. Begin your journey in Moscow, taking in sights like Red Square, the Kremlin, Novodevichy Convent, and more before taking the train east to Yekaterinburg, site of the tragic end of the Romanov family. Then on to Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, as well as a visit to the world’s largest lake, the beautiful Lake Baikal. Crossing into Mongolia, you will pass through the Gobi Desert and see the country’s vast steppes and traditional gers (yurts), and even visit with nomadic families. Finally, the train will take you into China to Beijing, where you will see the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Ming Tombs.

Day 1 (Sat) Moscow

Moscow, Russia

Your Trans-Siberian adventure begins in Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation.
Our representative will greet you when you arrive in Moscow. As they transport you to your hotel, take the opportunity to enjoy your first glimpses of this historic city.

Day 2 (Sun)

Moscow, Russia

After breakfast get ready for a tour of Moscow.

On Panoramic City Tour, our professional guide will escort you on a route that includes Vorobyevi Hills where you will get an incredible view of the city from an observation point.  You will proceed to Moscow State University which is an example of architecture from the time of Stalin and one of Russia’s leading schools of higher education, then on to Novodevichy Convent, Victory Park, the Triumphal Arch and Kutuzovsky Prospect.  You will get a chance to see from the outside, the Russian seat of power - the Kremlin and Red Square and continue on to see much more of this storied city.

Departure to Yekaterinburg after midday.

Day 3 (Mon) Yekaterinburg

Tran-Siberian Train, Russia

The ride to Yekaterinburg will take about 26 hours. Nestled in the Ural Mountains some 1600 km from Moscow, this is where Siberia begins. Along the way, the train will stop in a series of 11th to 13th Century cities, each offering historical sights – from the gold-domed churches of Vladimir (part of Russia’s Golden Ring) to Nizhny Novgorod’s Kremlin on the Volga River.

Overnight you will cross the Vyatka River, passing the towns of Kotelnich, Kirov (formerly Vyatka, where the first Russian washing machine was made in 1891) and Balyezino. Morning will bring you to the city of Perm in the foothills of the Ural Mountains, a cultural city known for its literature and ballet. Six hours later, you will reach Yekaterinburg, and our representative will greet you at the station to transport you to your hotel.

Day 4 (Tue)

Yekaterinburg, Russia

Your day begins after breakfast with a city tour, which includes an exploration of the last days of the Romanovs.
This tour will introduce you to the history of the Imperial family in Yekaterinburg, including their imprisonment and tragic execution. You will visit the site where their bodies were hidden in a secret grave by the Bolsheviks, where today a Monastery dedicated to the family stands – a famous pilgrimage site for Russian Orthodox Christians.

Leaving behind the Monastery and the nearby wooden churches, next will be a tour of Yekaterinburg’s major historical sites, including the Istorichesky Skver (Historical Square) which contains the remnants of the dam and embankment from the city’s founding in 1723. You will also see a monument to Lenin, the first head of Soviet Russia, and places connected to Boris Yeltsin, the first President of Russia, who hailed from this city. Then after a trip to the hotel you will be free to explore Yekaterinburg on your own.

Then your Russian journey continues that afternoon after a trip to the train station.

Departure to Novosibirsk

Day 5 (Wed) Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk, Russia

You will arrive at Novosibirsk, the largest train station on the Trans-Siberian route. Here you will be met by our representative and get your first look at this Russian city as they escort you to your hotel.

Day 6 (Thu)

Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk, Russia

After breakfast, get ready for a tour of the scientific hub of Akademgorodok. Founded as a secret research town in the Soviet era for scientists and their families, the town today remains an important educational and scientific center. You will visit the Geology Research Institute and tour the Geology Museum, and then visit the Open-Air Train Museum some 30 km outside Novosibirsk with its collection of old Russian, Soviet and other trains. Then continue on to a tour of Novosibirsk itself, visiting the Alexander Cathedral, Krasny Prospect and Lenin Square – where you can find Russia’s largest opera house. You will also see the city’s oldest section, with the historic Gorkogo Street, old Siberian wooden houses, Ob River embankment, and the small St Nicholas Chapel, which marked the geographic center of Russia.

Following this, enjoy some time on your own before the trip to the station, where the train will take you to Irkutsk, the next stop on your adventure. Don’t hesitate to ask our representative about the best places to sample true Siberian cuisine before you go!

