Things to do in Moscow
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Moscow
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best weather, long light, parks in leaf, terraces and river cruises open, September golden and quieter.
Winter as a destination in itself, festivals, big rinks and the Nutcracker, dress for minus 5 to minus 15.
Hottest months, lidos and open air cinemas, but some top restaurants and theatres pause in August.
Early October can be golden and quiet, the best museum going conditions of the year.
Late November and late March are dark, slushy shoulder weeks, locals' least favourite fortnights.
What's on
- Victory Day 9 May
Red Square military parade, the centre locks down and the evening brings fireworks.
- Journey to Christmas and New Year Festival Late December to early January
Red Square fair, GUM rink, Manezhnaya fair and light installations across the centre.
- Orthodox Christmas 7 January
Russia's main holiday season is New Year, with Orthodox Christmas on 7 January.
- Maslenitsa 16-22 February
Butter Week before Orthodox Lent, blini everywhere, folk fairs and effigy burning in the big parks.
- The Nutcracker at the Bolshoi December to January
The Bolshoi Nutcracker run is the hardest ticket of the year.
- Russia Day 12 June
A June public holiday in a month that also rewards summer park and music festivals.
- Moscow City Day Early September, first or second Saturday
City wide free concerts, street food and fireworks, the biggest free weekend of the year.
- National Unity Day 4 November
A modest holiday, not a reason to travel, in the dark late autumn weeks.
Best things to do in Moscow
Red Square
The essential Moscow view, Kremlin wall, GUM and St Basil's in one open square, best seen by day and lit at night.
Saint Basil's Cathedral
Inside beats the postcard exterior, nine small painted chapels and a narrow spiral stair in a maze.
Moscow Kremlin
A walled city of cathedrals and palaces, with the Armoury treasures and Diamond Fund as the priority tickets.
Bolshoi Theatre
One of the world's great ballet and opera companies in a red and gold historic auditorium, worth dressing up for.
State Tretyakov Gallery
The essential Russian art museum, icons to Repin and Serov in a chronological hang you can do without fatigue.
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
European art from antiquity onward, with the separate Impressionist gallery the part not to rush.
Moscow Metro
Ride the Circle Line stations as palaces for the people, mosaics, vaults and bronze statues between trains.
Zaryadye Park
A modern landscaped park by Red Square whose floating bridge gives the best free Kremlin and river photograph.
Where to stay in Moscow
Tverskoy and Theatre District with Patriarch's Ponds
first trip, all-round base
Walk to the Bolshoi, Red Square and the best restaurant streets, with the liveliest cafe quarter to sleep in.
Kitay-Gorod, Zaryadye and Lubyanka
repeat visitors, food and nightlife-led trips
Moscow's oldest merchant quarter by Red Square and Zaryadye, with the current bar and restaurant energy.
Arbat lanes and Khamovniki
longer stays, families, walkers
Tree lined and cafe dotted lanes behind Old Arbat, walkable to the centre with the best value to calm ratio.
Zamoskvorechye and Chistye Prudy
local-feeling, slightly cheaper central base
Pleasant quarters by the Tretyakov and the boulevard pond, ten to fifteen minutes by metro from everything.
Think twice about
- Outer housing districts beyond the Garden Ring
Ordinary residential districts but a bad visitor base, 45 to 75 minutes each way with sparse late night dining.
- Komsomolskaya Square stations and Kursky Station area
A transient station zone with budget hotels, touts and pickpocketing reports, pass through but do not sleep here.
- Moscow-City
Sterile and windswept at street level, expensive for everything and a schlep to the historic centre despite the map.
- Izmailovo
Safe and functional but 25 to 30 minutes by metro from the centre with little evening life for a short stay.
Best restaurants in Moscow
White Rabbit
Modern Russian tasting menus under a glass dome, the city's flagship occasion meal with a panoramic view.
SAVVA
Refined modern Russian dining in the Metropol, the local pick for one perfect fine dining dinner.
Cafe Pushkin
Classic Russian noble cuisine in a flawless 19th century house recreation, tourist beloved and genuinely good.
Grand Cafe Dr. Zhivago
Russian farm sourced classics facing the Kremlin, with breakfast blini and syrniki the local value tip.
Severyane
Dark and candlelit, everything from a Russian wood oven, the connoisseur's pick on Bolshaya Nikitskaya.
Mari Vanna
Home canon Russian cooking in a grandmother's apartment setting, borscht, pelmeni and cutlets done properly.
