Although we’ve posted a couple of times before on the Trans-Siberian, I couldn’t resist directing you to an article printed in last Sunday’s Independent that covers this epic train journey far better than most accounts I’ve read before.
The theme of this particular article is not about the 6-day, Moscow to China train journey itself, but rather the stops in between. Get off the train, and get off of it often is what journalist Simon Calder recommends.
Calder suggests a few choice stops that help to break up the long journey. Travelers should think about jumping off the train in Ekaterinburg (where the Czar’s family was shot), Novosibirsk (the Chicago of Siberia and home to the mighty Ob River), Irkutsk (site of the Decembrists uprising), and of course, majestic Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world.
Calder’s in-depth article also recommends some guidebooks and travel agencies to help with the journey. And please don’t think that this is a bad time of year to be traveling through Siberia. The train is nicely heated and the snow-covered Siberian steppe is said to be extraordinarily beautiful in the winter.
Given the option, however, summer just seems like a much better time to go.