Tips on What to Do in Moscow

Moscow in Russian is Москва, pronounced as “Moskva”.  It can’t be summarized only by Red Square. It’s a typical big city, with 15 million inhabitants, options for all the tastes and various budgets. I recommend at least 4 or 5 days to explore the Russian capital calmly, especially if you want to go to museums, ballets, theaters, and parks. The tips I share in this post are useful if you stay for a short time, it’s the minimum to do in Moscow if you travel on a budget. Along with the post, there are names written in Russian because it makes your life easier to ask for locals in case of a language barrier.

Is Moscow expensive?

It’s not a cheap city, but not so expensive as Zurich, Geneva, and Oslo. It all depends on where you go and how you live. You can have good meals for something between 10 and 15 euros, while in costly countries such as Switzerland and Norway, you don’t pay less than 25 euros for a meal.

But if you consider fancy places, it’s another story… prices just skyrocket. There are 35 billionaires living in Moscow and the city is the point for the superrich of the Russian-speaking zone. What is expensive for them? At a fancy restaurant, a meal, a drink may cost 100, 200 euros or much more. In the Russian-speaking zone, Moscow is the luxury and business capital. It’s simply evident the concentration of fancy brands around its central area.

Take time to appreciate the metro stations

Most of the Moscow city is connected by 200 metro stations. Using the metro is the most practical way to move around the city. For multiple trips, it’s worth buying the ticket with 20 rides, it costs some 650 rubles, while a single token costs 50 rubles. And to move easily around the metro stations in Moscow, use the app Yandex Metro (available in English, in Russian, and in Ukrainian), which also covers the metro stations in Saint Petersburg (as well as in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Minsk, Istanbul, and other cities are included from time to time).

For being the main transportation system in Moscow since Soviet times, even the decoration and the architecture of the metro stations didn’t escape Soviet propaganda. The beauty of the metro stations used to serve for communicating the greatness (only in propaganda) of the socialist regime, as it’s seen in detail on the ceilings, in the pillars, and on the walls.

The metro stations  Komsomolskaya (Комсомольская), Kievskaya (Киевская), Mayakovskaya (Маяковская), Elektrozavodskaya (Злетрозаводская), Park Pobedy (парк победы), Prospek Mira (Проспект Мира), Ploschad Revolyutsii (площадь революций), Taganskaya (Таганская), Novolobodskaya (Новолободская) and Arbatskaya (Арбатская) are the most beautiful train stations in Moscow.

Walk around Red Square

Surely it is the most touristic and cliche place in Moscow. But nothing that belittles the architectonic beauty of St. Basil’s Cathedral, of Kremlin, of the Red Square, and of the Kazan Cathedral. By the way, do you know why the name Red Square? Nothing related to the red color used by the Soviet regime and left-wing parties. In Old Russian, the word Krasnaya (Красная) means pretty, beautiful. And in modern Russia, red is krasni (красный). Red Square in Russian is Krasnaya Ploschad (Красная Площадь). During the Soviet times, the churches either used to be closed, if not destroyed, or used to become bureaucratical offices.

 

Cathedral of Christ The Savior

It’s a Russian Orthodox cathedral, next to the Red Square and to Moskva River, from where is astonishing the view of the Kremlin. The entrance is free and the working hours go every day from 10:00h  to 17:00h. Located at Volkhonka St., 15 (Волхонка Ул., 15), 350 meters from the metro station Kropotkinskaya (Кропоткинская), red line.

Eat at a stolovaya

Stolovaya ( Столовая, in Russian it is pronounced “stalovaya”) is a typical canteen-style restaurant from the Soviet times where the served meals are exposed in vitrines/refrigerators, on a standardized food style. A well-known stolovaya in Moscow is the Stolovaya Nº57 (Столовая Nº57), located at the GUM (Гум) shopping mall and very frequented by tourists, next to the Red Square. Anyway, there are lots of stolovayas with various prices and qualities. Tips on what to eat in Moscow you find in this article.

Join Moscow Free Tour

Moscow Free Tour happens every day starting at 10:45h with a 2h30min duration. The meeting point is the Cyril and Methodius monument, next to the Kitay-Gorod metro station, purple line. The tour passes by old buildings and churches until the Red Square. It’s also worth checking the paid tours: Metro Tour, Kremlin Tour, Communist Tour, Alternative Moscow Tour. All information is available on moscowfreetour.com.

Go to parks

If you like to spend time at parks, you have to visit Gorky Park and the All Russia Exhibition Center. Park Gorky is located next to the metro stations  Park Kultury(Парк Культуры), Oktyabrskaya (Октябрская) and Shabolovskaya (Шаболовская). At this park, there’s a wide area for sports and events going on, which are informed on the website park-gorkogo.com/en.

The park All Russia Exhibition Center is located next to the metro stations VDNKh (ВДНХ) and Botanicheskiy Sad (Ботанический Сад). At this park, there is a Historical Museum and the Cosmo Museum with spacecraft created during the Cold War.

Moscow by bicycle

Along the Moskva River and the parks in Moscow, you can also appreciate the urban scene combing modern skyscrapers and imponent buildings built during the Soviet regime. It’s possible to rent a bicycle for 100 rubles a day, and you can also ride a bicycle at Gorky Park.

 

Originally posted 2017-09-22 21:28:05.