“S Priezdom! Welcome to Moscow!” Our driver will be there to meet you from whichever flight, train or boat you arrive. You’ll then be transferred to the Irbis 3H Hotel. The facilities available at this hotel include a Restaurant, Lobby Bar, Lobby Wi-Fi access, Luggage Room, Safety deposit boxes and an ATM machine. At check-in, (after 2pm) the hotel reception will advise you they will need your passport for
visa registration. This process takes 1–2 hours. Your complimentary InfoPack is full of ideas for getting the most out of your free time.
Please check out our " St. Petersburg Add On" if you wish to commence your trip in St. Petersburg No meals.
Day 2 - Around Moscow
After breakfast one of our local expert staff will meet you at the hotel to take you on a three hour walking tour round the highlights – you’ll use public transport around the centre to avoid the traffic jams and get the hang of the system for when you come to use it independently. Our staffers are full of ideas for this walk but are flexible about other ideas if you have your own. Your walk ends in the city centre around lunchtime. If you haven’t prebooked any of our range of city excursions the rest of the day is your own to explore further. Some of our top suggestions (please check opening times/days before setting off) would include visiting the Moscow Kremlin, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, or a boat trip along the Mosvka River… perhaps locate some tickets for ballet, opera, circus or a concert this evening? As well as famous classical music traditions Moscow
features on the touring schedules of world names in jazz, rock, pop and world music.
Breakfast.
Day 3 - Depart Moscow
You’ll need to check out of your room by 12 noon today but the hotel offers a Left
Luggage service for a small fee. Your day is free until 9pm, when a driver is scheduled to take you to the station. This morning you can continue sightseeing – the Lenin Mausoleum is only open in the mornings, and getting there early (it’s in Red Square) helps beat the queues. Although there’s a restaurant car service on board your train you may want to supplement this with some snacks, treats,
and fresh fruit that you could buy today. Your transfer from the hotel to Yaroslavsky station is scheduled for 9pm, so please be at the hotel reception where your driver will meet you and will assist your boarding of the Irkutsk bound train.
Breakfast.
Day 4 - 6 - On board the Trans-Siberian Express
On board The Trans-Sib… travelling towards Irkutsk. The dining car is the heart of social life on the train. It functions as bar, lounge, and take-out snack store, as well as a café serving reasonably priced meals. It is a great place to meet fellow travellers and locals alike, sharing your experiences of your journey so far with a
few drinks, which no doubt will include some Vodka – and maybe smoked salmon and caviar too! Along the way you’ll see astonishing Siberian scenery as the deciduous forests of the Ural Mountains slowly give way to Siberian pine forests. The major landmarks are the great rivers you cross, including the River Ob at Novosibirsk (one of the most famous bridges on the route), and the gigantic Enisei
River (at Krasnoyarsk).
No Meals.
Day 7 - Arrive Irkutsk
Early morning arrival in Irkutsk. Our driver will meet you at the end of the platform, holding a meeting-board marked with your name. Transfer to “U Ozera Hotel” (the name translates as “At the Lake Hotel”, although it is not directly at the lake shore) situated in Listvyanka Village (70km) travelling by road through the forest. The facilities available at this hotel include; cafe-bar, Russian “banya”
(sauna), safe at the reception. The nearest ATM-machine in the Baikal Hotel (Listvyanka remains a village, and doesn't have the range of banking services you could expect in a city). The official check-in time is 12 noon, the hotel reception will advise you they will need your passport for visa registration formalities. However if your room is available this will - of course - be allocated to you on arrival. (If your
room is not available you will be able to leave your luggage with the hotel reception). You will have a chance to have breakfast before setting off on your walking tour around Listvyanka Village. This will include a visit to the Limnological Museum (this is an exhibition about the Lake, its formation, wildlife etc - it includes multimedia presentations, information about creatures which live in the darkest depths, and also an aquarium with living aquatic species, including the unique
freshwater Baikal seals) and also a small wooden village Russian Orthodox Church
dating back to the C18th. You return to your hotel at the end of the walk, with time to relax and enjoy your lakeside surroundings, maybe experience real Siberian "banya" (sauna -small payment locally at the hotel).
Breakfast.
Day 8 - Baikal Free Choice Programme
Choose one activity from the list, it’s all included in the trip price! You’ll need to inform us of your choice before commencing your journey, so that we can have the right staff on hand for when you arrive (please note the Siberian weather puts seasonal limits on some activities – details below). Want to extend your life? Local legend claims that you can get anything from five extra years of life (paddling up to your knees) up to twenty years if you manage to go swimming!
