TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY TRIP FROM MOSCOW TO VLADIVOSTOK

Tour program

• Day 1

  MOSCOW

  Arrival in Moscow. Transfer with assistant to the hotel of your choice. Dinner. Overnight in hotel.

• Day 2

  MOSCOW

  Breakfast. Full-day tour with lunch in central restaurant, including all the must-see places of the Russian capital, such as: Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Sparrow Hills panoramic viewpoint and MGU (Moscow State University), Novodevichy Convent, Red Square, Manezhnaya Square, Alexander Garden, GUM (State Department Store), Tretyakov Gallery/ or Historical Museum, Moscow underground, and pedestrian Arbat street. Dinner at restaurant. Overnight in hotel.

  

  

  

  

• Day 3

  MOSCOW — TRANS-SIBERIAN

  Breakfast. Morning free. 12:00 Check-out. Meet the assistant and proceed for lunch at restaurant. You can pass by the supermarket to buy snacks and beverages for the train. 16:38 Departure on superior train #016 or on superior train #060 heading Yekaterinburg. Journey time: 25h37m. Overnight on board.

• Day 4

  TRANS-SIBERIAN — YEKATERINBURG

  20:15. Arrival in Yekaterinburg. Meet the assistant and transfer to a central restaurant for dinner. Check-in to the hotel of your choice. Overnight in hotel.

• Day 5

  YEKATERINBURG — TRANS-SIBERIAN

  Breakfast. Full-day tour with lunch. Yekaterinburg grew up around Plotinka Dam which harnessed the water in the Iset River for the town's ironwork factories. The dam has been reconstructed twice, and now it holds back the water in the City Pond, at the heart of the city. Around the City Pond, the majority of Yekaterinburg museums are located. You will see the historic center of the city with splendid Church of Spilled Blood at Tsar Nicholas II Death Site as well as the Chapel of St. Elizabeth. You will observe the beauty of downtown Yekaterinburg, gorgeous 19th century Urals’ gold merchants’ houses and monumental buildings of Stalin’s neoclassicism style. After lunch in a Russian tavern, you will visit the "One foot in Europe, another one in Asia" monument located on the outskirts of the city. It is installed on crossroads of two parts of the world and made of typical local stones mined in the Ural Mountains. You will also visit one place of your choice: the Museum of Perestroika in the newly built President Yeltsin’s Innovation Center or Ganina Yama. Yeltsin Center: opened in 2015, President Yeltsin Center preserves the legacy of the first President of the Russian Federation, who was born and raised in Yekaterinburg. The complex includes a branch of the Yeltsin library, the exhibition hall and the museum, all tasked with presenting the political history of the 20th century, and Boris Yeltsin's place in it. Ganina Yama is the mineshaft where the remains of the last Russian royal family were hidden after the execution, six miles away from downtown. Today an orthodox monastery with six wooden churches is located there. The churches were erected without any nail, in the old-fashioned Russian way. You can pass by the supermarket to buy snacks and beverages for the train. Transfer to railway station. Departure on one of the evening trains heading Novosibirsk between 18:30 and 22:00. Journey time: around 21h. Overnight on board.

  

  

  

  

• Day 6

  TRANS-SIBERIAN — NOVOSIBIRSK

  Arrival in Novosibirsk between 18:06 and 19:48. Welcome to Siberia! Transfer to the hotel of your choice. Evening transfer with assistant to restaurant or transfer to the countryside for a dinner with local family. Return to the hotel. Overnight in hotel.

• Day 7

  NOVOSIBIRSK — TRANS-SIBERIAN

  Breakfast and full-day tour of the Capital of Siberia, including lunch. The scientific town Akademgorodok, located 30 km/ 18 miles away from Novosibirsk, is the only scientific town in the world where all the branches of sciences are fully represented. For this reason, it is sometimes called the “Scientific Vatican” in Western media. In 1957, at the acme of the Cold War, Nikita Khrushchev and Soviet mathematician Mikhail Lavrentyev created a special town for scientific research that they named Akademgorodok, or Academy City. They built this town near Novosibirsk in the depths of the Siberian hinterland and convinced some of the Soviet best scientists to move over there. A nice town in the woods, Akademgorodok is home to Novosibirsk State University, several academies, and 35 research centers. The commonwealth is untouched by industry and enjoys the proximity of the Ob Sea, as the reservoir created by the damming of the Ob River is called. You will enter Akademgorodok via Lavrentyev Prospekt Avenue, marked by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “world's most scientific street.” You will see the Ob River Reservoir, called the Ob Sea by locals. You will know more of this town when visiting one museum of your choice: Archeological Museum at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography (closed on SAT and SUN) / Geological Museum at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (closed on SAT and SUN) / Open-Air Railway Museum with a huge collection of Soviet locomotives and railway carriages (closed on MON and TUE). Then you return to Novosibirsk, the only settlement by the Trans-Siberian Railway that later turned into a million-plus city. You will try Siberian specialties for lunch before you proceed with the city tour, covering all the main attractions of the city: Novosibirsk Railway Station, the biggest station of the Trans-Siberian Railroad; Krasny Prospekt Avenue, one of the longest straight streets in the world (7km / 4.4miles); Lenin Square, the city center with the world’s second biggest Opera House (after that of Buenos Aires); historic wooden houses on Gorky St, the oldest part of the city; St. Nicholas Chapel, marking the geographic center of the former Russian Empire; embankment of the 7th longest river in the world (the Ob river); colorful Siberian farm-market. Dinner in one of the restaurants in town. Transfer to railway station. Departure on one of the evening trains heading Irkutsk: — 20:26 standard train #070 (daily). Journey time: 32h56m; — 23:54 fast standard train #008 (even dates). Journey time: 31h34m; — 01:44 (of Day 8) fast superior train #002 ROSSIYA (uneven dates). Journey time: 28h56m. Overnight on board.

