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How to get to Suzdal from Moscow

If you are ever in Moscow, you should look at The Golden Ring , a ring of towns and cities north east of Moscow which played an important part in the formation of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. The towns themselves are almost like museums and none more so than the jewel of the Golden Ring, Suzdal . You have to visit this town if you are in Moscow and I will tell you exactly how to get to Suzdal from Moscow.

You can do this in a return day trip to Moscow, just, but I recommend staying the night in Suzdal. That will give you the afternoon on the 1st day and the morning and early afternoon on the 2nd day to explore which should be enough time. You can get a bus from Moscow to Suzdal. However, there is only one bus a day and it is not very comfortable. A better option is to get a train to the nearby city of Vladimir and from there get a bus to Suzdal. There are multiple trains every day from Moscow and buses are almost every 30 minutes so you will not have to wait long in Vladimir.

Getting the train to Vladimir

Go to the state run website for Russian railways . In the departure station, click (or type) ‘MOSKVA’, in the arrival station type ‘VLADIMIR”, select your departure date (and return if you will go back to Moscow the next day) and click on the buy ticket button. You will have multiple trains to choose from. The fastest trains do the journey in about 1 hour 45 minutes. Be sure to check which of the Moscow train stations your train will depart from. More than likely this will be Mockva Kurskaia. Whichever station it is, you can get there very easily by using the metro .

How to get to Suzdal from Moscow? By train of course

Looking out train window

Getting Bus from Vladimir to Suzdal

When you arrive at the train station, follow everyone else that is leaving the train station. When you get outside, if you look across the street, you will see the bus station. The facilities in the bus and train station are pretty basic. the train station is a little better so if you want a coffee or something to eat, I would get it there.

In the bus station go to the ticket office and get a single ticket to Suzdal. Something like “odin billet Suzdal” should be enough to be understood. The ticket costs 98.50 rubles so its easier to have a 100 ruble note to get change from.

At the exit of the train station, the bus station is directly across the road

Bus timetables

And more timetables

My ticket to Suzdal is bus number 159, platform 10 at 12:00 and seat number 6.

Bus ticket to Sudal

When you have your ticket, go outside to the platform listed on the ticket and wait for the bus. Simple really!

Not the actual bus in the end. The bus was more of a minivan.

Staying the night in Suzdal

There are a lot of accommodation options available in Suzdal. The place i stayed is Suzdal Hotel . It is actually a house and they have a few rooms available. The breakfast that is included is very very good. Trust me on this. They will even collect you from the bus station in Suzdal and bring you back the next day.

View out my bedroom window

Returning to Vladimir (and Moscow)

To return to Vladimir, just repeat these steps in the opposite direction – return to the bus station in Suzdal, buy a ticket to Vladimir and continue your onward journey in Russia. Simples! 😉

Train to Nizhny Novgorod

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22 comments.

Melissa Butler

I went to Suzdal over 13years ago for Christmas, I was on an on the go tour and they organised the train for us which was a very interesting journey. I would love to go back and explore longer. I am definitely impressed that you have done it on your own and it sounds like you had a bit of an adventure :).

Hi Melissa, it certainly was an adventure that’s for sure! Though sometimes, there is something to be said for letting other people take care of things for you and getting to relax and not be too stressed.

Sandy N Vyjay

Moscow is a place with an intriguing and enigmatic history. Suzdal seems to be a charming place with a rich heritage. As you have mentioned it seems to be a living museum of sorts. Nice step by step instruction on getting to Suzdal from Moscow. This is indeed an invaluable resource for first-time travelers to Russia.

Thank you very much for your kind words. I hope some people find it useful!

Thanks for recommending the Suzdal Hotel, since I prefer to stay in small cozy places with good breakfast. And the service of taking the guests from and to the bus station in Suzdal is a great plus!

Yeah I agree. I would rather stay in a family type place than a bigger place too!

I have never heard of this town and it sounds like a great place to visit if you are already in Moscow. Your instructions are very helpful and I like how you put a photo of the ticket.

