Covering a distance of 9,289 km, the Trans Siberian Railway Network happens to be the longest railway network in the world ever – bridging the gap between Moscow and the east ends of Russia. While you travel on the Trans-Siberian or Trans-Mongolian Railway you will pass 6 time zones, transverse taiga, and tundra in Russia, grasslands, highland and desert in Mongolia and even cross the Great Wall of China if you decide to head into Bejing instead of Vladivostock.. Starting from the city of Sankt Petersburg I traveled roughly 6,000kms in 103 hours on a train journey from the nation’s most European city Sankt Petersburg, across Siberia to Ulan Ude shortly before the Mongolian border in February 2020. In this post I will tell you about the trip itself, where I stopped and my recommendations for accommodation; read up on what I wish I had known before going to Russia in a different post.

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Transport and accommodation

Unless you love the idea of spending a week straight on a train, I recommend making at least three stops along the way. Unfortunately, the TSR doesn’t work as a hop on hop off ticket, therefore a lot of planning is involved to find the right times and trains you want to take.  Wherever you stop, I recommend trying to arrive in the morning or early afternoon and departing the following night at the earliest. This gives you time to arrive and freshen up and then allows for a full day to explore more in-depth or arrange for a day trip outside of the city. After a night or more on the train you will appreciate the essentials of a hostel: a hot shower, wi-fi and kitchen facilities. Prices were surprisingly cheap with amazing 10/10 hostel ranks at 7 € per night. Be careful what you book though, read the reviews thoroughly or better get advice from other travelers, because some look amazing on booking.com and turn out to be a complete disaster (there’s a recap of my opinions on the hostels I have been to in the summary of cities below). Try to inform the hostel of when you plan to arrive as many do not keep staff on-site and make sure you know the address and check-in instructions, as some hostels seem to be an arrangement in someone’s flat, and can be quite the challenge to find the entrance. Transport by bus was only easy and accessible to us in St Petersburg and Moscow. You can easily use your credit card to hop on and it only cost about 50p per ride, Google maps or the Russian Version Yandex was easy to use to help you where to get off , however all other cities made using the bus really hard for us, because the further east you got to Siberia, busses were so local and not made for tourists, they didn’t have numbers nor even a direction on them. We soon learnt that using the russian equivalent to Uber (Yandexi) was the most comfortable when traveling with luggage, however not easy if you always have to try and find WiFi. While we had decided against buying a Russian sim card, I so recommend doing it! My travel companion, who pretended to be a master in living without data and without a smartphone, unfortunately talked me into using normal maps. I learnt the hard way and realized that offline Google maps wasn’t a thing here and more than once we were struggling harder than we needed to to find transport to the hostel or anywhere we wanted to go. Also, Russian sim cards and data are not actually that expensive. So do yourself a favor and get a sim that allows you to google on the go and order an Uber when ever you want.

My recommended and not so recommended stops

Using the phase “if you have the time, then do this” is really something I want to avoid, because I had to realize it too; If you don’t have enough time (make use of the 30 day visa), don’t do it at all if this is meant to be a once in a lifetime experience. The Visa I got as a German was up to 30 days. It wasn’t a cheap one either, so now I do regret not using that whole month rather than just 20 days, and I didn’t even make it to Mongolia as planned, nor Vladivostock. We stopped at 6 different cities and included a 3 day trip to Olkhon Island at Lake Baikal. I do admit, stopping in Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, was not as great as I hoped. I just simply didn’t enjoy the cities as much as the others. However, we did make a nice excursion from Yekaterinburg to the Europe- Asia border.

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Sankt Petersburg

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As the first entry point to Russia, we flew in at 5 am in the morning, fairly tired we struggled to find the hostel, because it didn’t have a normal hostel entrance as I have been used to. Many hostels in Russia are located within shared housing arrangements and sort of are hidden away. Be smarter than me and try and find out about the location and check in details before arrival, and eventually when you have Wifi too – it makes everything easier. Unfortunately we were way too early for check in and somehow had to dispel time. Eager to explore the city, we went out, only to realize that at 7am nothing is open yet. We wondered around in the cold until we finally found a cafe. We explored the city by tram and then decided to head back to the hostel and take a nap on the couch in the common area, so maybe it would be smart to pay for that extra night in the hostel so on arrival one can just go and take a nap. After check in, a shower and some food, we explored St Petersburg a bit more, there is lots of things to see by foot and in walking distance around the center. Most people would probably call it the most beautiful Russian city and the city is known for it’s wealth of culture. Fill your days with visiting the extravagant palaces, the Hermitage and admiring the historical buildings; apparently it has famous and popular museum but for this trip I decided to skip it. At the hostel I made my first Russian-German friend, Vitali, who showed me a few pubs, helped with the language barrier and met me again in Moscow for a fun weekend at the end of my journey. I can recommend staying at the No Rain no Pain Hostel, small and compact, tidy, cozy and very central.

