After breakfast one of our local expert staff will meet you at the hotel to take you on a three hour walking tour round the highlights – you’ll use public transport around the centre to avoid the traffic jams and get the hang of the system for when you come to use it independently.

Our staffers are full of ideas for this walk but are flexible about other ideas if you have your own. Your walk ends in the city centre around lunchtime. If you haven’t prebooked any of our range of city excursions the rest of the day is your own to explore further. Some of our top suggestions (please check opening times/days before setting off) would include visiting the Moscow Kremlin, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, or a boat trip along the Mosvka River… perhaps locate some tickets for ballet, opera, circus or a concert this evening?

As well as famous classical music traditions Moscow features on the touring schedules of world names in jazz, rock, pop and world music.

Breakfast.

You’ll need to check out of your room by 12 noon today but the hotel offers a Left Luggage service for a small fee. Your day is free until 9pm, when a driver is scheduled to take you to the station. This morning you can continue sightseeing – the Lenin Mausoleum is only open in the mornings, and getting there early (it’s in Red Square) helps beat the queues. Although there’s a restaurant car service on board your train you may want to supplement this with some snacks, treats, and fresh fruit that you could buy today.

Your transfer from the hotel to Yaroslavsky station is scheduled for 9pm, so please be at the hotel reception where your driver will meet you and will assist your boarding of the Harbin bound train.

Breakfast.

On board The Trans-Sib… travelling across Siberia. The dining car is the heart of social life on the train. It functions as bar, lounge, and take-out snack store, as well as a café serving reasonably priced meals. It is a great place to meet fellow travellers and locals alike, sharing your experiences of your journey so far with a few drinks, which no doubt will include some Vodka – and maybe smoked salmon and caviar too! Along the way you’ll see astonishing Siberian scenery as the deciduous forests of the Ural Mountains slowly give way to Siberian pine forests. The major landmarks are the great rivers you cross, including the River Ob at Novosibirsk (one of the most famous bridges on the route), and the gigantic Enisei River (at Krasnoyarsk).

Finally you circumnavigate the immense expanse of Lake Baikal the world’s largest lake, which will be thoroughly icebound at this time of year (and may be obscured by fog). You now follow the Trans-Manchurian Railway, the historic routing to China.

No Meals.

The facilities at this hotel include 2 restaurants, indoor swimming pool, bowling centre and a disco on the premises. Harbin is sometimes called“The St Petersburg of China”, and its extraordinary pedestrian main street built entirely in European art nouveau style is a must see in your free time this afternoon…if you can tear yourself away from the temptation to buy“top-end clones” of European fashion in the city’s huge number of high end clothing outlets, that is. Don’t miss out on the hearty local Manchurian cuisine tonight either!

No Meals.

We strongly recommend your visit to include viewings after dusk, which is known locally as the “Lantern Garden Party” when the carvings are bought to life by the amazing lighting. Remember to dress warmly, as temperatures will be well below zero!

No Meals.

No Meals.