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🇷🇺Things to Do in Russia
From Moscow's Red Square to St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum - the essential sights, and how to keep your own record of them.
Travel guide - last updated September 2026
Russia's most-visited sights concentrate in its two great cities - Moscow's Kremlin and Red Square, and St. Petersburg's canals and Hermitage Museum - a few hours apart by high-speed train. Beyond them, the Trans-Siberian Railway offers a completely different way to see the country's scale. Note that current travel advisories and visa processes should be checked carefully before planning any trip, as circumstances have changed significantly in recent years.
Top attractions
The sights most first-time visitors build an itinerary around.
Red Square & the Kremlin, Moscow
The historic heart of Moscow, ringed by the Kremlin's walls, Lenin's Mausoleum, and the GUM department store's ornate 19th-century arcade.
📍 Moscow
🚉 Nearest station: Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Okhotny Ryad or Teatralnaya, all a couple of minutes from the square - Moscow's metro is fast, cheap and worth riding for the stations themselves.
St. Basil's Cathedral
The colorful, onion-domed cathedral at the south end of Red Square, commissioned by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century and among the most recognizable buildings in the world.
📍 Moscow
🚉 Nearest station: Ploshchad Revolyutsii on line 3, which surfaces at the northern end of Red Square, with the cathedral at the far end.
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, housed partly in the former Winter Palace of the Russian tsars, with a collection spanning nearly 3 million items.
📍 St. Petersburg
🚉 Nearest station: Admiralteyskaya on line 5, the closest metro to Palace Square, about five minutes' walk to the Winter Palace entrance.
Trans-Siberian Railway
The longest railway line in the world, connecting Moscow to Russia's Pacific coast over roughly 9,289km - most travelers break the journey into segments with stops in cities like Yekaterinburg or Irkutsk.
📍 Moscow to Vladivostok
🚉 The railway is the journey: trains leave Moscow's Yaroslavsky station for Vladivostok, seven days away, with the Trans-Mongolian branching to Ulaanbaatar and Beijing.
Lake Baikal
The world's deepest and oldest freshwater lake, holding around a fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh water, and a common stop for those breaking up a Trans-Siberian journey.
📍 Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia
🚉 Irkutsk is the gateway, 3.5 days from Moscow on the Trans-Siberian or four hours by air; buses and minibuses run from there to Listvyanka in an hour, and ferries cross to Olkhon Island.
Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
One of the world's most historic ballet and opera companies, performing in a restored 19th-century theatre - tickets for well-known productions often need to be booked well in advance.
📍 Moscow
🚉 Nearest station: Teatralnaya on line 2, directly outside the theatre's colonnade, with Okhotny Ryad and Kuznetsky Most a similar distance.
Mark Russia, get the stamp
In MyPassportStory, every country you mark - visited, lived in, or still on the list - becomes a stamp like these in your own travel passport. Add the cities you stopped in, draw the route between them, and turn the whole trip into a shareable passport-style image.
Open MyPassportStoryPlanning questions
How many days do you need in Russia?
A week suits Moscow and St. Petersburg well, connected by a fast train. A Trans-Siberian journey is its own separate undertaking, typically requiring two to three weeks including stops.
What's the best time to visit Russia?
May-September has the mildest weather; St. Petersburg's 'White Nights' (near-continuous daylight) run roughly late May through July. Winters are very cold but Moscow and St. Petersburg both remain fully open and atmospheric.
Is Russia good for a first-time visit?
It's worth checking current travel advisories, visa processes and flight routing carefully before booking, as these have changed significantly in recent years and vary considerably by nationality.
Do I need a visa to visit Russia?
Most nationalities need a visa to enter Russia, and current application processes, costs and eligibility vary significantly by country of citizenship. Check the official visa information for your nationality: evisa.kdmid.ru.
What are some things to do in Russia on a tight budget?
Walking Red Square and St. Petersburg's canal embankments costs nothing, the Moscow Metro's ornate Soviet-era stations are effectively a free architectural tour if you're already paying the low metro fare, and Russia's overnight trains save on a night's accommodation while covering long distances.
Can I rent a car in Russia, and what licence do I need?
Before the practicalities: check your government's current travel advice for Russia, as sanctions, restricted flight routes and payment problems affect visitors far more than driving rules do - foreign bank cards do not work, so cash must be brought in. On the licence itself, Russia recognises national licences that meet the Vienna Convention standard, which most European ones do; other visitors need an International Driving Permit alongside the home licence. Minimum age is usually 23 with two years of driving experience. Moscow and St Petersburg have excellent metros and a car is a liability in both. Official rules are published by the Ministry of Transport at mintrans.gov.ru.