This summer, I suddenly had a desire to reconsider Moscow inside and out, so I became a frequent guest on walking tours. And this week I had another item in my plan for exploring the capital – a sightseeing tour of Moscow by bus.
Here I will tell you where to book such entertainment in advance so as not to run after aunts with loudspeakers on Red Square, and how to find an unusual route if you are not in the capital for the first time and want new places and experiences. And at the same time, I will share what discoveries awaited me during a mini-trip around the capital and why I even decided to go on a sightseeing tour by bus after six years of living in the capital.
What are sightseeing tours of Moscow and what do they include?
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Judging by the assortment on the Sputnik8 website and the reviews of sightseeing tours in Moscow, there are a lot of options to choose from. You can get around the center on your own two, travel around the sights by car with a personal guide or in a group by bus, and even see all the most interesting things from the water.
And now about everything in order. Walking, river, car and bus excursions around Moscow are perhaps one of the most famous entertainments for city guests. Let's deal with the pros and cons of different types.
Pedestrian.As a rule, classic pedestrian views cover only the very heart of the city – Zaryadye Park, Red Square, the Kremlin and Intercession Cathedral, GUM, Nikolskaya Street, Manezhnaya Square and Alexander Garden, the Bolshoi Theater and the Lenin Library. Sometimes – the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Patriarchal Bridge with a view of the statue of Peter I and the Red October factory. In general, the usual minimum program for a tourist – it was around them that my first few visits to Moscow in my school years revolved. Such routes take 2–3 hours: it takes just that much to get around the city center at a fast pace.
- 🏃♂️Pedestrian overview in a group for 490 rubles
- 📸Individual tour for four + photo session for 5000 rubles
Usually, you will be accompanied by a guide during your walk, who will give you background information about the streets, buildings and monuments you pass by, as well as about the city itself as a whole. As I noticed, the general impression of the tour usually depends on the charisma, immersion and liveliness of the guide's story.
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River. An obligatory item in the plan of almost all my acquaintances and friends visiting the capital in the summer is to ride a boat. What routes are there (yes, there is more than one!) and where they depart from – I have described in detail here:
- 🛥️How I rode a river boat in Moscow
In short, there are more than 30 moorings scattered around the city, from which you can go to the survey along the Moskva River. The most popular routes are Severny (from Kievsky railway station to Ustyinsky pier on Kitay-gorod, between the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya embankment and Zaryadye park); Historical (from the Sparrow Hills to the Novospassky Monastery) and the shorter Central (from Gorky Park to Zaryadye), as well as the Circular – from the Tretyakov pier around Balchug Island. Any of them lies through the beauty of Moscow, which can be seen from the water. An audio guide usually broadcasts on the deck, so along the way you will learn more about the sights of Moscow.
In general, this is a fun, interesting and unusual version of the overview. The only negative: from the water you will see only those attractions that are located near the Moskva River (however, almost all important places in the center meet this criterion, so you can exhale).
Bus. The main advantage of such surveys is that they include not only the symbols of the capital located in the center, but also sights outside the city ring. For example, the observation deck on the Sparrow Hills and the Moscow State University building (the most monumental of the Stalinist skyscrapers), the skyscrapers of Moscow City, the Novodevichy Convent, Victory Park on Poklonnaya Hill and the Triumphal Arch – in general, everything that tourists are interested in seeing, but there is no time (or just too lazy) to get on their own. Such excursions are also suitable for those who do not like to walk for a long time: there are only a few stops on the route, but you will see most of the interesting places from the window of a comfortable tourist bus.
As a rule, before the trip, the group gathers somewhere in the center: in the area of Red Square, Zaryadye Park or Tverskaya Street, from where sightseeing buses depart in Moscow. For example, we gathered near the Satire Theater near the Mayakovskaya metro station. Well, along the way, the guide enlightens about the most important milestones in the biography of the capital and, of course, tells the history of iconic places. How long a sightseeing tour of Moscow lasts depends on the operator you choose: there are routes for 2.5, 3 and 4 hours (this is the time with stops and short walks).
Individual automotive.Not the most budgetary, but the most comfortable and “flexible” option. Still, a personal guide can show those places where classic sightseeing tours do not reach, and stops can be made anywhere – especially if the tour is by car. Some guides, if agreed, can even adjust the program and along the way visit a location of interest to you (the main thing is to meet the designated time, so it’s more about what is at least within the Moscow Ring Road; of course, you won’t see an old temple in the Perovo district will be taken). But before such excursions it is better to be sure to read the reviewsand find out if the driver talks about the city on the way. In order not to spend the whole trip in awkward silence, not at all understanding what is so special about the old streets that you pass, and what the next monument on the route is dedicated to.
