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The Complete Guide to Charter Bus Tours

Mar 22, 2024 | Travel

Going on a vacation is supposed to be relaxing, but the experience is stressful for many travelers. But you don’t have to deal with many of the hassles of travel just to get away for a while. A charter bus tour is an excellent way to see the sights without the struggles. At Sunshine Tours , we’re passionate about this form of travel, and we’d love to tell you a little about what makes it special.

Benefits of Choosing a Charter Bus Tour

When you decide to take a charter bus tour, you’ll quickly find that the experience differs from any other trip you’ve taken. On this trip, you sit back and relax as your tour director takes care of all the details. Everything about a charter bus tour is set up for your comfort and convenience. Here are some of the benefits:

• A seamless experience – The experts arrange the trip, so you know you are getting an insider’s input on the best places to visit.
• A comfortable ride – The seats are luxe, the windows are wide, and the coach is air-conditioned. On top of that, there’s a restroom on board, so you don’t have to duck into gas station bathrooms along the way.
• Plenty of seats – If you have a large group, you can reserve seats for everyone and comfortably travel together.
• Don’t worry about driving – Sit back and relax and let your driver navigate the traffic.

Features of Sunshine Tours charter bus tours

Sunshine Tours excels at creating charter bus tours to delight every kind of traveler. We have something for you whether you’re interested in a day trip or two weeks of adventures. These are just a few of the tours we offer that you may consider.

• Sightseeing – See the best spots and let your tour director arrange all the details, such as hotel accommodations. We have trips to places such as the wide-open spaces of Texas or a tour that takes in the southern charm of Charleston, Savannah, and Jekyll Island. You’ll be able to take in the sights at a relaxed pace as we ensure you get where you need to go.
• Group Tours – If you want to take a trip with a large group of friends, colleagues, or family members, booking a group tour is a stress-free way to create a shared experience that everyone can enjoy. We will handle hassles such as reservations and payments so you can spend time with your group and explore new places.
• Shopping – Travel to an exciting shopping destination, such as New York, where you can indulge in world-class retail outlets and a Broadway show. Or you can opt for a trip that combines shopping with beautiful scenery, such as a tour of the mountains of North Carolina.

No matter what tour you select, we will go out of our way to ensure you have an enjoyable, fun, and relaxing trip. You’ll find comforts that make the journey fly by, with plush seats to relax in, a clean restroom, air conditioning, and free wifi as you travel.

Book Your Charter Bus Tour with Sunshine Tours Today!

If this sounds like the vacation experience you’ve been looking for, we invite you to contact us online or at (800) 552-0022 today. We would love to answer any questions or help you select a charter bus tour you’ll love. At Sunshine Tours, we work hard to give you a wonderful travel experience to remember. Come see how we’re creating memories one journey at a time!

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Review Highlights

“ Went with Sunshine Tours to Liberty Theater in Liberty, NC for a concert tonight. ” in 2 reviews

“ Traveled to Liberty , NC to the Liberty Showcase Theater for the Elvis show this evening. ” in 2 reviews

“ Tour guide and bus driver were very friendly. ” in 3 reviews

Location & Hours

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4430 Cleburne Blvd

Dublin, VA 24084

Serving Dublin Area

Amenities and More

About the business.

Every Sunshine Tours' tour is escorted on modern touring motor coaches, giving our passengers the most comfortable ride. In addition to being climate controlled and restroom equipped, each state of the art motor coach has VCR's and DVD's. All tours include deluxe motor coach transportation, admission to all listed attractions and baggage handling at each night's lodging. From the moment you step aboard our motorcoach, wonderful things begin to happen. Your tour is more than just places and things. It is a happy time, filled with good feelings and fond memories with family and friends. …

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Great busses & great drivers. We had a fabulous experience with Sunshine Tours. Highly recommend them. Ben was a great driver for us.

Went with Sunshine Tours to Liberty Theater in Liberty, NC for a concert tonight. Wonderful trip. Michelle was a great tour guide and the Driver, Dan was very safe and confident in bad weather. Great trip!

because its got plenty of room and will get you where you need to go like north Carolina and anywhere really.

