Alone across Russia

The_Daddy_H

Has anybody here any experience taking the Trans-Siberian across Russia?

I'm in the early stages of planning a grand world tour and would like to do most of it by land if possible. Conceivably I would take trains from London to St. Petersberg then the trans-S across Russia-Siberia-Mongolia-Beijing. Then Beijing-Hong-Kong and on to S.E. asia.

There are a number of tour companies which offer some sort of packages like a month across Russia with various stop offs and activities, anybody experienced anything like this?

dory

Russia is my next must see place!

A friend of mine did the whole tour thing. Said she paid €1000 for a month. That was Russia/China/Mongolia. I've had trouble finding as a good a price though. She didn't like it because the tour guide was inexperienced, didn't speak a word of Russian and made it very stressful, so maybe if you got a good tour guide it would be good? Almost certain she went with Intrepid. By the way, they later fired the guide due to the feedback given by her group!

I want to do it solo though. Maybe meet some people along the way. It's all about luck though. If I don't meet people then as a solo female I'm in trouble; I wouldn't go to a bar alone and stuff.

From what I've heard, learning a few words in Russian is important, and also being able to recognise the words for toilet, retaurant etc.

Gaz

Book it yourself, its way cheaper. I went from Bejing to UlanBator for 70 euros, stopped in Mongolia for two weeks then got the train from UB to Moscow for 120 euros. Its a great trip , sorting out the visa is the only headache.

Oh and make sure to learn the cyrillic alphabet, its really helps.

jackbhoy

As Gaz says definitely book yourself as some tour companies charge multiples of actual ticket value.

We started our trip by going overland from Midlands to Hong Kong. The only parts you should really book in advance are the Eurostar and Die Bahn trains. If you book these 90 days in advance you'll get very good discount e.g. our sleeper from Cologne to Warsaw cost us 46e but 2 days later it was 100+.

Buying tickets in Russian stations can be bit of headache as staff generally don't speak any English and are not most helpful, however if you get someone from hostel to write down exactly train no/date/class in Cyrillic then you'll be OK. To give you an idea of costs; we paid following (in October/November) buying at stations:
- Moscow -> Irkutsk c75 e for Plastkartney/3rd class (def most interesting way to go!)
Irkutsk -> Ulan Bator c70 e for 2nd class (3rd class sold out)
Ulan Bator -> 70 e for 2nd class (3rd class sold out, again) (Mongolia is amazing btw, give it a couple of weeks if you can)

Regarding safety I'd say most places in Russia are as safe as Dublin/Cork/Limerick and if you use same cop on as you would when out there you'll be fine. On the trains I would recommend going Platskartny (3 rd class), not only is it much cheaper, fairly comfortable and great way to meet real Russian/Mongolian people but I think its much safer. We were only western tourists on the whole 6/7 Platskartny carriages so we were adopted by all the old babushkas who fed us, watched our stuff and were basically our mammies for 4 days! Thieves generally target 1st/2nd class where all tourists are plus its much harder for some chancer to rob your stuff with a posse of hard ass Russian grannies watching out for you

As always seat 61 is great site for any overland travel, http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm

Hope this helps.

RATM

Alternatively you can get a Ryanair cheapie to Tampere in Finland from where you can get a train to St.Petersburg. If you are on a budget this is a good way to start as you avoid the more expensive European trains.

OP make sure to allow plenty of time for getting your visas, especially the Russian one.

Would agree with other that independent is the way to go - I paid around $220 for Moscow to Beijing ( stopped at Lake Baikal and Ulan Bator ) a few years back. Others in my carraige had paid London travel agents nearly £700 for the same trip:eek:

The_Daddy_H

Thanks for the responses. They've given me a lot to think about.

Valmont

I hope to do this trip in 2010 so thanks for the advice. I was going to avoid Mongolia but everyone seems to have great things to say about it here. I definitely want to go to Vladivostock though.