Objective.These sightseeing tours, either on foot or by bus, are ideal if you are curious about a particular area or get to know a particular place better. For example, take a walk through the historic Kitay-Gorod and the White City or the streets of Zamoskvorechye, bypass the territory of the Novodevichy Convent, VDNKh or the Kolomenskoye park-reserve with the royal estate. This also includes walking “thematic routes” – along old mansions or high-rise roofs.
Such excursions are usually chosen by those who are not in the city for the first time and who will no longer be surprised by the stars of the Kremlin and the gingerbread tops of the Intercession Cathedral. Well, I’ll add on my own that even for me, a local resident, such “objective” pedestrian overviews are very interesting 🙂
Which bus tour of Moscow to choose? My experience and feedback
For convenience, I will give a sign where you can find brief descriptions and the cost of a bus trip in 2023 (by type, they are all group bus trips). And below I will tell you about each in detail and help you figure out how a standard sightseeing tour of Moscow in the company of a guide differs from a trip on a double-decker bus. And I’ll share my impressions of the day trip by bus in Moscow, which I went on last week.
Well, if you don’t like anything from the tablet, just in case, I’ll remind you that the best bus sightseeing tours around Moscow are most conveniently found on two sites:
- Tripster
- Sputnik8
Apparently, prices for sightseeing tours of Moscow by bus in 2023 start at about 1,000 rubles. A few years ago they were not much more expensive. Well, this is very nice stability.
| Title | Description< /strong> | Price |
| ✔️Classic bus tour | A 4-hour itinerary with a guide to the most favorite and popular places in the capital: Novodevichy Convent, observation deck on Sparrow Hills, Moscow City, Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Red Square and surroundings | From 1100 rubles per person |
| ✔️Overview on a double-decker bus | Two routes to choose from – top attractions in the center (for 1 hour) and its surroundings (for 2 hours) with an audio guide and unlimited number of entrances and exits | 1700 rubles per person |
| ✔️ Evening bus review | An option for those who want to see the lights of the capital and feel the rhythms of Moscow at night | 990 rubles per person |
| ✔️Mystical Moscow | A trip through the center through places that are associated with the most interesting urban legends and mystical stories | 1200 rubles per person |
| ✔️Sightseeing with a visit to the cable car on the Sparrow Hills | Classic program of sightseeing plus a “crossing” on the cable car from one bank of the Moskva River on the other | 1660 rubles per person |
| ✔️Bus tour of Stalin's skyscrapers | An unusual overview of the buildings of the “seven sisters” and other cultural objects of the Soviet era | From 1000 rubles per person |
Classic overview (+ my experience included)
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To be honest, I would rather call this review a pedestrian-bus review — but first things first. Here it is ⬇️
Why did I choose this route?
- Four hours and more than 80 kilometers – if I go on such trips, I want to squeeze every drop out of it!
- In the reviews for bus tours in Moscow, this option had a very good rating – 4.5 out of 5 based on more than 2000 reviews.
- The program included a couple of places that I never got to in 6 years in the capital – for example, Mosfilmovskaya street near the Kievskaya metro station and the Mosfilm studio itself.
Price: from 1100 rubles per person.
The list of places that they promised to show us during the trip was impressive. Bend your fingers: the many central streets and boulevards of old Moscow, the Bolshoi Theater and the Lenin Library, Red and Manezhnaya Square, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Novodevichy Convent, the high-rise of Moscow State University and Sparrow Hills, Victory Park and the Triumphal Arch, the towers of Moscow City … True, in front of walking we were told that a good half of these sights we will see only passing through)))
There were only four stops – the guide first told about the history of the place, weaving local legends and tales into the story, and then gave time to walk around the territory. Yes, a little, about 10 minutes, but not every sightseeing bus tour of Moscow generally provides time for a walk, so I liked it. During the last two stops, we did not stand still, but walked from point to point.
I will leave all the details for the last section – so as not to bore you here and have time to tell you about other types of reviews. In short, the tour is perfect for a head-to-toe acquaintance with the capital. For example, if you are here for just one day, but you want to see as many places as possible.
Pros:
+ For tourists without a car and a fat wallet for a taxi, this is a great opportunity to see many places at once.
