Plan the Kremlin museums around their Thursday closure

Hotel Metropol, steps from the Bolshoi Theatre, is one of Moscow's first Art Nouveau buildings and a landmark stay in itself. It was commissioned by the patron Savva Mamontov, designed by William Walcot, Lev Kekushev and Vladimir Shukhov, and decorated with panels by Mikhail Vrubel. If you do not sleep there, book a…

Museum Night is an annual city-wide evening in mid-May when museums, galleries and estates stay open late with concerts, lectures and tours. Many venues are free or discounted, and free tickets for many sites are booked through bilet.mos.ru, with some events needing registration. Crowds are heavy, so choose three or…

In the third week of every month, many city museums let visitors in free on a day assigned to each museum. Choose the museum on the city's schedule, log in with Mos ID and book a free e-ticket through the Mosbilet service. Free tickets are limited, so book as early as the booking window opens. If online tickets run…

The Moscow Conservatory on Bolshaya Nikitskaya still runs its concert halls: the Great Hall, which opened in 1901, the Small Hall from 1898 and the Rachmaninov Hall. A statue of Tchaikovsky stands in front of the Great Hall. Pick a concert on the conservatory's own site and buy there or at the box office inside the…

The Igor Butman Jazz Club, in the Taganka Theatre building on Verkhnyaya Radishchevskaya, is Moscow's best-known jazz room and programs concerts in the evening. Early shows start around seven, and late night concerts at ten usually include a cocktail in the ticket. Tables can be booked every afternoon until the…

The Vernisazh market wraps around the wooden Izmailovo Kremlin, a modern complex rather than a historic fortress. The first rows sell tourist souvenirs; walk through them and head to the second tier, where antiques and Soviet curiosities are on sale only at weekends. Go early on a Saturday or Sunday, ask whether a fur…

The viewing platform on Sparrow Hills is free and open around the clock, high above the Moskva River. Take the metro to Vorobyovy Gory and ride the free Escalator Gallery up the slope. Luzhniki Stadium sits opposite, with the Moscow City towers and several Stalin-era skyscrapers across the river, and the Kremlin on a…

Many foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard cards do not work in Russia, and most ATMs refuse them, so plan to rely on cash. Shops, cafes and transit take only rubles. Exchange dollars or euros at an official bureau or bank in the city and skip airport counters and street changers. UnionPay cards are the foreign type most…