Moscow, Russia

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Why go now?

Moscow's gloriously warm summer is ideal for appreciating the astonishing scale and profound culture of Europe's biggest city. The rapidly growing Russian capital also has a wide range of classy new places to eat, drink and make merry. Night owls can fill their 48 hours here with pleasure-packed activities – no licensing hours and few opening times stand in your way.

Touch Down

The smart reason to fly non-stop from Heathrow on British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com), BMI (0870 607 0555; www.fly bmi.com) or Trans-Aero (020-7436 6767; www.trans aero.com) is that these flights touch down at the super-efficient Domodedovo airport. Domodedovo has its own railway station (located outside domestic arrivals) for the AeroExpress to Paveletsky station (1), where you can connect with the Metro. Tickets cost 150 roubles (£3) for the direct 45-minute trip. The train runs hourly, on the hour.

Unfortunate souls pitch up at Moscow's Soviet-era Sheremetevo, on Aeroflot or connections with airlines such as Lufthansa and Austrian. Built for a USSR in which private individuals never left, there is still no fast transport to town – your 50 roubles (£1) will buy a ticket on a beaten-up bus (851C, from a stop outside the terminal) which runs to Rechnoi Vokzal station.

Get Your Bearings

Like most medieval cities, Moscow grew organically around a walled citadel at its centre – the Kremlin. The area around Arbat (2) (and its grim Sixties counterpart, New Arbat) has come full-circle from Eighties tourist-trap to chic pavement-café boulevard. Head northwards and you wander into the upscale mansions and lovely shops around Patriarch's Ponds (3), a hallowed spot for readers of Bulgakov's cult novel, The Master and Margarita. The city's skyline was long dominated by the "seven sisters" – seven Stalin-baroque skyscrapers now outdone in vulgarity by higher and more recent edifices – but low-rise areas still remain even in the centre of the city.

The Moscow Metro confounds every Russian expectation by being fast, cheap, fiercely efficient, and an eye-dazzling attraction in its own right. Single rides cost 17 roubles (£0.35), 10- or 20-ride magnetic touch-and-go cards save queuing and money. The Metro runs until 1am – if you miss that, flagging a 500 roubles (£10) minicab will get you even to the most far-flung of hotels.

Check In

Russian oligarchs are among the few who won't faint at the room rates of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (4) at 3-5 Tverskaya St (007 495 225 8888; www.ritz carlton.com), which opened this month. A double without breakfast costs from 15,930 roubles (£310), reflecting the fact that Moscow has the highest hotel prices in the world.

Style, comfort and location are available uncompromised for those without a king to ransom at the Golden Apple Hotel (5) at 11 Malaya Dmitrovka (007 495 980 7000; www.goldenapple.ru), which can be found discounted online for around £250 including breakfast.

Although Moscow is still painfully short of three-star accommodation, spending around £80 on an internet booking should see you into a room at the renovated Zarya Hotel (6), at 4-9 Gostinichnaya St (007 214 748 3647; www.moscow zaryahotel.com), six Metro stops from the centre. Just down the street is the leader of the hostel pack – Godzilla's (www.godzillas hostel.com) (7) – which offers dorm beds from around 700 roubles (£14).

Take A Hike

Start at the Kremlin. The moat around Moscow's ancient citadel was drained in the 19th century as it had become silted-up and foul-smelling. Tsar Alexander II turned it into the Gardens (8) that now bear his name. Exit via the pedestrian subway adjacent to the "three horses" fountain (9) (avoiding being lured into the subterranean shopping centre), and you surface at one end of Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street (10), one of 19th-century Moscow's most fashionable thorough-fares. Ten minutes' uphill walk brings you to the Moscow Conservatoire (11), home to the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition (named after the composer whose statue is in front of the building), not to mention three sizeable concert-halls. Coffee and pastries at Kafemania adjacent to the Conservatoire may tempt you to make a brief pause on your hike.

Pressing on up the street you reach a major intersection; turn left, but note the church across the street, the Cathedral at Nikitsky Gates (12). Russia's great poet Pushkin was married at its altar – an event worthy of a better memorial than the tawdry statue that stands here.

Turn left onto Nikitsky Boulevard, which has a tree-line pedestrian boulevard down its centre. The road further down disappears into a tunnel, so use the pedestrian underpass (13) to cross Novy Arbat. A number of diversions can be found when you exit the underpass – Arbat Street's (2) multiple souvenir-stalls, pavement cafes and buskers veer off to the right. You should continue along the boulevard, noting the statue of Gogol (14) (who wrote Dead Souls) where the boulevard recommences. Put on a spurt now downhill to Kropotkinskaya Metro Station (15) – an excellent example of Soviet Suprematist architecture, both inside and out – and then find your way to the the Church of Christ the Saviour (16).

If you still have the energy, take a final leg along Ostozhenka (17), the "Mayfair" of Moscow's Monopoly board.

