Trans-Siberian railway tour. Summer 2023

Highlights

The Trans-Siberian railway is 9288 kilometers of railroad, 146 railway stations, and 146 hours and 22 minutes ride on a train, but for you it would become the greatest journey of a lifetime that will be filled with your own numbers and emotions.

During this travel you’ll be able to:

• get acquainted with the Trans-Siberian railway - the main one of the modern Russian wonders
• learn about cultures and religions of 5 nationalities living on the territory of Russia
• explore Moscow city through the eyes of local residents
• have an adventure in Altai, its stunning pristine nature and breathtaking landscapes.
• get amazed by charming Baikal lake

Itinerary

Day 1. Welcome to Russia!

A guide will meet you in the airport and give you a ride to the hotel, where you’ll have some rest before starting your Trans-Siberian tour!

Day 2. Moscow

The Moscow Kremlin is the main symbol of Russia. This is where you will start exploring the largest country in the world. Russian tsars used to live here, now it’s a president’s residence.
Throughout all of the russian history, the most beautiful buildings were constructed around the Kremlin. After you get to know some of them, we will show you a local restaurant where you can enjoy traditional Russian cuisine.
After lunch we’ll continue our walking tour around the city center and you’ll see the Red Square, Lenin’s mausoleum, St. Basil’s Cathedral (from the outside), the GUM department store and the State Historical Museum. Also, we’ll guide you through the alleyways and little yards that are filled with real city life.

Day 3. Moscow

The main art gallery of Moscow is the Tretyakov Art Gallery. The most famous Russian paintings and masterpieces are exhibited here. The guide will meet you at the hotel to give you a tour.
The next attraction points of the day are amazing Moscow subway stations (photos of these stations are known all over the world). A few times we will go outside from the underground to see the Stalin’s era skyscrapers.
In the evening you’ll enjoy dinner with a native family (local products, the traditional meal, and friendly chat).
After dinner we will drive you to the railway station where you’ll take a night train to Kazan.

Day 4. Kazan

One of the greatest things in the Trans-Siberian journey is the opportunity to see the different cultures, religions, arts coexisting peacefully within the borders of one country.
Yesterday you were in the native Slavic Moscow, with its Orthodox churches. Today you’ll get acquainted with Tatar Russia: the architecture of its Muslim mosques, Tatar traditions that differ from Moscow’s.
Our guide will meet you on the railway station and help you with a check-in. Your Kazan city tour starts here. First, you’ll have a walk along the pedestrian Baumana Street, paved with multicolored bricks.
Then you’ll visit the Kazan Kremlin area (Don’t be puzzled. Yes, Kazan has its own Kremlin. And a very interesting one, too). In 2000, it was assigned as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
The Kremlin is surrounded by fascinating buildings: Suyumbike Tower, Kul-Sharif Mosque, Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral.
Our guide will tell you their history and help you to understand the special historical path of Tatarstan.

Day 5. Kazan — TransSiberian

Photographer Ruslan Galeev One of the most known Russian Tsars, Ivan the Terrible, built the Sviyazhsk fortress on the small island near the confluence of Sviyaga and Volga rivers. The construction had only taken four weeks. The Tsar used it to launch the attack and successfully conquer Kazan.
Now the Sviyazhsk is a historical place that keeps a memory of the annexation of the Tatarstan to Russia. There are a few white-stone monasteries on the island.
Sviyazhsk is absolutely in the must-see list of any Trans-Siberian journey.

Attractions to visit today:

• John the Baptist (Ioanno-Predtechenskiy) Monastery of 1551. There is the Temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh on the monastery land where the Icon of the Mother of All Who Sorrow is exhibited.
• Holy Dormition (Uspenskiy) Monastery with the St. Nicholas Chapel.
• the Monument to Victims of Political Repression (during the Soviet era Sviyazhsk was used as a detention center for political prisoners).
• Lazy Torzhok amusement park, where you can try on tsar attire or prisoner's clothes, try yourself on axe throwing and enjoy a local cuisine after.

In the evening we will drive you to the railway station where you’ll have a train to the next Trans-Siberian station: Yekaterinburg.