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Kazan

Technically a detour from the main Trans Siberian route, this 1000-year-old city is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan and one of the most attractive cities you might visit on your journey. I only decided to stop here because my old flatmate from Norway told me that it was worth a visit, and boy am I happy that I trusted her. Kazan has so much to offer! Its Kremlin is a UNESCO World Heritage site and just outside of town is the unique Temple of All Religions, a building combining 16 world religions. With the snow still on the ground this city was still in Christmas mood with all its lights and decorations, cute cafes still playing Christmas songs, although we were already in February. Definitely one of my favorites is just taking the time to take photos of the Kremlin and the city at different stages of the day and night, loosing myself in all these colours and architecture. Wonder where we stayed? Exress Hotel & Hostel – not recommended. While it is ideally located, it was extremely dirty, the kitchen was filthy and the room..don’t even get me started.

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Yekaterinburg

Situated on the border of Europe and Asia, a famous tourist attraction, Yekaterinburg is the fourth largest city in Russia. Although it is famous for being the most compact Russian city with over a million people, it is actually quite large, which makes sightseeing by foot rather difficult. We never managed to figure out how to use public transport here and were ripped off by a taxi driver paying triple the fare than what we needed (this is where I realized being able to order an Uber an compare prizes would be very handy with a Russian sim. Unfortunately, we arrived on a Sunday afternoon, a non-operating day for tour operators and the visitor office. But luckily I was able to arrange a tour with Alexander, a Russian tourist guide through Airbnb Experiences. He was available that same afternoon and took us on a guided 2hr tour to the outskirts to learn about the history of Russia, the city and the border crossing. We stopped by old World War 2 memorials and the official and unofficial monuments of the Eurasia border. The unofficial one is a miniature tower, right next to the highway surrounded by the trees. The forest behind it though had something magical. The trees were covered in beautiful, colorful ribbons which marked the wishes of visitors and newly weds. It is to believed that the wind will take those wishes up to the sky. The second monument is an Obelisk. The next day we went for sightseeing session, saw the main church ,Survivor in the blood, which hosted an impressive ice sculpture park and headed to the Observatorium. Mistakenly I thought it would be a restaurant café with panorama views over the city, however when we got the top and I opened the door it was only to realize that we would step right outside onto the icey platform, only shielded by a meter high glass wall. A quick walk around and view pictures of the okay view we went back down and warmed up in a cafe downstairs. Later in the evening we headed out to the Baden Baden therme, a heated swimming pool a bit outside of the city. For the first time we used the Russian equivalent for an Uber (y.taxi), it was surprisingly cheap, easy to use because we had access to Wifi and we even were able to pay in Cash. We stayed at the Hostel Uralskie Berega, my second favourite hostel on this trip.

Afterall, I cannot quite put my finger to it why I didn’t enjoy the city as much and I know it is a popular stop for people wanting to break up the Trans-Siberian journey. I enjoyed being able to get outside of the city and explore the beautiful forest around the Ural mountains, I somehow think there are better cities that might leave a better impression.

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First time in the actual Transsiberian train to Novosibirsk

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For the trip to Novosibirsk for the first time we were traveling with the actual transsib, the train no 100. While it wasn’t too suitable with the timetable before to take the transsib, we tried it today to see what it’s like and what the differences are. In general it’s not that different. The train inside looks a bit modern than the other long distance train, the mattresses are way more comfortable and I also had the feeling that there were less people traveling, meaning less crowded in side. We had two bottom beds and were soon approached by our top bunk neighbors who with all effort tried to interact with us and wouldn’t stop talking Russian to us although we didn’t know what they were saying and we couldn’t answer. We were served lunch and dinner today, lunch was probably a red onion soup, sliced meat with noodles and a side salad, but I couldn’t tell you for sure. For dinner there was sausage, rice and a side salad. Unfortunately, as a city, Novosibirsk is one of the places that I do not consider a must do. It is very small although it accommodates to a population of 1,5 million as the principal cultural and educational center in Siberia. I was done with basic sightseeing within 2,5 hours. If you do decide to stay, I recommend that one night/ half a day to go sightseeing is enough.Staying at the FunKey Hostel was a good choice, it’s a 15 minute walk from the train station but very tidy, clean, spacious and staff were super kind. We were going to Uber to the train station when departing again, unfortunately, this was the first time where no Ubers where available around us and we had to walk it, but the distance is really not too bad unless you come with very heavy luggage.

