The Cologne-Moscow sleeper train... |
There are now 5 good options for the 3,097 km (1,924 miles)* from London to Moscow
by train:
Option 1,
via the Cologne-Moscow sleeper: The
fastest, most comfortable & convenient way. Daily.
Option 2, via the Paris-Moscow
sleeper: Twice-weekly, not the cheapest, but a
classic journey.
Option 3, change in Warsaw:
The cheapest way, but with more changes. From £150 one-way.
Daily.
Option 4, change in Berlin:
Useful if you'd like to see Berlin on the way. From about
£170 one-way.
Option 5, via the Amsterdam-Moscow
sleeper: Take a ferry to
Holland & go from there!
* this is the distance via the shortest route, taken in options
1, 3 or 4.
Option 1:
London-Moscow via Cologne...
This is the most
direct, fastest and most convenient option, although if you're
on a tight budget it can cost around £65 pounds more than option
3, depending on what type of sleeper you choose.
Train
times London ► Moscow (option
1):
-
Day 1: Travel
from London to Brussels by
Eurostar,
leaving London St Pancras at 13:00 (12:57 on Fridays &
Sundays), arriving in
Brussels Midi at 16:03.
-
Day 1: Travel from Brussels to Cologne
(Köln in German) by high-speed
Thalys
train, leaving Brussels
Midi at 17:25 and arriving Cologne Hauptbahnhof 19:45.
-
Day 1: Travel from Cologne to Moscow by
direct Russian Railways sleeping-car, leaving Cologne at
22:28,
travelling across Germany, Poland and Belarus, arriving Moscow
(Byelorruski Station) 2 nights later at 10:59 (Day 3 from
London). The sleeper has 1, 2
& 3-bed compartments with washbasin,
see the photos below.
Map of Moscow showing Byelorruski station.
Train times
Moscow ► London (option 1):
-
Day 1:
Travel from Moscow to Cologne by direct Russian sleeping-car,
leaving Moscow daily at 21:09 and arriving in Cologne at 06:14
two nights later after passing through Belarus, Poland and
Germany. The sleeping-car is modern and air-conditioned,
with 1, 2 and 3-bed compartments with washbasin,
see the photos below.
-
Day 3: On
Mondays-Saturdays, a high-speed
Thalys
train leaves Cologne at 07:14, arriving
Brussels Midi at
09:35. On Sundays, a high-speed
Thalys
train leaves Cologne at 07:40, arriving
Brussels Midi at
10:01.
-
Day 3: A
Eurostar
leaves Brussels
Midi daily at 11:59
and arrives London St Pancras at 13:03.
On
board the Cologne-Moscow sleeping-car...
The Cologne-Moscow sleeping-car
is
modern and air-conditioned, with ten compartments each of which
can be used
as 3-berth, 2-berth or
single-berth. By day the room is a comfortable sitting
room (pictured below centre), by night the beds fold out from the wall behind the
sofa, one above the other (pictured below right, set up as a
single-berth room with the middle and top bunks folded away
against the wall). Each room has a washbasin,
towels and soap are provided. The sleeping-car attendant can
serve you excellent Russian tea. A restaurant car runs
with this train between Cologne and Warsaw, serving meals, snacks and drinks,
but always travel with some supplies of your own.
The picture at the top of the page shows the Cologne-Moscow
sleeping-cars at Brest on the Poland/Belarus frontier.
Passengers travelling alone who can't afford the single-berth
sleeper fare can share a 2-bed or 3-bed compartment with other
sleeper passengers of the same sex.
 What's the journey
like..?
Your Eurostar journey takes you out of London and across Kent
at up to 186 mph,
with glimpses of Rochester castle and cathedral to the left as
the train crosses the River Medway. The transit through
the Channel Tunnel takes just 20 minutes. Changing
trains at Brussels (Midi/Zuid station) is easy. The
high-speed Thalys train from Brussels to Cologne takes you
across the old coal-mining part of Belgium, green and hilly,
passing into Germany at Aachen. The Thalys crosses the
Rhine into Cologne's main station (Hauptbahnhof), right next
to the imposing towers of Cologne cathedral.
