Day 1. Welcome to Vladivostok

After your arrival in the Pacific metropolis of Vladivostok, a sightseeing tour shows you the city’s most notable attractions, among them the Submarine Museum. One of your tour’s literal highlights is the wonderful vista from Eagle’s Nest Hill.

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

Day 2. Vladivostok and Departure on the Trans-Siberian

After a hearty breakfast at your hotel, you visit the Oceanarium. Afterward, you enjoy a boat trip in the largest harbor of Russia’s Far East and marvel at an impressive fortress. In the evening, your journey on the legendary Trans-Siberian Railroad commences.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 3. Khabarowsk on the Amur River

Your private train reaches Khabarovsk today. City tour and visit to the promenade on the bluff of the Amur River with its broad, sandy beaches. Later, you enjoy a little boat tour on the Amur River. Your train departs in the late evening and your journey continues.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 4. 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 5. Vast Country, part II

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, 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 6. Ulan-Ude

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 7. 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 west in the late evening.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 8. Lake Baikal

Today, you explore the remarkable natural phenomenon of Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater reservoir. In the morning, your train travels directly alongside Lake Baikal, on the historic panorama route of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. During two extended photo stops, you have a chance to explore and record the scenic beauty of the lake and its setting. A short boat excursion from Port Baikal takes you out onto the lake. Take a swim in the lake, if you wish, and visit a picturesque Baikal village. Dinner is a Baikal-style picnic on the lakeshore with a view of the incredible natural surroundings (weather permitting).

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 9. Irkutsk

In the morning, you arrive in Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia in tsarist times. Here, you check in at a centrally located hotel. During your city tour, you see the Okhlopkov Drama Theatre, the new Tsar Alexander III memorial, and the photogenic market hall. Around noon, you visit an open-air museum showcasing life and work in Siberia in earlier centuries.

Overnight: Hotel Irkutsk (or similar) (BLD)

Day 10. Across Siberia

After breakfast, your train rolls through the diverse landscapes of Eastern Siberia. Entertaining talks on board inform you about the region; and a vodka tasting with typical Russian snacks and red caviar is an opportunity to experience Russian hospitality and learn their clever toasts.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 11. Novosibirsk

Around noon your train arrives in Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia. You are greeted with bread and salt in the traditional Russian manner and taken on a tour of this most Soviet of cities on your route, including the opportunity to see the mighty Ob River. You go on a brief city tour, showing the market and the opera house.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 12. Yekaterinburg

Your train stops in the afternoon in Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Ural Federal District. The city is known as the place where the Russian tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered in 1918. During a tour, you see the Church on Blood, built in 2003 to commemorate that tragic historic event, and the city centre, beautifully restored in 2009. Back on board, you enjoy views of Uralian landscapes and relax in the dining car. Your private train is already rolling on the European continent.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 13. Kazan

After breakfast, you reach Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan on the banks of the Volga River. On a city tour, you see Tatar mosques and the most famous Russian Orthodox cathedral. You also take a tour of Kazan’s Kremlin, where you learn about the turbulent history of the relationship between the Tatars, the Cossacks, and the Russians. Afterward, you enjoy lunch in a city restaurant.

Overnight on board (BLD)

Day 14. Welcome to Moscow

Around noon, you arrive in the Russian capital of Moscow—a thriving, prosperous city—and are accompanied to your high-end hotel. At noon you visit the Kremlin grounds with its magnificent cathedral. Your city tour takes you to the reconstructed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Lomonosov University, the Novodevichy Convent, Red Square with its colourful St. Basil’s Cathedral, the former KGB headquarters, and the White House. 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.

Overnight: InterContinental Tverskaya (or similar) (BLD)

Day 15. 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. How about a stroll through the Arbat, Moscow’s famous pedestrian street? The most beautiful souvenirs can be found here! After dinner, 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) (BLD)

Day 16. Farewell, Russia!

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