Tsars Gold Train: Trans Siberian Rail: Moscow to Beijing

After having arrived in Moscow, your tour guide welcomes you at the airport and accompanies you to your hotel. The Russian capital presents itself in wonderful illumination on your "Moscow by Night" city lights tour. Afterwards you can stroll across the famous Red Square with your tour guides and experience Moscow's Metro stations in all their splendour and beauty. At night, the beds in your first class hotel spread comfort.

Your grand city tour starts in the morning with the Kremlin, including one of the magnificent cathedrals still left from the time of the Tsars. Towards evening, your train departs from the Kazan Station.

After breakfast you arrive in Kazan, the old Tartar capital on the banks of the Volga. Plenty of history here: on a guided tour of the Kremlin you will learn about the wild and often bloody relations of the Tartars, Cossacks, and Russians. Your Private Train resumes its journey in the evening.

In the afternoon halt in Yekaterinburg and short tour of the city centre which was just restored in 2009. In the course of the city tour you will see the newly erected Cathedral-on-the-blood, built in memorial of that tragic historical event. Back on the train your journey through the vast steppes of Western Siberia continues.

You reach Novosibirsk, heart of Siberia, where you will be welcomed in the traditional Russian manner with bread and salt. Your city tour includes a visit of the Transsiberian monument and the mighty Ob River. After dinner, the train continues its ride eastwards.

Your train crosses the wide Yenisei River and rolls on through Siberia. The train's chefs once again demonstrate their skills as they serve the guests Russian specialties in a "tsar's feast". A vodka tasting accompanied by Russian snacks and clever toasts offers you a very enjoyable opportunity to combine pleasure and local hospitality. Your train passes by villages with their typical wooden houses and through birch forests set against a background of impressive mountainscapes and, hopefully, ample sunshine.

Today the train reaches Irkutsk, capital of Eastern Siberia. During a city tour you will see beautiful Siberian wooden cottages, the new statue of Alexander III and the lively market hall. After lunch, you undertake an excursion to the open-air museum "Life and Work in the Time of the Tsars". Spend the night in a centrally located hotel in Irkutsk.

Today you will visit a Siberian village by bus. A boat takes you across the deep waters to Port Baikal, where your Private Train awaits you. On ancient tracks it takes you directly along the shore of Lake Baikal for several hours. Dinner is served in typical local style as a picnic on the shores of the lake (weather permitting).

This day takes you along a different part of the shore of the mystical Lake Baikal, and then onwards through the magnificent valley of Selenga passing by wild and lonely mountain steppes of Eastern Siberia. On the way to the Mongolian border the train will stop in Ulan Ude, where you attend the city tour. Afterwards the train departs for Mongolia.

In the morning you arrive in Ulan Bator. In the course of a city tour you will see the impressive Buddhist Gandan Monastery and the Lama Museum. In the evening, your tour guides show you the best beer garden in the city. You spend the night in a centrally located hotel in Ulan Bator.

Today you attend a tour to Mongolian Switzerland. After breakfast, a bus trip reveals the beautiful countryside. You take lunch within the typical tent settlements of nomadic herdsmen. A Mongolian horseback riding show will be performed especially for you. In the evening your Private Train will travel onward to the Chinese border.

In the early morning your train halts in the middle of the Gobi Desert, some time ago one of the favourite settlements of dinosaurs. Towards noontime, you reach the Chinese border, where due to the different Chinese track gauge your Chinese train is ready for departure. You will reach China's capital Beijing in about 16 hours.

After observing impressive scenes of Chinese rural life from your compartment window, you arrive in Beijing in the morning where you spend three nights in a first class hotel.

A four hour city tour will show you the Temple of Heaven and its park as well as Tianamen Square. A guided tour through the interior of the Forbidden City follows in the afternoon.

Today you enjoy a day trip to the Great Wall. Your programme also includes a tour of a pearl cultivation farm, the Ming Tombs and the avenue of the spirits. In the evening you enjoy a meal featuring the world famous Chinese dish, Peking Duck.

Today a wonderful trip filled with unique and unforgettable experiences comes to its end.