Driving from Vladivostok to Mongolia to Kazakhstan tips
 

My daughter and I are driving around the world this May from USA to Vladivostok, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz and so on.
We are driving small SUZUKI SX4 car.
Questions:
1. Are the roads OK for my little suzuki?
2. How far are the petrol stations in Russia and Mongolia. My little car holds 11 Gallons about 41 ltrs.
3. Is there a road to cross in Kazakhstan from Mongolia or we have to go back to russia and then to Kazakhstan?
4. Anybody has any electronic routes for this roads: Vladivostok,Russia and mongolia please?
5.How are these small rivers to be crossed in Mongolia? My car has 6 inches /11CM ground clearance. is this OK?

Thanks for all the help.
If some one around during this time , would like to meet up.
we are planning to depart from Vladivostok on May 20th.

Best
arun

Drive
 

Hi Arun,

The roads from Vlad to Mongolia are very driveable, you basically drive about 800 km north from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, and then head west following the transsiberian railway line.

The road is paved until past Khabarovsk and then it turns to gravel until just before Chita. They are working on the road so it gets better every year. There is a pretty long stretch before Chita where they widening and improving the road so parts are still the old narrow road and you have to drive through active construction. There are tons of 2WD imported cars being driven by russians from Vlad west to Moscow etc. so they will be taking this road as well, your car will be fine but there will be spots where you will have to go slow. There are petrol stations fairly regularly spaced on the road, so fuel won't be a problem. The road is paved from Chita to Ulan Ude and paved south straight to Ulan Bataar.

As for driving in Mongolia, there are quite a few people on this site who have driven it (as opposed to riding a bike) so they can provide better commentary but I'm sure that you know that outside of the road south to UB and surrounding area, there are no paved roads. Also the "roads" as shown on the maps are more tracks on the steppe, with one track splitting into a large number of different ones. As the track gets wet and rutted, they simply drive off to the side creating a new one. GPS is needed, and even then you still get lost. I would have concerns about the ground clearance of your little Suzuki. A lot of these tracks look like trails after a while and also change drastically from driveable to not so driveable if it rains. Not sure how quick you plan on driving but the later in June you get there, there further you will be getting away from the spring and the wetness associated with it.

Cheers:)

We're going too!
 

Hi Arun,

sounds like a great trip with your daughter! My girlfriend Annie and I are looking at doing the same trip starting in July and trying to figure out the logistics of shipping our vehicle to Vladivostok.

How much does it cost to ship from the US to Vlad? Any recommendations or advice on this bit of the journey?

Are you shipping your car back to the US when you're done?

If not, what are you doing with your car in the end?

We're comparing the cost of shipping our US vehicle vs just buying one in the UK and driving a big loop through central asia and back so we can sell it off in the UK.

Any other advice from folks on the best way for Americans to get a vehicle for driving around in central asia for a few months?

Thanks everyone!

Adam

Answers....
1. Are the roads OK for my little suzuki?

I met a lot of people doing the Mongol rally - most of them were in two wheel drive old bomb and some of them made it through ( the ones who didn't were going way to fast for the conditions. - I think you will be fine, just keep talking to people about the roads in front of you and be prepared to make detours due to swamps / river etc and of course getting lost! (my track record for that was at least three times a day!)

2. How far are the petrol stations in Russia and Mongolia. My little car holds 11 Gallons about 41 litres.

I was on a bike with only 14l tank and I never had a problem - they are every 200kms. Get a good road map from any petrol station in Russia.

3. Is there a road to cross in Kazakhstan from Mongolia or we have to go back to Russia and then to Kazakhstan?

You have to go back into Russia for a 2-4 day trip through the mountains. I didn't do this but I have heard from people on the road that it was amazing!

4. Anybody has any electronic routes for this roads: Vladivostok,Russia and Mongolia please?

I don't - sorry...
there is an awesome map of Mongolia at the post office you can buy for about $20 us that shows you all the petrol stations and most roads no matter how small they are -its in English as well as Mongol. I brought the English version and translated the main towns into Mongol encase I needed a local to read the map. But I found most can sound out English oddly enough

5.How are these small rivers to be crossed in Mongolia? My car has 6 inches /11CM ground clearance. is this OK?

I ended up travelling with a old french police van and a camper van both only two wheel drive. I watch many times when they cross rivers / sand bowls. it was defiantly a good laugh. Just be prepared for a bit of digging - but that's all part of it isn't it?

Good luck with you planning.... Mongolia is one of my favourite countries ive travelled to date.