My sister and I will be Moscow for 5 days and we'e interested in hiring a good guide and driver. We'd like to spend 3 days in Moscow and 2 days in the Golden Ring area. I've looked at the past recommendations and all of them focus on St. Petersburg.

Any recommendations for guides/drivers in the Moscow area? Thanks for your help.

Fodorites - please help, I really need your advice on this. Your suggestions for Romania were great and I've found a good guide/driver for that area. Now we're struggling for car/guide is Moscow.

Please help us.

Sorry I can't provide any information about a guide for Moscow. However go to thorntreelonelyplanet.com and check out everbrite's information on the East Europe branch.

Here is her suggestions for a five day visit.

"Everbrite's personal suggestions for 5 days in Moscow would be as follows:
day 1 - Kremlin including the Amory Museum and the Diamond Fund - this is open on Monday and closed on Thursday.
day 2 - KGB Museum in the morning (this requires reservations - only place I know that offers these tours is Patriarshy Dom and then walk in Kitai Gorod and Red Square in the afternoon. Walk along Tverskaya St.
day 3 - Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery - I know it sounds weird visiting a cemetery but it is very interesting. Lots of famous people buried here and the sculptured headstones and monuments are worth seeing and then out ot the MGU campus and the sparrow hills overlook.
day 4 - Church of Christ the Savior, the Pushkin Art Museum and the Prechistenka/Ostozhenka area, walk up Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street.
day 5 - the Tretyakov Gallery and Zamoskvorechye area. Park of the Fallen Heroes and New Tretyakov Gallery

Optional additional days: one of these estates: Kolomenskoye, Ostankino, Kuskovo if the weather is nice and you want to picnic, a day trip to Sergiev Posad and Abramtsevo. If you are there on a weekend then go to Ismailovo Park metro and the crafts fairgrounds at Vernisazh.

Do a tour of the metro stations.
Take the boat ride during the week from Kievskaya Metro/Vokzal to NovoSpassky Monastery.
If you are there in the summer and enjoy classical music, check out what is performing at Kuskovo or Ostankino, both are interesting venues for performances and were Sheremetevo estates.
Check out the walks offered by Patriarchy Dom.

She also has good information for Moscow Walks.

Two days is not much time for Golden Ring. You will only have time to visit a couple of places and will not be able to go arond the ring. You will have to decide what you want to see. On one side of the ring you have Suzdal and Vladimir, Suzdal is a small ancient protected town dating back to 1024, Vladimir is an old city which has some ancient architecture. Vladimir is 178km northeast from Moscow, Suzdal is 35km north of Vladimir. On the other side of Golden Ring are Sergiev Posad and Rostov Veliky Sergiev Posad is a town built around the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius and is one of Russia's most important religious and historical landmarks, 60km north of Moscow. Rostov-Veliky is another pretty Golden Ring town. It has a magnificent kremlin and a number of monasteries, it is one of ussia's oldest towns about 220 km north of Moscow,

For furthe Golden Ring information see:
http://www.waytorussia.net/GoldenRing/GoldenRing.html

I have been working with Expresstorussia,and I can stop telling you how good they are... I have booked all my tours with them and a guide with driver during my stay in Moscow..
prices are great, great selection of tours and great reviews. there is a girl Marina, she is amasing!!!
take a look to their website.
www.expresstorussia.com

Nan,

Marc David Miller is a frequent poster here and you might search this forum using his name to see what is written in his posts.


He also has a web-site, which he doesn't advertise other than through using his e-mail address.

http://www.discoveringrussia.com/

It's worth checking out.

My husband and I used our hotel (Metropol) to arrange our tour guides for Moscow. But I suspect this was more expensive.

Be sure to book a guide to see the Kremlin with reservations for the Armoury and the separate state Diamond Fund (a MUST SEE). The collection of jewels, artistry of the jewelry work and room full of gold nuggets larger than a softball is beyond description.

Hope you and your sister have a great trip.