The next train journey to Irkutsk was our longest one at a total of 33hrs. Because my travel companion had been complaining about the discomfort in 3rd class due to “small beds”, he had decided to go with 2nd class for this ride, which I was more than happy with. Although I was a bit nervous about it, I already knew how it all worked, so I confidently went into my compartment, a train coach full of mainly men. It was different entering by myself; obvious that I was probably the only tourist there – a solo female traveler. Luckily I had picked the perfect bed, again a lateral window one (my favorite) with a very lovely Russian couple on the other side who looked out for me during the journey. While we were not able to communicate the lady was always trying to talk to me in gestures, she handed me Russian tea and cake, tried to tell me what’s happening or why we were stopping or for how long (smokers break etc.). She even sent her husband to get me water after she saw me walk over there once in my socks, because I was too embarrassed to wear my street shoes (hint: make sure you bring some slippers and spare yourself the awkward judgmental looks of others) . They left early the next day, she said goodbye and I think something like a fair well to which I could only respond to with dosvidanye and Spasibo (goodbye and Thank you).

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Irkutsk

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Finally, at 5460km of travel we reached Irkutsk, one of the largest cities in Siberia and the hub to travels to the Baikal Sea. In 19th century, due to exile of many artists, officers, and nobles after Decembrist revolt, it has became an intellectual center of Siberia. Still, it plays an important role in the region – with its traditional wooden architecture amazingly intact, Irkutsk retains the spirit of a 19th-century Russian town. We joined two girls from the hostel, Laura and Marion, on a supposedly free Walking tour which was advertised in the hostel, only to find out that one still had to sign up for the tour in order for it to happen. So did the easy to follow sightseeing route instead (a green line on the ground) that takes you from the lively market hall to the municipal theater, parliament, many churches, World war memorials and the river. I was standing on the river front taking photos of ducks, when through my camera zoom I saw something floating in the river. At first I thought it was a big fish.. but then it waved at me..turned out it was two snorklers fishing in the Angara River, just floating down the stream! The wooden architecture that lines the streets of the old quarter is stunning and was even included on the preliminary list of UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage Sites. Just about everything is within a walking distance from the hostel, even a nice traditional Russian Banya, originally an Eastern Slavic steam bath. As none of us really knew what or how it works we agreed to try it and went for the normal 3hour fare, turns out it’s men’s and women’s separate. There was a steam bath and a sauna, showers, a cold water bucket as well as a massage treatment area, a relax and an eating area. At night we went out for drinks and explored the Russian nightlife including life music and a tasting Russian style cocktails. Make sure to pay a visit to the Kazansky Church, one of the most colorful and beautiful church buildings I have come across in Russia.

On arrival in Irkutsk I had to finally, and sadly, accept the fact that there just wouldn’t be enough time to actually to Monoglia, Ulanbataar, and stay in one of the yurt tents of Nomadic people as I had hoped. The journey to just the mongolian border would take ages, busses only drive on certain times and it would be a lot of time wasted in getting there, rather than spending time where I already was. So there we took advice from other travelers and the hostel staff and decided to explore the region. The main attraction in this region is Lake Baikal – the deepest lake in the world. Irkutsk is not actually on the shores of the lake so a stop for at least two days is ideal to allow time for either a day trip to the town of Listvyanka on the lakeshore or a longer trip to the island, which is what we did.

While we had been quite fortunate enough so far with the accommodation, this one in Irkutsk had it in it. The award for worst place goes to Guest House Syberia. By far the most disgusting place I have seen in all of Russia, just a waste of money and a huge disappointment. Upon arrival the receptionist already warned us that we might want to upgrade to a smaller room because “of the people in our room”. Before checking in, we looked at the facilities and I was about to run out of it backwards. Pictures used online make it look so nice, everything newly renovated and clean. Well lets just say this: they sure know how to photoshop and catfish you. Luckily I was able to get a refund and we checked into a hostel. The award of best hostel in Russia goes to: Rolling Stones Hostel. I vote 10/10, if not one of the best hostels I have been to in my entire travels. Welcoming, clean, tidy, spacious, knowledgeable staff and affordable at only 6€ – it is all that you want.

