Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Trans-Siberian Railway (Multi Country Travel Guide)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I used the first edition of Lonely Planet's TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY guide on a Trans-Manchurian journey three years ago, and picked up the second edition (April 2006) for a Trans-Mongolian journey I'm embarking on tomorrow. The book is a very useful resource for this great train journey, especially for those planning to disembark in the many cities and towns en route.

The guide covers all three traditional Trans-Siberian lines and the cities along them: Moscow-Vladivostok, Moscow-Ulan Bator-Beijing, and Moscow-Harbin-Beijing. It also covers the Baikal-Amur Mainline, a northern Siberian route that is still little-used by Western travelers (or even by Russians, for that matter). The reference material is substantial, with plenty of information on the food and drink of the countries one can visit, and a good history of the railway from its construction through all of the political turmoils since. The listings of large cities such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ulan Bator, and Beijing are abridged extracts from the RUSSIA, MONGOLIA, and CHINA guides, respectively, with only a couple of days worth of sightseeing, and one main walking tour selected.

What don't I like about the book? Well, as with every Lonely Planet title since they changed their philosophy a few years ago, I'm unhappy with the lack of budget advice and the inclusion of hotels and restaurants priced for a crowd with enough money that they'd probably look to other publishers anyway. For pete's sake, the "Author's Choice" for Moscow lodging, the Golden Apple Hotel, is nearly three hundred euro a night! Despite what you may have heard, Russia is indeed a budget destination, especially if you choose to stay for free with hosts from hospitality associations and self-cater or eat at student canteens. It's a pity that Lonely Planet no longer gives meaningful advice on lodging and food to any but the wealthiest of travelers.

A further problem is that the book was kept a little too slim for a Lonely Planet guide. Obviously minor cities on the route like Yoshkar-Ola have been left out, that's understandable. But it's odd that the authors are so passionate about the variant Moscow to Yekaterinaburg through Kazan, and yet give Kazan awfully meagre coverage. Twice interesting hikes are mentioned (one in Ulan Bator and another along the Great Wall), but without enough details to comfortably set off, or even for a local to know what it's about and give you pointers. And some things present in the first edition are no longer here, such as the little box explaining how there are no passenger crossings from Siberia to Alaska.

The other big Trans-Siberian guide is Bryn Thomas' Trans-Siberian Handbook (Trailblazer Publications, 7th ed. 2006), which has been around for a long time and sees a new edition fairly frequently. Ideal for those in love in train travel, not just those looking to get from point A to point B, Thomas' guide contains things to look out for according to the kilometer markings along the railway. If your backpack isn't already too heavy, I say get that book as well.

I recently travelled on the Trans-Sib via Mongolia and so was very keen to see Lonely Planet's new release but having looked through it seems a very poor second as a travel companion to Bryn Thomas' handbook.

It seems to lack the detail you really need when on the train but does give some useful guides to places along the way, however lacks the concise detail that Thomas' guide gives.

Glossy, but not the definitive guide and why take two?

We've used the book in july/august 2002 for a trip from Beijing to Helsinki. Much information in the book, but a lot of it is copy-past'ed from the country guides.
Another reviewer remarked on the rapidly changing circumstances in the countries... no guide can outrun those.
We visited Beijing, Irkutsk, Listvanka, Jekaterinaburg, Moscow and Saint-Peterburg. Most of the time we found accomodation from the book. At that time, the Trans-siberian handbook (Thomas Bryn - ISBN 1873756704) was older.

We had both books: LP fresh of the press and Thomas Bryn's book - THE guide to have.
Thomas' had a new edition in february 2004. Best to take the most recent editions of guidebooks. The handbook is more interesting to read, so that's a must. You'll have plenty of time to read!

The trip is recommended to anyone: we found a british couple with 2 kids doing it! Don't be too easily discouraged, try to take the east-west trip (to avoid wagons full of tourists!).

You'll get more of the generic country information that LP is good at (and provides in their various country-specific guides) but we found the research in the Handbook provides a much more informative passage across the time-zones. By far the best and most up-to-date source of information on booking tickets is a website called "www.seat61.com". Having tried various "tour" organisations, we ended up booking all arrangements through one of the recommended Russian agencies for half the price - all through internet cafes on the hoof in Bolivia! As for companion guides, much preferred the handbook.

I was impressed about amount of information, but there are so many errors, especially in russian words and transcription, I can count up to 5 errors on page. Seems that publisher was in a hurry and didn't correct original text or author(corrector?) was not competent in this stuff.

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!).

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.

This LP was all i needed for the russian leg of my trans-siberian trip, It offers more than enough to keep you busy for the standard one month tourist visa. (The people above must have never gotten off the train between Moscow and Irkutsk!) If you intend to branch out in mongolia or china then you will obiously need to supplement this guide. It is a short compact guide focused specificly on the train routes, and it covers them remarkably well.

Given the pace that Russia, Mongolia, and China are changing and developing, it is an incredibly daunting task to write a travel guie attempting to cover all three countries in any level of detail. Inevitably hostels shut down, restaurants move, store hours change, and even train schedules fluxuate.

This book is a decent rough guide and the only one of its kind. For that reason I rated it a three. It was sufficient for my trip on the railway, but I wouldn't call it a "Survival guide" as such. I'm usually a huge supporter of The Lonely Planet, but in this particular instance they have not done a supurb job.

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).