Arrival in Moscow. Transfer to your hotel in Moscow. Free time in the city: although if you arrive in the morning and have energy we can organise an excursion for this day.

 Breakfast at the hotel.

  Walking tour around central Moscow. The highlights of the tour:

• Red Square – the country’s main square where St Basil’s Cathedral is located.
• GUM – one of the most famous shopping centres in the country with beautiful architecture and a unique layout.
• Lenin’s Mausoleum – the resting place of the founder of the USSR.
• Aleksandrovsky Gardens – pretty gardens running along the Kremlin with several interesting monuments.
• Christ the Saviour Cathedral - the largest cathedral in Russia with a capacity of 10000 people.
• Tomb of Unkown Soldier - which contains the remains of a Soviet soldier who died in December 1941 defending Moscow

The tour will also include visits to:

• Moscow Kremlin – the main fortress of Russia and the residence of the Russian president. Your excursion will include visits to the Kremlin’s cathedrals.
• Moscow Metro - the most beautiful metro in the world. The excursion will visit some of the most stunning stations.

 Duration: 8 hours |  Transportation: by metro

 Breakfast in the hotel.

 Free time in Moscow. You can spend this day either exploring Moscow by yourself or by ordering an additional excursion, including an excursion outside of Moscow.

 Transfer to the railway station.

 Departure on the Rossia Train. 

 On this day you will pass through Vladimir, one of the most beautiful cities of the Golden Ring, and the old and significant city of Nizhny Novgorod.

 Day and night on the train.

• On this day you will pass through Vladimir, one of the most beautiful cities of the Golden Ring, and the old and significant city of Nizhny Novgorod.
• Perm – an interesting city in the Ural Region which has become a centre of modern art. Also, just outside the city is the only the only GULAG museum in the country located in what was once a prison.
• After Perm you cross the Europe-Asia border and enter Asia. In the night you will arrive in the next big city - Yekaterinburg - a major Russian city which is considered the capital of the Urals. It was here that Emperor Nicholas II and his family were executed.

 Day and night on the train.

• On this day you will pass through Tyumen - one of the oldest cities in Siberia and now the oil and gas capital of Siberia.
• Omsk – the second largest city of Siberia. Here the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky spent four years of his life in prison.
• The next stop is Novosibirsk which is considered the capital of Siberia and Russia’s third city by population. It is a real modern megalopolis in the heart of Siberia. Local time is Moscow time plus three hours, but on your train, it is still Moscow time! The route between Omsk and Novosibirsk is one of the busiest stretches of railway in the world.

 Day and night on the train.

• Today you will pass through Krasnoyarsk – a major Siberian city situated on the banks of the beautiful River Yenisey surrounded by picturesque hills.
• In the evening the train will stop at the small station of Taishet, where the Baikal-Amur Railway, another great railway line of Russia, starts.

 Day and night on the train.

• Next up is Irkutsk which is often called the Paris of Siberia. It is the largest city located close to Lake Baikal, which is just 64km away. Approximately an hour after leaving Irkutsk you will reach the deepest lake in the world. The train will pass along the coastline for 207km. You should though get a chance to buy Baikal omul – a fish which can only be found in the lake and considered a local delicacy.
• Your train on this day will also pass through the Republic of Buryatia and its capital Ulan Ude, which is a centre of Buddhism in the Asian part of Russia. The Buryats have their own language, culture and cuisine.
• In the night there will be a short stop in Chita, which is associated with the Decembrists who were exiled here for their participation in the uprising of 1825. The train then continues through steppe and then between small hills.

 Day and night on the train.

• On this day you won't pass through any large cities as you continue travelling through the part of Russia known as Zabaikalye, which literally means ‘beyond Baikal’. One of the more interesting stations your train will stop at here is Mogocha – a settlement situated on permafrost. It is one of the oldest centres of gold-mining in Russia – in the mid-1960s almost 500kg of gold was being extracted a year from the region. The local time now outside your train is Moscow time plus six hours.

 Day on the train.

• This is the last day of your train trip - next morning you will be in Vladivostok. You will pass through Birobidzhan – the interesting centre of the Jewish Autonomous District. In 1928 this area was chosen to become a new homeland for the world's Jews and over 43,000 Jews relocated here from all over the Soviet Union and even from the USA. However today only 6% of the city’s population are now Orthodox Jews.
• Next up is Khabarovsk which was founded in 1858 as a fortress to defend against the Chinese. Today the city is the centre of Russia's Far Eastern Federal District. You will be just 17km from the Russia-China border.

In the early morning  you will see on the horizont the Pacific Ocean as the train travels close to the coastline.

Morning arrival in Vladivostok and transfer to the hotel.

 Breakfast in the hotel.

 A city tour of Vladivostok. The highlights of the tour are.

• Golden Bridge – one of the five largest bridges in the world and a modern symbol of the city.
• Eagle's Nest Hill – the highest point of the historical city of Vladivostok. From here there are amazing views of the city and of Zolotoy Rog Bay.
• Vladivostok Railway Station – the final point of the longest railway journey in the world. The exterior of the station resembles Yaroslavsky Railway Station in Moscow which symbolically connects the two ends of the country.
• Ulitsa Svetlanskaya - the main historical street in the city which has a mix of architectural styles of different eras.
• Korabelnaya Naberezhnaya (Ship Embankment) – the construction of the port and the city began here in 1860.
• C-56 Submarine Museum - during the Second World War the C-56 became the most effective of all Soviet submarines and was the first in history to circumnavigate the world. The excursion includes a visit inside the submarine.
• Nikolaevskie Triumphal Gates – these were erected on the site of the original ones commemorating the visit of Emperor Nicholas II, which were destroyed in 1927.

 Duration: 4h |  Transportation: by a private car

 Night in Vladivostok.

 Breakfast in the hotel.

 Transfer to the airport, or to the seaport if you are planning to continue your trip to Japan.