Leaving Cologne, the train to Moscow passes slowly
through the industrial Ruhr via Dortmund and Düsseldorf and
heads overnight into Poland. Poland is largely flat,
rich green farmland - although Warsaw Centralna station itself
is underground, look out for Warsaw's 'Palace of Culture' on
the skyline - a Soviet-style 'wedding cake' of a skyscraper -
as the train approaches and leaves Warsaw.
Russian track gauge is 5', but most of Europe (including
the UK) is 4' 8½", so at Brest on the Belarus frontier the sleeping-cars are
shunted into a shed, each car is separated and jacked up to
have its bogies (wheelsets) changed. You remain on board while this is
done - quite an experience..! After entering
Belarus and Russia, the scenery changes to rolling hills,
birch tree forests, and villages of small wooden
houses. If you
are awake in the small hours approaching Moscow, you may catch
a glimpse of the plaques on the station building marked '1812'
and '1942' as the train passes through the small station of
Borodino.
Pictured right: Children travelling in the Cologne-Moscow
sleeping-car watch from the end of their coach as it is jacked up in the shed at
Brest to have its bogies changed to Russian track gauge.
Photo courtesy of
www.fiddlerontherails.com.
Fares
(option 1, via the Cologne-Moscow sleeper):
|
London to
Cologne
by Eurostar+Thalys: |
Eurostar+Thalys fares from London to
Cologne start at £79 return.
Book in advance to get the cheapest fare, the fare
rises as cheaper seats are sold. One-way fares cost more than a return,
so for one-way trips buy a return and throw away the return half. |
| |
|
Cologne
to Moscow by sleeper
approximate fare per person: |
sharing 3-berth sleeper |
sharing 2-berth sleeper |
single berth sleeper |
|
Normal one-way fare: |
£174 |
£257 |
£360 |
|
Saver
return (book in advance): |
£257 |
£326 |
£460 |
You can't book train travel from
London to Moscow online, so you need to call an agency to buy
tickets by phone. Remember that bookings open 60 days in
advance, and you can't buy tickets until reservations open.
The best agencies to call are either
Deutsche
Bahn's UK office on
08718 80 80 66
(lines open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, no booking fee), www.europeanrail.com
on 020 7619 1083 (09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, £25
booking fee), or Ffestiniog
Travel on
01766 772050
(lines open office
hours Monday-Friday & Saturdays, 8% booking fee). For more
information about how to book European trains, see the
How to buy European train tickets page. If you are making a return journey or a one-way trip inbound
from Moscow, please read the section below about booking
westbound trains from
Moscow to London. Don't forget to arrange your
Russian visa and
Belarus transit visa.
UK agencies can
easily book sleepers to Russia using the computer reservation system
which covers trains starting in
Germany. However, berths on trains starting in Russia
are held on the Russian reservation system, so UK agencies
may have difficulty booking an inbound
sleeper from Russia back to western Europe. The German
reservation computer sometimes has an allocation of
berths for the inbound Moscow to Cologne or Berlin sleepers - If you are
booking through Deutsche Bahn's UK office, ask the agent to
try using the train number '11MJ' for the Moscow-Cologne train
(whatever train number appears on their timetable enquiry
screen) as this has been reported to work. But if all
else fails and your UK agency is unable to obtain the inbound
Moscow-Cologne sleeper for you, simply ask them to book
you (1) the return Eurostar+Thalys ticket from London to Cologne and
back, (2) a one way sleeper from Cologne to Moscow.
Then book the return sleeper from Moscow to Cologne using a local
Russian agency such as
RealRussia,
Svezhy
Veter, Waytorussia.net or
G&R
International.
Option 2: London-Moscow via Paris...
This is a new option, although an expensive one, thanks to
a new twice-weekly direct sleeping-car between Paris &
Moscow taking 2 nights and introduced in December 2007 -
See news video about the start of the new Paris-Moscow
train service.
The last direct Paris-Moscow sleepers were withdrawn in 1994,
having been introduced by the Soviets in the 1960s.
Today's Paris-Moscow train consists of the same type of modern
air-conditioned 200km/h sleeping-car used on the Cologne-Moscow train,
see the photos above.
-
Travel from London to Paris by
Eurostar,
taking any departure you like, up to and including the 18:00
from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord.
-
Travel from Paris to Moscow by twice-weekly (3 times weekly in
summer) direct air-conditioned sleeping-car of the Russian
Railways, leaving Paris Gare du Nord at 20:46 and arriving in Moscow
Byelorruski station at 20:35 two nights (about 48 hours) later.
