Moscow travel question
 

Two major questions. I am arriving DME at 1615 and planning an evening out that night. How long will immigration and commute to downtown Moscow hotel at that time of day. I am getting a free shuttle transfer, but would aero train and taxi from station to hotel be faster?

I have a free day before meeting up with group. I will have my fill of museums and churches on tour. I am looking for suggestions for a day of flea markets, walking and people watching, not expensive shopping, neighborhood.

Anyone?? Thanks for your help

Immigration is hit or miss - yesterday I landed at 15:50, passed immigration, picked my luggage and was at the train station at 16:20 (and its a 5-minute walk from the int'l arrival). Could've easily spent more than an hour on a bad day.
Train or taxi - depends on day of week and location of the hotel (downtown here is quite large). The train runs at half-hour intervals and takes you to Paveletskaja station in 40-45 minutes. The taxi? 40-60 minutes straight to your hotel during the weekend and anywhere from an hour to over two hours during the workdays.

The second question is much harder :) Flea markets? Dunno, the only one I heard of is on the outskirts and I've heard the authorities closed it. Shopping is hardly inexpensive here, even with the recent exchange rate variations.

As for walking - there are quite a few routes, especially for a warmer time of year. You can start from the University viewpoint, go down to the bank of Moscow river and head right (to the east), passing the Academy of Sciences and through the Gorky Park. Or you can walk around Victory Park (Park Pobedy) which in summer is filled with rollers and cyclists. If you're more interested in architecture than the parks, then head straight to the downtown - either within the Boulevard Ring or to the Zamoskvorechje (southern bank of the river). My personal favourite here would be a route from the Kitay-Gorod metro station through the narrow streets down to the Stalin-era skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya, then after crossing the Yauza - V.Radishevskaya towards the Taganskaya metro station. Especially great on a weekend as most part of tihs area is filled with offices. Be sure to take a map :)

I used to have to visit a company out near Rechnoy Voksal (station at end of the green metro line).

There was a market of sorts, but it was rubbish. I certainly wouldn't bother going out there for it.

The train, to me, is much less hassle than a taxi, but opinions may differ.

For just pure tourist trinkets and such head to the Okhotny Rad side of Red Square. Lots of stuff there if you're interested in matroiskee, hats, pins, etc.

1615 is roughly around the time when the BA 747 arrives from London, along with UN and TG from BKK ( all large planes). While British Airways won't be full, the flights arriving from Bangkok create long lines, bringing loads of Russians back to reality.

I usually Aeroexpress and call for a cab from the train.

Also LH from FRA. However, travelling on a Sunday as I did the last two times, it wasn't very full. I was through immigration that quickly that I had to wait a few minutes for my luggage. I stopped off to buy a SIM card before catching the AeroExpress, then walked dragging two bags to my hotel (new Mercure Paveletsky in Bakrushina St, same shared building as new Adagio apartments and Ibis) and was still there by 18:30.

Due to the never-ending excavations in Paveletsky Ploshchad, (why?) it still takes about 20 minutes to walk to the hotel, taking a detour right to the river to get an underpass across the street, then back along.

By the way, there is an Aeroexpress ticket machine in the international baggage collection area now (which I don't recall seeing before) so you can make use of your waiting time by buying a ticket.

Before the 2008 crisis the construction started there as an underground shopping mall (like the one on Manejnaja Square). Then came the crisis, the works stopped, the developer went bankrupt and the site was idle for a few years. I don't know the exact state of the project today, but there was an idea to build a underground car park there instead.

There appeared to be people working in there last week, but the point is that Google maps or hotel directions don't take this into account and advise you to walk straight across, which is not likely to be possible for a year or two yet.

Thanks all. Staying at Aquamarine(no choice with tour but seems ok). Decided to do free car transfer. Meeting up with Olga of explorussia for the the evening for dinner and walkabout. Then full day with her for "interesting" new and trendy areas to people watch. I will be museum and church out with tour so I thought this would be fun. I'll let all know how it goes. I know most of flyer talk are business travelers but an occasional pro tourists needs to post too!

I've stayed at the Aquamarine before, a couple of years ago when it was still fairly new. Very nice hotel, best mojito in Moscow (and they do like their mojitos in Moscow).

You can walk there from Paveletsky but it's a good 20 minute hike. I don't think they had a free car transfer then but I'd definitely have taken it rather than dragging my bag through slush for 20 minutes!

With it being new at the time, no taxis or private cars knew where it was and I didn't know how to tell them. Also one night we tried to go there by private car from the Derbenevskaya business area between Paveletskiy and the river and traffic was so bad that I got out and walked.