Trans-Siberian in October 2022

[jamesontheroad]

For some time now, we’ve been working on a plan to visit Mongolia in October 2022, travelling out by train and returning by air.

(We are located in Sweden, so our most logical route would be Umeå - Vaasa - Helsinki - St Petersburg - [one or two stops along the way] - Ulan Bator).

Russia and Mongolia are open to foreign visitors, subject to necessary visas and COVID controls. A three-day hotel/home quarantine is currently in effect in Mongolia.

But for trains...

Finland/Russia trains are operating, but only for citizens of Finland and Russia. ⛔️

Russia/Mongolia trains are suspended. ⛔️

In ordinary times, nine months out, I’d want to be fairly advanced with our bookings. I’m unsure whether to pay a deposit with a travel agency that specialises in booking train tickets into/through Russia and hope that tickets become available, or accept that air travel is probably the only secure way to get this confirmed.

Anyone else holding out for plans of rail travel in or through Russia in 2022?

 

[dutchflyer]

No plans, have done part of this-many moons ago, when hammer&sickle were still in force for the jolly train workers.
But just a hint: assuming you can read german, or find google translate, just a day or so ago on the Ausland sub forum of drehscheibe-interntional.de was a request for a steady thread for all the INTernational connections from mother Rossye-mostly suspended for now, and the actual status. Looks like probably the best readily accessible source of info for this-apart from of course the russky/cyrillic railway-interest fora. Be very ready to have plan B as alternative.
I always remember that other review of the TransSib: like an overheated rolling prison on wheels with bad food and surly female guardians for every car! On a more neutral note, it seems that the fellow-travellers can make or break this trip.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Thanks, I presume you are referring to this thread?

Drehscheibe Online Foren :: 08/01 - Auslandsforum :: [RU][UA][BY][FI][EE][LV][LT][MD][AZ][KZ][UZ][TJ][KG][MN] ? zur Wiederaufnahme PV

www.drehscheibe-online.de

 

[181]

Are there buses across either border, and are they available to foreigners? (I suppose that might not help if you can't easily book them or be sure that they will run). Could you avoid the first border by getting a boat to somewhere in the Baltic States and then a train to Russia, or are those trains also only available to local citizens at the moment?

My vague recollection from my Trans-Siberian trip in 2007 is that the trains in and out of Mongolia couldn't be booked until fairly close to the date of travel (maybe a couple of months) anyway, and I think we didn't book anything till at least Jan/Feb for a May/June trip, but at least we knew the trains were going to be running. Seat61 says of trans-Siberian tickets in general 'Reservations officially open 60 days before departure, but with Real Russia [one of the agencies] you can request tickets up to 180 days ahead and they will contact you for payment when the price is confirmed'.

It's only a few miles from the last station in Russia to the first one in Mongolia, but Google Maps indicates that the cross-border road takes a completely different route, so a taxi might be impracticable.

Apologies if you've thought of all this already, and good luck with your plans.

 

[KeithMcC]

When we did this a few years ago there was a bus from Ulan Ude in Russia to Ulan Bator which our friends used (we went on to Vladivostok). It left about 7 in the morning and was much quicker than the train. Booked the day before from a travel agent in Ulan Ude - details were in the Lonely Planet Trans Sib. book.
We booked most of our tickets through Real Russia who change a hefty mark up, although they did also provide our visa invitation.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Thanks for the contributions. There seems to be a sense that Russia will not open up for foreigners arriving by train for some time. I think we can expect to have to fly the whole way (it will, at least, save us the costs for visas to pass through Russia).

We understand that Aeroflot have resumed flights to Ulan Bator but they are not showing up in their ticket sales for October. Turkish airlines have flights but I would prefer not to fly TK. Watch this space.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Jan 2022 ==

When we did this a few years ago there was a bus from Ulan Ude in Russia to Ulan Bator which our friends used (we went on to Vladivostok). It left about 7 in the morning and was much quicker than the train. Booked the day before from a travel agent in Ulan Ude - details were in the Lonely Planet Trans Sib. book.
We booked most of our tickets through Real Russia who change a hefty mark up, although they did also provide our visa invitation.

Thanks for this tip. I bought the book before Christmas, it will have to continue to inspire armchair travels for a while longer.

I was already expecting to use an agency, and I'm prepared for the cost. It seems worthwhile given that - if we go by train - we'll need someone to book our tickets ASAP after ticket sales resume after a long pause.