Here's a few facts that give you some idea of just how huge a train journey you are about to embark upon.
It takes about six days to reach Vladivostok from Moscow, longer if you break the journey along the route (and to be honest, you will be seriously missing out if you don't).
Not only will you cover 6,500 miles as you journey from Europe through Asia, but you will pass through seven time zones, cross 16 big rivers including the Volga and pass by 87 towns and cities. You will go through a tunnel that is 2km long and you will cross a bridge over the Amur river that is even longer!
A few highlights for you too. For over 200km, you will be journeying past Lake Baikal, the world's largest fresh water lake (20% of the world's entire fresh water supply is here!). Then there's the city of Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia, which was originally constructed as a stopping off point along the railway and is now home to almost one and a half million people. And at Yekaterinburg you can visit the site where the last Tsar of Russia and his family were murdered in 1918.
Two and four bed compartments are available on the Trans-Siberian Railway (Russians call it the Trans-Sib by the way), with chairs converting into beds when needed.
May and June and September and October are perhaps the best months to make the journey because the weather is at its most pleasant then. During January and February it can be freezing (you are travelling through Siberia remember!) and July and August can be very hot.
If you are a fre spirit, you can buy tickets as and when
you choose along the route, stopping off where you please for however long takes your fancy. It is still best to buy onwards tickets a day or two before you intend to leave a stop. Otherwise you can join one of the many package trips with planned stopovers along the way.
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