Eurostar train from London to Paris
 

You won't be the first passenger to have left from St Pancras for Australia!

Europe to Australia without flying...

It's a long way to Oz.  There are two options to get there from the UK without flying:

Option 1, Europe to Australia via the Trans-Siberian Railway.  You can travel by train from London to Moscow, then by Trans-Siberian Railway to China & the Far East, then catch a passenger-carrying freighter (if you can find one!) or cruise ship to Australia.  This is a real adventure, and a popular choice with lots to see on the way.  Not currently feasible because of the war in Ukraine & Russia being off limits.

Option 2, Europe to Australia by sea.  You can go all the way from the UK to Australia or New Zealand by sea, either a leisurely direct voyage by infrequent round-the-world cruise, or by one of the few remaining passenger-carrying freighters, sometimes with the need to switch ships in either the USA or SE Asia.  Expect Europe to Australia by sea to take at least 32-40 days and cost at least £4,000+ one-way by freighter including cabin & meals, much more if you use a cruise.

This page outlines the journey and how to go about putting such a trip together, with links to other pages for more detailed information about each part of the journey.  Please remember this is not a tour or a package, just some guidance in putting your own independent trip together using scheduled train services across Europe and Asia.


Europe to Australia by sea

By freighter or cruise ship

 

If you'd been going to Australia in the first half of the 20th century, you could have caught the fortnightly P&O liner from Southampton to Sydney, taking several weeks.  These days there are no regular passenger ships from the UK or Europe to Australia, and your choice is limited to one of these, if currently operating:

To find out more, and to book a cruise or freighter passage to Australia, try the following sites:


Europe to Australia by Trans-Siberian Railway

Overland to the Far East by train

 

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.  But it's a journey of a lifetime.

Update 2024:  There is a war in Ukraine, travel to Russia is inadvisable, there are currently no international trains to Moscow and no Moscow-Beijing trains.

Route, timetable & costs

Travel tickets alone costs only £750 or so from London as far as Singapore, but you must add food, hotels, and 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.

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, and I use a simple spreadsheet technique like this to plan an itinerary and budget.  Unless time is absolutely no object, you should book the key sections in advance through various travel agencies, for example, book London-Moscow as shown on the London to Russia page, then book Moscow-Beijing & Beijing-Hanoi through a local Russian agency such as www.realrussia.co.uk or Svezhy Veter.  You 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?

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!

Freighter between Australia and Malaysia   Freighter

Australia by cargo ship:  This is a Globoship container vessel between Australia and Malaysia, which carries a limited number of passengers.  Photos courtesy of Anna Rice.

Officers Mess   A cabin on the freigher

Passengers dine and relax in the officers' mess.

 

A cabin on the freighter.  Photos courtesy of Anna Rice.


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