Moscow City Guide - Russia

• artistic, cultural and political capital of Russia
• located in west central Russia
• largest city in Europe
• dates back to the 12th century
• population: 10 million
• located on the banks of the Moskva River
• one of the world's great metropolises
• interesting mix of architectural styles
• Climate: continental
• GMT/UTC +3; Electricity 220v
• transport hub for Russia and the former Soviet Republics
• Major sports teams: Spartak, CSKA, Dynamo, Lokomotiv, FC Moskva and Torpedo

Moscow is one of the world's great metropolises and a city of huge contrasts: Moscow has both a European and Asian feel as East meets West in the architecture of the Kremlin and Red Square, the communist past and the new 'democracy' present collide in extremes of prosperity and poverty, the nouveau riche gather on Tverskaya Street to shop and sip cocktails in state-of-the-art cafes, while the poor and downtrodden eke out an unhappy existence amid monumental Stalinist housing projects, all the while chaotic rush-hour traffic inches past peaceful onion-domed churches on Moscow's historic side streets.

Moscow as a city dates back to the 12th century and became Russia's capital in the 15th century under Ivan III. The city's main historical sites include the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Moscow Kremlin, a fortress and seat of power in the center of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River, the onion domes of Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square. These three places are first on the list of most first-time visitors to Russia's capital.

Other famous sites in the city include the golden domes of the huge The Cathedral of Christ the Savior, rebuilt in the 1990s, the peaceful 16th century Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery near the Luzhniki Sports Stadium and the monolithic, 1950s, Stalinist Moscow State University building in Vorobyovy Gory (the Sparrow Hills).

Moscow also has some of the world's greatest museums, theaters and art galleries including: the Tretyakov Art Gallery, the Pushkin Fine Art Museum, the Mayakovsky Museum for both contemporary and historic Russian and European art. Other worthwhile museums and galleries include the gruesome KGB Museum at 12 Ulitsa Bolshaya Lubyanskaya (Metro Kitai-gorod, Tel: 7 495 926 5566 to arrange a tour), the Museum of the Great Patriotic War at 10 Ultisa Bratiev Fonchenko Park (Metro Park Pobedy) and Dostoyevsky's House at 2 Dostoyevsky ulitsa (Tel: 7 495 281 1085 Metro Novoslobodskaya, Mendeleevskaya)

The Bolshoi Theatre is world famous for ballet and dance, the Moscow International Performance Arts Centre for classical music. Moscow is also a city rich in parks and botanical gardens: the Central Park of Culture and Rest aka Gorky Park, Izmaylovsky Park, one of the largest urban parks in the world, Sokolniki Park, a huge forested space and of course Moscow Zoo.

For shopping and souvenirs Moscow is blessed with some incredible markets: Dorogomilovsky food market near Kievsky railway station, Danilovsky fruit and veg market, Rizhsky flower market and Leningradsky market for Russian cheeses and Uzbek traditional goods.

Festivals

Moscow is host to the Moscow Film Festival in June-July; the Moscow Autumn Festival of classical and avant-garde music; Christmas at the Kremlin with classical music in the Armory Hall to celebrate Western and Orthodox Christmas.

Accommodation & Major Hotels

Moscow Hotels

Ararat

Danilovskaya

Kempinski

Hotel Peking

Savoy Hotel

Sputnik Hotel

Volynskoe Hotel

Five Stars
Ararat Hotel
Golden Apple
Golden Ring
National Hotel (Red Square)
Metropol
President
Ritz Carlton (Tverskaya, opened 2007)
Volynskoe Hotel

Four Stars
Art Hotel
Baltschug Kempinski Hotel
Borodino Hotel
Congress Iris Hotel
Cosmos Hotel
Courtyard (Tverskaya)
Danilovskaya Hotel
Enigma Hotel
Marriott (three centrally located Marriotts - two on Tverskaya and Aurora on Petrovka Street)
Novotel (Novoslobodskaya)
Novotel (Sheremetyevo)
Renaissance (Olympiyski prospekt)
Savoy Hotel
Sheraton (Tverskaya)
Sheraton Palace
Swissotel Krasnye Holmy Palace
Swissotel Tower (Paveletskaya)

Three Stars
Peking Hotel
Sputnik Hotel

HotelClub - Hotels in Moscow
HotelsRussia.com - Hotels in Russia
Hostelworld.com - Hostels in Russia
Agoda - Hotels in Moscow

Russia has some of the most luxurious and historic hotels in Europe.