The Paris-Moscow sleeping-car leaves Paris attached to the existing
Paris-Berlin sleeper arriving Berlin just after 8am next
morning. It is transferred in Berlin to the 'Moskva
Express' leaving Berlin at 15:22 and arriving Moscow at 20:35
the day after (day 3 from Paris/London). You can leave the
train to explore Berlin during the layover period. The
sleeper leaves Paris on Thursdays & Saturdays from 13 December
2007 to 26 May 2008, then on Mondays, Thursdays & Saturdays from
26 May to 4 October 2008, then on Thursdays & Saturdays again.
Train times Moscow ► London
(option 2, via the Moscow-Paris sleeper)
-
Travel from Moscow to Paris by twice-weekly (3 times weekly in
summer) direct air-conditioned sleeping-car of the Russian
Railways, leaving Moscow Byelorruski station at 08:00 and
arriving in Paris Gare du Nord at 09:14 two nights (roughly 48 hours) later.
The Moscow-Paris sleeping-car leaves Moscow attached to the
Moscow-Berlin 'Moskva Express' arriving Berlin just after 9am
next morning. It is transferred in Berlin to the
existing Berlin-Paris sleeper leaving Berlin just after 9pm
arriving Paris 09:14 next morning. You can leave the train
to explore Berlin during the layover period. The sleeper
leaves Moscow on Tuesdays & Thursdays from 11 December 2007 to 22
May 2008, then on Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays from 24 May to
2 October 2008, then on Tuesdays & Thursdays again.
-
Take
Eurostar to
London. The 12:13 Eurostar arrives London St Pancras at
13:28.
Fares (option 2, via the Paris-Moscow sleeper)
|
London to Paris
by Eurostar: |
Return fares
start at £59 2nd class, £149 1st class.
One-way fares start at £44 2nd class.
Advice on one-way Eurostar fares. Child, youth & senior fares
|
| |
|
Paris
to Moscow by
sleeper (per
person): |
sharing 3-berth sleeper |
sharing 2-berth sleeper |
single berth sleeper |
|
Normal one-way fare: |
333 euros (£237) |
497 euros (£355) |
545 euros (£389) |
|
Normal return fare: |
666 euros (£474) |
994 euros (£710) |
1090 euros (£788) |
You can't book
train travel from London to Moscow online, you need to call
an agency to buy tickets by phone. Remember that
bookings open 60 days in advance, and you can't buy tickets
until reservations open. The best agencies to call are
either
Deutsche
Bahn's UK office on
08718 80 80 66
(lines open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, no booking fee),
www.europeanrail.com on 020 7619 1083 (09:00-17:00
Monday-Friday, £25 booking fee), or
Ffestiniog Travel on
01766 772050
(lines open office hours Monday-Friday & Saturdays, 8%
booking fee). For more information about how to book
European trains, see the
How to buy European train tickets page. If
you are making a return journey or a one-way trip inbound from
Moscow, please read the section below about booking westbound
trains from Moscow to London. Don't forget to arrange
your
Russian visa and
Belarus transit visa.
Option 3: London-Moscow via Warsaw...
This option usually works out as the cheapest way to reach
Moscow. It's not as convenient as using the direct
Cologne-Moscow sleeper, as it involves an extra change of train
in Warsaw and takes a couple of hours longer. But with cheap fares available on the
Cologne-Warsaw part of the trip, the total cost is usually about £150 from London to Moscow
making it cheaper than a one-way flight and far more enjoyable.
Train times London ► Moscow (option
3, via Warsaw):
-
Day 1: Travel
from London to Brussels by
Eurostar,
leaving London St Pancras at 13:00 (12:57 on Fridays &
Sundays), arriving in
Brussels Midi at 16:03.
-
Day 1: Travel from Brussels to Cologne by high-speed
Thalys
train, leaving Brussels
Midi at 17:25 and arriving in
Cologne (Hauptbahnhof) at 19:45.