Day 6. Yekaterinburg — Trans-Siberian

Today is a special day. You’ll cross the invisible border that separates Europe from Asia. This border is located in Yekaterinburg city - the fourth-largest in Russia.

Our city tour starts with visiting the Church on the Blood. There are seven wooden churches that were built there in memory of the assassination of Tsar Nicholas' family. Our guide will tell you the story of the last Russian tsar.

After you’ll visit the most fascinating places of the city:

• panoramic Iset River view,
• the historic Grand Square of 1905,
• the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky and the Holy Trinity Cathedral,
• the Europe-Asia monument.

In the evening you will take a Trans-Siberian train to the Novosibirsk city.

Day 7. Trans-Siberian - Novosibirsk

Photographer Ruslan Galeev Today you will ride from the Ural part of Russia to the Western Siberia and pass many small cities. The biggest and most known of them are Tyumen and Omsk.
In the evening you’ll arrive in Novosibirsk city. Here our guide will drive you to the hotel, and recommend you some nice places to enjoy local food for dinner.

Day 8. Novosibirsk - Gorno-Altaisk

Many interesting places are located along the Trans-Siberian railroad. Altai mountains is one of them. Early in the morning we will drive you to the Novosibirsk airport, where you’ll take an S7 airline flight to Gorno-Altaisk city. There you’ll explore one of the most beautiful natural areas of Russia.
Our Altai guide will meet you at the airport and drive you to the hotel, located in the Chemal area.
After lunch, you’ll have an excursion to the Chemal area, where you'll visit the picturesque Island of Patmos and walk by the mountain trail along the Katun river. Then we'll drive you to the place called Chech-Kysh, where you will be able to see the prehistoric petroglyphs (cave paintings) and visit the viewpoint of the Katun river valley.

Day 9. Chemal - Inegen

Today you’ll get acquainted with the Chuyskiy Trakt, or Chuya Highway. Chuya Highway is one of the most scenic roads in the world. Landmarks along the road are stunning. And in the next three days you’ll be able to explore it in all its glory. We will have a drive almost to the Mongolian border (from low mountains to mountains covered with glaciers).
After the early breakfast we’ll cover 230 kilometers in a day.

• We will go through Seminsky mountain pass (1717 m high) and Chike-Taman mountain crossing. The latter one is not as high as the former; however, its steep hillside is impressive.
• Visit the Karakol valley. Here you’ll see pazyryk burial mounds and learn about skiff culture.
• enjoy the view of the confluence of Chuya and Katun rivers. These rivers are of different colour; in a place where they get mixed together, you can relish picturesque paints of turquoise whirls.

Tonight you'll stay in a small hotel on the Katun river bank, at the very bottom of a mountain, where it is calm and quiet.

Day 10. Inegen

After an early breakfast at the hotel, you'll have a radial road trip. Today you’ll see 3 amazing landmarks:

• multicoloured mountains of the Kyzyl-Chin known as ‘the Martian mountains’;
• the colourful patterns at the bottom of the Geyser lake;
• a panorama of Kurai steppe and glacier mountains of the North-Chuya range;

Day 11. Inegen - Ust-Sema

The Chuya highway has many dirt roads adjacent to it that could lead you to amazing places. These places are only known to local inhabitants. There are quite a few discoveries waiting for us. Today we are going to show you a couple of them:

• The first one is called Kalbak-Tash. It’s a rock with 5 thousands paintings made by ancient humans who inhabited these places thousands of years ago. These paintings will tell you about the insights of ancient artists about the human soul, hell and paradise and many many other things.
• The second stop will be to visit the Ilgumen river rapids, the exciting and powerful place.

In the evening you’ll stay in a hotel near the Ust-Sema village.

Day 12. Ust-Sema - Novosibirsk - Trans-Siberian

After breakfast we will drive you to the Gorno-Altaysk airport, where you’ll have a flight back to Novosibirsk.
Novosibirsk is called “The Capital of Siberia”, the cultural and scientific center of Siberia. The city was developed after the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway and has grown to be the third-largest city in Russia.