Currency

The legal currency is the rouble, it is fully convertible and there are plenty of exchange offices especially in the center. The rouble exchange rate has remained stable over the last five years, it just got a little stronger against the dollar and is now about 50 roubles per pound, 35 roubles per euro or 25 roubles per dollar. Pounds are a less common currency than dollars or euros. All the businesses, restaurants or shops will only accept roubles or credit cards for payment. There is no black market for foreign currency exchange.
Currency Converter

Entertainment

Bars + cafés

Moscow is an enormous city, with hundreds of different kinds of cafes and bars. Gone are the days where only a few places would rule; nowadays, the visitor is spoilt for choice: From English and Irish pubs (see Bobby Dazzler, 16 Tons) to various cafes and coffee houses (see Shoko, Coffee House), Moscow has everything on offer. Even fully run sports bars can be found around Moscow (see Sport Land). A popular pub and restaurant to open recently is the Liga Pab (see Liga Pap). Moscow also has many local bars and cafés, which always seem to have a good atmosphere and friendly staff (although some can lack knowledge of the English language, which leaves for comical hand translations!).

Prices (2007)

A Big Mac is 50 roubles (USD 1.85)
Beer - about 40-50 roubles for a bottle on the street or 120-150 roubles in a pub/bar, coffee in one of Moscow's big coffee shop chains like "Coffee House" is 70 roubles. Metro - 15 roubles.

Further links:
www.waytorussia.net
www.moscowguide.moscowtimes.ru

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Restaurants

Restaurants in Moscow are on every corner. A full range of local (Russian), Middle Eastern, European, American, Asian and African restaurants can be found (see www.moscowguide.moscowtimes.ru), plus all the fast food chains, such as McDonald’s, KFC and TGIF’s (see tgifridays.know-where.com).

Further links:
www.exile.ru/restaurant_guide
www.waytorussia.net

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Important telephone numbers

01 - fire brigade
02 - police
03 - ambulance
495 and 499 - Moscow area telephone codes
8 (wait for the tone) 10 44 – to call UK from land line
+44 – to call UK from mobile

Public Internet

There are plenty of internet cafes and places to get online in Moscow and the more central you are, the more likely you to find one (see www.timeonline.ru, www.net-land.ru).
Wi-Fi is also very big in Moscow now, with many restaurants and cafes offering free Wi-Fi while you visit their places. Most hotels also have this option now as well.
Further links:
www.world66.com
www.waytorussia.net

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Tourist Information Centers

Gostiny Dvor
4, Ilyinka
Moscow, 103012
Phone: 232-5657
e-mail: info[at]moscow-city.ru

Important Addresses

British Embassy
Smolenskaya Embankment, 10
(5-minute walk from Smolenskaya metro station, blue line)
Phone: (495) 956 7200 www.britemb.msk.ru
Consular Section - Phones: (495) 956 7250 / 956 7302

Getting to Moscow

Air

There are three major airports in Moscow: Sheremetyevo (SVO) in the north, Domodedovo (DME) in the south and Vnukovo (VKO) in the south-west.

Vnukovo handles mostly domestic and charter flights and has also a special government VIP section.

Foreign airlines are equally divided between the other two. British Airways (BA), Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Emirates, Thai, Singapore Airlines, Transaero, S7, Iberia and a few others use Domodedovo. The airport is about 20 km south of MKAD ( the ring road around Moscow) and it is the farthest of all airports from the center of Moscow. On the other hand it has a convenient and fast train transportation to the Paveletskaya train station. The trip is about 45 minutes and the fare is 150 roubles.

The trains are quite comfortable and they don't make any stops on the way. Generally Domodedovo is a well organized airport, immigration and customs formalities normally a matter of 15-20 minutes. Domodedovo is a private airport with enormous resources invested lately into improving its infrastructure and facilities.

The other major airport Sheremetyevo is a little closer but still has no rail connections. The road to the city is well-known for traffic jams because of dense commuter traffic. It only got worse after several huge American-style shopping malls were built along the road making driving time almost unpredictable. The airport itself has two terminals, with SVO-2 having better facilities than SVO-1. A brand new SVO-3 Terminal is being built which together with a direct train line (also under construction) might bring back its number one status recently lost. Airlines based at this airport are Aeroflot, Delta, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, SAS, Alitalia and a few others.

Train

Moscow has presently nine rail terminals connecting to various destinations within Russia and the rest of Europe and Asia. Moscow is the western terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok in the east on the Pacific coast. There are trains from Moscow to Cologne (with connections to London and Brussels) via Frankfurt, Berlin and Warsaw. Moscow to St. Petersburg by train takes about 8 hours. There are also direct trains from Moscow to Helsinki in Finland and Kiev in the Ukraine. There are trains and buses to Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia from Moscow to connect to low costs flights from the UK and Germany.