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Lake Baikal

The bus picked us up at 9am in the morning and we headed off to our adventure to Olkhon Island on Baikal Lake. After we left Irkutsk behind us, we drove along the interstate road through the Siberian desert prairie for about 6 hours. Not much other than farm land a few houses here and there, cows and horses on unfenced land between the brown, slightly snow covered landscape. Getting to the island was quite an adventure. Suddenly the bus stopped and the driver only spoke russian everyone got off the bus except us and a few Taiwan tourist because we didn’t know what was going on. Eventually we found out that the bus was too heavy to go on the ice and we had to get into a minivan which still had roughly 25 people in it. Now, driving on a lake sounds like an idea that defies all logic, don’t it? But during the cold Siberian winter, it is a totally plausible concept. Lake Baikal – the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world, containing 22% of the world’s fresh surface water- waters are completely drivable when frozen. Apparently, many vehicles travel across it each year to get to Olkhon Island, in fact, for a certain amount of time every year (temperatures consistent at -30ºC), a hovercraft, car and even minibus is the only way to get there. I am not scared of many things, but boy let me tell you this, I was now. I don’t know what I was expecting how we would get to the island, but driving did certainly not pop into my head. Sitting in the front seat, cracks all over the windscreen, and unfortunately I had clear views onto the speedometer, which showed more than triple km/h than the suggested 20km when entering the ice! Once more I had to just trust these nomadic russians in the wilderness on the largest frozen lake that they know what they are doing..However, we made it save to the island, thanks to the driver who drove the minibus like it was an off road car.

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The bus dropped us at our accommodation, the Guest House Otdykh na Baykale, also a recommendation from the hostel staff. Our twin room was spacious and dinner as well as breakfast was offered for an additional charge, which I recommend if you want a traditional Russian meal! The island itself only has one supermarket which is fairly expensive so I do recommend to bring what is needed! At the Guesthouse only the daughter spoke English, but the rest of the people tried their best using Translator and hand and feet to explain what they mean. Overall it has been an amazing experience, so rural and authentic. After a full breakfast with fried eggs (to my surprise this weren’t sunny-side-up eggs but actually deep fried egg white), porridge and really fatty cheese sandwich, we headed out for our day tour across the island to discover the north part. We booked the tour with the guesthouse, where they arranged someone to pick us up with a van, as well as 7 others, where we met a group of Dutch men. Together we all spend the day explore ON the ice, went to different grottos and popular photo spots on the island. At lunch time the driver cooked a traditional fish soup on the ice for us. Unfortunately he only spoke a few words English, just as much to tell us how long we would stay at each spot before moving on. Therefore we never learnt anything about the lake, our questions about the ice, its stability and anything that pretty much would pop into my head about why the lake is how it is, I had to research later. Probably 3 hours into the tour, getting on and off the van, taking hundreds of photos, I reached a point where I no longer could feel my toes nor my fingers. More then once was I thinking..aaand now we will return to the accommodation so I can take a hot shower and regain a feeling in my extremities but nope, we kept going. I cannot tell you how happy I was when he finally handed us some tea and soup, although unfortunate for me – of course it was a Buryat traditional fish soup! While my opinion on this, as usual, doesn’t count much, because I barely like any kind of fish, everyone around me seemed to reallt enjoy it! Finally we returned to the accommodation frozen but extremely happy with what we experienced out during the day. Sights of ice I had never seen before; snowflakes so perfect, I thought only existed in animation and fake photos; traditional Russian food prepared on the ice; deep ice cracks and stray dogs that looked like Siberian huskies; I even got used to driving on the ice as if it was a normal road. The rest of the day we explored the island, went to the famous Shaman rock, viewpoint and holy pilgrim place, and had dinner in one of the cutest places – the bistro at Nikitas Guesthouse (Usad’ba Nikity Bencharova). Since our timing and planning wasn’t really on point for this trip, we didn’t quite think this one through. I wish we would have stayed another night at the island, but we already had a return bus booked and therefore left again for Irkutsk the next day.

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Ulan Ude

Today we boarded the train for our last leg from Irkutsk to Ulan Ude. Because the train would be driving along the Lake Baikal, I really wanted to ride during the day and make the best out of daylight views, hence why I booked a bottom bed to have a window to myself. By far this train ride was the most beautiful. Stretched along the coast of the Baikal lake, I watched stunning views over the mystic icy lake which followed the train to its left side, accompanied by the mountain ranges. After we arrived in UU and checked into the hostel we headed out for a little sightseeing tour right when the sun was setting over the city. We had dinner at the bar 12, a bar in the biggest hotel which turns for 360 degree angle views over the city, probably more enjoyable during the day and especially in winter. Once again understanding the restaurant menu wasn’t easy as there was no English translation, luckily I found the menu in a pdf online and translated it through Google translate. Definitely a handy device, this one!