Day 7 (Fri)

Siberian taiga, Russia

Said by many to be the most beautiful part of the Trans-Siberian railway, this leg will take you past the Kam, Chuna, Lya, Oka and Angara Rivers, and then to the city of Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisey River for a short 20-minute stop.

Day 8 (Sat) Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal, Russia

You will be greeted by our representative when your train arrives in Irkutsk in the morning. Then you will be taken to the world’s largest freshwater lake, the wondrous Lake Baikal, with a stop at the Taltsy Ethonographical Museum, to see preserved examples of Siberia’s classic wooden architecture.
After viewing Lake Baikal from the observation point at “Cherskiy Peak”, it’s on to a hotel for an optional lunch. Then you’ll go to the Limnological Museum, which hosts exhibits of the lake’s unique ecosystem and an aquarium with local species including the Baikal nerpa – the only species of freshwater seal in the world. Then it’s off to the St. Nicolas the Miracle-Worker Orthodox Church.

Day 9 (Sun) Irkutsk

Lake Baikal, Russia

The next morning following breakfast our driver will pick you up in a comfortable minibus or car and take you to Irkutsk where you will drop off your luggage at your hotel. Next is a city tour of sights around the city, including the Cathedral of the Holy Sign (also known as Znamensky Cathedral). The tour then concludes with a visit to Irkutsk’s Museum of the Decembrists.

Day 10 (Mon)

Mongolian steppe

In the morning, your train sets off for Ulaanbaatar on a daylong journey offering views of Lake Baikal and Siberian countryside before crossing the border into Mongolia later in the day.

Day 11 (Tue) Ulaanbaatar

Ger in Mongolian steppe

Our representative will greet you when you arrive at Ulaanbaatar in the morning. Then you’ll have breakfast at the hotel before being taken to the beautiful Gorkhi-Terelj National Park (one of the nation’s most popular attractions) and visit an Ovoo, or sacred stone heap used in Mongolian folk region as both a shrine and landmark.

You will have lunch once you reach the park and have the chance to enjoy a number of activities (extra fees apply) at the resort, including trekking, archery and horse cart riding. You will have dinner in a ger-café and sleep like a traditional Mongolian nomad in a ger.

Day 12 (Wed)

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The next morning, it’s back to Ulaanbaatar after breakfast, with a stop along the way to visit a nomadic family.
After returning to Ulaanbaatar, we will take a tour through the city’s Sukhbaatar Square, where you can see monuments to both Genghis Khan and Kublai Kahn as well as a statue of national hero Damdin Sükhbaatar. Later, we will take a trip to the Gandan Monastery, then have lunch and a tour of Mongolia’s oldest public museum, the Natural History Museum. Exhibits include the fossil skeletons of dinosaurs excavated from the Gobi Desert, and a nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs. After this, you can shop in a Mongolian department store and have dinner in one of the local restaurants before retiring to your hotel.

Day 13 (Thu)

Ovoo, Mongolia

You will transfer to the train stations after an early breakfast and catch the 8:05 train to Beijing.  The entire day and night will be spent on the train.  The scenery is engaging with plenty of beautiful valleys and mountains.  

Day 14 (Fri) Beijing

The Great Wall, Beijing, China

Once your train arrives in at the railway station in Beijing, you will be met by our representative who will take you to your hotel. Your evening will be free for you to explore and immerse yourself in this marvelous city.

Day 15 (Sat)

Forbidden City, Beijing, China

You will be taken on a tour of the city after breakfast, visiting key spots around Beijing including the Forbidden City.

Once the city tour is complete, it’s time to visit one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks and a famous symbol of Chinese civilization – the 6350 km Great Wall.

We will stop for lunch at a restaurant after your visit to the Great Wall.

Next, your experience continues with a visit to the Ming Tombs.

Day 16 (Sun)

Forbidden City, Beijing, China

After breakfast, you will check out of your hotel and have a transfer to the airport.  We hope that you enjoyed your Trans-Siberian railway adventure and are left with memories to last a lifetime.