My husband and I traveled to North Carolina for one day Elvis trip. The trip was great. The driver drove safely in rainy conditions and the tour guide was humorous and attentive. The bus was clean and updated. Will travel with them again.

Traveled to Liberty, NC to the Liberty Showcase Theater for the Elvis show this evening. Everyone was courteous and professional from the time we boarded till the time we got off the bus. The rain was terrible but the driver made sure the ride was smooth as silk. I will be traveling with this company again!

I have traveled with Sunshine Tours for about a year now. I have been on 2 overnight tours and was very satisfied with my experiences. Our tour guide Joy was just that a JOY! The two drivers that have taken me on these trips (Ralph & Kevin) were VERY good drivers! Our meals were exceptional! My second trip had catered meals that even included a prime rib carving board! I enjoyed the planned excursions and was so glad to even have some "down time" added in to a couple of excursions to explore other things not included in the planned itinerary. I was skeptical at first about riding in a bus, but wow was my mind changed after my first trip! The seat was comfortable, and the best part for me was traveling up high and getting the best view ever of the scenery passing by! Whether I was sitting on the aisle side or window side I could see EVERYTHING. I am convinced that this now the ONLY way to travel and see this beautiful country we live in! I can't wait to get going again this year!

This bus company was used to take children to the North Carolina zoo this past Friday with my work at the Boys and Girls club. On our way home, the air condition did not work and it was 90 degrees outside. The bus driver did not seem to think it was a big deal until we had a bus full of children throwing up and 2 staff passed out due to heat exhaustion, resulting in having to go to the hospital. This was absolutely ridiculous considering the bus driver ran the air the ENTIRE 4-5 hours we were at the zoo. I would highly recommend an Abbot bus if your ever going on a trip and cannot take a car, have never had a problem on an Abbot bus!

They false advertise, rushed us through our trip and refused to refund portions of the trip. Do not take the Whale watching tour its a total scam they canceled the key selling point attration, canceled the seafood restauraunt on the beach. The tour guide phyllis cryed the rest of the trip we paid for,that she was "so sorry we didnt get what we paid for" which was an extra nail on the coffin of the the tour. Meanwhile the scammer VP of operations refused to refund me the portions of the trip unfullfilled and made all types of excuses. Im just grateful I tryed one cheaper trips and not the longer expensive trip, which I was planning on investing in if things went generally well on this cheaper trip.

Clean busses Excellent Courteous tour Guides Safe drivers #1 Tour company Best way to travel number one in Travel to get your money's worth

I worked for Sunshine Tours for a decade back in the late 1980's and 90's and worked directly with the founder of Sunshine Tours (Carroll Stone, and his wife Joyce). The goal was and continues, to provide Bus Tours across the US and Canada that ranged from 1 day trips to 31 days (Alaska & Canada's Yukon). So much love and care went into every tour offered and we all became one big Sunshine Family. The staff running the office today still continues working hard to do the same thing every day. Bus tours can experience unexpected delays and or schedule adjustments and overcoming them can be challenging. I know that Sunshine Tours takes great pride in their fleet and always has strived to provide the best tours on the best fleet of Motorcoaches. Sunshine Tours was one of the first in the industry to make all tours non smoking for safety and health. The company was the first to take a row of seats out to increase passenger leg room and one of the first to add VCR/DVD's. Sunshine was also the first to add automatic transmissions to their buses, which provided a more comfortable ride to their traveling family. Almost all companies have followed these Sunshine first. I loved working for Sunshine Tours and will always remember with great appreciation and love, everyone who became part of the Sunshine Family and as well so many wonderful people I worked alongside with, to make every tour possible. Several continue to work alongside others in the office now and on the road, to continue providing the best Bus Tour vacations available in the industry. I hope you have an opportunity to travel with Sunshine Tours some day and experience what I experienced over those 10 years. I also hope anyone who has experienced less than what I have conveyed above, will give Sunshine Tours and their wonderful staff another opportunity to show what they do best... and that is to provide the best service possible. With sincere regard and much love to all of the beautiful people who I had the wonderful opportunity to travel with in the Sunshine Family. Respectfully, J.P. Creamer

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Awful!! - Sunshine Tours

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Mike the bus driver and Michelle the tour leader were very nice and did a good job. Overall the bus... read more

