We suggest the itineraries we offer for several reasons:
they are successful itineraries in which all the connections work - most of them are itineraries first suggested by you, our clients, which have become "classics" :-)
they avoid doubling-back, retracing your steps etc...
... and avoid all the extra costs which are caused by doubling-back, retracing your steps etc
they're "visa-efficient" - visas are not cheap for these destinations, so getting double-entries (at double prices!) make unpleasant dents in your budget!
we've exploited pricing loopholes mercilessly! The pricing rules on Russian and Mongolian Railways are more complicated and secretive than joining the freemasons (no guidebook on the market even scratches the surface of the fare-rules, and most don't even have basic correct info on which trains run on which days!).
we know which are the good and bad trains! And since they usually cost the same, we've used the good ones!
we've tried to maximise your usable time in destinations - looking for morning arrivals where possible, and days of the week when what you've come to see is actually open...
we use services which operate reliably, and are not so prone to cancellation or schedule changes as alternatives might sometimes be
we are autocratic power-crazed maniacs who like to limit people's choices. (actually, this isn't really true, but sometimes people think that we really enjoy being unable to offer them their suggestions.... which include non-existent trains, unbookable connections, rail routes which don't exist ("from Almaty to Ulaanbaatar", for example, which is only possible if you build your own railway first....), and sometimes even whole countries which no longer exist!).
If you have an idea for a route, itinerary or schedule you don't find in our downloadable brochure, we'll consider it of course, but you will usually find that the best itinerary ideas were already found by those who've done the trips with us in recent years, and that there are almost no good routes/schedules which are possible which are not already in our trip-list! :-)
Please excuse us if, in the heat of the summer season, we do not have time to send you a four-page point-by-point critique of your suggested itinerary detailing where and why it won't work? :-( Here are just a few famous ideas clients have had in the past....
"the overnight train from Moscow to Irkutsk - we mean the fast train, not the slow one in your brochure" (USA Travel Agent) (the journey actually takes 5 days - if there was an overnight train, it would be breaking world surface speed records for any kind of transportation....)
"... from Novosibirsk to Tuva" (a guidebook author who'd better remain anonymous!) (there's no railway line anywhere near Tuva).
"the train from St Petersburg to Leningrad" (they're the same place)
"the train from Moscow to Anadyr" (Anadyr is more than 5000km from any railway line, in Chukhotka, the most isolated part of the Russian Far North-East)
"the Trans-Siberian Express from Moscow to Beijing via Athens" (a famous Travel Agency). (no comment!)
