Trans Mongolia and Siberia

You will be met at the airport by your guide and enjoy an afternoon guided Hutong Tour in Xicheng District. Hutong is a maze of historic alleyways with old single storey traditional courtyard houses, which are now fast disappearing. In this one hour tour, you can hop on a rickshaw to ride through the narrow alleys as well as visit a local family then walk on the Silver Ingot Bridge (Yinding Bridge) and find out about the different thresholds of the courtyards

Meals Included: None

Today includes a visit to Tian’anmen Square, The Forbidden City as well as the Summer Palace. Enjoy lunch at Da Wan Ju Restaurant which is a popular choice for local people. Beijing Roast Duck is renowned as the most delicious dish of Beijing and the Quanjuede restaurants have developed their own technique and are famous for outstanding quality where you will get to experience it for yourself.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

The Mutianyu Great Wall is the less-crowded section of the great wall about 2.5 hours’ drive from downtown Beijing. A cable-car takes you to where you can walk along the wall, through the watchtowers and enjoy superb views as it snakes across the hills and mountains. Lunch will be at Xiao Long Pu restaurant located near the Mutianyu Great Wall.. It serves a great variety of Chinese delicacies and provides wonderful views of mountains.

Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Overnight train from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar. The K3 departs Beijing in the morning, travelling through Jining South, Erlian, Dzamyn Ude, and arriving into Ulaanbaatar the following afternoon.

Meals Included: Breakfast

On arrival, you will be collected from the train station and transferred to your hotel. This evening we enjoy a cultural extravaganza of song and dance including the traditional throat singing, then onto the restaurant for a traditional Mongolian BBQ dinner.

Meals Included: Dinner

Drive to Terelj National park. On the way we visit Chingis Khaan Equestrian statue. We will hike to a small temple, Aryabal. Then we continue onto Khustai National Park. The park lies in the foothills of southern Khentii mountain range where you can see wild horses called Takhi also known as Przewalski. (Drive approx 250 kms / 6 hours)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Today we drive to the ancient capital city of Kharakhorum. In 1229, Ghengis Khan declared it as the capital city of his vast Empire. Today there are many interesting sites left to visit; the legendary turtle rock sculptures, Buddhist stupas and the ruins of this once great city to name a few. Erdenezuu – the 1st Buddhist monastery in Mongolia was established in 1586. Today Erdenzuu monastery still shows its glory with collection of many priceless religious object and incredibly beautiful Mongolian Arts. It has a massive square wall, 420 metres in length, each side, 108 Stupas and 17 temples. On the way we will do came riding for 30 minutes at the semi sand dunes (Elsen Tasarkhai). (Drive approx 300kms / 6 hours)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Travel beside the Chuluut River which has carved a deep canyon into the basalt rocks. Arrive Khorgo Volcano that is an extinct volcano, covered with basalt and lays to the east of Lake Terkhiin. It is an astonishingly beautiful lake formed by a dam of lava flowing from a volcanic eruption many millennia ago. (Drive approx 300kms / 6 hours)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Travel to Shine-Ider province across rolling steppes which are covered with wild flowers in spring and early summer. Zuun Nuur a small, beautiful salt water lake which is a haven for birds. After the lake, we will continue to drive about 10kms and reach at the camp. Stay in Ulziit Khishig. (Drive approx 280kms / 7 hours)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Today we will drive to Khuvsgul Lake, close to the Siberian border. Here you have the opportunity to truly understand the Mongolian way of life. Lake Khuvsgul is the second largest freshwater lake in the world, after Lake Baikal so be prepared to be impressed. (Drive approx 220kms / 5-6 hours)

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Free day to explore the area. We have a one hour horse ride along the lake here. It is included, but you if you prefer not to ride, you can walk or spend time at your leisure.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

We will drive to Murun and take flight to Ulaanbaatar. After landing in Ulaanbaatar, transfer you to the hotel. Free late afternoon to explore or just relax. (Drive approx 130kms / 3 hours)

Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch

We will pick you up from the hotel and take you to the Narantuul market. This is also known as the Black Market (Khar Zakh), but it’s not the sort of place where you go to change money illegally. A covered area has a decent selection of clothes and accessories, such as bags, jeans and fake North Face jackets.

The rest of the day is free to explore Ulaanbaatar, we suggest checking out the State department store. 100% cashmere products, leather products, fur, jewellery, cosmetics, men’s, women’s and kids fashions, there is a souvenir centre, bookshop, international food court. There is a supermarket where you can buy nibbles for your train journey.