Went on the tour of The Green Bank Observatory and a ride on the Cass railroad. The bus was 35... read more

I had traveled last year with Sunshine and had a blast. Talked a friend into taking a trip to New England this summer.. it was absolutely the worst trip I have ever been on. The first day I was on the cramped buss for 17 1/2 hours with only 3 stops.. Tour guide had no interaction with us, just sat and talked with bus driver. We forgot two ladies, and had to turn around and go back to Lexington to get them. They had waited 3 hours past their pick up time. The hotels had separate issues including, dirty, rats and a very high crime area, homeless population outside the lobby in Boston. The friend I traveled with attempted to contact the owners to point out just how awful this trip was. She was informed that they had contacted everyone else on the bus and they advised that the trip was great. This is a BOLD face lie, you did not contact me or several others that also had complained of how unorganized and ill planned this trip was. I was willing to give sunshine the benefit of the doubt and figured they had an untrained guide, but to answer a complaint with a lie is not only unethical but tells me more then I ever needed to know about this company.

This company does a horrible job. It was the worst experience for me. The company clearly does not value their customer. Some experiences: 1) The bus we had to ride on was filthy, handles falling off seats/missing, no wifi, and very cramped. 2) The great breakfast they advertise was a 5 hr old greasy buscuit with warm OJ. 3) The majority of the hotels we stayed in were dirty and in high crime areas. One of the hotels actually had a swarm of rats outside the front door and many people standing on the sidewalk wanting drugs. See photos attached. At one hotel when we woke up the floor was actually flooded with water due to lack of maintenance of the AC unit. We were always late for every stop. Did not get tour guides we paid for, etc. The entire trip was nothing but caaos and disappointment. The schedule always changed without notice. Very little entertainment; we found ourselves always at the hotel. Most of our entertainment was FREE TO THE PUBLIC. It was very clear Sunshine took the cheapest route/hotels, etc. for their trip. When attempting to share this information with the office after the trip, they took no accountability and could not have cared less. SO, BUYER BEWARE!

Went on the tour of The Green Bank Observatory and a ride on the Cass railroad. The bus was 35 minutes late picking us up because of people being late at the pickups before us. This threw the entire day off and we were rushed through each stop. We didn't have enough time at either destination. Why should the people that are on time suffer because of those that are irresponsible for theirs. The rule should be the bus leaves with or without you at a certain time. The driver and guide did their best but were set with a handicap to begin with (time). Seemed very unorganized compared to another bus trip that we took with a different bus tour line.

many negatives----bus driver who held prayer each morning and told us on first morning if we did not want to participate we should get off bus and stand in parking lot. I have no problem with praying----just the arrogant attitude! Driver brought his 7 year old grandchild along which caused problems for many people plus we were expected to watch a kiddie video. Kid was not a paying customer. Bus was late for several stops causing us to miss dinners at nice hotels. One hotel was horrible. Too may lunches at travel plazas.Stop was too long at Oklahoma City memorial ( should have been a drive by) and then some glorified cross and Christian bookstore in Texas. Felt like I had signed up for the church bus tour! Went on trip to see nature not hyped manmade sights. Air conditioner failure during one segment of trip. A very tiny bit of info offered on geology etc. of areas we went through. It was read to us off a piece of paper. We were asked to move back one seat each day but some people would not move.Always got to hotel too late to wind down and relax------just shower,bed and suitcases outside door at 7 next morning. Felt like a travel marathon! We were reprimanded by bus driver for using toilet causing him to clean it. ( I believe that is why it was there) . Cindy the hostess was a pleasant person and did her best but it sounds like there needs to be more training for the job. Would never travel with them again!

We took our first ever trip with this company. Things started out ok. Within one hour we noticed the temperatures increasing in the bus. By the time we arrived at the Biltmore it was a balmy and stagnant 95 degrees in our seat. This is absolutely unbearable and uncalled for. All vehicles should be checked before driving. This particular one we were told that the heater didn’t work. This was definitely false. It was working overtime. Probably won’t travel with them again. Was light headed and nauseous entire first hour of our tour. Boo

I have been on over 30 trips with Sunshine Tours and they have all been outstanding! The drivers and tour directors do everything possible to be sure customers are comfortable, safe, and well taken care of, even if unplanned circumstances arise.

We are so grateful for your feedback, Debbie. It's always great to have you on our adventures. Thanks for taking a few minutes to rate us and let other's know about what it's like to travel with Sunshine Tours. We will always do everything in our power to make certain every single trip is equally delightful.

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Journey to Moscow

   Welcome to Moscow - the capital of Russia, its political, scientific, historical, architectural and business centre, from which power and might of the Russian state developed.

Preplanned tours

• Daytrips out of Moscow
• Themed tours
• Customized tours
• St. Petersburg

One Day Tour of Moscow

This one day tour gives an excellent overview of Moscow, its past and present and its main attractions. It includes a visit to the Kremlin, a 4-hour walking tour and a Moscow Metro tour. See more

Duration: 6-7 hours

Cost: 240 USD per group + 20 USD per person (including the guide) for the Kremlin tickets

NB. The number of tickets to the Kremlin is limited. Please book this tour in advance. The Kremlin is closed on Thursday.

One Day Tour Delux

This day tour allows to see the most of Moscow attractions in one day! This tour is extremely rich with sights. It includes a visit to the Kremlin, the Armoury, the Diamond Fund and the city tour by car. See more

300 USD + 55 USD per person (including the guide) for the tickets to the Kremlin, the Armory

Two days tour of Moscow

A guided visit to the Kremlin, the Armoury, Tretyakov Art Gallery and Moscow Metro as well as a well-rounded tour of the city center are waiting for you! The guide will help you to get a good understanding of Russian history, culture and art during the Two days tour. See more

2 days, 6-7 hours every day

480 USD per group + 55 USD per person (including the guide) for the Kremlin and the Armory Chamber tickets.

NB. The number of tickets to the Kremlin is limited. Please book this tour in advance.

Two days Tour Delux

The tour includes all the best Moscow has to offer! It combines a walking tour of the city center (Red Square and surroundings) with Metro tour and visits to the best museums of Moscow: the Kremlin, the Armoury, the Diamond Fund and the Tretyakov Art Gallery. A city tour by car allows you to see the sights scattered around Moscow! See more

540 USD for 1-2 people, 570 USD for 3-5 people + 55 USD per person (including the guide) for the tickets to the Kremlin and the Armoury.

Three days tour of Moscow

This tour is our best-seller! In addition to the main touristic sights it includes a countryside trip to Sergiev Posad - the greatest spiritual center of the country, where you can also observe life of common people and enjoy beautiful landscapes. In these three days you will get an expertise in Russian history, culture, art and religion! See more

3 days, 6-7 hours

Tour price: 940 USD for 1-2 people, 1050 USD for 3-5 people + 75 USD per person (including the guide) for all tickets NB. The number of tickets to the Kremlin is limited. Please book this tour in advance.

1/2 day. Panoramic city tour by car

This Moscow city tour covers all main Moscow attractions and is perfect for the visitors who want to get an idea of what the city has to offer before starting to explore it by themselves. The tour price includes transportation by car or minivan. See more

from 240 USD

1/2 day. Walking tour of central Moscow

You will walk across famous Red Square, will see the walls and the towers of the Kremlin. Accompanied by a fully-licensed guide, you can visit the two main Moscow cathedrals - St. Basil's and Christ the Saviour and a marvelous 19th century shopping mall - GUM. The route is 5-6 km length. At the end of the tour the guide can show you a couple of the most beautiful Moscow metro stations. See more

1/2 day. Red square and The Kremlin

Visit the two most iconic parts of Moscow, even the whole of Russia with a professional guide, speaking your language! See more

120 USD per group + 20 USD per person (including the guide) for the Kremlin tickets

NB. The number of tickets to the Kremlin is limited. Please book this tour in advance. The Kremlin is closed on Thursdays.

1/2 day. The Kremlin and the Armoury

This tour takes you to the very heart of Russia, the Kremlin. After walking around its grounds, talking about its past and present and visiting its magnificent cathedrals, we visit the fabulous Armoury Chamber, which houses precious items preserved for centuries in the Tzars’ Treasury. See more

120 USD per group + 55 USD per person (including a guide) for the Kremlin and the Armory Chamber tickets

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In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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