Moscow 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Six days is our 5-day plan , Red Square, the Kremlin, the Tretyakov, Novodevichy and the metro loop, plus a day out of the city entirely. Everything’s priced in RUB, and foreign Visa or Mastercard cards do not work anywhere here, so cash is the plan, not a backup. Our 7-day plan adds one more flex day on top of this.
Book these before you go:
- Kremlin Cathedral Square and Armoury tickets : separate tickets, both closed Thursdays
- St Basil’s Cathedral : MIR cards only online, cash at the box office otherwise
- Sergiev Posad train tickets : buy through the official RZD channel, not a reseller
- Your hotel on Ostrovok.ru : foreign Mastercard works online, Visa does not
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cathedral Square, St Basil’s, GUM, Red Square after dark |
| 2 | Armoury Chamber, Kitay-Gorod, metro palace stations |
| 3 | Tretyakov Gallery, Gorky Park |
| 4 | Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills |
| 5 | Metro architecture loop, VDNKh |
| 6 | Sergiev Posad day trip |
Day 1: Red Square and the Kremlin core
Book Cathedral Square for a morning slot (1,100 RUB standard, 600 RUB discounted, arrive 45 minutes early for security), St Basil’s Cathedral on its own separate ticket, and the State Historical Museum. Lunch inside GUM, then Red Square again after dark.
Day 2: The Armoury and Kitay-Gorod
Book one of the Armoury Chamber’s four fixed daily entry times for the Fabergé eggs (1,400 RUB standard, 800 RUB discounted, closed Thursdays), or walk Kitay-Gorod instead. Either way, ride Komsomolskaya and Mayakovskaya before dinner.
Day 3: The Tretyakov Gallery and Gorky Park
The Tretyakov (700 RUB, closed Mondays) holds the Rublev Trinity icon; allow half a day, then Gorky Park, free, for the afternoon.
Day 4: Novodevichy Convent and Sparrow Hills
Novodevichy Convent runs about 1,000 RUB, its separate cemetery is free, and Sparrow Hills delivers the classic Moscow State University skyline shot afterward.
Day 5: The metro as a museum, then VDNKh
Ride the circle line for Komsomolskaya’s marble and Mayakovskaya’s Art Deco steel, one 75 RUB fare, then wander VDNKh’s free grounds, paying only for the pavilions that interest you.
Day 6: Sergiev Posad, the day trip that’s actually worth doing
Trains from Yaroslavsky Station (metro: Komsomolskaya) run to Sergiev Posad roughly every 20-40 minutes, about 1h10-1h20 each way, fare in the low hundreds of rubles. This is the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, the most important monastery in Russian Orthodoxy, and everything worth seeing sits within a 10-20 minute walk of the station, no organized tour required. Book through pass.rzd.ru rather than a third-party reseller.
Is Sergiev Posad better than pushing further into the Golden Ring? For a single day trip, yes. Vladimir and Suzdal reward a full dedicated day or an overnight that a Moscow-based trip rarely budgets for; Sergiev Posad is closer, faster, and the single most historically significant stop of the group.
Before you go
Read the current US State Department and UK FCDO advisories in full before booking anything. If Lenin’s Mausoleum interests you, confirm its status separately; it’s free but open only Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 10:00-13:00, with restoration work affecting access in 2026.