A. SIBERIAN TREK through the Taiga Forest with a local guide who will explain the wildlife, eco- system and lore of the Taiga (May-Oct).
B. CIRCUM BAIKAL PICNIC Take the Ferry from Listvyanka to Port Baikal which takes around 15 minutes. Walk around Port Baikal, where you will see the train station of the old Circumbaikal rail line. Then you will walk along the rail
line to the nearest tunnel (2-3 km). Stopping for a picnic lunch on the shore of
Lake Baikal. Return to Port Baikal, ferry back to Listvyanka (Jun-Sep).
C. SNOW MOBILE TRIP with a local guide through the forest, or even out over the deep frozen lake! Two hours (Dec–Apr).
D. DOG SLEDDING trip for a distance of 10 km. 1 dog sled for each client. (Dec–Mar).
E. TALTSY WOODEN MUSEUM A three hour trip which includes a driver, and English speaking guide to the Taltsy open air wooden museum on the shore of Lake Baikal. This picturesque area shows how life was and has been sympathetically restored as a tourist attraction where you can ride Troikas and also buy authentic souvenirs. There is a tea house here also to refresh you after a busy morning sightseeing. (Year round)
F. DO YOUR OWN THING maybe take off on a cliff side walk, or mosey around the village, or take a dip in Lake Baikal! (Weather permitting!)
Balance of day free time to explore the village at your own pace. Maybe try a local bar?
Breakfast.
Day 9 - Return to Irkutsk
After breakfast transfer back to Irkutsk city. Check-into your 3* Hotel. You will be given a map and some recommendations of interesting places to visit by our local staff. Balance of day free to explore.
Breakfast.
Day 10 - Depart Irkutsk
Early morning transfer to Irkutsk station where you will board the Ulaanbaatar bound train. At midnight you will make the border crossing into Mongolia with the usual halt for formalities (there is no meal service on the train for the final night-time section from midnight until arrival tomorrow early morning).
Breakfast.
Day 11 - Arrive Ulaanbaatar
Early morning arrival in Ulaanbaatar. Our driver will meet you at the end of the platform and will be holding a meeting-board with your name on. Transfer from the station to a hotel with a chance to shower and have breakfast. This morning you will depart for your city tour at 10.30am. This includes the Gandan Monastery ceremony. After lunch you will depart Ulaanbaatar for the Bayangobi region. Evening arrival at a herdsman encampment. Tonight you are the guests of the herdsmen, and you’ll stay in a nomadic ger tent. Breakfast, Supper.
Day 12 - Nomads
Depart after breakfast for a day trip through the countryside of Övörkhangai Province in the direction of Harhorin (two hours off-road driving each way). Our route takes us into the Orkhon Valley, a World Heritage Site, which can be called the birthplace of Mongolian civilisation – the sites of the earliest metal working (which created the weapons that made the Mongolian empire great) are located here. We stop for a picnic lunch amid the stunning scenery. This afternoon we arrive at modern Harhorin – the settlement Genghis Khan would have known as Karakorum. It was here at the legendary gathering of clans that they declared Genghis the Great Khan, and his military campaigns of conquest began. Nothing is left of the ancient settlement, but on its site is the (rather later) monastery of Erdene Zuu, one of the most important Buddhist centres in Mongolia… and on the grounds of the monastery is the single turtle statue that remains of Genghis’s great Royal Court. Come back to our nomadic host family and have a traditional communal supper with them. Breakfast, Lunch, Supper.
Day 13 - Nomads
This morning see how a nomadic family milks their live stock and learn how they produce dairy products using the traditional Mongolian method, and also participate in bringing the herd into pasture. Free time to explore the Bayangobi area, maybe take a walk along the sand dunes. This evening we stay with our nomad host family, will have supper with them and learn traditional Mongolian games. Breakfast, Lunch, Supper.
Day 14 - Elstei Ger Lodge
This morning depart to our tourist Ger Lodge. Evening arrival at Elstei Ger Lodge. This is a different experience from staying with nomads, as Elstei is purposely set up for foreign visitors. This evening, chill out and relax after the long journey. Breakfast, Lunch, Supper.
Day 15 - Free Day
With no specific activities planned you can choose to chill out, read, sunbathe, go walking, or (for a small payment made directly to them locally) you can go horse riding with local nomad horsemen. A relaxed evening in the bar after supper there are occasional impromptu performances of live Mongolian music, where you might hear the Morin Khuur (horse-head lyre), the cimbalom, or native Mongolian throat-singing. Breakfast, Lunch, Supper.
