A Trans-Siberian Trip in 10 Steps

St. Basil's Cathedral (courtesy Flickr user Captain Chaos)

The Trans-Siberian Railway has been on my “bucket list” before I knew what one was. I first remember hearing about it when I was 8 or 9. Later, I fell in love with Russian literature and became even more determined to see the country. In three weeks, it’s finally going to happen. Getting to this point took quite a bit of planning, which I’ve boiled down to 10 simple steps:

1. Be inspired: The book that started it all was Cook’s Tour (not by Anthony Bourdain), about a family’s overland journey from Asia to Europe and back. Leaving for China two years ago, I was sure I would fit a trip on the Trans-Siberian into my fellowship. But I wasn’t sure how I could work out the logistics, and earlier this year I had almost given up the idea. In February, I was sitting in an internet cafe in Kunming, China, flipping through The Man in Seat 61 site, when I decided I simply had to make it happen.
2. Save money: Between visas, train tickets and the relatively high cost of traveling in Russia, this is going to be an expensive trip. Even before we get on the train in Beijing, we will have spent roughly $930 each.
3. Pick your route: Did you know there’s no such thing as THE Trans-Siberian Railroad? And that there are three different routes that cross Siberia? The “Trans-Siberian” route goes from Moscow to Vladivostok, the “Trans-Manchurian” goes from Moscow to Harbin in China, and the “Trans-Mongolian” goes through Ulaanbaatar and ends up in Beijing. We’ll be on the Trans-Mongolian, heading west.
4. Buy a guidebook: Dan and I have two: Trans-Siberian Handbook and the Lonely Planet guide to the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Trans-Siberian Handbook is great for general planning and has a kilometer-by-kilometer guide to what we will see out the window. I’m finding Lonely Planet invaluable for finding hostels in all of our destinations.
5. Choose your stops: This has been the most fun stage of our planning so far. We had some must-sees — Ulaanbaatar, Lake Baikal — and then filled in the gaps. Since our trip has to be pretty short, our only other stops before Moscow are Ekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. And even though it’s not part of the Trans-Siberian proper, we couldn’t resist tacking on a visit to St. Petersburg before we head home.
6. Secure your visa: As I write this, Dan is getting ready to leave for Beijing to submit our Russian visa applications. We should be able to pick them up in two weeks, right before we head off. One of the requirements is a “visa support document” issued by a travel agency or hotel in Russia. We got ours from Real Russia for 15 British pounds each; their website has a good Q&A explaining what exactly visa support is.
7. Buy your tickets: What a headache! The easiest way to get tickets is through a travel agency like Real Russia, and that’s what we did for our international tickets (Beijing -> Ulaanbaatar, Ulaanbaatar -> Irkutsk). But they charge significant commissions. To save money, I bought all of the Russian legs through Poezda.net, a Russian-language website. I may write a more detailed guide to this process in a couple of weeks, but for now I’ll just say that Google Chrome, with its built-in translation software, was a life saver. You are supposed to be able to buy tickets through the Russian Railways website, but I couldn’t get this to work for the life of me. (As @mobilelawyer reminded me on Twitter, you can also buy tickets at the stations, but this was too risky for our tight schedule.)
8. Book accommodation: After two years of traveling primarily in Asia, Russian hostel prices gave me sticker shock! Dorm beds in the big cities are around $25-$30. Reviews on Hostelworld.com are relatively scarce, so I’m relying more on Hostelbookers.com and the Lonely Planet Trans-Siberian Railway guide. We will keep costs down by spending a couple of nights in train station “rest rooms.”
9. Learn Cyrillic: Learning Russian isn’t exactly feasible, but every thing I’ve read suggests learning the Cyrillic alphabet so that you can pronounce place names and signs. I’m trying…
10. Get excited! All the planning that goes into a trip like this can be hard work. To keep myself motivated, I’ve been choosing reading material to get me excited for the trip. I’m currently enjoying The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them and listening to an audiobook version of Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar. The Google Maps video of the journey is also fantastic inspiration.

Full disclosure: If you buy something through one of the Amazon.com links in this post, I make a small commission. But not enough to link to something I wouldn’t genuinely recommend.

Related posts:

1. Day 20: Trans-Mongolian Finale
2. Trans-Mongolian Diary: Introduction
3. Russian Visas: Apply With Care and Caution
4. Day 10: A Non-Zagat Guide to Trans-Mongolian Dining
5. Day 1: The Romance of Place Names

Tagged as: China, Mongolia, Russia, Trans-Mongolian, Trans-Siberian Railway