Well obviously the cafe may have run out of food since 2008!

I didn't pay much attention to the terrain either side of the road when driving away from Baikonur the next morning.....the cafe looked like a good place because when I was sitting outside it eating my dinner the previous night I had a chance to look across to the cosmodrome and could see the lights quite clearly.

How on earth did you wangle the invitation to get in there?

Anyone know if it is possible to pass Baikonur by following the road from Aralsk to Kyzylorda?
This road seem to go through Russian leased area (through circle according to google map), so can it be ridden? Do I need separate Russian visa for this area?

No, you'll be fine. You only need special permission if you try to enter the Cosmodrome to the north of the road or Baikonur town to the south.

Any further news on this?

Very interesting. I don't mind paying, but not that kind of $$$!

G

Dunno. I spoke with danielsprague via PM a couple of times and asked him how he got on after when he said he was going in there, but never heard back :-(

I visited the city Baikonour last year just with help from locals and a Taxidriver, He bring me trough the borders and bring me to all the points of intrest and the museum. It is illegal but possible, pay some extra fees for the taxidriver (about 70 dollar).
It is not possible to go to the facilities, If you want a complete visit you must ask at an travel agency en then you need a lot of $$$

Sh1t!! How on earth did you make contact with anyone to arrange that for you?

Got any pictures?

Sounds good. Maybe we will get up to the city and try our luck then, points of interest and museum is enough for us :)

G

Hello,
we managed to arrange a visit to Baikonur from local tour agency.
Its called "TurServis", and eventhough I could not find their webpage, they realy exists.

contact is:

ТурСервис
baikonurtour@bk.ru
8(33622) 77557
офис
+77054773017

It works like this:
first you write them what you want to see and when, they will check if its possible, make you a program and an offer. If you accept, you need to sign a travel contract.
After this you pay (possible 50% ahead and 50% later) and then you have to only arrive.

Important note - its necessary to sign the contract at least TWO MONTHS before the date you want to arrive. Its because the arrangements and permissions take time..and otherwise they cannot guarantee your visit.
So my suggestion is to start the process 3 months before arrival to Baikonur.

Necessary documents: Passport copy, valid Russian visa.
All the documents can be processed by email - we took photo of our signatures, added them to the word documents as images - and exported to PDF. No problem.

We arranged only one day trip, without sleeping and without meal - including museum, Buran/Energia rocket, Gagarin launch pad and visit of the city, and it costs 18 000 rubles per person (cca 400EUR).

..But we still dont know if we go, as we kind of missed the 2 months period and our permissions are still not granted (the date is 15th of June). So we will see..

However, we also asked some Moscow based agencies and they stared around 70000 rubles .. just insane. (I heard if you want to see a space launch from the site, its 4000 EUR..)

So thats all i know
Long live the travellers!

Chaindler