Trans-Siberian Rail Route - Which Route to Take and Visa Confusion
- Madeleine Knight
- Jun 8, 2016
- 4 min read
The Trans-Siberian Rail Route is one of the most famous rail routes in the world, maybe THE most famous. It connects European Russia with Eastern Asia and covers around 9,258km, this gives it the title of Longest Rail Route In The World, and takes around 7 days of solid train travel to get from end to end.
Now that being said, you can take a couple of different routes:
There's The Trans-Manchurian route which runs from Moscow in European Russia, through the Ural Mountains, across the Siberian plain, around Lake Baikal and separates from the Trans-Russian route at Chita before travelling to Beijing. The total journey is nearly 9000km.
Next we have The Trans-Mongolian railway, which runs from Moscow in European Russia following the Trans-Russian route through to Ulan-Ude deep in Siberia, before branching off and continuing via Ulan-Bator in Mongolia to Beijing. The total journey is over 7600km.
Finally there is The Trans-Russian railway, which runs from Moscow in European Russia through to the Pacific port of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, over 9,000km away.
(information found at www.realrussia.co.uk)
Our plan is to head from Reggie's home in Lithuania, through Latvia and Estonia, get a ferry over to St Petersburg and then heading down to Moscow to start the official Trans-Siberian route. We plan to head through Russia from Moscow to Lake Baikal (the deepest lake in the world), spending a week camping and hiking. Then taking the Mongolian route towards Ulan-Bator (Mongolia's capital), then from there it's a decision whether to head back into Russia and round to Vladivostok, or to head to Beijing from Mongolia... That section is still very much an unknown.
One thing I've really realised over the last couple of years, is that you can be so unbelievably over-prepared and over-planned and have read every book under the sun on the place you're going, the experiences to be had there, how to get from A-B and where to sleep.... But there is NOTHING that can compare to meeting fellow travellers, nomads, vagabonds and locals on the road, who have tips and tricks that can't be found anywhere else. You have to be flexible, and that element of the unknown is part of what excites me most about travel.
Now, after researching how possible it is (time and money-wise) to actually travel somewhere, the next step for me - and the one I dread the most - is always the question of Visas....
This minefield of information, rules, regulations, and statistics can be one stressful situation. I have spent hours researching and making notes before travelling somewhere. BUT not all hope is lost! During a trip across Peru, Bolivia and Brazil we found it was actually a hell of a lot easier than it first seemed, just turning up at the airport, answering a couple of questions, and being given a stamp with how long you can legally spend there. I do recommend ALWAYS checking how many days they give you.
For example, in Namibia we went for a month of charity work and the opportunity to see Etosha National Park and The Spitzkoppa peaks. At Boarder Control I was given a stamp with 32 days of legally being allowed in the country, a friend was given 60, someone else 94... even though we went through the same Boarder Control guy and gave the same reasons for being in the country. This instance we were all give enough time - just - but I have had friends who have been give 16 days to complete a 21 day trip.
Russia is notoriously difficult for attaining visas, as you have to be invited into the country to be considered for visa approval. Without any personal contacts in the country, the easiest way around this is to go through an agency which sorts out all the paperwork for you. Now of course this will be more expensive than e-mailing around Russia asking for help, but it is all 100 times quicker. So it depends on your time scale and budget to which you choose. For us, we need to go at a certain time due to other rather inflexible commitments (returning to work on ship), so we are planning to apply through an agency once already in Lithuania. The agencies also help with information on the train journey and can help with your visas for Mongolia and China as well (if needed).
The best one I've found so far is Real Russia, which may not be the cheapest but they seem the most inclusive and the information is everything I have needed to know. From Visas to train tickets, accommodation to excursions... everything you could want and need is covered by these guys.
(Image found at transsiberian.info)
For the moment anyway we are deciding which agency to go through, whether we need to go back into Russia from Mongolia to go round to Vladivostok and how to carry a Drone without looking too conspicuous...
Comments