To get you acquainted with the city, we will guide you through its main tourist attractions:

• The locomotive museum, where you’ll learn the history of Trans-Siberian railway, see the steam engines and locomotives of different eras and different types of train cars (including the Royal family carriages).
• Lenin square - the main city square of Novosibirsk.
• The Chapel of St Nicholas — the geographical centre of Russia
• A Monument to the Heroes of the Revolution (a memorial of the Soviet age)
• The Monument of the Bridge, whichis a part of the real old Trans-Siberian rail bridge

In the evening you’ll get on a Trans-Siberian train to the next railway station.

Day 13. Trans-Siberian day

Photographer Ruslan Galeev The next stop of the itinerary is Irkutsk city. But a train will arrive there only tomorrow morning. So today you enjoy a whole day of Trans-siberian railway ride.

Day 14. Irkutsk - Baikal

Early in the morning you will arrive in Irkutsk city. Our guide will meet you at the station.
Today you’ll get to the village of Taltsy, where you’ll visit the open air museum of wooden architecture. Here you’ll see a unique collection of historical, architectural and ethnographic Siberian monuments of the last six centuries. Next we’ll drive you to Listvyanka, where the Baikal Museum is located. Here you’ll learn everything about lake Baikal: the origin of the lake Baikal, its plants and animals, underwater exhibition, etc. On the funicular chair, you'll be lifted to the "Chersky stone" mountain, where you'll enjoy a beautiful view of Baikal.

Tonight you'll stay in Listvyanka.

Day 15. Circum - Baikal Railroad

Early morning we will drive you to thepoint, where starting a whole day CircumBaikal Railroad tour. Arrival in Listvyanka hotel at around 8. In the evening we return to Irkutsk, where you’ll have a train to the Ulan-Ude city.

Day 16. Ulan-Ude

Early in the morning we will meet you and drive to the hotel, where you’ll have some time to rest. Then your tour in the Ulan-Ude surrounding area starts.
This area is populated by Buryats - another nationality in multi-ethnic Russia.
The most interesting objects of Buryat culture and religion are located in the countryside.
Today we will guide you to the Ivolginsky Datsan and the village of Tarbagatay. The patron of the Datsan is Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov.
In 1927, Lama Itigelov fell into deep meditation and reached nirvana. He sat in the Lotus position and abandoned his body, telling his disciples to bury him, but to take him out of the grave 70 years later. The disciples followed his instructions and now, so many years after the "death", Lama Itigelov’s mummified body still sits in the Lotus pose in the main Dugan (temple) of the Ivolginsky datsan.
It still shows the signs of a living body: soft skin without signs of decay, preserved nose, ears, closed eyes (his eyeballs are intact), fingers and elbow joints are still flexible.
In the evening you’ll have some free time.

Day 17 Ulan-Ude - Trans-Siberian

Photographer Ruslan Galeev After breakfast we continue the Ulan-Ude city tour. You’ll see the beautiful Opera and Ballet theatre, powerful monuments of horse riders of Buryat history, Mother-Buryatia monument.
After lunch you’ll have a train to Vladivostok city.

Day 18, 19 Trans-Siberian days

These two days you’ll spend in a train riding through the East part of Russia. There will be many villages and small cities along the way. The biggest ones are Khabarovsk and Chita.

Day 20 Vladivostok

A train arrives to Vladivostok in the morning. It’s the last point of your Trans-Siberian travel (today you’ll visit “the last milestone of the Trans-Siberian Railway”). The city is located on the hills on the coast of the sea of Japan.

During the day tour you’ll see the Central Square and the Monument to the Fighters for Soviet Power in the Far East. You’ll visit the S-56 Submarine and Pacific Navy War Memorials, Arsenev Regional Museum, Yul Brynner’s House and the Public Garden. The last sight of the day will be the Eagle’s Nest Hill (the highest point of the city). From here you’ll take a look at Vladivostok in all its glory!

Day 21 Depart

Your Trans-Siberian tour is over.
We hope that our tour has helped you to explore the diversity of Russian culture, and memories and emotions will stay with you for many years.
We will drive you to the airport according to the flight departure time.

The cost includes:

• Train tickets (2nd class compartments, 4 people in compartment),
• Accommodation in 3* or 4* hotels with breakfast
• Private Guide services ,
• Cultural sights,
• Transfer according to the program.

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