+ Everything is punctual: the administrator, as promised, met the group in 15 minutes, the tour began at the specified time, without waiting half an hour for latecomers, and ended at the specified time.
+ The guide tells current and confirmed historical information for today, and not information from Soviet history textbooks, which has long been refuted. For example, I dispelled the story about the blinding of architects by Ivan the Terrible: I knew, but some people were very surprised.
+ Different route back and forth, and we did not pass the same sights twice.
+ The guide talks about Moscow the whole trip. You have probably been on excursions where the guide is silent all the way back? So, this is not the case – the guide has a lot of information, and it is really interesting.
+ The bus is like an intercity bus: one-story, but large, with comfortable easy chairs and air conditioning. I went on a day trip on a weekday, and the bus was even less than half full – which is also a nice bonus for me.
a discount of 100 rubles if I decide to look at one of them. Small but nice.
Book this tour >>
The only small minus is that not everything turned out well enough to consider on the go. We drove around Moscow City from all sides and saw it from all angles, but Victory Park was very hard to see behind the trees. Of course, I have been there more than once, but if I were a tourist, such a moment could upset me. On the other hand, if I had been in the city for just one day, I would probably have been glad that at least I managed to see so much from the bus. It was interesting and informative (largely thanks to the guide), so I can safely recommend such an excursion!
Sightseeing tour of Moscow on a double-decker bus
In Moscow, I personally didn’t ride a double-decker bus, but we went to Kazan
Such an overview takes place on a double-decker convertible bus: in On warm sunny days, the roof opens and closes when it is cold or when it rains. Instead of a regular guide, an audio guide is at your service, and not only in Russian, but also in several foreign languages.
Price: 1700 rubles per person.
Yes two routes:
- “Heart of the Capital” – walks along the main attractions in the very center: from the Kremlin and Alexander Garden to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Bolshoi Theater and Arbat Square (1 hour in total).
- “Soul of the Capital” – lies through the vicinity of the center: for example, Kievsky pier, Novinsky Boulevard, the main building of Moscow State University and Zaryadye Park (2 hours in total).
Book this tour > ;>
On the way, the bus makes stops near all the main attractions. But the main catch of such excursions is an unusual entry-exit system: you can get off the transport during a stop, take a walk around, and then wait for the next red bus and get to the next stop you are interested in. Their interval is 15–25 and 40–60 minutes for the first and second route, respectively. You can turn this trick as many times as you like within 24 hours: you have an unlimited number of landings and landings at your disposal.
Such bus tours around Moscow in 2023 are very popular: I used to often see double-decker red tour basses in different cities of Europe, but now I see them more and more often in the center of Moscow.
Evening sightseeing tour of Moscow by bus
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The route for the evening overview is about the same as for most daytime excursions: the Kremlin towers and Red Square, the ancient Volkhonka and Mokhovaya, the Patriarchal Bridge, the Bolshoi Theater, Novy Arbat, the observation tower on the Vorobyovs and Victory Park. And the same accompaniment of a guide, as in a regular review. In daylight, of course, all the local beauties will be seen much better …
And yet the perception of the city in the evening illumination is completely different. So if you want to admire the lights of the capital and see the panorama of Moscow at night, this is a great option. Especially tourists love such excursions for the New Year holidays. You can see plenty of street illumination – garlands, arches and other decorations.
Mystical Moscow
I have a small weakness in excursions: I love mystical routes and often try them in different cities. I listen to urban legends and tales and immerse myself in the atmosphere of a dark fairy tale. I managed to visit such excursions in St. Petersburg, Kazan and Prague, but I haven’t got to Moscow yet (but I really want to).
Price: 1200 rubles per person.
Perhaps, for the first acquaintance with Moscow, this is not the best option: although the route passes through the center, it is not directed at all to the favorite places of tourists. But if you are not in Moscow for the first time (or have spent several days and have already seen and visited everything that you planned) and want to dilute the evening with new emotions or just love mystical city myths, it’s definitely worth a trip. Walk in the footsteps of Woland and his retinue on the Patriarch's Ponds, find the ghost of a black cat on Tverskoy Boulevard, visit the sacred “seven hills of Moscow” and even take part in a real Sabbat with sparklers!
Perhaps, such bus excursions in Moscow and not for everyone, but judging by the reviews of tourists, the walk is not terrible and not gloomy. On the contrary, it is fascinating, dynamic and informative, and sometimes even humorous.
