Intro
Itinerary
Cost
Notes
This tour will take you along two amazing railway lines: the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). Both of these railways are real feats of engineering. The infrastructure had to be laid through thick forests, endless taiga and difficult mountain terrain and across permafrost. The Trans-Siberian is world-famous, and although the BAM is much less well known in the West it is if anything more spectacular than the Trans-Siberian as it traverses much more wild, untouched nature.
On the first part of the trip, you will travel along the Trans-Siberian making stops and going on excursions on the most interesting cities on the route: Kazan - the capital of Tatarstan, Yekaterinburg - the centre of the Urals, and Krasnoyarsk - the very heart of Siberia.
After this section, you will then travel along the BAM and have your first stop in Severobaikalsk, which is located on the northern tip of Lake Baikal. Due to its remoteness, this part of Baikal is much less visited by tourists and its pristine nature has been better preserved. Afterwards, you will set off further east, enjoying stunning Siberian views from your cabin window. Your next stop will be Tynda - the so-called capital of the BAM, with a striking railway station.
Your further route lies along a third railway - the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline, another Soviet-era project (but one which is still being built) to link the Trans-Siberian with the BAM. Upon returning to the Trans-Siberian you will travel along it making a stop in Khabarovsk - a major Russian Far-Eastern city. Finally, from here you will have the final stretch of your journey on to the Pacific Ocean and Vladivostok, whose name translates as “Lord of the East”. In total, you will travel 8,915km on the train.
1 DAY / ARRIVAL IN MOSCOW
Arrival in Moscow. Transfer to the hotel. Free time in the city.
Night in Moscow.
2 DAY / MOSCOW - KAZAN
Breakfast at the hotel.
Walking Tour of Moscow’s historical centre - here most of Moscow’s most iconic sights are concentrated: Red Square, the Kremlin, St Basil’s Cathedral, the Bolshoy Theatre, the former KGB Headquarters, the GUM departments store, as well as Moscow’s newest park: Zaryadye.
Guided Tour around the Moscow Metro - often ranked as the most beautiful metro system in the world, with many stations resembling palaces and protected as architectural masterpieces. On this tour you will see the most stunning ones.
Duration: 4-5 hours
Evening transfer from your hotel to the railway station and overnight premium train to Kazan (1st class carriage is available).
Night on the train.
3 DAY / KAZAN
Morning arrival in Kazan. Transfer to your hotel.
Tour of Kazan - highlights of the tour include:
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Staro-Tatarskaya Sloboda - this district of Kazan has been a Tatar settlement since the 16th century, and many old mosques can be found here including the oldest: the Märcani Mosque dating from 1770. It is located by the Kaban lake, where legend has it the khan of Kazan dumped his treasures during the Siege of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in 1552.
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Ss Peter and Paul’s Cathedral - this was built between 1723-26 to commemorate Peter the Great visiting Kazan. It is one of the most striking cathedrals in Russia thanks to its exquisite decorations.
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Bogoroditsky Monastery - found here is a miracle-working copy of the Our Lady of Kazan Icon which was returned from the Vatican to Russia as a gift from the pope.
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Ulitsa Baumana - the main pedestrian street in Kazan.
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Guided tour around the Kazan Kremlin - this is one of the most beautiful kremlins in Russia. Like the Moscow Kremlin it serves as a residence, and the president of Tatarstan has a palace here.
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Kul Sharif Mosque - also located in the kremlin is this mosque, which serves as the main mosque in Tatarstan.
Tour to Sviyazhsk Island - one of the main sights in Tatarstan is this island city of Sviyazhsk, which was built by Ivan the Terrible during his conquest of the Tatar Khanate. Today it can’t really be classified as a city, but rather an open-air museum with several beautiful monasteries. On this tour you will visit the main monastery - the Uspensky Monastery, which is now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It dates from the mid-16th century - shortly after Sviyazhsk was founded. Its main cathedral, the Dormition Cathedral, was a project of Ivan Barma and Postnik Yakovlev, who were responsible for St Basil’s Cathedral. In the 1930s the monastery became a Gulag prison.
Duration: 7-8 hours
Night in Kazan.
4 DAY / KAZAN - YEKATERINBURG
Early morning transfer to the railway station.
Premium train to Yekaterinburg.
You will spend the day on the train travelling through the republics of Tatarstan and Udmurtia.
Evening arrival in Yekaterinburg, and transfer to your hotel.
Night in Yekaterinburg.
5 DAY / YEKATERINBURG
Breakfast at your hotel.