-
Day 1: Travel
from Cologne to Warsaw overnight on the 'Jan Kiepura'
sleeper train, leaving Cologne at 22:28 and arriving Warsaw
(Centralna station)
at 10:40. The 'Jan Kiepura' has modern
air-conditioned Polish
sleeping-cars (1- & 2-bed deluxe rooms with private
toilet & shower plus TV/DVD player, 1- 2- & 3-berth
standard rooms with washbasin, hot shower at end of the
corridor, CCTV security, highly recommended), modern
couchettes (more basic sleeping accommodation in 4-berth & 6-berth
compartments), and reclining seats (not recommended). The sleeper fare
includes complimentary toiletries pack and morning tea or
coffee and croissant. There is no restaurant car, but
feel free to take your own picnic, wine or beer on board! Spend the morning
in Warsaw.
-
Day 2: Travel from Warsaw to Moscow on the
'Polonez' sleeper train, leaving Warsaw (Centralna
station) at 16:30 and
arriving Moscow at 12:49 next day (Day 3 from London). The train has modern
air-conditioned Polish
or Russian sleeping-cars with 1st class 2-bed and 2nd class
3-bed compartments with carpet and washbasin. A Polish
buffet car is attached between Warsaw and Terespol (on the
Polish/Russian frontier) and a Russian restaurant car is
attached for breakfast between Brest (on the other side of the
frontier) and Moscow. Next morning, as the train passes
through the small station of Borodino, look out for the
plaques on the station building marked '1812' and '1942'...
Map of Moscow showing Byelorruski station.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
1, 2 or 3 bed sleepers: The EuroNight 'Jan Kiepura'
has two modern air-conditioned Polish sleeping-cars,
with 1, 2 & 3 bed compartments, either deluxe with shower & toilet or standard with washbasin... |
|
3-bed sleeper with beds
folded out... Photo courtesy of Tobias Köhler. |
|
3-bed sleeper with beds
folded away. Photo courtesy of Tobias Köhler |
4-berth couchettes: Ideal for families.
Much more space per person than 6-berth couchettes. |
|
6-berth couchettes: A very economical
option, far better than a seat for just a few euros
more... |
|
Above: The
Jan Kiepura also has two couchette cars, with 4 & 6
berth compartments. There are toilets &
washrooms at the end of the corridor...
|
Train times Moscow ► London (option 3, via
Warsaw):
-
Day 1: Travel from
Moscow to Warsaw overnight by the 'Polonez' sleeper
train, leaving Moscow (Byelorruski station) at 19:20 and
arriving Warsaw (Centralna station) at 12:25 next
day. The train has modern air-conditioned Polish
sleeping-cars with 1st class 2-bed and 2nd class 3-bed
compartments with carpet and washbasin. A Russian
restaurant car is attached between Moscow and Brest (on
the Polish frontier) for dinner and a Polish buffet car
is attached between Terespol (the other side of the
frontier) and Warsaw.
-
Day 2: Travel
from Warsaw to Cologne on the 'Jan Kiepura' sleeper
train,
leaving Warsaw Centralna at 17:50 and
arriving in Cologne at 06:14 next morning. The
Jan Kiepura has modern
Polish sleeping-cars
(1- 2- & 3-bed standard rooms with washbasin, 1- &
2-bed deluxe rooms with private shower & toilet,
highly recommended),
couchettes (more basic sleeping accommodation in 4-
& 6-berth compartments) and reclining seats (not
recommended). There is no restaurant car,
but feel free to take your own picnic, wine or beer on
board! Spend the morning
in Warsaw.-
Day 3: On
Mondays-Saturdays, a high-speed
Thalys
train leaves Cologne at 07:14, arriving Brussels at
09:35. On Sundays, a high-speed
Thalys
train leaves Cologne at 07:40, arriving
Brussels Midi at
10:01.
-
Day 3: A
Eurostar
leaves Brussels
Midi at 11:59
and arrives London St Pancras at 13:03.
Fares (option 3, via Warsaw):
|
London to Cologne
by Eurostar+Thalys: |
There are inclusive Eurostar+Thalys fares from
London to
Cologne,
starting at just £79 return.
