NIGHTS
Sample the wonders Beijing has to offer as you walk the cobbled pathways of the Forbidden Palace, climb the Great Wall of China and wander where ancient armies marched.
For more information about touring China, including extra services for Beijing, please visit our China pages.
Make your own way to Beijing Railway Station to check in for the train to Ulaanbaatar and settle into your four-berth compartment. Departure times can change each year, or seasonally. We can confirm the time when booking. Yes, we can get a hotel near the train station.
Please read the notes regarding cabin arrangements.
NIGHTS
On board train. Break out that large novel – War and Peace or Dr Zhivago – or set up a travel chess set! Expect to share a vodka with your Russian fellow travellers, too.
NIGHTS
Arrive Moscow. You will be met and transferred to homestay for three nights.
Today, Russia’s capital, once the heart of global Communism, is one of the world’s richest and most dynamic cities.
Your three-hour introductory walking tour may include the reconstructed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Lomonosov University, the New Virgin Monastery and Red Square with its colourful St. Basil’s Cathedral. As well there are the notorious former KGB headquarters and the White House.
Moscow is now a city much changed from the Soviet era, but its many surviving examples of architecture complement its thriving theatre and arts and for those so disposed, Moscow has museums to satisfy any interest.
NIGHTS
End of Moscow arrangements. However, it is highly recommended that you add on an extension to St Petersburg.
A whistle-stop express journey on the world’s greatest railway, a journey linking two great, if contrasting cultures… from Beijing north across the Mongolian steppes, then westbound across the endless forests of Siberia to Moscow (and St Petersburg, if desired). Recommended for travellers with severe time constraints.
The direction of this itinerary is Westward (East to West) Beijing TO Moscow or St Petersburg. .
The itinerary detailed here uses the standard train and is for more independent travellers. If you prefer different levels of travel comfort, do consider our luxury private train options.
We have been operating a wide variety of independent programmes and tours into Russia since 1989, starting with university language study groups. As Russia opened up we introduced Trans Siberian train journeys at a real price. We were the first to introduce homestay accommodation. Others were paying high costs while our clients were paying low cost! Same bed, same cabin!
All this experience results in
You will also notice our name is referenced in most of the guidebooks relating to these areas. In fact we have helped many of the Lonely Planet guidebook authors travel around Russia.