Book this tour >>
Just the other day, walking in the center, I saw the participants of “Mystical Moscow” accompanied by a guide in a black cloak and a woman in a carnival mask. The whole procession looked, I must say, very atmospheric. Oh, it looks like it’s time to go on your own…
Bus tour with a visit to the cable car
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If the usual review does not surprise you, try this option. The package, of course, includes a visit to Red Square, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and a lookout on Sparrow Hills, and even a stop in the Moscow City area so that you can appreciate the unusual (albeit, frankly, frankly strange in places) modern architectural solutions.
Price: 1660 rubles per person.
But you will overcome the path from one bank of the capital to the other on the cable car over the Sparrow Hills and look at the city panorama from a bird's eye view. The ticket is already included in the price of the tour. Well, during the bus tour, the guide will take you through the milestones of the city's history.
Bus overview of the Stalinist skyscrapers
For all fans of monumental classicism, baptized in the Soviet years by the Stalinist Empire style, there are such overviews.
Price: 1000 rubles per person.
On the route you will see all the “seven sisters”, seven Stalinist skyscrapers and other places of worship from the Soviet era. The guide will tell you who lived in the famous “House on the Embankment”, how life was arranged in high-rise buildings and how the surveillance system worked in Soviet times, how the architects saw the Palace of Soviets – the eighth high-rise building that was never built – and even where the exits to the secret “Metro” are located –2”.
What else do I recommend to see and try in Moscow?
If you ended up in the capital not just for a day, but arrived for a few days, or maybe even weeks, I’ll throw in a few more ideas of what to do and what to visit in the city. I think this section will also be useful to those who are wondering “Where to go in Moscow if you have already been everywhere.”
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< /p> Museums. There are so many different expositions in the city that it is impossible to go through them all in one visit.
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More unusual is the permanent exhibition Lights of Moscow dedicated to the history of Moscow lighting. It turned out to be more interesting than I expected, so I advise you to take a look if you like unusual facts, like how the company Siemens, which made the flip phones of your childhood, is connected with the first Moscow street lamps. In the same museum piggy bank I will put the Museum of Optical Illusions at VDNKh, which is visited by both adults and children; and Museum of Soviet Slot Machines– by the way, still active!
Well, if you, like me, first of all prefer to look into art museums, you have a direct road to the Tretyakov Gallery. Start with the old one, in Lavrushinsky Lane, and look at the classics of Russian academic painting (you will probably recognize a couple of dozen paintings that were used to write essays at school), and then admire the collection of Russian avant-garde in the new one, on Krymsky Val.
Take a look at the Pushkin Museum– a kind of Moscow Hermitage at the minimum wage. The range of exhibits is huge: from the halls of antiquity and Egyptology to the Renaissance, and Western impressionists were even allocated a separate building!
If you are not a fan of the traditional view of art and think that it has no boundaries and cannot be, feel free to go to the Garagein Gorky park. Exhibitions are constantly changing, so you can get to a worthwhile exposition, or you can find yourself surrounded by sheer surrealism and still not understand “what the author wanted to say,” despite explanations from the exhibition curator. In spring and summer, the Garage hosts open-air film screenings in the evening.
More atypical and interactive exhibitions can be found in the schedule of MMOMA, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and also at Khlebozavod , Winery or Artplay. These are creative and creative spaces that were opened on the site of former factories and industrial zones. Often, mini-exhibitions of contemporary young artists are free here. In addition, there are art, book and music shops, lecture halls, cafes and coffee houses on the territory – in general, a good place for a walk with immersion in a creative atmosphere!
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Parks.Or places where to walk when tired of winding through the city streets. Here you can not only please the counter with a couple of tens of thousands of steps, but also organize friendly gatherings, get acquainted with the ancient architecture and even arrange photo shoots.
A favorite place for Muscovites and tourists is Gorky Park. A large space with fountains, openwork gazebos, lawns, playgrounds and sports grounds (there is even a white sand area for playing beach volleyball), a wooded area with squirrels and access to the embankment. In short, an ideal place for long walks, as well as for picnics or cycling. True, on weekends there are more people here than in the subway during rush hour! If you want to take a walk in a quieter place, then, as for me, quite a worthy alternative – perhaps further away from the center – Sokolniki Park.