Meals Included: Breakfast

Today you’ll be picked up at the hotel for a visit to the National History museum and Gandan monastery. After lunch, depart for the railway station and your train to Irkutsk in Siberia. This train has only second class 4 berth cabins, however we buy out the two upper berths, so there are only ever two of you sharing a cabin.

Overnight on train.

Meals Included: Breakfast

The train stops at the Mongolia border, you may wake to find it is just one or two carriages in the middle of nowhere. Eventually the engine will return with more carriages and hitch up to cross no mans land to Russia. You will undergo customs and immigration on the train.

Most of the day is spent travelling through Siberia. On arrival at the station in Irkutsk, you will be met by your guide and transferred to Listvyanka, 60km away. This village is on the shores of one of the biggest and most ancient lakes of world, Lake Baikal.

Meals Included: Dinner

In Listvyanka you’ll visit a local biological museum that also has a set of aquariums. There is one with the only mammal representative, the Baikal Seal, in it. Your guide will show you the famous Shaman Rock and tell you the legend about the naughty Angara River. Lunch at the local restaurant. Take a chairlift to a nearby view point. There you’ll get a chance to take panoramic pictures of Baikal from above. Visit the local 19th century wooden St. Nicolas church and a local fish market where you’ll see a great variety of fish and different ways of cooking it. Enjoy a 1 hour boat trip, then free time.

Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Transfer back to Irkutsk. On the way visit a nearby local village – Bolshaya Rechka. Have a short walk around. Continue your trip with a visit to an open-air wooden architecture museum “Taltsy”. In the museum you’ll see the settlements of indigenous Siberian people of 17th-20th centuries. Some of the buildings presented in the museum were brought there from the villages that were flooded after building a dam.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Enjoy a 3 hour city tour by car. It starts at the historic part of the city: Epiphany Cathedral, the oldest stone-structure Church of our Saviour and the only Catholic Cathedral in Irkutsk, Polish Roman Catholic Church. The tour leads you through the Kirov Square and circus. You’ll have a ride along the main street of Irkutsk, Karl Marx Street. You’ll make a stop on the way to have a walk along the street of old wooden houses. After that you’ll ride along to the Angara River embankment, where you’ll see a monument to Alexander III. Complete the tour with a visit to the district of historic wooden building. Free time in the historic wooden district.

Meals Included: Breakfast and Lunch

Free time until your afternoon transfer to the railway station to catch the Trans Siberian Train.

Meals Included: Breakfast

Journey from Irkutsk to Moscow. We travel in the first class compartment which has 2 lower berths.

Meals Included: None

Early afternoon arrival in Moscow, transfer to the hotel, then depart on a Moscow City Tour. St. Basil’s Cathedral rises from Red Square in an irresistible profusion of colours and shapes. Red Square is indelibly associated with images of stone-faced Soviet leaders standing in the bitter cold as a panoply of military might rumbles past for their review. (* there may be admission restrictions to The Red Square due to the Spasskaya Tower Festival held on these dates) A brief stop will be made to introduce you to the world-famous GUM department store.

Meals Included: None

Meet with your guide and depart for a tour of the Kremlin. The Moscow Kremlin is the largest medieval fortress in the world, taking up more than 27 hectares. A tour of the Kremlin Armory is its own separate pleasure. Underground Art tour: For nearly half a century the artists of the Moscow avant-garde lived on the fringe of society. Denied studio space, prohibited from showing their work in public and even from buying canvas, paints and brushes. You then continue onto Arbat Street, this is one of Moscow’s oldest districts outside the Kremlin, it was established in the 14th and 15th centuries. Today, however, it has become one of the most fashionable and expensive areas in the capital. You will finish the tour in the centre of time with time for you to do exploring of your own.

Meals Included: Breakfast

Free time in Moscow. Transfer to the railway station for the fast train to St. Petersburg, where you will be met by your guide and transferred to the hotel.

Meals Included: Breakfast

In a fascinating 4 hour city tour will show you the highlights of this city, created by Peter the Great in 1703 to be his ‘window on Europe’. St Petersburg combines its fascinating Russian heritage with a distinctly European outlook, now considered the cultural heart of modern day Russia, while the Peter and Paul Fortress (Petropavlovskaya Krepost) is the historical core of St Petersburg.

Meals Included: Breakfast

The State Hermitage occupies six magnificent buildings situated along the embankment of the River Neva, right in the heart of St Petersburg. Orientation tour and option to stay on for rest of day if desired to explore the Hermitage. Return to the hotel.

Meals Included: Breakfast

Free day to explore the city further or, take the opportunity for an optional day trip to the Peterhof. This evening we’ll celebrate the end of this epic journey with a dinner at a typical restaurant.

Meals Included: Breakfast and Dinner

Transfer to the airport with your guide.

Meals Included: Breakfast