Dublin to Asia overland advice

shuffles03

Has anyone ever done this? Would you recommend it? If so, would you book it yourself or use a trusted company (uktooz.com)?

I'm looking at travelling for a year and think that this would be a once in a lifetime trip. Everyone I know who has travelled around the world all seem to take the same route ie fly to bangkok etc etc etc which is a really good route but you miss most of the world on your initial flight. I figure, if I'm going to travel around the world, I'd love to see everything along the way. These trips are expensive though (€5,000-€6,000) so that's why I'm also posting this question. I'm going into Usit today to ask them about such a trip (they advertised a Dublin to Oz trip by land last year but it's now gone from their site). Am I mad to o this?

shuffles03

I just found the link on Usit/ie for the Dublin to Sydney by bus tour (it was hidden) and it's gone way up in price.

http://www.usit.ie/holidays/australia/dublin-to-sydney-by-bus

€7,000 for 13 weeks is ridiculous!

Maybe if I'm going to think about this type of trip, someone like uktooz would be a better option?

http://www.uktooz.com/odyssey.asp

Badgermonkey

Firstly, well done on examining alternatives to the usual flights. Travelling overland gives you time to appreciate the changes in landscape, culture and language and makes for an incomparably richer experience.

See website below, possible to travel from London to China by train, then on down into Vietnam, stopping off when you want.

Lots of logistical planning involved but it's very doable and there are specialist agencies to assist in bookings if the logistics are too onerous.

http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm

dory

My brother went Ireland - Bangkok over land. Across Europe - Russia - Mongolia - China - Vietnam and then down into Asia.

Those USIT trip are very expensive because you're paying someone else to organize everything for you. It'll be more of an adventure and cheaper to go it alone. Those group tours can also go to countries that may be a bit risky to do solo.

shuffles03

@dory

How long did your brother go for and do you know what his total cost was including spending money? I've spent the whole wkend looking at this type of trip and really want to do it now.

Usit's trip is far too expensive (only 3 months as well) whereas uktooz is the same price but 6 months. Doubt I could justify the cost though as it's excluding spending money plus they only go at certain times of the year. I'd say my only problem booking it myself would be that I mightn't get to see a lot of the countries that these tours go through due to logistics etc.

shuffles03

I've come across a few good sites for info on trains etc like this one:

Seat61: http://seat61.com/

There's also a good few blogs out there from people who have completed the trip. Tuktotheroad is a good read for anyone interested in this type of trip. The journey is in reverse but basically, 2 girls drove a tuk tuk from Thailand back to the UK for a charity. Here's a link to it:

http://tuktotheroad.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html

I'm starting to slowly build up a picture now. I've got 2 possible routes I think.

A. Travel up to Moscow and get the train all the way to China and work my way down into Thailand, Indonesia.

B. Follow a similar route to the ones used by the tours ie. across europe, India etc.

Option B looks more fun but I think it could be logistically hard especially with visas for some of those places.

shuffles03

What do you think of one of these routes?

http://seat61.com/SilkRoute.htm

studiorat

I know a few people who did this : http://www.transsib.com/

Wintertime with stop-offs take about two weeks. About €650, €1,000 for First Class.

London to Moscow Via Berlin is about £200

Dublin to London is about fifty quid.

shuffles03

Cheers for the info, this is really helping me out loads!!

shuffles03

This site's quite good too:

http://www.flightlesstravel.com/

gowldoleer

Hi

I did some of this trip a few years back, summer 2007. I flew to Berlin, and took a train to Moscow and then the trans-siberian (or trans-mongolian its sometimes called) train to Ulan-Bator (or Ulaanbaatar as the Mongolians call it). It was a fantastic trip and I would highly recommend it.

The train is full of people from all over the world, in my carriage there were dutch, french, polish, mongolians and russians. You spend several days on the train with only brief 10min-2hour stops, so you get to know your neighbours pretty well by the time you arrive!

The Berlin-Moscow leg cost me 135 euro. I got a friend to buy it in Berlin but I believe you can get it from Deutche Bahn, they have a UK office which might be handier. The trans-siberian leg cost me approx 240 euro for a non stop ticket 2nd class. I booked with a Russian travel agency: http://www.sv-agency.udm.ru/ . I had to pay them by money transfer which was a little unnerving as you have no comeback in that situation. But they have a good reputation online and the price included an "invitation" which you need when applying for a russian visa.

One tip: when applying for a russian visa, give your intended date of leaving russia as later than you actually intend. Otherwise you could get delayed en route, miss your exit date, and end up having to run around paying fines and getting forms stamped!

best of luck with the trip

Colm

Mr. Loverman

gowldoleer wrote: »

Hi

I did some of this trip a few years back, summer 2007. I flew to Berlin, and took a train to Moscow and then the trans-siberian (or trans-mongolian its sometimes called) train to Ulan-Bator (or Ulaanbaatar as the Mongolians call it). It was a fantastic trip and I would highly recommend it.

The train is full of people from all over the world, in my carriage there were dutch, french, polish, mongolians and russians. You spend several days on the train with only brief 10min-2hour stops, so you get to know your neighbours pretty well by the time you arrive!

The Berlin-Moscow leg cost me 135 euro. I got a friend to buy it in Berlin but I believe you can get it from Deutche Bahn, they have a UK office which might be handier. The trans-siberian leg cost me approx 240 euro for a non stop ticket 2nd class. I booked with a Russian travel agency: http://www.sv-agency.udm.ru/ . I had to pay them by money transfer which was a little unnerving as you have no comeback in that situation. But they have a good reputation online and the price included an "invitation" which you need when applying for a russian visa.

One tip: when applying for a russian visa, give your intended date of leaving russia as later than you actually intend. Otherwise you could get delayed en route, miss your exit date, and end up having to run around paying fines and getting forms stamped!

best of luck with the trip

Colm

Hi Colm

I am thinking of doing something similar.

The train from Berlin to Moscow, did you go through Belarus?

How long did the train take?

Thanks

gowldoleer

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

Hi Colm

I am thinking of doing something similar.

The train from Berlin to Moscow, did you go through Belarus?

How long did the train take?

Thanks

Just saw your post now...

Yes you go through Belarus on the way from Berlin to Moscow, for which you need a transit visa. Berlin to Moscow is an overnight trip with a stop at 4am to change change the wheels on the train to the russian gauge. works out at around 20 hours I think. Moscow to Ulan Bator is 5 days.

A good website for this stuff is www.seat61.com

hope this helps
Colm

No.2

Guys,

I was thinking about doing this in December and planning on Berlin-Moscow-Beijing, stopping in either Ulan Bator or Irkutsk. Would any of you having been there anyone recommend one over the other?

Mr. Loverman

I have just spent over two months travelling from Dublin to Beijing by land. I am now in Beijing and (probably) will stay in China for a few years.

This was my trip:

Dublin -> Cherbourg by boat
Cherbourg -> Paris by train
Paris -> Berin by train
Berlin -> Moscow by train (via Belarus)

I spent one month in Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Ekaterinaberg, Irkusk, Olkhon Island).

I spent one month in Mongolia (UB and the countryside).

Now I'm in Beijing.

Ask me any specific questions if you want...