Sightseeing

Moscow

Moscow, Russia 

With the largest urban area in Europe (as well as being the most populous city in Europe), Moscow is one ofthe largest cities in the world. The capital of Russia, as well as its cultural, political, scientific, and economic center, Moscow’s history extends back to medieval times. Moscow was a minor border town in its earliest history but was elevated in the 12th Century to the Grand Duchy of Moscow under the rulership of Prince Daniel. This Grand Duchy would continue to gain in power and influence after this, ultimately absorbing neighboring principalities over the following centuries, such as the Grand Duchy of Tver and the Novgorod Republic. Ultimately Ivan III extended the city’s territory to encompass all of the Rus’ territory, taking for himself the title of Tsar (though officially his son, known as Ivan the Terrible, was the first actual Tsar of Russia). Moscow has seen numerous wars through its history, from the Mongols to the Nazis, and has been under siege numerous times. Today a flourishing city, Moscow has an impressive metro system to facilitate visitors touring the city.

Moscow has numerous points of cultural and historical interest, notably Red Square and the Kremlin, but also St Basil’s Cathedral, over a hundred parks and gardens, the Bolshoi Theatre, Tretyakov Gallery, and the Moscow State Circus. Key architectural points include the Ostankino Tower and the Seven Sisters, a group of skyscrapers during the Stalinist period.

Yekaterinburg

Yekateribnurg, Russia

Tsar Peter the Great founded this city on the dividing line between Asian and European Russia in 1723 to facilitate the exploitation of Siberia’s vast natural resources. Named for his wife, the Empress Catherine I, Yekaterinburg is now the 2nd largest city in Siberia and is still prosperous thanks to Siberia’s mineral riches. In the wake of the Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II and the rest of the Romanov family were exiled here and held at Ipatiev House (where the Church on Blood now stands) before their execution.

Ganina Yama Monastery

Originally the site of the Four Brothers mine, the remains of the Imperial family were thrown into a pit and burned here in 1918 before being secretly moved and buried a few miles away. Throughout Soviet rule, people still clandestinely came to pay their respects to Tsar’s family and in 1991 a memorial cross was set on this spot. The monastery was constructed in 2000, and now includes seven churches.

Church of All Saints

This church, known also as the Church on Blood in Honor of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land, was built on the former site of Ipatiev House, where the Romanovs were held after being exiled to Yekaterinburg after the Russian Revolution, and where they were later executed. A memorial at the church includes sculptures representing the family’s final walk to execution and a memorial alter on the murder site itself, as well as an exhibit dedicated to the final days of the Imperial family.

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk, Russia

Novosibirsk was founded in 1893 at the Trans-Siberian Railway’s planned crossing point over the Ob River. The city saw explosive growth after the completion of the railroad, and rapidly became a major industrial city. It reached a population of a million people by 1962, making it at the time the youngest city in the world to meet that milestone. During the Soviet era, a secret town of scientists and researchers called Akademgorodok was founded about 30 km south of city center. Some 65000 scientists and family members lived in this hidden town in its prime. The collapse of the Soviet Union dealt a heavy blow to the town’s economy, but private investment in the 1990’s helped to rebuild it and today the town is still a major educational and research hub. With some 300 technology companies operating in the town, Akademgorodok has earned the nickname Silicon Forest.

St. Nicholas Chapel

This chapel was built in 1915 on what was considered to be the geographic center of the Russian Empire. While the original chapel was demolished in the 1930’s, it was rebuilt on the site in 1993 for the city’s 100-year anniversary.

Open-Air Train Museum

Also called the Museum for Railway Technology Novosibirsk, the museum was founded in 2000 by Nikolai Akulinin, a retired railway worker. This is the 2nd largest transportation museum in Russia, after the Central Railway Museum in St Petersburg, and includes 60 exhibits including steam, diesel, and electric locomotives. Most of the exhibits are Russian or Soviet, but some from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and even the United States are included. Leon Trotsky’s private train car is among the collection as well.

Akademgorodok

Built originally as a secret town of research scientists and their families, Akademgorodok is today a major research and educational center in Novosibirsk. Some 40 research institutes are located here, employing as many as 100,000 people.

