MOSCOW TO BEIJING

Riding the traditional Trans-Siberian, where you’re stuck in a carriage for six nights longing to explore the cathedrals, lakes and taiga tempting from your window, can be galling. That makes Regent’s slow tour through Siberia on the Trans-Mongolian an inspired choice. After three days in Moscow it’s overnight to Yekaterinburg for wooden churches, birth forest and the bloody history of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Three more days of rail travel brings passengers to Irkutsk, a Eurasian gem and base for Lake Baikal. Then it’s back on the rails for stops and tours in Ulaanbaatar and Beijing.

Regent (0117 321 0167; regentholidays.co.uk) operates the 16-night tour from £2,740, including a flight home from Beijing.