Swimming in Moscow on weekends

With summer arriving and the room-temperature increasing in Moscow, you will soon want to take your swimsuit out of the cupboard and take the plunge! As foreigners, we don’t necessarily know the best spots to freshen up, and often we don’t even know that some of them are reachable with public transportation.

Serebriany Bor is one of this few spots attainable by metro and then by bus. You have different ways to reach this place, you can take the trolleybus 20, 21, 65 or 86 at the metro Polezhaevskaya (You can take these trolleybuses at other metro stations including Belorusskaya, sokol or Begovaya but it will be longer). They stop at the entrance of the park’s territory so you’ll need to walk a bit to reach beaches 2 and 3. But the easiest and fastest solution is to get “marshrutka” 190 (small bus) from metro Polezhaevskaya.

Source: http://www.s-bor.ru/guide.htm

 

If you look on the map, you will see a sign next to which is written “КПП”, it depicts the entrance of Serebriany Bor’s protected zone. Trolleybuses will stop at this point and you’ll have to walk further. It’s fairly quick if you go at one of the first beaches, but if you want to reach the beach n°3 (the best equipped with sport fields and the most popular), it will be better to take the marshrutka 190 as explained before. Access is free, except for “VIP” spots. The main territory is open from 9am till 9pm except for special events.

Source: http://www.s-bor.ru/guide.htm

 

If you want to gather with friends and do a barbecue (notably with alcohol, theoretically forbidden inside the protected area), I advise you to take the path on the left of the road just after the bridge (stop at the next to last bus stop just after the bridge) and before the park’s entrance. You will find barbecues available for everyone to use (20 of them approximately, purple color on the map), it’s a 10-15 minutes walk from the bus stop. This part of the territory is not in the protected area so it never closes! Swimming is not legally authorized as it’s unsupervised in this area but water is rather clean and reaches 25°c in summer!!  

If you forgot your swimsuit, you still can go swim and relax on the beach reserved for nudists that is located between the beach n°3 and the pink zone drawn on the map!

For more information, you can always have a look on their official website (in Russian) http://www.s-bor.ru.

If you know any other good place near Moscow where it’s possible to swim and enjoy a barbecue, do not hesitate to share in the comments. 

Happy swimming!! 

French version: http://regards-sur-la-russie.blogspot.com/2012/06/se-baigner-le-weekend-moscou.html