Getting the Best Out Of Your Weekend in Moscow

Congratulations – you’re coming to Moscow for a weekend! This means you are in for some of the best quality tourism time.

Naturally, you want to plan your schedule a bit in advance. Where to go? What to see? What to do? With a city as big and vibrant as Moscow, you need some pretty precise plan so that you don’t miss out on anything and don’t waste time.

Our customers who contact us for Russian visa services in the UAE often ask us what to see in Moscow. In this article, we will give you a quick rundown on the most must-see places in Moscow. You can follow it or use it as a basis for your own plan – but this way, you will have a better idea of what there is to see and how long you can expect each sight to take you.

Main sights

• The Red Square
• The Kremlin
• The Tretyakov Gallery
• The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
• The Sparrow Hills
• Culinary tourism
• The nightlife
• Educational tours
• Russian ballet
• Sports events
• The Moscow Metro

The Red Square

The absolute symbol of the city itself as well as Russia and its power in general, the Red Square is situated at the very center of Moscow. We recommend starting one’s tour of Moscow here to everybody who gets the appropriate holiday package tour.

You can get here from the Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Okhotny Ryad, and Teatralnaya metro stations.

The biggest and arguably the most important sight here is the Kremlin, and it can be seen from any point in the square. When you face it, on your left is Saint Basil’s Cathedral. Everybody knows what it looks like from outside, but now is your chance to get in – and believe you us, it is 100 percent worth it. You will see historical architecture and iconography as well as walk the same halls Ivan the Terrible once did. How long you are going to spend here depends only on you, but given your limited time, our advice is to be mindful of the multitude of other sights to see.

To the right is the State Historical Museum with its rich collections of items and paintings from different epochs. Be aware: it’s easy to spend an exorbitant amount of time there if history is your thing. Alternatively, you can walk towards the Kremlin itself and attend Lenin’s Mausoleum. However, it is only open from 10 AM to 1 PM on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, so it always attracts large crowds of tourists and it is possible that you will spend a lot of your time waiting in a line. However, the Mausoleum is a very unique place you will not find anywhere else in the world, as Vladimir Lenin’s remains have been mummified according to never-seen-before recipes and can now be seen within.

The Kremlin

Tourists enter the Kremlin through the Kutafya Tower, which you can reach by walking between the Historical Museum and the Kremlin wall. Expect some waiting, as at times, there can be a lot of tourists getting in, but hey – you cannot go to Moscow and not visit the Kremlin!

Be sure to locate the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell, which are famous Russian artifacts and an endless source of cool photo opportunities. Out of the more serious sights, the absolute must is the Cathedral of the Archangel, where the remains of many Moscow princes and Russian tsars are entombed, including Ivan IV (aka the Terrible), Peter II, Ivan the Great, Mikhail (the first Romanov tsar), and many others.

The Armoury is another museum you need to visit if you are into history. Here, you will see a ton of weaponry and other items from the Moscow Tsardom period.

All in all, a visit to the Kremlin is likely to take at least three or four hours.

The Tretyakov Gallery

For all the lovers of art, this place is a must-see destination. With almost 200,000 paintings, sculptures, and other objets d’art, it is the largest art museum in Russia and one of the most famous ones in the world.

Here, you will see Old Russian icons, including those painted by Andrei Rublyov, who is considered to be the best master to have ever lived, classical paintings as well as the more modern ones that are just so rich in detail, statues, jewelry, abstract paintings, and so many more. To fully explore the gallery, you will need more time than your stay will allow – and that’s not even taking other branches of it into account – but several hours should give you a good idea of what the Tretyakov Gallery has to offer!

The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

If you can’t get enough of art, then head directly to the Pushkin Museum after you leave the Tretyakov Gallery. Located just two metro stations away from Okhotny Ryad (get out at Kropotkinskaya), it is a fascinating look at the world’s art.

The most peculiar collection here is, perhaps, the number of casts of ancient sculptures that includes Assyrian and Babylonian artifacts as well as classical Graeco-Roman statues. There’s literally no telling that these are not the original works – so good is the craftsmanship.

Apart from thost, the museum also is in possession of a great amount of authentic paintings not only by famous Russian masters but also by the European greats such as Van Gogh, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, and many others.

The Sparrow Hills

The Vorobyovy Gory, or Sparrow Hills in English, are among the most visited sights in Moscow. This is the place where you can appreciate the city’s sprawl and beauty.

Visit the scenic overlook point and enjoy the cityscape! There are very few other places in Moscow that have the same feel to them while also providing a great view.