Book in advance to get the cheapest fares, the fare
rises as cheaper seats are sold. One-way fares cost more than a return,
so if you are making a one-way trip you should buy a return and throw away the return half. |
| |
|
Cologne to Warsaw
by Jan
Kiepura: |
In a couchette |
In the sleeping-car |
|
6-berth |
4-berth |
3-berth |
2-berth |
single |
|
Savings fare one-way: |
£29 |
£36 |
£43 |
£52 |
£92 |
|
Savings fare return: |
£58 |
£72 |
£86 |
£104 |
£184 |
|
Normal one-way: |
£79 |
£83 |
£91 |
£106 |
£189 |
|
Normal return: |
£158 |
£166 |
£182 |
£212 |
£378 |
|
Youth one-way |
£57 |
£61 |
£68 |
£80 |
- |
|
Senior one-way |
£66 |
£70 |
£77 |
£89 |
£161 |
|
Savings fare =
Special cheap fare, book in advance, limited availability,
no refunds, no changes to travel plans.
Normal fare = fully flexible, refundable,
buy any time.
|
|
Warsaw to Moscow
by sleeper: |
One-way fare in 3-bed
sleeper about 72 euros (£51) per person.
One-way fare in
2-bed sleeper about 103 euros (£75) per person.
Return fare in 3-bed
sleeper about 140 euros (£100) per person. |
You can't book train travel from
London to Moscow online, so you need to call an agency to buy
tickets by phone. Remember that bookings open 60 days in
advance, and you can't buy tickets until reservations open..!
The best agencies to call for this journey are
Deutsche
Bahn's UK office on
08718 80 80 66
(lines open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, no booking fee), www.europeanrail.com
on 020 7619 1083 (09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, £20
booking fee but can sometimes have more time to help), or Ffestiniog
Travel on
01766 772050
(lines open office
hours Monday-Friday & Saturdays, 8% booking fee). For more
information about how to book European trains, see the
How to buy European train tickets page. If you are making a return journey or a one-way trip inbound
from Moscow, please read the section above about
booking westbound trains from
Moscow to London, as the same applies to this option.
Don't forget to arrange your Russian visa
and Belarus transit visa.
Option 4: London-Moscow via Berlin...
This option is useful if you want to stop off in Berlin on the
way, or need to leave London later in the day because of work
commitments or the need to travel to London from remoter parts of the UK.
From around £170 one-way, it costs only a bit more than the
cheapest option via Warsaw. If you have the money it can
also be the deluxe option, as a luxury sleeper (with double
bed!) is available on the Berlin-Moscow train and deluxe sleeper
compartments with private shower/toilet are available on the
Brussels-Berlin overnight train.
Train times London ► Moscow (option
4, via Berlin):
- Day 1: Travel from London to
Brussels by Eurostar, leaving London St Pancras at
18:35 (18:31 on Saturdays & Sundays), arriving Brussels 21:33.
-
Day 1: Travel
from Brussels to Berlin by sleeper train, leaving
Brussels at 23:41 and arriving at Berlin Hauptbahnhof at
08:10 next morning. This excellent 'City Night Line' German sleeper train has brand-new sleeping-cars (1,
2 & 3-bed deluxe rooms with private shower & toilet,
1, 2 & 3-bed standard rooms with washbasin, shower at
the end of the corridor) and
couchettes (4-bunk & 6-bunk
compartments) plus a bistro-restaurant car, see the London to
Germany page for more information. Click for more pictures and information about this train.
-
Day 2: Travel
from Berlin to Moscow on the 'Moskva Express'. This runs
on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays & Sundays until 23 May
2008, then daily except Saturdays from 24 May to 3 October 2008,
then four times a week again from October onwards. It leaves Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 15:22 and arrives in Moscow Byelorruski at
20:35 the next day (Day 3 from London). You can double-check the days when
this train runs using
http://bahn.hafas.de.
The 'Moskva Express' uses the same air-conditioned Russian
sleeping-cars as the Brussels-Moscow train, with
comfortable 1, 2 and 3-berth compartments with washbasin,
see the pictures
above. A Russian
restaurant car runs between Brest and Moscow serving
inexpensive meals, drinks and snacks.
Map of Moscow showing Byelorruski station.
Luxury
sleeping-car : A special luxury
sleeping-car of the Russian Railways is attached to the 'Moskva
Express', introduced in 2004. It has just four
sleeper compartments, each with private shower and toilet, TV/DVD
entertainment system, by day there is a sofa and coffee
table, by night there is a full-width double bed plus
additional single upper bunk if required. The Berlin-Moscow one-way fare in this luxury
sleeping-car is about 344 euros (£245) per person for two
people sharing, or 448 euros (£320) for sole occupancy.
