Day 1. Moscow

Upon arrival at the airport in Moscow, you will be greeted by your friendly tour guide and accompanied to your hotel. In the evening you will take part in the welcome dinner at which your guide will be introduced to you. Our City of Lights tour shows you around the exquisitely illuminated Russian capital. You stroll across the famous Red Square with your guide and take a short trip on the subway to marvel at two of Moscow’s particularly spectacular metro stations.

Overnight: InterContinental Tverskaya (or similar) (D)

Day 2. Moscow

After breakfast, you visit the Tretyakov Gallery, one of the most important art collections in the country with almost 150,000 works by Russian painters and sculptors. After lunch in a city restaurant, the afternoon is at your disposal. Please ask us about arrangements for the evening, like a visit to the Bolshoi Theatre (dependent on the schedule) or a dinner cruise on the Moscow River. (BL)

Overnight: InterContinental Tverskaya (or similar) (BL)

Day 3. Moscow from Its Most Beautiful Side

Your exciting Moscow city tour starts in the morning with a visit to the impressive Kremlin grounds and its magnificent cathedrals from the Tsarist era. After lunch in a city restaurant, the afternoon is at your disposal. How about a stroll through the Arbat, Moscow’s famous pedestrian street? The most beautiful souvenirs can be found here! In the evening, you are welcomed aboard your private train. A relaxed get-together in the dining car offers the chance to meet your fellow travellers and learn more details about your private train.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 4. Kazan

In the morning, you arrive in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. You take a tour of the Kazan Kremlin (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), which has a wonderful panoramic view over the Volga River, where you learn about the turbulent history of the relationship between the Tatars, the Cossacks, and the Russians. Your train resumes its journey east in the evening.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 5. Yekaterinburg

Your train stops around noon in Yekaterinburg, the historical capital of the Urals. The city is remembered as the place where the Russian tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered in 1918. During a brief tour, you see the Church on Blood, built in 2003 in commemoration of that tragic historic event; and the city centre, beautifully restored in 2009. Back on board, you continue your journey through the vast steppes of Western Siberia.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 6. Novosibirsk

You arrive in Novosibirsk, the heart of Siberia, where you are welcomed in the traditional Russian way, with bread and salt. During a short city tour, you experience the most Soviet of all cities during your journey. You see the enormous Trans-Siberian Monument and the mighty Ob River.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 7. Across Siberia

Your train crosses the wide Yenisei River and rolls on through Siberia. The train’s chefs once again demonstrate their skills as they serve Russian specialties in a Tsar’s Feast. A vodka tasting accompanied by Russian snacks and clever toasts offers you a very enjoyable combination of pleasure and local hospitality. Your train passes by villages with their typical wooden houses and rolls through birch forests set against a background of impressive mountainscapes and, hopefully, ample sunshine.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 8. Irkutsk

Today, your train reaches Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia in tsarist times. During your city tour, you see, among other attractions, picturesque Siberian wooden houses, and a memorial to Tsar Alexander III (the founder of the Trans-Siberian Railroad), which was erected in 2003 where the Trans-Siberian Obelisk previously stood. After lunch, you take an excursion to a quaint open-air museum showcasing life and work in Siberia in earlier centuries.

Overnight: Hotel Irkutsk (or similar) (BLD)

Day 9. Panorama Route on Lake Baikal

A bus takes you to Listvyanka, a Siberian village on the shores of Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater reservoir. From the village, a boat brings you across the lake’s deep waters to Port Baikal, where your private train is waiting. You then travel for several hours directly alongside Lake Baikal, on the historic panorama route of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Your train stops at a particularly scenic spot, for you to truly enjoy the majestic calm of this unique natural wonder. Dinner is served as a picnic on the shores of Lake Baikal, weather permitting.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 10. Ulan Ude

Your journey continues along the banks of a seemingly endless Lake Baikal, through the splendid Selenga Valley and the wild solitude of Eastern Siberia’s mountainous steppes. After your private train’s arrival in Ulan-Ude, you experience the capital of the Russian Republic of Buryatia on a city tour. A visit to a colony of Old Believers acquaints you with their manners and customs. In the evening, you see a presentation of typical Buryatian artistic performances.

Overnight: Hotel Geser (or similar) (BLD)

Day 11. Monks and Yurts

An excursion brings you to Russia’s largest Buddhist monastery, Ivolginsky Datsan. Later, you feast on Buryatia’s national dish in a yurt. In the afternoon, you learn surprising details about the indigenous population of the Baikal region in the open-air Ethnographic Museum. Your private train continues east in the late evening.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 12. Taiga Specialties

Today, your private train is rolling, rolling, rolling on the Trans-Siberian, the world’s longest railroad line, making you realize the dimensions of Russia, the world’s largest country. On board, you enjoy a delightful tasting of Taiga specialties: berries, juices, and liquors. A language course gives you the opportunity to brush up on your knowledge of Russian.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 13. Vast Country

Your train is moving through the lush landscapes east of Lake Baikal, passing the junction leading onto the Trans-Manchurian Railroad in Chita, the junction leading to the Baikal–Amur Mainline, the former gulag city of Svobodny, and Birobidzhan, the administrative centre of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 14. Khabarovsk on the Amur River

Your private train reaches Khabarovsk mid-morning. City tour and visit to the promenade on the bluff of the Amur River where you can see as far as China. In the afternoon, you enjoy a little boat tour on the Amur River. Your train departs in the evening and your journey continues to the city of Vladivostok, the final destination of your journey on the Trans-Siberian.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 15. Vladivostok

In the morning, you arrive in Vladivostok, where a sightseeing tour shows you the city’s most notable attractions, among them the Submarine Museum and the photogenic train station with the monument that marks the final stop of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Free time in the afternoon. Our recommendations: a stroll in the botanical garden or a guided tour of the Fort of Alexander the Blessed.

Overnight: Best Eastern Versailles (or similar) (BLD)

Day 16. Vladivostok

After breakfast, you have the opportunity to explore the Pacific metropolis. What about a visit to the museum of the Russian Pacific Fleet, to the KGB bunker or to Vladivostok’s only dairy? In the afternoon, you enjoy a boat trip in the largest harbor of Russia’s Far East.

Overnight: Best Eastern Versailles (or similar) (BLD)

Day 17. Farewell, Russia!

Your journey ends with the transfer to the airport after your breakfast at the hotel. (B)