Kolomenskoye Park-Reserve– a place where I come to relax my soul and enjoy the ancient architecture: once there was a royal residence on this place. Walking among flower beds, along streams and ravines along shady paths, you can still see churches and temples of the 16th-17th centuries, the house of Peter I, the wooden building of the mead factory, front gates, white-stone chambers and small turrets, preserved from the Karelian and Arkhangelsk monasteries. You can get to the park by metro – from the center about 20 minutes. But, I promise, you will not regret the time on the road!
Tsaritsyno– another open-air museum-reserve where you can look at the palace ensemble of the imperial residence, walk through the flower greenhouses (which in themselves can already pass for a historical place – they have exceeded 250 years old!) Or just take a calm walk in the park with pretty landscapes. The woodland gives way to green meadows, and from there – an exit to a large mirror pond. A picturesque and not too crowded place.
I love the park Kuskovo — the count's residence, headed by the estate of the XVIII century — and the park near the noble estate Petrovsko-Razumovskoye em>. These are really real pieces of Europe in the capital. Buildings that look more like palaces are surrounded by a neat green park and ancient statues, and the surroundings are quiet and clean. Tourists rarely get to these parks, because they are far from the center.
Well, if you want to walk among rare flowers and plants – from tropical palms and lianas to giant water lilies – plan a visit to Aptekarsky vegetable garden and Schroeder Dendrogarden(The second one can be visited only as part of an excursion, but, as for me, in terms of natural diversity, it is much more interesting and richer than the Botanical Garden, which is more popular with tourists).
VDNKh.A place with a very “Soviet” (in the best sense) atmosphere makes you want to buy a glass of draft lemonade and ice cream and walk around the wide squares listening to old music playing from the speakers. However, you can also ride a bike and a scooter, for which there is quite a lot of space and there are even special paths. I recommend spending the whole day here. Many bypass only the main sights, such as the front arch with the “Tractor Driver and Collective Farm Woman”, the statue “Worker and Collective Farm Girl” (the eternal Mosfilm symbol) and the monument to the Conquerors of Space (the same silver rocket on a tall pedestal and the statue of Tsiolkovsky at the foot).
The most stubborn get to the Ferris wheel “Sun of Moscow”, an area with attractions and unusual museums such as the “Inverted City” or go to the Ostankino Tower. But on the territory of VDNKh there is also a city farm with friendly animals – goats, alpacas, Indian cows, reindeer and raccoons. And a small hippodrome, a rose garden and picturesque ponds with swans, and the historical fountain “Golden Ear” on one of the ponds, and a huge oceanarium with a beautiful corridor-arch and aquariums-portholes. In general, go deep from VDNKh tourist to the corners that not even all the locals know about: I promise you will not regret it!
Organ and symphony concerts. When someone from the family or friends from other cities come to the capital and ask to think about something according to the cultural program, I always include such concerts there. We went to classical (like Tchaikovsky, Chopin or Beethoven accompanied), and to more modern ones (Paul Mauriat and Enio Morricone), and even to symphonic rock concerts with instrumental covers of Queen, Scorpions, Beatles and Sting.
Often they take place in very beautiful churches, namely:
- in the Roman Catholic Conception Cathedral on Malaya Gruzinskaya
- in the Lutheran Peter and Paul Cathedral in Starosadsky Lane
- in the Anglican Church of St. Andrew in Voznesensky Lane
It is interesting to look at them even from the outside, and attending a concert there and listening to classics on an old organ or favorite tracks arranged for violin and cello is a wonderful option for Have a nice evening or afternoon.
Lookouts.If you want to look at Moscow from a height, lookouts are for you. There are many of them in the city. There is a platform on the territory of Moscow City: from the 89th floor of the Federation tower (and this is a height of 327 meters) you can see the capital to the very outskirts.
Glazed observation tower of the Ostankino tower< /em> is the only circular viewing platform in the city from which you can view the city from different angles. I also really liked the viewing room of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior(the view of the night city from there is simply amazing) and the roof of the Artplay factory (from where it’s very cool to see off the sunset) – but, as far as I understand, you can only go there as part of an excursion.
RAS Observation Deck is only 60 meters high, but it's free and works around the clock. The views of the monument to Gagarin, Moskva City, the embankments of the Moskva River and the Andreevsky Monastery are very cozy and lovely, especially at sunset, when the sun is reflected in the gilded sculpture of the cosmonaut and the windows of skyscrapers.
Viewpoint on the Vorobyovs mountains– an obligatory point of almost all Moscow bus views: from here you can see Moscow City, the Ostankino Tower, and the domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. But, to be honest, everything is somehow small: it reminds me more of a beautiful view from the window of a high-rise building than a viewing panorama. However, the photos here can be made quite nice. Oh, and free admission is a plus too!