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Not far from the Mongolia border, Ulan Ude is the capital of Buryatia, home to Russia’s largest indigenous people, the Buryats. It is also a center of Buddhism in Russia, which is why I decided to finally do a tour where I can learn abit abvout bthe culture and religion. Again through Airbnb experiences , I was lucky to find someone offering private tours to the Ivongilsky Dastan, a Buddhist school outside the city. With our tour Guide Boris, who even spoke german, we headed out The main shrine is the imperishable body of Khambo-Lama Itigilov – The lama reached the state of Nirvana in 1927, his body spent 70 years underground and apparently didn’t compose!! I was blessed by a shaman for future health and courage. We learnt about Buddhism and shamanism, about the Buryat culture and the differences to the Siberian rural areas and the big cities we have seen before. It was nice to finally receive some intel on culture, way of living and Russian beliefs, as unfortunately due to the language barrier we had only been able to have that one tour in Yekaterinburg.

Later that afternoon I went for a stroll around town and finished off the evening with eating at a Mongolian restaurant, the very least I could do considering we never made it to Mongolia. Cafe Mongol was my absolute favorite restaurant, not only because the pictures in the menu were spot on exactly what I got, but also because the variety of food was amazing and the food itself was just delicious. It was nice to have a proper meal, since it wasn’t too easy to get used to the Russian food, undercooked chicken, not knowing what I was actually eating (hint: learn Russian before you go!). At the end that even let to that I lost 5kg in those 3 weeks traveling in Russia, mostly feeding off pasta and sauce from the stores. The city is a pleasant stop for one or two days. Clean Hostel na Borsoeva was doable/okay for a night, but not the best we have been to.

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Moscow

When in Russia you naturally pay a visit to the impressive capital Moscow. Early in the morning we headed to the airport for our flight to Moscow from Ulan Ude. It was bound to be a long day, additional 6 hours because of the time difference. Having a window seat definitely paid off, the views were incredible over the Russia Dessert, snow capped landscape, I had not seen anything like that before. On arrival in Moscow we headed to the hostel and caught up with my new friend Vitali who I had met at our first hostel in St Petersburg. Vitali joined us for the weekend in Moscow, we went out for an afternoon stroll accompanied by sun through Moscow’s parks and main sightseeing spots..It was obvious, especially after we have come straight from Siberia, that Moscow is where all the money flows to. Rich architecture, surrounded by man-built green station parks fill the city. Much more touristy than anything else I had seen in Russia, the most impressive thing about Moscow was probably the subway corridors and stations built in Stalin time that look like art pieces, the famous St.Basil’s cathedral and the red square. Moscow will keep you busy and entertained, even better if you find a local like we did. Together with Vitali and Sonya, a Russian girl we met during a couchsurf meeting for internationals to speak and learn English we explored Moscow in the less touristy way. While I had my list of things I wanted to see such as certain underground stations, an observation deck/viewpoint over Moscow, the university and a park, Sonya made metro hopping and getting around in Moscow so much smoother than what we would have done alone. I just had to tell her where I wanted to go and she would lead us there. Definitely plan at least 2 nights here. Finding accommodation was extremely difficult. Many hostels would be far away from the center. We decided to stay at the Pasternak Hostel, which except from its location and the fact that there was a great live band pub downstairs – I cannot recommend.

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All good things come to an end

St Petersburg – 22,5hrs – Kazan – 16hrs – Yekaterinburg – 24hrs – Novosibirsk – 33hrs – Irkutsk – 7hrs – Lake Baikal -6,5hrs Irkutsk – 7,5hrs – Ulan Ude

At the end, I left Russia with mixed feelings. I was overwhelmed by the openness of many Russians and their attempts to communicate with me even though they did not speak English and I spoke no Russian. I was overwhelmed by the culture, the nature and the landscape. To see the diversities between the cities and the very simplicity of villages in Siberia, the old fashion Buryat culture and the very modern, architectural set ups in Moscow and Sankt Petersburg. Landscapes like those at Lake Baikal that I have never experienced before, a different and slower way of exploring a country that what I was used to left me with a feeling of comfort and satisfaction. For me it is out of question IF I will ever return, because obviously I will have to finish that last leg of the actual transsiberian track to Vladivostok, and do all the things I didn’t get to do such as visit Mongolia and go on a Husky adventure. However, maybe next time will be in summer.I set off with a crying and a laughing eye, with new friendships, memories to last for a lifetime and stories to tell, that no-one will actually believe happened like this. I leave with many lessons learnt, about myself and a country and culture, that I did not think I would be ticking off my bucket list so soon. But most importantly I have learnt, to not be afraid of solo travel and how important it really is to choose to travel with someone you feel comfortable traveling with.Even if that means traveling by myself for a while. Life is too short to postpone. Do it while you can! – Franzi 🙂