Bus/Road

There are daily buses from Moscow to Tallinn in Estonia with connections by Eurolines to Berlin. There are also Eurolines buses from Moscow (via Belarus - transit visa necessary) to Berlin, Cologne, Hannover and other German cities as well as to Paris and Brussels.
Gulliver's has buses to Moscow from many major German cities including Stuttgart and Munich.
Berlin Linien Bus also has Berlin-Moscow bus services.

Getting Around

Moscow Metro

The Moscow metro runs from 5.20am to 1:00am. The Moscow Metro is easy to navigate despite the fact there are as yet no signs in English. The brown color-coded circle line intersects with the other nine lines. Metro entrances are marked with a large red letter "M". In the rush hours (8am-9am and 5pm-7pm) the Moscow metro can get very crowded.

The Moscow metro has no special area zones - the whole metro network and the monorail line (which links Timiryazevskaya, on the gray Line 9 and VDNKh, on the orange Line 6, metro stations) is counted as one zone. There is no time limit for using your ticket (presently 15 roubles for one trip). Visitors can save money buying tickets of 5, 10 or 20 trips and use the tickets among a group of people.

Many Moscow metro stations in the center of the city were built in the 1930s and are ornately decorated with lavish Soviet-era mosaics, chandeliers, murals and sculptures.

Buses, Trolleybuses & Trams

Moscow city buses, trolleybuses and trams (street cars) run from 5.30am to 1.00am though they are not known for punctuality. Moscow bus stops have yellow "A" signs, trolleybuses white "T" signs and trams white "Tp" signs. There is no night bus service.

Journeys presently (2007) cost 15 Roubles if you buy a ticket directly from the driver, or 12 Roubles if you buy the ticket in advance. Tickets can be purchased in metro stations or from the kiosks near the major bus stops. Vehicles are now fitted with ticket turnstiles where you insert your ticket before boarding.

Marshrutka (minibus-shuttle)

Marshrutka minibus-shuttles usually have the same numbers as the buses or trolleys and travel the same routes. Flag a Marshrutka down with your hand like a taxi and indicate to the driver when you want to get off. Pay the driver on entry.

Taxis

Taxis are often yellow in Moscow. Any private car can be hailed as a taxi in Moscow. Agree the price beforehand and bargain hard and beware of your personal security.

Rent A Car With Holiday Autos

Rent A Car With Sixt

Weather

In mid-October the weather in Moscow is usually quite cold (2-8 C°), with a possibility of rain, there are occasional snowfalls but normally no snow cover. Sunset is at around 18:30.

Football in Moscow

There are 6 major football clubs in the city: Spartak (red-white), CSKA (red-blue), Dynamo (blue-white), Lokomotiv (red-green), FC Moskva (bordeaux-black) and Torpedo (black-white). The biggest fan base is claimed by Spartak with CSKA and Lokomotiv coming next. The fiercest derby is Spartak versus CSKA. Neither clubs has their own stadium at this time and are both renting Luzhniki Stadium.

Spartak and CSKA have just started building almost simultaneously and not too far from each other in the north western part of the city: CSKA - near Sokol metro station, Spartak - a few kilometres to the north at the Tushino airfield.

Lokomotiv's stadium is impressive and located in Cherkizovo - in the north eastern part of the city. However, the stadium's only fault is a not so impressive capacity of just 30,000. Unlike Luzhniki there is no running track around the pitch with the action very close to the stands.
Last season CSKA was renting the stadium for Champions League games.

The biggest stadium in Moscow is Luzhniki Stadium. It was built in the late 1950s, had a major renovation for the Moscow Olympics of 1980 (with a 103,000 capacity then) and was completely rebuilt again in the late 1990s. It has a five star rating from FIFA and will host the Champions League Final in 2008. Its current capacity is 80,600 and most probably it will be the choice for the 17th October match versus England for the Euro 2008 qualifying match. Luzhniki has a last generation artificial pitch installed - probably the only stadium in Europe allowed to use it for major matches so far. The stadium is located in the south of Moscow near the Moskva River and is set in a large sports' complex - a park and a few smaller sports and recreational facilities. The two nearest Metro stations are Sportivnaya and Vorobievy Gory.

For more information on travelling to Moscow to watch football visit the Soccerphile forum

Mikhail Sipovich

Flights To Moscow
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Hotels in Moscow
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