I noted the editor’s request for budget alternatives to hotels (July ’12, pg. 67) and assume it applies to other aspects of travel as well.
I was rather surprised to read, in the article “Riding the Rails from Vladivostok to Munich” (July ’12, pg. 46), that the subscriber’s Trans-Siberian trip cost $10,649, as, on a ’round-the-world trip, I had traveled the Trans-Mongolian route, with more and longer stops, for considerably less.
However, that was in 2004 and I realize that costs have increased, but when I checked with the company I used, I found that a trip from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg, with stops at Lake Baikal/Irkutsk and Moscow, could be done in July ’12 for €3,283 ($4,108), with a single berth in a 2-berth compartment.
Admittedly, that would include accommodations in homestays — and, having experienced Russian homestays, I don’t recommend them — but I doubt that staying in hotels would add as much as $6,000. Traveling at other times of the year would be cheaper, as would traveling in a 4-berth compartment, which I did and found to be quite satisfactory.
For my ’round-the-world trip, I used Passport Travel (Lvl 1, 12-14 Glenferrie Rd., Malvern, Vic. 3144, Australia; phone +61 03 9500-0444, fax 9509-0111).
KATHY WILHELM
Cary, NC