  

  

  

  

• Day 8

  TRANS-SIBERIAN

  Day and night on board.

• Day 9

  TRANS-SIBERIAN — IRKUTSK — LAKE BAIKAL (LISTVYANKA)

  Morning arrival in Irkutsk: — 06:22 on train #070; — 07:40 on train #002. — 08:28 on train #008; Meet with the guide, proceed for breakfast, followed by the full-day tour of Lake Baikal with lunch. En route to the lake, you will visit the open-air museum of wooden architecture Taltsy that was opened in the early 1980s with an attempt of preserving some historic houses that should have sunk in a newly created Bratsk reservoir. This outdoor museum is a 166-acre collection of authentic Russian and native Buryat, Evenki and Tafalar dwellings and community buildings from the 17th to the early 20th century. The wooden structures were moved here from various Siberian locations and reassembled into little hamlets and nomadic camps that demonstrate how people lived in the past. The gate to a 17th century fort, a working chapel built in 1679 and a potter’s workshop give travelers a feel for the people who lived here back then. Your next stop will be at the village of Listvyanka, in front of the famous Shaman Rock. After you enjoy your fish lunch, you will visit the Museum of Lake Baikal which has an aquarium complex with the flora and fauna of the lake. Video excursions to the bottom of the lake will be also arranged. After that, you will reach the shore to take some wonderful pictures of the lake. On your way back to the center of the village, you will visit the colorful fish market and enjoy a boat trip of lake Baikal. By the chair-lift you will reach the observation point known as the Stone of Chersky for the breathtaking panorama of lake Baikal and Angara river mouth. Check-in will be possible at 14:00. Dinner in wooden hotel at the village of Listvyanka. Overnight in hotel.

  

  

  

  

• Day 10

  LISTVYANKA — IRKUTSK

  Breakfast. Morning free. 12:00 Check-out and transfer to Irkutsk, followed by lunch in Soviet cuisine restaurant and city tour. Take a city tour around all of Irkutsk major historic sites including Znamensky Orthodox Cathedral, old-style wooden houses with distinctive hand-carved trims, the Monument to the Pioneers of Siberia topped with the bronze statue of Russian Emperor Alexander III. You will also visit the Decembrists’ museum to know more on the Revolt of December 14, 1825, its participants, and their life in the Siberian exile. You will walk along the historic Quarter 130 with reconstructed city’s buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. Dinner. Overnight in hotel.

  

  

  

  

• Day 11

  IRKUTSK — TRANS-SIBERIAN

  Breakfast. Morning transfer to railway station. Departure on one of the following morning trains heading Khabarovsk: — 08:03 on superior train #002 ROSSIYA (uneven dates). Journey time 2d08h58m.; — 08:57 on fast standard train #008 (even dates). Journey time: 2d14h32m. Overnight on board.

• Day 12

  TRANS-SIBERIAN

  Full-day and night on board. Enjoy the Eastern Siberia landscapes out of the window while traveling. Overnight on board.

• Day 13

  TRANS-SIBERIAN — KHABAROVSK

  19:01. Arrival in Khabarovsk (when traveling on train #002). Transfer to restaurant for dinner, followed by transfer to hotel. Overnight in hotel.

• Day 14

  KHABAROVSK — TRANS-SIBERIAN

  01:29. Arrival in Khabarovsk (when traveling on train #008). Transfer to the hotel and overnight. Breakfast. Full-day tour of Khabarovsk and countryside with lunch. During the city tour of Khabarovsk, you will see Muraviev-Amursky street (the main city’s street), Lenin Square, Komsomolskaya Square with the Orthodox Cathedral and Regional Park, the observation point Amur Cliff, and you will have a choice of visiting the famous Khabarovsk Regional Museum or take an hour-cruise along the Amur river. Later on, you will visit the dacha (local family’s summer house) in the countryside. Enjoy the delicious BBQ lunch, explore the dacha and make friends with the hospitable local family. You will also be offered to try the local banya (sauna) before the transfer back to hotel or railway station. Dinner in Khabarovsk. Transfer to railway station. 20:45. Departure on superior train #006 OKEAN heading Vladivostok. Journey time: 11h42m. Overnight on board.

  

  

  

  

• Day 15

  TRANS-SIBERIAN — VLADIVOSTOK

  08:27 Arrival in Vladivostok. Congratulations! You have completed the world’s longest railway route! Built in 1912 at the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the Vladivostok railway station was considered one of the most beautiful railway stations of that time. The ceilings inside are a classic example of the Socialist Realism. The paintings called “Our Great Motherland” of handsome and patriotic farmers and soldiers were created in 1956. Meet the guide and start your city tour where you will see the Central square, The Arch of Triumph, the historic Arbat street ending by the Sea of Japan. You will enter the famous S-56 Submarine and visit the Museum of Vladivostok Fortress and will also travel on the new bridge to Russky Island and rise up the Eagle’s Nest observation platform from which the whole city of Vladivostok as well as the Golden Horn Bay can be visible. Lunch and check-in to the hotel. Free time. Dinner in the Far East seafood restaurant. Overnight in hotel.

  

  

  

  

• Day 16

  VLADIVOSTOK

  Breakfast. Transfer to the airport for any of the domestic flights to Moscow.