Irkutsk

Lake Baikal, Russia

Irkutsk began as a 17th Century gold-trading settlement which also served to collect the fur tax from the local Buryats. When the first road was constructed to Moscow in 1760, trade brought a number of luxuries and other items to the town for the first time. About 60 years later, the town was the seat of the Governor-General of East Siberia, and it later received an influx of exiled elites from St. Petersburg involved in the Decembrist revolt. As a consequence, the city developed a surprisingly rich cultural and intellectual life which continues to this day, with a large number of museums and scientific institutes.

Taltsy Ethnographic Museum

Also called Taltsy Village, this unique open-air museum covers 67 hectares near Listvyanka and showcases over 40 preserved buildings including a watermill, a 17th Century watchtower, two churches, and various farms and peasant homes. The museum also includes 8000 exhibits relating to daily life in Siberia in the 17th to 19th Centuries. Regular folk festivals are also hosted here.

Museum of the Decembrists

Located in the Volkonsky Mansion, the former home of one of the aristocratic families exiled to Irkutsk in the wake of the failed Decembrist revolt, this museum showcases the lives of the Trubetskoy and Volkonsky families and the events of their exile. Of special note is a monument to the wives of the Decembrists who left behind everything to follow their husbands into exile.

Cathedral of the Holy Sign

Known also as Znamensky Monastery, this holy site has a towering iconostasis, a sarcophagus containing holy relics, and a beautifully ornate interior. The graveyard holds the grave of Grigory Shelekhov, who claimed Alaska for Russia, as well as a number of Decembrists.

Listvyanka

Listvyanka is a small town of wooden, Siberian-style houses on the shore of Lake Baikal. Some 70 km from Irkutsk, it has a population of fewer than 2000 people. Among its places of interest are the Taltsy Village, an open-air museum of various preserved examples of wooden buildings, and the Baikal Limnology Museum, showcasing the ecology and history of the lake. This town is also home to a handful of sacred sites, including the Church of St Nicholas, Shaman Rock, and the Obo (sacred for the Buryat people who live in the region). The town features a number of shops selling local crafts and souvenirs to visitors.

Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar holds half the population of the country, over a million people, and accounts for two-thirds of the nation’s GDP. While there was a nomadic Buddhist center on this site at the joining of the Tuul and Selbe Rivers from as early as the 17th Century, it changed location frequently. A permanent settlement didn’t exist until 1778. Sitting on a windswept plateau, the city is noted for its severe winters and for being the coldest capital city in the world.

Sukhbaatar Square

Renamed briefly to Chinggis Square in honor of Genghis Khan in 2013, Sukhbaatar Square is the central square of Ulaanbaatar. Named for national hero Damdin Sükhbaatar, the square once held his tomb and now features an equestrian statue of him.

Gandan Monastery

The Gandantegchinlen Monastery, known more commonly simply as Gandan Monastery, was one of only a few such monasteries to escape destruction in the 1930’s, when the Stalin-esque leader Khorloogiin Choibalsan led purges which killed some 35000 Mongolians, including 15000 lamas. Closed during this period, it reopened in 1944, and is today the largest Buddhist monastery in the city with some 150 monks residing there. The monastery features the largest indoor statue in the world, a 26 meter statue of Avalokitesvara.

Natural History Museum

Established in 1924 as the National Museum, the Natural History Museum has over 6000 specimens in its collection, including a nearly complete Tarbosaurus skeleton and a set of Protoceratops eggs. Museum sections include geography, biography, paleontology, and anthropology, and the displays showcase a number of species found in Mongolia including the snow leopard and red wolf.

Beijing

Beijing, China

Beijing is the most populous capital city in the world, with over 21 million people. One of the oldest cities in the world, Beijing is over three thousand years old and has an impressive array of cultural and religious sites, including seven UNESCO World Heritage sites (the Great Wall, Grand Canal, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs, Zhoukoudian, and the Forbidden City). The city has been the nation’s political center for over eight centuries, as well as its cultural and educational hub, and is one of the world’s major economic centers.

The Ming Tombs

The Thirteen Tombs of the Ming Dynasty, also called simply the Ming Tombs, are a group of Imperial tombs dating from the 15th through the 17th Centuries. They are located over a 25 square mile area in Beijing’s Changping District, just under 30 miles north of city center. Currently, three of the tombs are open to the public – Dingling (the only one to have been excavated), Changling and Zhaoling.