Try this link for more information about this luxury
service.
Train times Moscow ► London (option
4, via Berlin):
-
Day 1: Travel
from Moscow to Berlin on the 'Moskva Express'. This runs
on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays until 22
May 2008, then daily except Fridays from 23 May to 2
October 2008,
then four times a week again. It leaves Moscow Byelorruski at
08:00 and arrives in Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 09:01 the following
day. The 'Moskva Express' uses the same
air-conditioned Russian sleeping-cars as the
Brussels-Moscow train, with comfortable 1, 2 & 3-berth
compartments with washbasin, see the pictures above.
It also has a special
luxury sleeping-car with 1- and 2-bed rooms with en
suite shower and toilet, TV/DVD system and full-width
double bed. Spend the day in Berlin.
-
Day 2: Travel from
Berlin to Brussels overnight, leaving
Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 21:29, arriving Brussels at 06:15
next morning. Brand-new sleeping-cars (1, 2 & 3-bed
both with and without en suite toilet & shower) and
couchettes (4-bunk & 6-bunk) are available plus a
bistro-restaurant car.
Click for more pictures and information about this train.
-
Day 3: Travel from Brussels to London by Eurostar. On
Mondays to Saturdays, a Eurostar leaves Brussels at 06:59
arriving London St Pancras at 07:55. On Sundays, a Eurostar leaves Brussels at
07:59 arriving London at 08:56.
Fares
(option 4, via Berlin)
|
London to Berlin: |
See the
London
to Germany page for fares to Berlin. |
|
|
|
Berlin to Moscow
by sleeper: |
One-way fare in 3-bed
sleeper about £100 per person.
One-way fare in
2-bed sleeper about £130 per person.
One-way fare in a
single-bed sleeper about £190.
Special deluxe
sleeper with shower/toilet, one-way:
£245 per person
for 2 people sharing, £320 for sole occupancy. |
You can't book train travel from
London to Moscow online, so you need to call an agency to buy
tickets by phone. Remember that bookings open 60 days in
advance, and you can't buy tickets until reservations open..!
The best agencies to call for this journey are
Deutsche
Bahn's UK office on
08718 80 80 66
(lines open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, no booking fee), www.europeanrail.com
on 020 7619 1083 (09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, £20
booking fee but can sometimes have more time to help), or Ffestiniog
Travel on
01766 772050
(lines open office
hours Monday-Friday & Saturdays, 8% booking fee). For more
information about how to book European trains, see the
How to buy European train tickets page. If you are making a return journey or a one-way trip inbound
from Moscow, please read the section above about
booking westbound trains from
Moscow to London, as the same applies to this option.
Don't forget to arrange your Russian visa
and Belarus transit visa.
| |
Above: The destination board proudly
displayed on the side of the air-conditioned sleeping-car
between Moscow & Amsterdam... |
Train times London ► Moscow (option
5, via the Amsterdam-Moscow sleeper)
New from 9 December 2007, the Cologne-Moscow sleeping-car
described
in option 1 above will be extended to start in Amsterdam.
It
leaves Amsterdam Centraal at 19:03, arriving Moscow 2 nights
later at 10:59, passing through Germany, Poland & Belarus. If
you're travelling from the north of England or Scotland, why
not take the overnight ferry from Newcastle to IJmuiden (the
port of Amsterdam) with DFDS Seaways (www.dfds.co.uk) or the overnight ferry from Hull to
Rotterdam with P&O (www.poferries.com,
see www.ns.nl for the short train ride
Rotterdam-Amsterdam), spend a day
in Amsterdam, then take the sleeper to Moscow? For
London/East Anglia-Amsterdam options
see the Netherlands page. Amsterdam-Moscow sleeper
fares will be a few pounds more than the Cologne-Moscow fares
shown in
option 1
above, but if you live in East Anglia, the North or
Scotland, a ferry direct to Holland may save money compared to
a UK train ticket to London then a Eurostar fare.
Train times Moscow ► London (option
5, via the Moscow-Amsterdam sleeper)
As from 9 December 2007, the Moscow-Cologne sleeping-car
described
in option 1 above will be extended to Amsterdam. It
leaves Moscow at 21:09, arriving in Amsterdam 2 nights later at 10:27, passing through Belarus, Poland & Germany.
