In July 2019, I visited Russia with a friend and had one of my most memorable experiences (you can read more about this trip in my previous post)! The thing that made this trip so exciting was that we went on our first overnight train through the country from St Petersburg to Moscow.
Why did we decide to do this? When we were planning our trip to Russia, we knew that we wanted to visit both St Petersburg and Moscow and were looking into the best way to do this. Flight times were inconvenient with the short time we had in Russia, so we looked into other options. We quickly found a train that was due to depart St Petersburg at 12am and arrive in Moscow at around 9am. We booked it right away and were very much looking forward to this new experience.
One thing to note before I go further into details about the experience, is that you will need to provide evidence of train tickets on your visa application (entering as a UK citizen), since the train goes through the night and the visa process requires addresses of where you will be staying each night of your visit.
We arrived at St Petersburg station around 10pm, after a full day of exploring, and were so excited to get on the train and experience overnight travel in Russia. We did have to ask for advice from someone who worked at the station, as it was tricky to decipher the platform number and destination from the boards that were in Russian. However, we quickly found where we needed to be and awaited the arrival of the train.
St Petersburg train station is beautiful and grand and as we arrived early, it meant we had plenty of time to kill wandering around. There were lots of places to grab something to eat which is what we did as we waited for our train.
As the train arrived, the platform was busy, with many people making the same trip as us. As we boarded, we were directed to our cabin, which we shared with two other people. The cabin had two long seats that folded into bunk beds and since it was a midnight departure, everyone quickly started making their beds. We were very lucky to have a lovely local man sharing our cabin with us who showed us how to make the beds and also gave us some great tips on where we should visit in Moscow.
The cabin was small but had everything we needed. The beds on the bottom bunks, which is where we slept, had huge storage spaces underneath, plenty big enough for our suitcases. There was also a small table, a few more storage cupboards around the bed area and a reading light by each bed.
The bathroom closest to us on the train was small and cramped but did the job for what we needed. The funniest thing was that everyone was queuing outside with their toothbrushes, since we were all heading straight to bed. It was perfect for the overnight trip, but I think it would get tricky if you were on any of the Trans-Siberian train routes that are much longer than one night.
After brushing our teeth, we headed to bed. The beds were surprisingly comfortable and the noise of the train moving didn’t hinder my sleep at all (perhaps also due to the fact we’d had a long day exploring)! I slept really well and woke up at around 8am, about an hour before we arrived in Moscow. The best thing about the journey was that we didn’t waste any time travelling, we boarded the train, slept the night and woke up in Moscow. I would thoroughly recommend this method of transport for anyone looking to explore Russia.
In summary, the experience was fantastic and so exciting. It is something I always tell people about and I would absolutely love to explore more of Russia by rail in the future!