Europe to Australia by Trans-Siberian Railway

It’s possible to travel most of the way from London to Australia by train via the Trans-Siberian Railway.  In fact, quite a number people travel this way.  Time-wise, we’re talking 4-5 weeks one-way, minimum.

Route, timetable & costs…

Travel tickets alone costs only £750 or so from London as far as Singapore, but you must add food, hotels, tours along the way.  The links below cover travel in either direction, from London to Australia or Australia to London, follow the links to see details of prices and timetables for each section.

• Step 1:  London to Moscow by train.  Daily departures taking 2 nights.  Spend at least 1 night in Moscow.

• Step 2:  Moscow to Beijing by Trans-Siberian Railway Two trains every week each taking 6 nights.  Spend at least 1 night in Beijing.

• Step 3:  Beijing to Hanoi by train Two trains a week taking 2 nights.  Spend at least 1 night in Hanoi.

• Step 4:  Hanoi to Saigon by train Several trains daily, 2 nights.  Why not stop off to see Hue or Hoi An?  Spend at least 1 night in Saigon.

• Step 5:  Saigon-Phnom Penh by bus Daily, 1 day.  Spend at least 1 night in PP.

• Step 6:  Phnom Penh-Battambang by train or bus, bus to the frontier, train to Bangkok.

• Step 7:  Bangkok to Singapore by train.  Daily, 2 nights.

• Step 8:  The final leg from Asia to Australia is the problem.  Although there are ferries from Singapore to Indonesia, there are no regular passenger ships to Australia from either Singapore or Indonesia.  Or anywhere in the Far East to Australia, in fact.  You therefore need either a cruise or passenger-carrying freighter for the last leg from Southeast Asia to Australia.

• There are very few freighters on the Asia-Australia route that will carry passengers, but try Swiss company www.globoship.ch.  They have twice-monthly freighter sailings from Singapore to Fremantle (Perth) in Australia, costing 1,334 Swiss Francs (about £833) one-way and taking 7 days.  Their website is in German, so use Google language tools to translate it.  They also have a monthly Singapore-Melbourne freighter taking 15 days, 6,990 Swiss Francs (£4,368).  The ships only have one or two 2-berth cabins for passengers, so book this bit first, and book early!

• www.hanjin.com has been reported as running a weekly freighter between Singapore and Brisbane/Sydney/Melbourne, see http://www.hanjin.com/en/img/container/1261128306215_AUS.pdf#toolbar=1&navpanes=0.  Singapore to Brisbane takes 10 days.  Melbourne to Singapore takes 13 days.

• Other freighter & cruise booking agencies to try include www.strandtravelltd.co.uk, CruiseAZ, www.cruisepeople.co.uk, www.freightercruises.com & www.freighterworld.com.  However, one report suggests that none of these agencies can now offer freighter travel from Asia to Australia, but by all means try asking them.

• Feedback on freighter booking & travel would be appreciated, including any photos for this page.

How to plan & arrange this trip…

There aren’t any travel agencies who can arrange the whole trip from Europe to Australia, so you will need to plan and arrange each stage of the journey yourself.  It’s an exercise in project management!  Unless time is absolutely no object, you should book the key sections in advance through various travel agencies, for example, book London-Moscow through a UK European train ticketing agency such as DB’s UK office or www.europeanrail.com, then book Moscow-Beijing & Beijing-Hanoi through a local Russian agency such as www.realrussia.co.uk or Svezhy Veter.  You may also need to pre-book the freighter from Asia to Australia, as places are limited.  Tickets for other parts of the trip, for example, Hanoi-Saigon-Phnom Penh-Bangkok can all be bought locally, as you go along.  The place to start is the sea section from Asia to Australia, as that will determine the dates for the rest of the trip.

Visas…

You’ll need to pre-arrange visas for Belarus, Russia, possibly Mongolia, China & Vietnam.  Cambodian visas can be obtained at the frontier.  In many ways, complying with the various visa requirements (and in some cases, requirements for confirmed onward tickets to be held) is actually the biggest hassle, not buying the tickets for the trains, so check this out carefully using the relevant embassy websites.

So where do you start?

• First, read through the seat61 pages linked above, as these explain the options for each stage of the journey.

• Then sketch out your itinerary using a simple spreadsheet like this, deciding where and for how long you want to stop off.

• Next, check out the visa situation for each country.

• Finally, follow the advice on each seat61 page to buy tickets for each train journey that you want to pre-book.

Request for more information…

If anyone has any more information, an account of this journey, photos or travel reports that would be useful for this page, please e-mail me!