Tour of Yekaterinburg - the capital of the Urals and one of Russia’s most interesting cities. It is famous as a city of industry, especially in the sphere of minerals and stones. It also has an infamous link with the Romanovs, as the last imperial family were executed here. On this tour you will see the cathedral which was built on top of the site of their execution and the monastery in Ganina Yama founded outside the city on the site where their bodies were dumped. In addition you will stop at the border of Europe and Asia, which makes a perfect place for a photo straddling the continents.
Duration: 5-6 hours
Evening transfer to the train station. Premium train to Krasnoyarsk (1st class carriage is available)
Night on the train.
6 DAY / ON THE TRAIN
Day and night on the train.
This day you will travel through Eastern Siberia passing through such cities as Omsk, where the great Russian writer Mikhail Dostoevsky was exiled, and Novosibirsk, the 3rd biggest city in Russia.
Night on the train.
7 DAY / KRASNOYARSK
Arrival in Krasnoyarsk. Transfer to the hotel.
City Tour of Krasnoyarsk - this city is located on one of the largest rivers in the world - the Yenisey, which forms the border of Eastern and Western Siberia, and Krasnoyarsk markets itself as the capital of “Yenisey Siberia”. During this tour you will visit one of the more unusual museums in Russia - Ploschad Mira Exhibition, which was once a Lenin Museum (the last one to be opened in the USSR) but now a modern art museum, although the Lenin exhibits and statues remain, creating a very strange dichotomy.
Walking Tour to the Stolby Nature Reserve - Although it is a major city with a population of over one million, a stunning nature reserve is located just on the outskirts. The park is famous for its rock formations in the form of pillars, known as Stolby in Russian. They have been formed over thousands of years and many have been given interesting names as to what people think they resemble. You will walk 3km on this tour through forest paths, with some ascents, but nothing extreme.
Duration: 7-8 hours
Night in Krasnoyarsk.
8 DAY / KRASNOYARSK - SEVEROBAIKALSK
Breakfast at the hotel.
Transfer to the train station.
Train to Severobaikalsk. You will spend all day and night on the train as your destination is a remote one! After Taishet station the railway has two routes - one is the Trans-Siberian and the other is the Baikal-Amur Mainline. It is here your BAM trip starts, heading to the northern tip of Baikal.
Night on the train.
9 DAY / SEVEROBAIKALSK
Arrival in Severobaikalsk. Transfer to the hotel.
Tour of the northern tip of Lake Baikal and the BAM tunnels - Severobaikalsk translates as Northern Baikal and it was especially founded during the construction of the BAM, before this there was only forest here. Due to this reason, the city’s architecture is typically Soviet. During this tour you will visit the northernmost tip of Lake Baikal, which is located 636km from the southern tip.
On the way you will stop at some of the monuments erected during the construction of the BAM and learn about the history of the Mysovye Tunnels - massive construction projects by even today’s standards. Later on your trip you will leave Severobaikalsk via these tunnels.
Night in Severobaikalsk.
10 DAY / BAIKALSKOE VILLAGE AND TREKKING
Breakfast at your hotel.
Walking Tour around Baikalskoe village - this must be one of the most beautiful villages in Russia, a fishing village on the western shores of Northern Baikal with lots of old wooden buildings. Its appearance hasn’t changed much in a century. The village today has a post office, a hospital, a school and some small shops. On the shore of the lake there is a wharf from where you can enjoy spectacular views of Baikal.
Cape Onokochansky - from here you get a perfect views of Onokochansky Bay and the Baikal Mountains, which in points reach over 2000 metres. You can even see Slyudyanskye lakes in the distance.
Cape Ludar - one of the most picturesque capes on the northern shores of Lake Baikal, from a height a magnificent panorama of the taiga shores of Baikal can be seen. In clear weather, you can even sometimes see the mountains on the opposite side of the lake. Signs of an ancient human settlement and cave paintings were also discovered here, although today they are barely visible.
During this excursion, you will trek 5km along the shore of Lake Baikal on a section of the Great Baikal Trail. After the excursion, you will have lunch with the family of a local fisherman.
On the way back you can make a stop to swim in Sludyanskye Lake - a favourite place of locals.
Duration: 6-7 hours
11 DAY / TRAIN TO TYNDA
Breakfast at your hotel.
Transfer from the hotel to the railway station.
Overnight train to Tynda - This section of the BAM has some of the most stunning scenery as you will travel deep into the Siberian taiga crossing the Severomuysky and Udokan mountain ranges. You will pass through tunnels which are feats of engineering considering the harsh terrain and living conditions. This includes the Severomuysky Tunnel, which is the longest in Russia.
Night on the train.
12 DAY / TYNDA
Arrival in Tynda.
Tour of Tynda - the so-called capital of the BAM is situated in the middle of a sea of the taiga.
