Product Description
The only guidebook you'll need on this epic train journey. Ride the rails through Russia in a week, or take a month to explore Siberian outback towns, learn throat singing in the wild Tuva Republic or meet Mongolian nomads. This inspirational guide will help you to make the most of every moment during this trip of a lifetime.

TALK LIKE A LOCAL - Russian, Mandarin and Mongolian language guides including helpful phrases and extended food glossaries.

NEVER GET LOST - with 65 maps of major cities and regions, train routes and coverage of the BAM for the truly adventurous.

TRAVEL SMART - new trip-planning and itineraries chapters to help you devise your route.

KEEP GOOD COMPANY - our expert authors have been everywhere and done it all to help make your journey more rewarding and hassle-free.

BE IN THE KNOW - in-depth history, culture, environment and cuisine chapters will keep you informed (and entertained) en route.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 2.5 based on 6 reviews)

Very comprehensive.

This gives a very comprehensive account of the various routes on the trans siberian, i'v chosen vladivostok to st petersburg! will have my guidebook close at hand during my trip!
May 29, 2008

When was this LP updated?

I was overall disappointed.
The guide was useful to plan the trip, but much less once on the spot. Quite a bit of information is erronous or outdated (e.g. restaurants/hotels do not exist or are priced over double of what stated, museums have been closed or moved), which especially in Moscow and Yekaterinenburg led to cross-city walks and travels at the end of which we found nothing. This is especially for what concerns the Moscow to Yekaterinenburg part; pages on St. Petersburg, China, Mongolia and the Irkutsk area were much more useful.
Train and bus info: there is quite a lot of information if you are heading in the St. Petersburg to Beijing direction, but no special indications for if you are taking the opposite direction.
Last point: guide suggestions are generally targeted to a welthier-than-backpacker budget (though Galina in Moscow was great!).
September 15, 2007

very useful guide

As the title says, I found the book a very useful guide. Since I currently live in China, I was mostly just using the portions for Mongolia, and Russia.

My only complaint is the switching around of currency used. Sometime in the Russian portion prices would be listed in US dollars, other times Rubles, and sometimes in Euros. It would have been much better to pick one currency and stick with it. A minor complaint.
September 11, 2007

Where is the train information we paid for?

The guidebook is just fine for sightseeing, hotels, restaurants, but for train information, there is almost nothing. Really, almost nothing at all. To take the Trans Siberian, it is very difficult to make stopovers, and get reservations for future trains. And you can't simply board the train in a city or town other than Moscow or Vladavostok, or Beijing. None of this is addressed in the book. So, it's great to have tons of pages of sightseeing information, but for places almost no one will get to, due to the difficulty of reserving future trains.

There is almost virtually no information on how to book the train, or recommendations on how to book it, or where to book it, or the wide range in prices. Hardly anything about the different classes. Hardly anything about the cabins, onboard food, how to buy food at the stations, is there an electrical outlet, train etiquette, etc.

I was very disappoined in the lack of practical information needed. The Trans Siberian is NOT as easy to book as a train from say London to Paris, and the book doesn't address that.
August 01, 2007

Good, but also get the Handbook

What you'd expect from Lonely Planet--useful but not comprehensive. I would recommend getting both this and the Trans-Siberian Handbook. It can be a little difficult to find (especially if you don't want to wait 6 weeks).
June 07, 2007

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