The Great Wall

Walls along the northern border of China began to be built as early as the 7th Century BC, protecting the borders of various ancient Chinese states. However, when a unified China was built by the ascension the first Qin emperor (Qin Shi Huang) in 221 BC, the wall sections which divided the formerly separate states were ordered destroyed. The remaining wall sections (those actually on the northern border) were to be joined into a single, long wall. Few of these walls, made mostly from rammed earth, remain. Later dynasties would rebuild or expand sections of the wall, but it was the Ming dynasty that created the most famous sections of the Great Wall known today.

The Forbidden City

This 15th Century palace served as the imperial residence of 24 emperors and was the seat of government for over 500 years, beginning in 1420 (during the reign of the third Ming emperor) until the end of the Quing dynasty in 1924. Now a World Heritage site, the palace consists of some 980 buildings and covers approximately 178 acres and sees some 14 million visitors each year.

Prices and Terms

Low Season Nov 1st - Apr 30th
1st class
  1 $7474
  2 $5020
  3 - 4 $4620
  5 - 6 $4281
single supplement $503
2nd class
  1 $6789
  2 $4335
  3 - 4 $3935
  5 - 6 $3596
single supplement $503
High Season May 1st - Oct 30th
1st class
  1 $7751
  2 $5297
  3 - 4 $4897
  5 - 6 $4558
single supplement $503
2nd class
  1 $6961
  2 $4507
  3 - 4 $4107
  5 - 6 $3769
single supplement $503

Prices are per person based on double occupancy in a specific hotel. If you travel in a group but decide to stay in a single room, please add the single supplement to the price. We offer discounts for groups of 7 or more. To inquire about group rates, please contact us.

Please note:

Train fares and schedules are subject to change without notice and the program may be slightly changed in this event. However, this will not influence the quality of the services and we will do our best to make your trip unforgettable!

Regular trains are used for these tours. On these trains, there is no WC your individual cabins and no shower on board. A different train is used for each leg of your journey. There is no guide accompanying you during your time on the train. A new guide will meet you by the train on arrival in each city and they will  accompany you back to the train station on the last day in that particular city.

Every effort will be made to adhere to tour pricing, however, currency fluctuation is beyond our control and may affect final costs.

Prices include:

  • Transfers airport to hotel / hotel to airport or train station to hotel / hotel to train station;
  • Train tickets 1st (2-berth compartment*) or 2nd class (4-berth compartment);**
  • Russian visa invitation (single entry).
  • Bilingual guide for all programs (Russian/English);
  • Accommodation in 3 star hotesl, DBL, B&B;
  • Excursions according to programs;
  • Entrance tickets to museums.;
  • Free visa invitation - the document necessary for obtaining a Russian visa when applying for one at the local Russian Consulate in your country. PLEASE NOTE: your passport should be valid for no less than 6 months after the planned departure from Russia and it should have at least 2 blank pages. The process of applying for a visa may take a long time and we recommend that you start the process 3 months before your trip. In case you are booking the trip last minute, we recommend that you check with the Russian Consulate in your country to determine if you have enough time for the visa application process. In case you have to cancel your trip because of visa issues, our standard cancellation policy will be applied.

Single compartment in the train is available on request

Not included:

  • Meals and snacks not listed in the program or listed as “optional”;
  • Visa fees levied by the Russian, Mongolian and/or Chinese Embassies. For US, UK and Canadian citizens, our company offers Full Visa Support. With Full Visa Support, you send your passport and other documentation to us or our visa agent and we obtain the Russian visa for you.
  • International airfare. Our Russian tours are offered as land only.  Please arrange your own airfare and we will meet you at the airport and handle everything else on the ground in Russia.
  • Fee for oversized and overweight luggage;
  • Travel insurance. We highly recommend to purchase travel insurance before embarking on your trip to Russia. It’s always good to have extra protection while traveling far from home. Click here to learn more.
  • Tips.

Payment policy:

To book a tour, a 30% deposit is required at the time of booking. The trip must be fully paid 61 days before departure.

Cancellation policy:

  • 61 or more days before departure - a fee equal to 15% of the entire package will be charged.
  • 60-15 days before departure - a fee equal to 30% of the entire package will be charged.
  • 14 days or less before departure or no-show - a fee equal to 100% of the package will be charged.
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