For direct ferries from Holland to Hull & Newcastle, see
www.dfds.co.uk
or
www.poferries.com, for Amsterdam-London options
see the Netherlands page.
You can't book train travel from
London to Moscow online, so you need to call an agency to buy
tickets by phone. Remember that bookings open 60 days in
advance, and you can't buy tickets until reservations open..!
The best agencies to call for this journey are
Deutsche
Bahn's UK office on
08718 80 80 66
(lines open 09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, no booking fee) or www.europeanrail.com
on 020 7619 1083 (09:00-17:00 Monday-Friday, £20
booking fee but can sometimes have more time to help). For more
information about how to book European trains, see the
How to buy European train tickets page. If you are making a return journey or a one-way trip inbound
from Moscow, please read the section above about
booking westbound trains from
Moscow to London, as the same applies to this option.
Don't forget to arrange your Russian visa
and Belarus transit visa.
Other possible routes & options:
London - Moscow via Vilnius & Riga:
You can also travel from London to
Moscow via the Baltic states. This avoids Belarus and
the need to obtain a Belarus transit visa, although there is
no real problem going to Russia via Belarus (whatever you
might have heard) and the extra time
and effort required to go around Belarus will almost certainly be
far more than the
cost of the visa. Going via the Baltic states will take
at least 2 days longer, and the journey can
only be pre-booked from the UK as far as Vilnius so you will
have to book onward travel when you get to Vilnius. However,
if you have the time and want to see Latvia, Lithuania and
perhaps Estonia on the way, it can be an option to consider.
See the London to Lithuania page for
trains London-Warsaw-Vilnius. From Vilnius, there is a
daily train to Moscow but this passes through Belarus.
There is an overnight train from Vilnius to St Petersburg
which does not pass through Belarus.
Alternatively, travel from Vilnius to Riga by regular bus (www.eurolines.lv)
or occasional train (see the
Lithuania page or use
www.poezda.net),
then take the daily overnight sleeper train from Riga to
either Moscow or
St Petersburg, neither of which pass through Belarus.
www.poezda.net will give you train times for the
Vilnius-Moscow, Vilnius-St Petersburg, Vilnius-Riga, Riga-Moscow and Riga-St
Petersburg trains. There are also buses from Riga to Tallinn
and overnight trains from Tallinn to Moscow & St petersburg - see the
Estonia page. London
- Moscow via Stockholm & Helsinki:
Although
it's slower (it will take 4 nights), you can reach Moscow
travelling by sea from Newcastle to Gothenburg, train from
Gothenburg to Stockholm, overnight ship from Stockholm to
Helsinki, and overnight train Moscow. Go this way if you
have a hankering to see Scandinavia en route! See the Finland
page for details of both London-Helsinki options and
Helsinki-Moscow/St Petersburg trains. London
- Moscow via Stockholm & Tallinn:
Another
possibility is travelling by sea from Newcastle to Gothenburg,
train from Gothenburg to Stockholm, overnight ship from
Stockholm to Tallinn in Estonia, and then overnight train
Moscow. See the London to Estonia page
for details.
London - Moscow via Kiev & Ukraine:
If you want to
avoid Belarus to save paying for another visa, the best way is
probably south through Ukraine, as Ukraine no longer requires
a visa for UK/EU citizens. However, this takes at least
24 hours longer than going on a direct train from western
Europe to Moscow via Belarus, and you may have problems
trying to arrange the Kiev-Moscow train from outside Ukraine.
So don't go this way just to save the visa fee, it probably
won't save you money overall. Go this way if you don't
mind the extra day or two, and want to see Kiev on the way.
-
First,
see the London to Ukraine page for trains
between London and Kiev via Berlin. There is a direct
train from Berlin to Kiev, or you can take an earlier train to
Warsaw and pick up the Warsaw-Kiev sleeper there.
Neither the Berlin-Kiev nor Warsaw-Kiev train go through
Belarus, they both pass straight from Poland into Ukraine.
-
Then use the online
Russian timetable
www.poezda.net
to find overnight trains between Kiev and Moscow. You
may have to book the Kiev-Moscow train in person when you get
to Kiev (and accept that if all trains are full, you'll have
to spend an extra day or two in Kiev until you can get a
berth) but try
www.realrussia.co.uk, who may be able to arrange tickets
for you in advance.
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