Unlike other places on the BAM, Tynda did exist as a settlement before the construction of the railway line as in the 19th-century gold was found here. Under Stalin, BAMLAG, one of the first camps of the Gulag, was founded here and the prisoners were forced to work on the original BAM project. Although no two railway stations on the BAM are alike, Tynda’s station is truly unique for its futuristic style and because it is the tallest railway station in the Russian Far East, its central towers are 48 metres height and is said to resemble a swan. Many workers from Moscow worked on the construction of the city, which is fitting for its status as the BAM capital, and many streets share the same names as famous streets in the Russian capital. The city’s most famous sight is the History of BAM Museum.
Duration: 2-3 hours
Night in Tynda.
13 DAY / TYNDA - KHABAROVSK
Transfer to the train station.
You will spend all day and night on the train. During the trip you will travel along another large-scale Soviet railway project - the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline, which links the Trans-Siberian with the BAM and runs further north to the Republic of Yakutia (Sakha)- one of the coldest regions in Russia.
Night on the train.
14 DAY / KHABAROVSK
Arrival in Khabarovsk.
City Tour of Khabarovsk
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Khabarovsk Bridge - also known as the Amur Bridge as it crosses the River Amur. It is another feat of engineering and is 3,890 metres long. The bridge was built in 1916, marking the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway, but was reconstructed in 1999 using the original supports. It is depicted on the RUB 5000 note.
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Khabarovsk Bridge Museum - the main exhibit here is one of the spans of the original Tsarist era bridge. The museum also has a unique collection of the trains and carriages that operate on the Trans-Siberian.
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Amur Cliff - this rocky cliff point is one of the symbols of Khabarovsk. At the top, there is a watchtower, which once served as a coast guard and border guard station. Next to it is a viewing platform from where you can enjoy views of the Amur.
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Muraviev-Amursky Monument - this is a monument to the man who determined where Khabarovsk would be built. It was originally unveiled in 1891, but later demolished in the 1920s. It was returned to its pride of place on the Amur Cliff in the 1990s. It also features on the RUB 5000 note.
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Khabarovsk Regional Museum - this is one of the best and largest historical museums in the whole Russian Far East.
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Dormition Cathedral - this is the city’s main cathedral and was built after the fall of the Soviet Union to replace an earlier version that was demolished.
Duration: 5-6 hours.
Evening train to Vladivostok.
Night on the train.
15 DAY / VLADIVOSTOK
Arrival in Vladivostok. Transfer to the hotel.
Tour of Vladivostok - the so-called Russian San Francisco, due to the similarities between the two cities: hilly terrain on the shore of the Pacific, and now Vladivostok even also has a beautiful bridge. The Golden Bridge links the city to Russky Island and is one of the largest cable-stayed bridges in the world. During the Soviet era, Vladivostok was a closed city as the Pacific Fleet has its base here. On the excursion, you will visit a C-56 submarine, which is credited with destroying more than 10 warships during the Second World War.
Tour of Russky island - this small island in Peter the Great Gulf became Russian territory in the mid-19th century and was closed during the Soviet era, due to the military bases and fortifications located here. On this excursion, you will visit one of only two surviving turret batteries in Russia, dating from the 1930s.
Duration: 4-5 hours.
Night in Vladivostok.
16 DAY / DEPARTURE
Breakfast at the hotel.
Transfer to the airport.
- Part of the tour takes place in the open air, therefore you should follow advice in terms of required clothing and provisions for winter tours on Baikal.
- The tour is not an extreme tour and does not require any special physical preparation, however some trekking included in the itinerary.
- 4* and 5* hotels are not available in Severobaikalsk and Tynda, therefore they are replaced with 3* hotels with accommodation in high room category.
- Tickets to museums cannot be sold without an excursion with a guide.
- The tour is suitable for travellers with children
- The tour is available in English, French and German languages. Other languages upon request.
- All excursions/guided tours included in the itinerary are private which means private guides and private transport along the programme - unless otherwise stated.
- Best time to travel on this route: from the end of May to October.
- The prices given below are for guidance only. The actual final cost of the tour will depend on availability. Hotel prices and train tickets may increase or decrease in cost depending on how much in advance you book them.
• CANCELLATION POLICY •
DATE OF CANCELLATION |
CANCELLATION CHARGES |
|---|---|
| FROM 60 TO 45 DAYS BEFORE THE DEPARTURE | 10% |
| FROM 44 TO 15 DAYS BEFORE THE DEPARTURE | 30% |
| FROM 14 TO 7 DAYS BEFORE THE DEPARTURE | 50% |
| LESS THAN 7 DAYS BEFORE THE DEPARTURE | 100% |
