Irkutskaya Oblast' Travel Forum

I am travellling with my partner on the Transiberain railway and will be stopping at lake Baial. As we need to buy the train tickets upfront with dates we need to decide how long to stay at each place. We like the outdoors and have all our own camping gear with us. How long could you spend at Lake Baikal before you get bored? Is a week enough, or could you do more? Is there plenty to do and explore? And are you allowed to camp?

Thanks

Few misconceptions:

1) You do not need to buy the tickets "upfront" really much. A very successful approach is to purchase tickets abroad like in Slovakia or Serbia or Bulgaria: they sell special tickets. A second-best choice is Germany, but it is more expensive. These tickets re called "CITY-STAR". A CITY-STAR ticket for two people from Bratislava to any place in Russia is 150 Euro round-trip. This ticket is independent of distance and it is sold to anyone.

Suggested route:

- fly into Vienna, Budapest, Praha or Bratislava. A typical ticket to these cities is usually less, than to Moscow. Depending, where you live, you may find that you also can travel there by train. Your main destination #1 should be Bratislava.
- in Bratislava buy "CITY-STAR Russia via Chop to Mandschuria(GR)" for two. It's a round-trip ticket valid for unlimited stops and will cost exactly 150 Euro or 75 Euro pro person. It is important you write the final destination as either Mandschuria(Gr) or Naushki(Gr). This has to be exact. Don't blame me, one city is correct in German, the other in English spelling: it is how it is in Czech and also Slovak computer.
- make also sure, it is via CHOP!!! (Otherwise it's more expensive and you will need Belarus visa. The citizens of Canada, USA and EU do not need Ukrainian visa.
- Decide, do you like to see Kiev or not. If not, ask for Kosice - Moscow "Bettkarte" or "Platzkarte" in the sleeper. It will cost you about 20 Euro/Person. This car is scheduled to go after end of the May. If for some reason the car won't be arranged as they promise now (currently it's an optional car and goes via Belarus), you have to use the Ukrainian sleeper till Kiev, maybe take a day break in Kiev and continue to Moscow.
- In Moscow you can get the sleeper reservation (abot 60 Euro till Irkutsk) at MZA counter.
The way to beat the price even furhter is to say a magic phrase:

"Daite nam pozhaluista bilet po tarifu MPT potomu chto kak vy vidite my edem v Kitaj"

To be "legally correct" you actually should also ask for a small add-on ticket Naushki-SuheBator or Zabaikal'sk-Mandschuria (notice, I omitted the "gr" here, for a good reason!). That small add-on ticket (about 1-2 Euro) will make your "base" ticket legally eligible for the bed supplement (called in Russian Plackarta) according the cheaper MPT tarif and save you about 20-30 Euro pro person pro direction.

Now here is an oddity: this entire thing will actually not just tkae you to Irkutsk, but also for free into... China. Don't ask me why, just accept it. It is cheaper to do that way and gives you a larger coice of trains otherwise "closed" for domestic travel. You may consider to just ignore that fact or you may consider to visit either China or Mongolia - it's up to you.