Stopover in Ulan Ude
Summary
Ulan Ude is one of the main stops on the Trans-Siberian Railway route and, along with similar stops such as Krasnoyarsk and Omsk, is tempting for a stop to break up the journey. My suggestion is to stop at only one as it will give the break you’re looking for and its nice to at least get a brief look at what a central Siberian city looks like. Whilst Ulan Ude is a little nicer than Omsk and Krasnoyarsk, be sure to lower your expectations- none are particularly pleasant and should be way down the priority list when it comes for the highlights to be seen on the railway journey. Save your time instead for getting off at Irkutsk to see the gem of the trip, Lake Baikal and, if travelling the Beijing route, the Mongolian Steppes around Ulan Bator
Specifically for Ulan Ude, it probably makes even less sense to stop off as it is quite close to Irkutsk and and Ulan Bator. Might as well just travel directly
For tips on the overall trans-Siberian Railway experience, including which stops to take, see the travel entry The Trans-Siberian Railway from Omsk to Beijing
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Random (and a bit gash) City Visits
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone