Moscow recognised as one of the most interesting holiday tourist destinations

Moscow was ranked as one of the five most interesting travel destinations during the forthcoming winter holidays by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The US newspaper singled out the Russian capital for its Journey to Christmas.

This will be the fifth New Year festival. Dozens of venues and thousands of events are “a good reason to head off to this festival,” the WSJ writes.

“There are always more than enough reasons to visit Moscow. The city is beautiful in any season. The cycle of city street events Moscow Seasons serves to showcase our advantages over other tourist destinations. Its major event is the Journey to Christmas festival, well-known abroad and settled in the world calendar of events. The recently published ranking is good evidence of this,” said Natalya Sergunina, Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy and Property, commenting on the WSJ estimation.

The Wall Street Journal highly recommends the ice theatre in Novopushkinsky Garden. During the festival, there will be free admission to ice shows based on famous ballets. “In the intervals between public skating, you will be able to enjoy one-hour ice ballets that will be shown several times a day, with the participation of Russian figure skating stars,” the WSJ reports.

The article also notes the holiday theatrical programme on Tverskaya Street. “During the New Year festival, the main city street becomes pedestrian and turns into an outdoor stage, featuring singers and dancers from the Bolshoi Theatre, Stanislavsky Electrotheatre and others, with no charge.” As Ms Sergunina pointed out, there will be interesting New Year programmes at all 79 festival sites in the city’s streets and parks. Visitors will be offered the best Christmas treats and goods from 59 Russian regions and 20 countries, and also a special menu from 100 Moscow restaurants. “Tverskaya Street will become pedestrian for the first time during this winter holidays and dozens of theatres from all over Russia will put on interesting performances. For example, it will be possible to see the New Year in at one of the world’s largest ice skating rinks at VDNKh,” she said.

Other places in the WSJ ranking are New Orleans (US), Santa Fe (US), Tokyo (Japan) and Kerala state (India).