Day 16 - Return to Ulaanbaatar
Around 10am you make the return trip to Ulaanbaatar. Check into the Bayangol 4Hhotel. This is a great centrally located property and facilities include 5 restaurants (including a real Indian-run restaurant managed by Mr Baboo and his wife), fitness centre, sauna and a minimarket. The balance of today is free to explore more of the city. You can choose to return to the heady atmosphere surrounding the Gandan Monastery (which you’ll have already visited when you were in the capital last time), or visit the Choijin Monastery Museum, or the Bazaar… log on and pick up your email in one of the numerous internet cafes on Peace Avenue, have a latte and French pastries in the new generation of new-age coffee stores, go souvenir shopping in the peculiar grandeur of the Central Department Store, or pick-up some snack food for the train in the Store’s food department… in the evening a wide range of traditional and new style Mongolian eateries are vying with European style places, Irish pubs and German beer halls to enjoy, usually with live music later on.
Breakfast.
Day 17 - Depart Ulaanbaatar
You’ll need to check out of your room by 12 noon today but the hotel offers a Left
Luggage service for a small fee. Your day is free and it will easy to keep yourself amused as there is so much still to see and do. We recommend you take this opportunity to purchase provisions for the next leg of your journey, as often this service has no dining car. Be back at the hotel at 8pm where your driver will meet you at reception. You will then be transferred the short distance to Ulaanbaatar station where we will assist you boarding of the Huhehot bound train. Breakfast.
Day 18 - Arrive Huhehot
Spectacular scenery that’s worth waking early for this morning as you trundle through the Southern Gobi. There’s a layover at the border while they change the train-bogeys to Chinese gauge – they don’t rush themselves for this job, so it’s worth getting out to wander around, even if the surroundings are not especially interesting. Another layover once you reach the Chinese side, for passport control (you are usually not allowed out of the station, as you have not yet cleared Chinese passport-control). (It is worth pre-planning your use of the bathroom today, as it will be locked during these stops!) Late evening arrival in Huhehot, the capital of Inner Mongolia. Our driver will meet you at the end of the platform where he will be holding a meeting-board with your name on. Transfer to the Pearl hotel, which is located in the city’s shopping and business district, and is equipped with more free toothbrushes, combs and soaps than you know what to do with. No Meals.
Day 19 - Around Huhehot
After breakfast your guide will meet you at reception, where you will depart for a full day city of Huhehot, which will include; Zhaojun Tomb, Dazhao Temple and The Five Pagoda Temple. Expect to return to the hotel late afternoon. Our recommendation for this evening; treat yourself to a slap up Chinese meal – Huhehot has a super selection
featuring both local Mongolian (you can even eat in a Mongolian cart-drawn war-ger) and traditional Beijing-style cuisine. Breakfast, Lunch.
Day 20 - Depart Huhehot
You’ll need to check out of your room by 12 noon today but the hotel offers a Left
Luggage service for a small fee. Your day is free to participate in a little extra shopping or sightseeing. Own transfer to the station for the Beijing bound train. Breakfast.
Included in the trip: TRAIN: 2-Class 4-berth rail for complete journey. MOSCOW: Transfer on arrival/departure. Two nights 3* Hotel, breakfast included. 3 hour personalised walking tour with local expert. IRKUTSK: All transfers are provided. Two nights hotel accommodation at Lake Baikal with breakfast. One night home stay accommodation in Irkutsk. Walking tour of
Listvyanka
village and optional free choice programme. MONGOLIA: Optional walking tour of Ulaanbaatar. One night 3* centrally located hotel, includes breakfast. All transportation. Three nights at Nomads, full board. Two nights tourist Ger Camp, full board. HUHEHOT: Two nights 3* hotel, includes breakfast. Guided City tour.
Trip Price Guide (per person):
1 person
2 people
3-9 people
Inner/Outer Mongolia via Irkutsk
$4890
$3629
$3548
Extra night Moscow
$177
$111
$111
Upgrade to 2 berth
$870
$870
$870
Due to the nature of these destinations all prices are subject to change. Contact us to confirm exact price.
these are the dates when this itinerary works:
2012 - 21 Days
2012 - 22 Days*
May 05, 12, 19, 26
June 02, 09, 16, 23, 30
July 07, 14, 21, 28
August 04, 11, 18, 25
September 01
May 11, 18, 25
June 01, 08, 15, 22, 29
July 06, 13, 20, 27
August 03, 10, 17, 24, 31
September 07
*Supplement per person for the extra night is $167 for one, $109 for two or more. Extra night at Lake Baikal.
If you would like to look at the option of taking this trip 'in reverse' from Beijing then please contact us.
Booking Flights?
We have a range of airline tickets which fit in well with our trips. Run your flight requirements past us before confirming your flight arrangements.