You’re welcome Candy. If you don’t speak the language, Russia can be difficult to get around.

Michael Hodgson

Fantastic detail and extremely useful post for anyone wanting to explore outside of Moscow. Suzdal does sound fascinating.

Thanks Michael!

This seems like quite an experience! I am surprised that I haven’t heard of Suzdal before but as soon as I go to Moscow, I will have to do a day trip to there. Is a day trip enough to explore Suzdal?

Hey Lydia, you certainly can! If you go early enough in the day to Vladimir, you can probably get 6-7 hours in Suzdal.

This is a great post with quite a few good details. Pics looks so amazing. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed!

Wow, you are adventurous! I spent years upon years in Russia and never made it to Suzdal. Never realized Vladimir was less than 2 hrs away from Moscow.

Thanks Jenia. Russia is a huge place. You could live there your entire life and not see it all!

Thanks for the instructions. If I ever want to visit Suzdal I now know how to get there from Moscow via Vladimir.

You’re welcome!

Lauren Pears

Suzdal sounds really lovely! I need to travel to more places where there will be snow rather than just constantly chasing the sun 😉

I know what you mean! After 4 months of winter in Russia though, I was craving the sun so much!

I had never heard of Suzdal until now. Thank you for introducing me to a new place. It looks so calm and quiet under the snow. What are some things to do in Suzdal?

I think it is the sort of place you go to get away from the craziness of big cities and have some slower, quiet time. If my memory is correct, they also have a cucumber festival once a year every July. Apparently the cucumbers of the area are very good!

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Putin issues his truce demands. Ukraine calls them ‘absurd’

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Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Friday to “immediately” order a cease-fire in Ukraine and begin negotiations if Kyiv started withdrawing troops from the four regions annexed by Moscow in 2022 and renounced plans to join NATO. Ukraine called Putin’s proposal “absurd.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected what he called an ultimatum by Putin to surrender more territory.

Putin’s remarks came as Switzerland prepared to host scores of world leaders — but not from Moscow — this weekend to try to map out first steps toward peace in Ukraine.

They also coincided with a meeting of leaders of the Group of 7 leading industrialized nations in Italy, where the U.S. and Ukraine signed a 10-year security agreement that Russian officials, including Putin, denounced as “null and void.”

Putin dismissed the Switzerland conference as “just another ploy to divert everyone’s attention, reverse the cause and effect of the Ukrainian crisis [and] set the discussion on the wrong track.”

His demands came in a speech at the Russian Foreign Ministry and were aimed at what he called a “final resolution” of the conflict rather than “freezing it,” and he stressed that the Kremlin is “ready to start negotiations without delay.”

Broader demands for peace that Putin listed included Ukraine’s recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, keeping Ukraine’s nonnuclear status, restricting its military force and protecting the interests of the Russian-speaking population. All of these should become part of “fundamental international agreements,” and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted, Putin said.

“We’re urging to turn this tragic page of history and to begin restoring, step by step, the unity between Russia and Ukraine and in Europe in general,” he said.

Putin’s remarks, made to a group of Foreign Ministry officials and some senior lawmakers, represented a rare occasion in which he laid out his conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, but it didn’t include any new demands. The Kremlin has said before that Kyiv should recognize its territorial gains and drop its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

World & Nation

Zelensky to Europe: A Russian victory in Ukraine would lead to the unthinkable

Ukrainian President Zelensky is all over Europe, including at the G-7. His message? Ukraine’s war with Russia and Putin is Europe’s fight, too.

June 13, 2024

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called Putin’s plan “manipulative,” “absurd” and designed to “mislead the international community, undermine diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving a just peace, and split the unity of the world majority around the goals and principles of the U.N. Charter.”

Besides seeking to join NATO, Ukraine wants Russian forces out of its territory, including the Crimean peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed in 2014; the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity; and demands that Russia be held accountable for alleged war crimes and for it to pay reparations to Kyiv.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After Ukrainian forces thwarted a Russian drive to Kyiv, much of the fighting has focused in the south and east — where Russia illegally annexed four more regions, although it doesn’t fully control any of them.

Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on social media that there was nothing new in Putin’s proposal and that the Russian leader “voiced only the ‘standard aggressor’s set,’ which has been heard many times already.”

Biden and Zelensky sign security deal as Ukraine’s leader questions how long unity will last

Biden and Zelensky sign deal on G-7 sidelines. The U.S. and European countries agree to freeze Russia’s sanctioned Russian assets until it pays Ukraine war reparations.

“There is no novelty in this, no real peace proposals and no desire to end the war. But there is a desire not to pay for this war and to continue it in new formats. It’s all a complete sham,” Podolyak wrote on X.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Putin “has illegally occupied sovereign Ukrainian territory. He is not in any position to dictate to Ukraine what they must do to bring about a peace.”

Austin added that Putin “started this war with no provocation. He could end it today if he chose to do that.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg added that “this is not a peace proposal. This is a proposal of more aggression, more occupation, and it demonstrates in a way that that Russia’s aim is to control Ukraine.”

Putin insisted that Kyiv should withdraw from all four of the most recently annexed regions entirely and essentially cede them to Moscow within their administrative borders. In Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, Russia still doesn’t control the region’s administrative capital, which had a prewar population of about 700,000; in the neighboring Kherson region , Moscow withdrew from its biggest city and capital of the same name in November 2022.

Putin said that if “Kyiv and Western capitals” reject his offer, “it is their business, their political and moral responsibility for continuing the bloodshed.”

The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed its readiness for peace talks with Kyiv and blamed the West for undermining its efforts to end the conflict.

Putin went further Friday and said his troops never intended to storm Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, even though they approached the city.

“In essence, it was nothing other than an operation to force the Ukrainian regime to peace. The troops were there to push the Ukrainian side to negotiate, to try and find an acceptable solution,” he said.

Moscow withdrew from Kyiv in March 2022 and described it as a goodwill gesture as peace talks between the two began, but the pullback took place amid fierce Ukrainian resistance that significantly slowed down Russia’s battlefield advances.

Putin also claimed that in that same month, he told a foreign official he wasn’t ruling out withdrawing forces from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and ceding occupied parts of them back to Ukraine, as long as Kyiv allowed Russia to have a “strong land connection” to Crimea.

He said the official planned on bringing that proposal to Kyiv — which Moscow “welcomed,” as it generally welcomed “attempts to find a peaceful resolution of the conflict.” But the Kremlin then annexed both regions, along with the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, citing the results of sham “referendums” it staged there. Putin mentioned those and said: “The matter is closed forever and is no longer up for discussion.”

In Friday’s fighting, Russian defenses shot down 87 Ukrainian drones, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said, most of them launched against the Rostov region, home to Russia’s southern military command, but no deaths or damage were reported in one of the biggest Ukrainian drone barrages of the war.

In Russia’s Belgorod region on the border, part of a residential building collapsed in the town of Shebekino after Ukrainian shelling, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Three people were injured, he said.

Ukraine’s military has been on the back foot in recent months, with its troops outnumbered by the Kremlin’s forces and running short of ammunition and weaponry due to delays in promised Western military aid.

Russia has battered Ukraine with drones, especially its power grid. It fired 14 missiles and 17 Shahed drones overnight, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defense systems downed all the drones as well as seven missiles, it said. The attacks injured six people in the Donetsk region, where residential buildings were hit, officials said. A Russian drone struck a bus near the village of Esman in the northern Sumy region, injuring three women. Authorities say 20 passengers were in the bus at the time.

Also Friday, Russia returned the bodies of 254 Ukrainian soldiers to Ukraine, Kyiv said. Once identified, the bodies will be returned to relatives, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Litvinova writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia; Samya Kullab and Illia Novikov in Kyiv; Lorne Cook in Brussels and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report .

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