As an added bonus, the main building of the Moscow State University is located here, and it is worthy to take a good look at as well. It is one of the seven famous Stalin’s high-rises, which litter the landscape of the Russian capital and all serve different purposes (some even being living apartment buildings) while maintaining the same architectural style.

Culinary tourism

While sightseeing, you will obviously do a lot of walking and contemplating – enough to make anyone hungry. Luckily, Moscow is all set in the culinary department and provides a ton of opportunities for a person with any preference in food to spend a great evening.

You will find Chinese restaurants such as Kitayskaya Gramota (the Chistye Prudy station), Italian ones such as Cantinetta Antinori (the Smolenskaya station), Russian cuisine places – for example, Ruski in the Moscow City complex, try genuine Scandinavian dishes at Björn (at the Novokuznetskaya station), and even enjoy an authentic Soviet culinary experience at Dr. Zhivago near the Kremlin.

The nightlife

If you are more of a night person, Moscow still got you covered. Visit any of its nightclubs to get a taste of what it’s like to party in Moscow.

Among the best options for a visitor from Dubai or the UAE in general are Powerhouse (the Taganskaya station), famous for its selection of whiskey, the most high-brow one called Simach (Tverskaya), and 16 Tonn (Ploshchad 1905 Goda), where you can find up to three varieties of craft beer.

Educational tours

Do you want to get some real scientific knowledge out of your trip to Moscow? Then be sure to check the Tekhnograd amusement park located at VDNKh. It contains a number of pavilions dedicated to a certain topic. The best thing about it is that it’s not just pop science you can find elsewhere, but a legit educational establishment that has a license to retrain scientific workers. Thus, you can be sure that lectures and expositions you will find here are going to be top-notch.

While you are at VDNKh, you can also visit a skating rink (including one specifically for children), the museum of space (the largest one in Russia; it contains more than 120 spacecrafts as well as 2000+ unique photos related to space exploration), and the so-called Moskvarium where you can watch all kinds of sea creatures including even formidable killer whales.

If you go from VDNKh to the Krasnopresnenskaya or Barrikadnaya stations, you will be able to visit both the Moscow Zoo and the Planetarium. There, you can observe animals from all over the world and expositions on Yuri Gagarin, the history of astronomy, and many other exciting topics for all the science lovers out there.

Russian ballet

The Russian school of ballet has been considered one of the most beautiful and unique ones in the entire world since the 19th century and to this day. During the Soviet times, ballet dancers and choreographers were among the very few people who were allowed to go abroad.

Nowadays, the Bolshoi Theater still remains one of the topmost temples of this art. If you are a ballet lover, you can’t miss this opportunity when you visit Moscow. However, you need to make careful preparations and come during the season (which usually starts in September) to enjoy the very performance you want.

Sports events

Whether you want to participate in some cool sports events or watch them, Moscow is one of the world’s best places to fulfill that need!

For all sky jumping enthusiasts, there is some good news: there are plenty of opportunities to see Moscow from above. You can jump either on your own or with an instructor, based on your proficiency and preferences.

Those who enjoy motorcycle racing will also find many interesting events to watch – although racing is heavily season-dependent and most often requires fans to follow different events in different cities and regions and not only Moscow. However, if you want to hone your bike-riding skills or just enjoy a bit of motorcycle activity, there are tracks where you can do just that. For example, you can check out the Technical Sports Park in Pechatniki District or the Myachkovo Autodrom.

Another great event you might want to see is the Moscow Raceway Grand Prix, in which F1 pilots and cars compete. Be sure to plan your trip in advance to attend the best races, because not all of them are quite on the same level.

The Moscow Metro

While you travel across Moscow, you get to see its another sight simultaneously – its subway system. Forget about drab and boring New York metro – here, every station is a work of art. Almost all UAE residents that used our company’s services to go on a tour to Moscow have noted how impressed they were by its metro. You can really get out of the train at each station and enjoy the bas-reliefs, frescoes, and other decorations for hours on end. Just don’t forget about time!

Conclusion

A weekend in Moscow is full of possibilities, and the ones listed here are just one option of how to spend your rest here. We want your experience to be the best possible in everything – which is why we do all the heavy lifting in the visa department so you don’t have to. Just like with your time-planning, there are many different variants of Russian visas available to UAE residents.

We also offer a number of different tourism packages to Russia:

• Saint Petersburg;
• Sochi;
• Hunting trips;
• The Kamchatka Peninsula;
• Siberia.

Just give us a call, and we will walk you through the application process!