Cable Caris another unusual option to look at the capital from above. Cabins leave from Sparrow Hills to Luzhniki, the path passes over the Moskva River and ferries you from coast to coast (not by bridges alone …). In fact, the height of the cable car is only 35 meters (approximately 9-storey building), so you will mainly see the Vorobyov neighborhood (the high-rise building of Moscow State University and the Luzhniki stadium) and the ubiquitous skyscrapers of Moscow City. So for breathtaking panoramas with views of the entire capital from edge to edge, choose the observation points from the list above, because the Moscow cable car is more unusual entertainment in this regard.
My review of the sightseeing tour in Moscow by bus
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If you're a fan of details – and I'm a fan of giving them! – then let's stay together for five minutes of this text 🙂
I will write in more detail my impressions about this review. First, we arrived at the Novodevichy Convent: it is one of my favorite places in the city, quiet, calm, with elegant bell towers and temples … True, we only managed to look at it from the Novodevichy Pond, which is located 5-7 minutes walk from the monastery itself – where there is a sculpture “The way for ducklings”. They did not enter the territory: in private you can go there for free, but the entrance as part of a large group will already cost a pretty penny.
Further, along the Berezhkovskaya embankment, we arrived at the second point – an observation deck on the Sparrow Hills. The guide showed me the most favorable angle for photos – so I also took a couple of nice shots for memory (it's funny that I had been to the site twice before, but I didn't take a single photo).
From there we went to the third location – to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Along the way, we passed Mosfilmovskaya Street and the studio of the same name, Victory Park and drove around Moscow City, saw Novy Arbat (and a small part of the old one), Borovitskaya Square, where the monument to Prince Vladimir stands), and the building of the Pushkin Museum.
We walked from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to the Patriarchal Bridge: the views from both sides are just a living postcard. On the left is a panorama of the Kremlin and the CEC house on the Embankment, on the right is the Krasny Oktyabr factory and the monument to the 300th anniversary of the Russian fleet (or, in the people, the statue of Peter 1), the New Tretyakov Gallery, the house of Pertsova (aka the fairy tale house, decorated with mosaics from scenes of Russian epics, fairy tales and legends), in the distance – the high-rise of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The guide informatively and humorously told about everything that was revealed to our eyes – and we again went to the bus.
On the way, we learned a lot of historical interesting things: how the place for the construction of the future capital was chosen, where the name “City on 7 Hills” came from (and why it is not very accurate), how illumination and the subway appeared in Moscow. All this, of course, the guide layered with the history of buildings and monuments. It was especially interesting for me to listen to the stories of the names of different streets: walking in the center, you don’t really think why the Borovitskaya metro station or Mokhovaya street are called that way!
On the way to the fourth – and last – point, the Kremlin, we passed the Pashkov house, Kutafya and Arsenalnaya towers, the Manege exhibition hall, part of the Kremlin wall and the Alexander Garden, the Historical Museum, the Bolshoi Theater and the preserved fragment of the Kitaigorod wall. Then we drove onto Lubyansky Hill and looked at the Central Children's Museum, drove along Slavyanskaya Square and drove along Varvarka, along Zaryadye. This ended the bus journey (according to the timing, there was still an hour left) – but not the tour itself!
The last hour of the tour turned out to be a walk along Red Square (in our case, along it, because now it is blocked) and the surrounding area. At first, I must admit, I was surprised that the place that everyone wants to see in Moscow in the first place was postponed for dessert, and then I realized: at this point in the tour, those who are tired of the story can “break away” and go for a walk around Zaryadye, walk along Nikolskaya street or visit GUM. Most of our group remained (that's what an excellent guide means!), so we saw and heard about the Spasskaya Tower, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky and the Mausoleum, walked through GUM, looked at Nikolskaya, where, as it turned out, the monastery used to be , and walked along Manezhnaya Square. The tour ended in the Alexander Garden: however, we didn’t go deeper, but we saw the grave of the unknown soldier, and learned about the garden from the map at the entrance.
At the end, the guide advised tourists where to go for a walk nearby and how to get to more distant sights by metro – in my opinion, very cool for those who are in the capital for the first time and are poorly oriented.
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And if you are wandering around Moscow and don’t know where to stay, go to my article with a selection of apartments, hotels and hostels in the capital! |
