Moscow (Russia)
The furthest out and the least settled
The last entry on the plan and the one I am least certain about. I have wanted to see Moscow properly for a long time, the research is genuinely interesting, and I am keeping it on the list as a research project with a date attached rather than as a booking. Everything here is written as planning notes, and I will revise it heavily before it becomes a trip.
- Trip length
- Undecided
- Language
- Russian
- Getting around
- Metro
- Status
- Research only
Six that earn the time
Things to see and do
Treat the metro as an itinerary in itself
The older central stations were built as public architecture rather than infrastructure, with marble, mosaics, chandeliers and sculpture. A deliberate route through a dozen of the earliest stations, riding between them purely to look, is one of the few sightseeing plans I have seen recommended by essentially everyone who has been.
Give the Kremlin and Red Square a full day
The walled citadel contains cathedrals, palaces and the armoury collection, and each of those is a separate ticket and a separate queue. The square outside is free to walk and changes character completely between early morning, midday and after dark. This is the one part of the trip that cannot be rushed.
Work through one of the major art collections
The city holds enormous holdings of Russian painting and of European art, split across separate institutions on opposite sides of the river. As with any collection at that scale, choosing a few rooms and seeing them properly beats attempting the whole building.
Walk the river embankments
The Moskva curves through the centre and the embankments give the clearest sense of how the city is laid out, taking in the older waterfront, the redeveloped industrial stretches and the towers further out. It is a long flat walk and the best orientation exercise available.
Visit the parks in the long summer evenings
Gorky Park and the larger green spaces are heavily used by residents and are where an outsider gets the most ordinary, least performed view of the city. In June the light lasts until very late, and the parks stay busy for as long as it does.
See the estates and monasteries on the edge
Several former royal estates and walled monastery complexes sit within reach of the metro or a short suburban train, with grounds, wooden architecture and far fewer visitors than anything central. They are the best single-day escape from the scale of the centre.
Air and rail
How to get there
General guidance rather than specific fares, because fares change and this page does not. Check the current position before you book anything.
By air
Moscow is served by several large international airports at some distance from the centre, each connected by a dedicated express rail link to a different city terminal as well as by road. Which airports and which routes are available to any given traveller depends heavily on where you are flying from, and that picture has changed repeatedly in recent years, so this is the part of the plan I will be checking last and most carefully.
By rail
The city is the centre of an extensive rail network, with the fast service to St Petersburg taking around four hours and long-distance sleepers running east across the country, including the trans-continental routes. Different destinations depart from different terminals, several of which are grouped around one square in the north of the centre, so confirming your station matters as much as confirming your train.
Before you plan anything
Entry requirements, permitted routes, payment methods and travel advisories for Russia have shifted substantially and repeatedly, and anything I wrote today could be wrong by the time this trip comes around. Before committing to any part of this, check your own government’s current travel advice and the current visa position for your nationality, and check them again close to departure. That check comes before the itinerary, not after it.
Planned for June 2028
When to go
May to June
Mild, green, very long days
The window I am looking at. Late spring into early summer brings comfortable temperatures, the parks at their best, and daylight stretching well into the night, which makes the long walking days realistic.
September to early October
Cool, dry, autumn colour
The other strong option. Crisp rather than cold, noticeably fewer visitors than midsummer, and the parks and estates at their most photogenic before the weather turns properly.
December to February
Deep cold, short days
A serious winter with temperatures well below freezing for weeks at a time and only a few hours of usable light. It is a genuinely striking way to see the city if you are equipped for it, but it is a specialist trip rather than a first visit.
Learned the hard way
Erica's tips for Moscow
Learn the alphabet before anything else
Not the language, the alphabet. A few hours of Cyrillic turns station names, street signs and menus from opaque into merely unfamiliar, and it is by some distance the highest-value preparation for the amount of effort it takes.
Sort payment and connectivity in advance
How foreign cards and phones work varies and has changed more than once. I will be confirming what actually functions for a visitor close to the date rather than assuming, and carrying a fallback, because this is the practical detail most likely to catch a traveller out.
Hold this whole page loosely
This is the one destination on the site I am publishing as research rather than as a plan. If the situation makes the trip unwise or impossible, I will say so here plainly and take the date off rather than quietly leaving an outdated guide up.
Six frames
The Moscow shot list
The six photographs I am going there to take, written down before departure so I have something to hold myself to. Each one gets replaced by the real frame once I am back.
A vaulted metro hall with chandeliers, between trains and briefly empty
Central metro ring, mid-morning
Cathedral domes rising above the citadel wall from the square outside
Red Square, early morning
A single gallery room with the benches empty and the light from above
City art collection, opening hour
The river embankment curving away with the towers behind it
Moskva embankment, evening
Park lawns still full of people at an hour that should be dark
Gorky Park, close to midnight
Wooden architecture and open grounds at a former estate on the edge of the city
Outer estate grounds, afternoon
