Russia

Cost of living

What a month costs

Moscow is cheap in roubles and expensive in practice. The local basket runs about 66,000 roubles a month for one person and 237,000 for a family of four before rent, but that assumes Russian supermarkets and the metro. International school is the line that dominates a foreign family's budget: the British International School's published 2026/27 fees run from about 16,600 to 37,500 euros per child per year, and the other international schools sit higher again. Rents actually fell about four percent over the first half of 2026. And a foreign-issued Visa or Mastercard buys nothing here, so the first weeks run on cash and a locally issued Mir card.

The scores

How it rates for a moving family

See and do

Top 10 in Moscow

1. Red SquareSt Basil's, the Kremlin wall, the mausoleum and GUM's glass arcades on one cobbled rectangle.
2. The Kremlin and the Armoury ChamberCathedral Square inside the walls, and a treasury of coronation regalia, thrones and Faberge eggs.
3. State Tretyakov GalleryA thousand years of Russian art in Lavrushinsky Lane; the twentieth century sits in the separate building on Krymsky Val.
4. Pushkin Museum of Fine ArtsAntiquities downstairs and one of the strongest Impressionist and post-Impressionist collections anywhere.
5. The Bolshoi TheatreOpera and ballet in a gilded 1856 hall; main-stage tickets go months in advance.
6. Zaryadye ParkA landscaped park beside Red Square with a cantilevered bridge hanging out over the Moskva.
7. The metro's ring lineMayakovskaya, Komsomolskaya and Novoslobodskaya are mosaic-and-chandelier palaces that happen to move trains.
8. VDNKhA vast Soviet exhibition park of golden fountains and national pavilions, with the cosmonautics museum at the gate.
9. Novodevichy ConventA UNESCO-listed walled convent by a pond, beside the cemetery where much of Russian public life is buried.
10. Gorky Park and MuzeonThe riverside promenade, the sculpture park of deposed Soviet monuments and the Garage museum of contemporary art.

Where to go

Weekend escapes

1. Sergiev PosadThe Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, the spiritual centre of Russian Orthodoxy, about ninety minutes north by suburban train from Yaroslavsky station.
2. Vladimir and SuzdalThe fast train reaches Vladimir in an hour and forty minutes and Suzdal is another half hour on: white-stone churches, no industry, and the one trip here that deserves an overnight.
3. Tula and Yasnaya PolyanaA restored kremlin and a rebuilt riverfront a little over two hours south, with Tolstoy's estate kept as he left it fourteen kilometres further out.
4. KolomnaA brick kremlin, a walkable old quarter and the revived pastila workshops, two hours southeast and comfortably a day trip.
5. Pereslavl-ZalesskyA Golden Ring town on Lake Pleshcheyevo about two and a half hours north; there is no direct train, so this one needs a car.

Coffee

Best cafes

1. Kooperativ ChernyyLyalin Lane. Running since 2013, it is the reference point of Moscow's specialty scene and puts the coffee ahead of the interior.
2. Rockets Coffee RoastersAn in-house roastery going since 2012 whose beans supply half the city; the Valovaya bar does both classic espresso and seasonal drinks.
3. Skuratov CoffeeAn Omsk roaster with a dozen-odd Moscow sites, a long filter menu and, unusually here, doors open from seven in the morning.

Restaurants

Where to eat

1. White RabbitVladimir Mukhin's glass-domed room on the sixteenth floor above Smolenskaya square, doing modern Russian cooking with the city laid out beneath it.
2. Twins GardenThe Berezutsky brothers grow about seventy percent of what they serve on their own farm; the tasting menu on Strastnoy boulevard is the most ambitious cooking in the country.
3. SakhalinSeafood and a raw bar built on Far Eastern crab, near the top of one of the Moscow City towers with the view to match.
4. SavvaAndrey Shmakov's dining room inside the Metropol, precise modern Russian food in a room of proper hotel grandeur. The safe choice for a business dinner.
5. Cafe PushkinOpen since 1999 in a purpose-built pastiche of a nobleman's house: the pharmacy room downstairs for lunch, the library upstairs for dinner, borscht ordered without irony.

Morning

Best breakfast

1. Uilliam'sA small open-kitchen room on Malaya Bronnaya serving breakfast until four in the afternoon, and still worth the Saturday queue.
2. CoffeemaniaTwenty-odd sites with their own roastery, breakfast until noon and no reservation needed. The city's default weekday morning meeting room.