American traveling to Moscow??

[BaronOB]

Originally Posted by azoria

Rooms are expensive in Moscow. Russian visas are expensive. Moscow is expensive. Plan on spending some hefty bucks.

Cops are expensive too, you must bribe police for nothing otherwise they will catch you and throw to jail.

[Vikingen]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Sov citizens were self-conscious about anything old, thinking it was a sign of their backwardness. If a tourist wanted to take a photo of anything old and historic (a train buff taking a photo of an old steam engine, say), some citizen would stop him, thinking the foreigners were deliberately taking photos that were derogatory. That's what underlies a lot of that "photos not allowed" stuff. Nowadays people don't notice much, or care.

Oh yes, I once took a picture in Leningrad (before Glasnost) of a line of people trying to buy a few strawberries in front of a kiosk. The people really did not like that at all.

Russia is one of the few places I am happy that I`m never going back to.

[Josef K.]

Originally Posted by BaronOB

A traveling to Moscow is a bad idea, you have to pay $500 a night in Hotel, suffer the terrible traffic and probably to became a victim of violent crime.The police will not help you because it works with gangsters together.Everything is extremely expensive in Moscow, there are neither laws nor uncorrupted cops nor laughing people. Stay better home or travel to Estonia or Poland, Russia is an extremely dangerously lawless country a traveling to which sometimes looks like the suicide commitment.

I lived in Moscow for 7 years and never became a victim of violent crime. Follow the normal big city safety rules and you'll be fine.

The only thing I agree with is that Moscow is expensive.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by BaronOB

A traveling to Moscow is a bad idea, you have to pay $500 a night in Hotel,

You'll have to pay that for a hotel and not even have hot water! (if you go in summer)

[azoria]

^^^
Moscow hotels will have their own boilers. Plenty of buildings do. Especially commercial buildings.

[CountryCarr]

I think I just might take vacation closer to home. While I would like to experience a "Russian" city, all I have read and heard is that the places are not very tourist or non-Russian friendly, no matter what great history and museums they might have.. I have heard about the corruption, expense, and the potential problems of being a tourist there and unfortunately Russia is not yet in the catagory of a great tourist destination, maybe it will never be, at least in my lifetime....

[PromisedPeace]

Have ready some necessary words and phrases translated with you too.