Exclusive Moscow Experiences: Bolshoi Theatre, GUM & Sanduny Baths
Moscow's best experiences tend to be the ones the city has been perfecting for well over a century — an opera house that has never stopped performing, a department store built as a 19th-century architectural statement, and a bathhouse where Pushkin and Chekhov once sat exactly where today's guests do.
A Night at the Bolshoi Theatre
Founded in 1776 and rebuilt several times since, the Bolshoi Theatre remains one of the world's great opera and ballet houses, its gold-and-red auditorium restored to full grandeur after a major renovation completed in 2011. A performance here pairs naturally with dinner at one of the restaurants in our restaurants guide, several of which sit within a short drive of the theatre itself.
Shopping at GUM
Facing the Kremlin across Red Square, GUM's 19th-century glass-roofed arcades house luxury boutiques beneath one of the most architecturally significant shopping environments in Europe — a department store that functions as much as a landmark to walk through as a place to buy anything.
Sanduny Baths
Open since 1808 and named for its founder, the actor Sila Sandunov, Sanduny is the oldest public banya in Russia, its Beaux-Arts building on Neglinnaya Street standing a short walk from the Bolshoi. The Roman-style pool in its top-tier men's section appeared in Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, and its themed private rooms have hosted everyone from Pushkin and Tolstoy to generations of Moscow's business and cultural elite. It remains the definitive luxury banya experience in the country.
Moskva River Cruises
A cruise along the Moskva River offers a different vantage point on the city entirely — the Kremlin's walls, the towers of Moscow City covered in our areas guide, and the historic embankments all visible from the water on a single, unhurried route through the centre of the city.
Planning Around the Season
The Bolshoi's main season runs from September through July, with the theatre typically dark for part of the summer. River cruises and outdoor sightseeing are best planned for the warmer months between May and September, while Sanduny Baths operate as a year-round experience, arguably at their most appealing in the depths of winter.
