Getting Around

By Public Transportation

The Moscow Metro is an attraction unto itself, and well worth a visit just to view a few stations even if you have other transport. It's generally clean and efficient, with trains running every 90 seconds or so during the day. Station entrances are marked with a letter M. The Circle Line runs around the center, with nearly a dozen radial lines crossing it. Color-coded maps are posted at every station entrance and in every train car, and most are now printed in English as well as Russian. The signs in the stations directing you to platforms are in Russian, however, so it helps to know what the name of your station looks like printed in the Cyrillic alphabet. The system is slowly expanding but has not kept up with population growth. Trains are nearly always crowded, and stops are too few and far between. Opening and closing times vary from station to station but are roughly 5:30am to 1am.

Paper tickets with a magnetic strip are sold in each station, for one trip (15 rubles/60¢/30p), two trips (30 rubles/$1.20/60p), five trips (75 rubles/$3/£1.50), or 10 trips (140 rubles/$5.60/£2.80). No senior or student discounts are available. You place the ticket on the machine's front and walk on after the light changes from red to green.

Trams are second-best to the metro if there's a tram route near your hotel or destination. The stops are on the sidewalk, even where the tram tracks are in the middle of the street. Three of the best lines (A, 3, and 39) run along the picturesque Boulevard Ring before crossing the Moscow River, offering a stunning view of the Kremlin and winding toward Moscow State University and Danilovsky Monastery, among other sights. Trolley buses, attached to electrical lines overhead, are a good option for travel around the Garden Ring Road or along Novy Arbat Street. Rush hour is crowded and the timing between trolley buses is unpredictable. Buses are the least convenient and most overcrowded form of public transport.

Tickets for trams, trolley buses, and buses cost 15 rubles (60¢/30p) if bought from street ticket booths and 25 rubles ($1/50p) if purchased from the driver. You validate your ticket while entering the bus at the machine and walk through a turnstile when you see the green light. Maps are posted inside the vehicles, and routes are often listed at the stops, but in Russian only. Bus stops are marked by signs with the letter A, trolley stops with the letter T, and tram stops with the letters TP. Some stops serve all three. Waiting time can be from 5 to 40 minutes, depending on the hour and the traffic. The three forms of transportation run from 6am to midnight.

Route taxis, or marshrutky, are minivans that take up to 10 people along several routes that bigger buses don't serve. Fares vary but are generally not more than a couple of dollars (£1). The destinations are marked on the front of the van in Russian only. To get off, yell "Stop!" to the driver. The minivans are more convenient than buses, trams, or trolleys, but the drivers are often reckless and there are no seat belts.

The World Underground

The perekhod, or underground walkway, is one of those things that leaves you thinking: "Only in Russia. . . ." Soviet city planners built the walkways to allow passage across the extrawide boulevards they so favored, without disrupting aboveground traffic. Post-communism, the perekhods turned into thriving commercial centers lined with kiosks, shops, buskers, pharmacies, and cafes. They also provide shelter on blustery days or during rainstorms, and are often used as wintertime meeting places ("Meet me under Pushkin Square at 8pm"). They're invariably crowded but are often useful: for getting rubles at a currency exchange booth, for buying a cool drink or quick snack, or for finding an emergency umbrella (or shampoo, or batteries, or aspirin, or a DVD, or a bunch of wildflowers, or a fur hat . . . ). As a pedestrian, you're bound to encounter plenty of them in Moscow and St. Petersburg. When trying to cross major avenues, you may have to walk some distance to find the next perekhod, but making the extra journey is much wiser than trying to jaywalk across an eight-lane road clogged with fearless Russian drivers. The busiest perekhods are at central intersections or along major thoroughfares such as Moscow's Tverskaya Street and St. Petersburg's Nevsky Prospekt. Many also serve as auxiliary entrances to metro stations, though the thicket of kiosks sometimes makes it hard to find the metro doors. There's nothing sinister about this underground world during the day, but after the shops shut down at night, some perekhods attract drug dealers and drunken brawls. Avoid them after dark if you're alone.

By Taxi

Official taxis are hard to come by in Moscow, except at train stations and major hotels. But "gypsy" cabs are available anywhere, anytime, offering an experience that combines hitchhiking with bargaining at the bazaar. If you stand on a corner and stick out your hand to hail a taxi, the majority of cars that stop will be those of private drivers with spare time and a need for your cash. They'll ask where you're going and then propose a price, and you're free to negotiate. This is not a recommended option if you don't speak Russian or if you're traveling alone, or if you're afraid to travel in old Ladas with slack seat belts. A safer (though more expensive) bet is to order a cab through a taxi company. Some charge by the kilometer, some charge by the clock, and a few offer set rates for certain zones. Reliable options in Moscow include Moscow Taxi (online only at www.moscow-taxi.com); Moscab (tel. 495/981-0881); City Taxi (tel. 495/225-9225); and Taxi 232 (tel. 495/232-1111).

By Car

Driving your own car is generally not worth the hassle in Russia, given the arcane driving rules, greedy traffic police, and fearless Russian drivers. Car rental is still a fledgling business, with not enough competition to make rates very attractive. Much more common is renting a car with driver, either for a day, an evening, or your entire stay. This is, in fact, usually cheaper than renting a car on your own. The driver deals with the traffic police, the parking, and the gas; you just have to know where you want to go. An English-speaking driver will cost more than one who speaks Russian only. The car's make can range from an aging Volga to a gleaming new Mercedes, depending on your pocketbook.

If you do drive on your own, you need an international driving license, and you must be at least 21 years old and have at least 1 year of licensed driving experience. You also must have all the proper documents for the car and a familiarity with Russian traffic signs and rules. It is possible but not advisable to rent a car upon arrival; reserving ahead is wiser.

The following agencies rent cars with and without drivers:

AM Rent: 65 Dubininskaya Ulitsa; tel. 495/952-9658. www.amrent.ru.

Budget Rent-a-Car: Sheremetevo-2 Airport; tel. 495/578-7344. Also at Sheraton Palace, 19 1-aya Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa; tel. 495/931-9700. www.budgetrentacar.com.

Hertz: Sheremetevo-2 Airport; tel. 495/578-5646. Also 4 Chernyakovskogo Ulitsa; tel. 495/937-3274. www.hertz.com.

Moscow Rental Service: Sheremetevo-2 Airport; tel. 495/578-0919. Also 89 Krasnobogatyrskaya Ulitsa; tel. 495/975-7797. www.mosrent.ru.