Multi-Region

Itinerary

• Day 1-4: Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia)

  Arrive in the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, to check in for a three-night stay at a leading hotel and gather for a reception and welcome dinner. The following two days are dedicated to the Nadaam Festival, an 800-year-old sports competition.

  In terms of grandeur and gravitas, the festival is the Mongolian Olympics. The opening ceremonies are an opulent celebration: brilliantly dressed cavalry officers prance into Ulaanbaatar’s stadium on their steeds; contortionists on lotus-flower floats twist themselves into bewildering postures; women in finely embroidered silk robes and surreally tall hats parade across the field. Over two days of competition, more than a thousand athletes take part in three traditional events – only-in-Mongolia versions of archery, wrestling, and horse racing – with the winners lauded as national heroes.

  On the third afternoon, visit the 13th Century Complex, an open-air museum with a giant statue of Genghis Khan.The following morning, board the luxury Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express private train to begin the journey west.

  HIGHLIGHTS

  • The one-of-a-kind Naadam Festival, an event first held in the days of Genghis Khan
  • The 13th Century Complex, featuring traditional crafts, foods, and shaman ceremonies, and an unforgettable 131-foot-tall equestrian statue of Genghis Khan
• Day 5: Ulan Ude (Russia)

  A stop in Ulan Ude, capital of Russia’s Buryat Republic, provides the opportunity to visit a village of Old Believers – a religious group that rebelled against changes to the Orthodox liturgy in 1652 and, as a result, were exiled to Siberia. In their isolated enclaves, they’ve preserved 17th century styles of clothing, architecture, and music. UNESCO includes this unique community on its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

  HIGHLIGHTS

  • A home-cooked lunch with a group of Old Believers, followed by a performance of traditional choral music – chants, lyric songs, and folk prayers passed down over hundreds of years
• Day 6: Lake Baikal

  Today the Golden Eagle hits a spectacular stretch of track, winding through tunnels and along cliffs above UNESCO-listed Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest and oldest freshwater lake. Stop en route for a barbecue along the shore before continuing on to the lakeside village of Listvyanka, where you can dip your toes in the water and learn about the lake’s unique ecosystem at the Baikal Museum.

  HIGHLIGHTS

  • The rail line along the water, one of the most scenic stretch of the Trans-Siberian trip
  • Little Listvyanka village and its Baikal Museum, which includes aquariums displaying the lake’s unique marine life
• Days 7-8: Irkutsk, Aboard Train

  Arrive in Irkutsk, the cultural capital of eastern Siberia. A tour of this surprisingly sophisticated little city includes examples of the area’s classic wooden architecture and a visit to the Decembrist House Museum, the preserved home of one family from a group of failed 19th century pro-democracy revolutionaries who settled here following their terms in Siberian labor camps. Spend the next day on the train rolling through the Sayan Mountains.

  HIGHLIGHTS

  • Irkutsk’s ornate 19th century wooden buildings, many decorated with lacy wooden fretwork
  • A private classical music concert at Decembrist House Museum, one of the best maintained historic homes in Irkutsk
  • A relaxing day aboard the Golden Eagle as it passes through the isolated Sayan Mountains, where residents have been herding reindeer for more than a millennium
• Day 9: Novosibirsk

  Pull into Novosibirsk, which thanks to the Trans-Siberian railway is Siberia’s biggest city, with Russia’s largest opera house on its central Lenin Square. The town sits on the Ob River, 2,300 miles from the river’s mouth in the Arctic.

  HIGHLIGHTS

  • The daunting scale of Lenin Square, with its domed opera house – nicknamed the Siberian Colosseum – and giant Soviet-era statues
• Days 10-11: Ekaterinburg, Kazan

  The final stop in Asia is Ekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, situated on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. Visit the Church on the Blood, built on the spot where the last czar, Nicholas II, and his family were executed in July of 1918. From here continue west to Kazan, a beautiful city along the Volga that’s the capital of Tatarstan, a Russian autonomous region. Kazan is noted for its centuries of religious harmony. Here mosques, minarets, and Orthodox church domes share the skyline.

  HIGHLIGHTS

  • Ekaterinburg’s Church on the Blood, consecrated in 2003 on the site where Bolsheviks executed Czar Nicholas II and his family
  • The UNESCO-listed Kazan Kremlin, considered the only surviving Tatar fortress in Russia
• Days 12-13: Moscow

  Disembark in Moscow, the Trans-Siberian line’s western terminus, and visit Red Square, taking in iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral and the massive Kremlin, where you can tour the Armory Museum, a storehouse of national treasures. If you’re more interested in art, you can opt instead to tour the Tretyakov Gallery, which has a collection spanning a millennium of Russian artwork. Check in to a five-star hotel for a one-night stay and a farewell dinner.

  HIGHLIGHTS

  • Moscow’s 870-year-old Kremlin and Red Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
  • The treasures of the Armory Museum, from Faberge eggs to the ivory throne of Ivan the Terrible
  • The Tretyakov Gallery, home to the world’s most extensive collection of Russian art