Many hotel chains familiar to U.S. travelers offer safe lodging and Western-style breakfast foods and services. Check with your travel agent for information or consult the Moscow city Web site. You gotta hand it to the communists, they can stuff a comrade and keep him smelling good. Preserved since 1924 by perpetually circulating embalming fluids flowing from an underground laboratory, Lenin's corpse has more of a wax-museum feel than of reverence. Bargain with vendors.
Public rooms are free.
Inside the walls of Kremlin, easily accessed from Red Square, is the Russian State Armory, which houses a remarkable collection of ceremonial golden carriages used by Catherine the Great, her coronation dress and the majority of her jewels and regalia. Highlights of the displays include Faberge eggs, crowns and uncut Russian diamonds. The museum is closed Thursdays. Cost of a ticket is a little more than a U.S. dollar. The palace never materialized, but a heated communal swimming pool covered the area until the rebuilding.