Kazbek
The current consensus Georgian splurge, khachapuri, khinkali by hand and Georgian wine in the centre.
Mama Tuta
A leading centre Georgian table in the same class as Kazbek, the non Russian meal to prioritise in Moscow.
Outdoor things to do in Moscow
Gorky Park
The city's outdoor living room, cycle the embankments to Sparrow Hills in summer, skate the lit paths in winter.
Sparrow Hills
The classic free panorama over the river bend and centre, with a cable car across to Luzhniki.
Sokolniki Park
A vast wooded park for forest cycling and running, with groomed cross country ski tracks in winter.
Kolomenskoye
A tsars' estate park of orchards, ravines and river bluffs to walk or cycle for a few unhurried hours.
Tsaritsyno Park
Catherine's palace park of lakes, boat hire and meadows, more spacious and local in feel than Gorky Park.
Skolkovo Golf Club
The closest world class course to the centre, a Nicklaus parkland layout and the prestige golf pick.
Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club
Eighteen holes by a reservoir plus a yacht club, the course to make a full day or weekend of.
Forest Hills Golf Club
A forest course with an on site hotel, praised for welcoming non members who want to stay and play twice.
Best hotels in Moscow
The Carlton, Moscow
The former Ritz Carlton on Tverskaya, steps from Red Square with a rooftop lounge over the Kremlin.
Hotel National, Moscow
Moscow's grand 1903 address opposite the Kremlin wall, antique filled rooms and history over gloss.
Metropol Hotel
The 1905 Art Nouveau landmark opposite the Bolshoi, with a stained glass breakfast hall that is a sight itself.
Four Seasons Hotel Moscow
The rebuilt Hotel Moskva replica in the best position in the city, Red Square at one end, Theatre Square at the other.
The StandArt Hotel Moscow
A design led hotel in the Tverskoy sweet spot, proper hotel and great boulevard location at half grand hotel price.
Hotel Pushkin
A small four star boutique by Pushkinskaya praised for an unbeatable location with the metro on the doorstep.
Marco Polo Presnya Hotel
A good value four star for the Patriarch's Ponds base, an easy stroll into the pond quarter.
Hotel De Paris
Listed among the best value four stars for Patriarch's Ponds, for travellers set on the pond quarter base.
Is Moscow expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | RUB 5,000 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | RUB 12,000 a person |
| Splurge | RUB 40,000 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Moscow Kremlin: weeks ahead
- Bolshoi Theatre: weeks ahead
- Sanduny Baths: a few days ahead
- Skolkovo Golf Club: weeks ahead
- Pestovo Golf & Yacht Club: weeks ahead
- Forest Hills Golf Club: weeks ahead
- Moscow Country Club: weeks ahead
- White Rabbit: weeks ahead
- Bolshoi tickets the day they release, then Kremlin Armoury timed entry.
- White Rabbit, SAVVA and Mari Vanna, and a private Sanduny cabin.
- Holiday period hotels and trains, New Year and early May bridges sell out and double booking horizons.
Is Moscow safe?
- There are no direct flights from North America or the EU, foreign cards do not work in Russia, and consular support is sharply reduced.
- Carry passport, visa and registration slip, a phone photo is a backup, not a substitute.
- Pickpockets work crush loaded metro cars and the Ploshchad Revolyutsii and Komsomolskaya interchanges.
- Do not photograph military, police or security installations, do not fly a drone, and avoid demonstrations.
- Verify travel insurance actually covers Russia and that you can pay a clinic in cash or by MIR card.
Moscow travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Foreign Visa, Mastercard and Amex cards do not work in Russia, bring clean cash and plan for a MIR card.
- Decline stranger bar invitations and the dropped money or found wallet distraction near stations.
- Agree a price first with photo characters by Red Square, or walk past.
- Use Yandex Go, Aeroexpress or a prebooked transfer instead of airport and station taxi touts.
- Check any Kremlin view listing against a metro station within a seven minute walk before booking.
Getting around Moscow: public transport and more
- The Metro is the city, fast, clean and cheap, open about 05:30 to 01:00, with a Troika card for fares.
- Yandex Go is the working ride hailing app and the safe alternative to unmarked cars late at night.
- Aeroexpress trains link Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports to the centre and dodge traffic.
- Traffic can make a cross centre car trip take three times the metro time, do not hire a car.
Who Moscow suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Good |
Make Moscow your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
Get Swearby on the App Store