Day 9. On to Irkutsk with Vodka Tasting and Presentations
Your train, by now your home away from home, continues on over the great Yenissei River through Siberia. The train’s chefs demonstrate their delicious skills with a tsar-style feast of specialties. During an informal vodka tasting on board, you can enjoy typical Russian snacks and red caviar. Along the way, your train continues through beautiful Siberian landscapes, filled with typical villages, birch forests, and hopefully, ample sunshine. You enjoy the rest of your relaxing day on board and look forward to the next stop!
Overnight on board. (BLD)
Day 10. Irkutsk: City Tour
Today your train arrives at the central station in Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia in tsarist times. On a guided tour, you see many sights, including picturesque Siberian wooden houses and the Monument to the Tsars where the Trans-Siberian obelisk once stood. After lunch, you can go on an excursion to an informative open-air museum dedicated to life and work in old Siberia. You spend the night in a hotel in Irkutsk.
Overnight: Hotel Irkutsk (or similar). (BLD)
Day 11. Panoramic Route Along Lake Baikal
Today you head to Listvyanka by bus. From this village on the banks of Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater reservoir on Earth, you take an hour-long boat ride across the deep waters of the lake to Port Baikal, where your private train is waiting. The journey continues for several hours along the original route of the Trans-Siberian Railroad on the shores of Lake Baikal. Your train stops at a special panoramic spot, where you can really take in the majestic calm of this unique natural wonder. Weather permitting, you enjoy a shoreside picnic dinner. You spend the night in your compartment on the Zarengold.
Overnight on board. (BLD)
Day 12. From Lake Baikal to Ulan Ude and Mongolia
Your journey takes you once again along endless Lake Baikal then through the beautiful Selenga Valley and the wild, secluded steppes of Eastern Siberia. During a stopover in Ulan-Ude, you can enjoy a guided tour if you wish. Your day ends with an atmospheric dinner. Formalities at the Russia-Mongolia border take place quickly and painlessly on board.
Overnight on board. (BLD)
Day 13. Ulan Bator
Today, early risers can experience the idyllic landscapes of central Mongolia with their colorful yurt camps and sparsely populated mountainsides. In the morning, you arrive in Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia. On a guided tour, you discover the city’s unique architecture, including the impressive Buddhist Gandan Monastery and the curious Choijin Lama Temple, with its unique depictions of a Buddhist conception of hell. Beer gardens are very popular in Mongolia, and you tour guide will show you the city’s best. In the evening, you can enjoy a Mongolian folklore performance that features throat singing, the horse-head fiddle, traditional dances and costumes (tickets are € 14/ $ 15, to be paid on site).
In the evening, you can spend the night either at a centrally located hotel in Ulan Bator or in a yurt amid the gorgeous Mongolian Alps, a dream for nature lovers
On request, we can organise alternative lodging in a yurt in the beautiful landscape of the Mongolian Alps (supplement of € 35/ $ 40, please let us know upon booking). This is a rare experience and a dream come true for nature lovers.
Overnight: Ramada Hotel (or similar). (BLD)
Day 14. Ulan Bator and the Mongolian Alps
If you spent the night in Ulan Bator, this morning you can either tour the city on your own, or enjoy breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, you can either head straight to the beautiful landscapes of east of the city, or tour the capital on your own, then head to the Mongolian Alps by bus in the afternoon. If you spent the night in a yurt, you will wake to breakfast in gorgeous scenery. Later you enjoy a private Mongolian horse riding show surrounded by yurts, horse herds and wild yaks. Lunch is served as a picnic amid the beauty of nature. Afterward you visit a nomadic family. In the evening, you enjoy a luscious dinner in a yurt restaurant, then spend the night in your private yurt.
Overnight: Yurt in Terelj (BLD)
Day 15. Ulan Bator
After breakfast, you take a stroll and visit the enormous Genghis Khan statue, the tallest equestrian statue in the world. Afterward you head back to Ulan Bator, where you visit the History Museum for an excellent review of Mongolia’s exciting history. The afternoon is spent at your leisure.
Overnight: Ramada Hotel (or similar). (BL)
Day 16. Departure from Ulan Bator for Home
After breakfast, you take a transfer to the airport for your flight home. Your rich experience on the Trans-Siberian Railroad will be a great memory for many years to come. (B)
(B) = Breakfast, (L) = Lunch, (D) = Dinner