Lunch On The Run

The midday meal in Russia is still called obied (dinner), no trifling matter. The way around its leisurely pace and extensive portions is to go self-service – Moo-Moo (identified by the plastic cows outside) is a trattoria-style lunch for pocket-money prices, the food your Russian babushka would have fed you. Of the several branches, the one on Arbat (2) at number 45 is handy.

Window Shopping

The souvenir stalls on Arbat cajole a purchase from even the most dedicated detractors of tourist tat. Even if you don't want one yourself, someone you know will certainly be expecting you to bring back a Russian stacking doll, and at least Arbat Street lets you complete this mission painlessly and cheaply; haggle at least one-fifth off the opening price.

Take A View

Dress tidily for the best view in Moscow, as it's the cocktail bar of a five-star hotel. Swissotel Krasnye Holmy (18) at Building 6, 52 Kosmodamianskaya Nab, is a 10-minute walk from Paveletsky Metro (1), and is part of the new complex of buildings that houses the extravagant new concert-hall Dom Muzyky. Take the hotel's elevator to the top floor, and then walk up one further flight of stairs. If the startling view over Moscow leaves your head spinning, you're in the perfect place to order a stiff drink.

An Aperitif

Start your newfound resolve to learn more about all those Russian authors by elbowing your way through a crowd of arty types to a bar named after one: Gogol (19) at Maroseika 15 (007 495 623 1248).

Take A Ride

Instead of spending your evening in a traffic jam on the way to the restaurant, have your meal ride along with you. Go to Chistye Prudy Metro (20) and take the exit iconically marked "for the trams". Ignore the numbered trams, and instead ride the Annushka (numbered A). Moscow's only café tram comes around every 20 to 25 minutes in the evenings. You won't get far, as the route just takes you around Chistye Prudy ("Clean Ponds", a long, thin park), and the menu is mostly Russian comfort-eating favourites at surprisingly low prices.

Dining With The Locals

The best fish in Moscow is at Filimova & Yankel's Fishhouse (21), Tverskaya 23, (007 495 223 0707; www.fishhouse.ru), adjacent to the Stanislavsky Theatre (Metro Tverskaya). Yankel even gives iconoclastic master-classes in fish cuisine. Try the mixed seafood grill for 550 roubles, (£10.50), which is superb, despite the Russian capital's distance from the sea. Average bill £25pp.

Sunday Morning: Go To Church

The cathedrals in the Moscow Kremlin are now reconsecrated, but they almost never hold any services. Head instead to Metro station Fili, and to the Cathedral at Fili (22) – an elaborate 18th-century edifice. On Sundays you can go upstairs into the main church (on weekdays usually only the smaller chapel downstairs is open). Moscow's fate was sealed here when General Kutuzov took the decision to sacrifice the city to save St Petersburg from Napoleon in 1812.

A Walk In The Park

Moscow does parks extraordinarily badly, but when it does them at all, the city ensures that food and drink are to the fore. Gorky Park (23) – or to give its official name, the Central Park Of Culture and Relaxation Named After Maxim Gorky – has no sinister KGB connections, and Muscovites are amazed that their year-round venue for fairground rides and ice-skating is believed by foreigners to be some kind of meeting place for spies. The only spooks you'll find, however, are in the Haunted House. Where the " culture" comes in isn't entirely clear, but you can visit the Buran (24) (the abandoned Soviet space-shuttle) which is parked here, too.

Out To Brunch

The authentic alternative to the plethora of Grand-Hotel Sunday brunch offerings is also one-tenth of the price: Russian blini (pancakes) and syrniki (cheesecakes), with lashings of jam and sour cream, and mugs of black tea. Babushkiny Blini (25) ("Gran's Pancakes") is a tiny no-frills cafe at Leninsky Prospekt 4a (metro Oktyabrskaya) (007 495 236 1866).

Cultural Afternoon

"Above the Russian people is the Kremlin, and above the Kremlin there is only God" goes the Russian saying. Culture is a religion in Russia, and the high altar is the Kremlin itself. As well as being the seat of government, and a medieval fortress, the "white-walled Mother of us all" is also a fully fledged musuem complex. Five major medieval cathedrals, and numerous smaller chapels, contain a treasure-trove of ancient ecclesiastical art – in a country that never had a Renaissance in which society broke away from the church. The Kremlin opens daily except Thursday, 10am-5pm; admission 300 roubles (£5.80) (007 495 202 3776; www.kremlin. museum.ru).

Icing On The Cake

Treat yourself to the finest ballet in the world at the Bolshoi Ballet, at the Bolshoi Theatre (26) at Teatralnaya ploschad 2 (007 495 292 9270; www.bolshoi.ru). This has been a Moscow tradition since 1825, when the theatre was opened – by an Englishman. Performances continue on the adjacent, handsome New Stage, despite rebuilding work on the old one next door.