World Cup city guides: what to see in Nizhny Novgorod?

World Cup city guides: what to see in Nizhny Novgorod?

How to get from the airport and railway station, what to see and where to eat that most legendary shawarma.

Nizhny Novgorod, Gorky or just Nizhny (not to be confused with Veliky Novgorod, because some fans got confused and didn’t get to the match) is a city whose main natural attraction is the confluence of the Oka and Volga rivers. And also here is a tasty shawarma, a lot of embankments and there is its own street Nikolskaya. But about everything in order.

How to get from the airport and railway station in Nizhny Novgorod?

From the airport Strigino to the city can be reached by cab, bus or marshrutka.

• Cab, of course, will cost the most: 150 rubles for boarding and 28 rubles per kilometer. These are the rates of the official airport cab operator – Friends Taxi. You can order a car at a special counter in the left wing of the terminal.
• Buses from the airport go just in the direction of the city – you will not get to the center or at least to the station by them, you will have to make a change. Bus №56 goes to the subway – it is more convenient and faster to get to the stadium and the Fan Festival. But bus #11 just goes towards the city – use it if you need to get to the city limits.
• To get to the upper part of the city (where the fan zone and almost all the attractions are located) you can take route №46. Get off at the stop “Lyadova Square” and you are in the center.

From Moskovsky railway station you can leave by any kind of transport without any problems, and if you want you can walk there. It will take you about an hour to get to the Kremlin, but to the stadium “Nizhny Novgorod” – only about 30-40 minutes.

The price of travel throughout the city by any form of transportation is 28 rubles.

Where to live in Nizhny Novgorod?

In the area of the fan zone and even more so in the stadium, rented apartments cost a lot of money. But you can find hostels or hotels at relatively reasonable prices with the help of Booking a Airbnb services. To make it easier to get around during matches, when the main roads of the city are closed for half a day, choose accommodation closer to metro stations. Among them, Gorkovskaya, Moskovskaya, and Strelka are the closest to the center.

How to get to the stadium?

Especially for the World Cup, a new metro station, Strelka, was opened right next to the stadium. This is the fastest and most practical way to get to the matches in Nizhny.

• As in other cities, shuttles are running around Nizhny Novgorod, ready to take fans to the stadium from any part of the city. There are only 7 such routes – their names, respectively, are S1-7.
• On match days, you can use your fan passport to travel free of charge on social buses and shuttles, which have a special “FIFA 2018” sticker on their windows.
• Cab to the stadium will also not cost much (only 200-250 rubles), and to get from the city center or from the railway station is only about 10-20 minutes.
• Buses: №41, 57, 66, 69.
• Shuttle cabs: #18, T24, 39, 49, 67, 70 (T7), 86, T24, T138. Stop – Seventh Sky Microdistrict.

What to try in Nizhny Novgorod?

• The same shawarma on Srednoy. Srednoy is a market. Actually, this is the name of the stop, to which you need to go to try the famous Nizhny Novgorod shawarma – the heroine of many travel blogs, YouTube channels and even TV programs. It is, by the way, approved by Revizorro!
• Gorodets gingerbread. Gorodets is a small town in the Nizhny Novgorod region, its craft center. Among other things, they make there delicious gingerbread with fruit jelly – competition to the famous Tula gingerbread.
• Craft beer. In the Gorky Brewery on Rozhdestvenskaya Street there is a small pub – it is also a brewery: right behind the glass wall there are barrels in which fresh beer is brewed. It is also served on the bar, and from there it is poured into huge bar mugs.
• Hanging ice cream. Ice cream stalls in Nizhny are literally at every step. Not only the prices vary, but also the flavors: here you can find both everybody’s favorite chocolate ice cream, and exotic flavors – for example, ice cream with flax flavor.

Where to eat in Nizhny?

Concepts of cafes and restaurants in Nizhny, in general, do not differ much from those in Moscow. There are the usual fast-foods, coffee houses, and shawarma stands (not all shawarma here is “the one on Sredny”). And there are also exclusively Nizhny Novgorod chains, which will pleasantly surprise guests with the price-quality ratio.

If you decide to buy alcohol, remember: in Nizhny it is sold from 8:00 to 22:00. And on match days at the Nizhny Novgorod stadium it is strictly prohibited in stores.

• Noodle shop “Sovok”. It is easily recognized by the neon sign “Sovok” at the entrance. Here is not only a pleasant interior design that evokes nostalgic feelings either for the distant 80s or for grandmother’s apartment, but also a wide choice of noodles, sauces and additives to it. And here you can also drink delicious lemonade, tea and eat hot sweet waffles.
• Salute” burger house. The menu here is smaller than in “Sovka”, but you can get a bottle of beer of a rather rare brand. And also on weekends there are events on the summer veranda: from tasting of new burgers and wines to techno-disco.
• Coffee House “Coffee is Fruit”. A joint project of the famous Saratov roasting company and Nizhny Novgorod baristas – real professionals in their field. Here you can drink a cup of coffee at an affordable price and chat with the staff, who will tell you a lot not only about coffee, but also about the city itself.
• Cafe “Youth”. This unremarkable cafe is located opposite the Sverdlov Cultural Center, next to the streetcar tracks on B. Pokrovskaya Street. It is notable for the fact that here you can not only eat inexpensive and tasty pizza, but also buy handmade souvenirs of Nizhny Novgorod: both postcards with views of the city and designer jewelry.

What to see?

• Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street. Earlier it was called the Arbat of Nizhny Novgorod, but after the World Cup it became clear that it is the Nikolskaya Street of Nizhny Novgorod. Branching off from the main square of Nizhny Novgorod – Minin Square, pedestrian Pokrovka became the main fan street of the city. During the first match in the city (Sweden vs. South Korea) Swedish fans sang and cheered till morning on the summer veranda of Butcher burger house at the beginning of B. Pokrovskaya. Now this veranda is the center of the fans’ gathering. Every day foreigners sing national songs, dance, hang flags, portraits of their favorite national team players and, in general, have fun as they can.

• Quays. In the city center there are four of them: Upper-Volga, Lower-Volga, Fedorvosky embankment (in the upper part of the city) and Volga embankment (near the stadium). All of them offer a beautiful view of the arrow of the Oka and the Volga, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (one of the main symbols of Nizhny) and the stadium itself. Here you can sit on a bench, eat ice cream, and on the Nizhne-Volzhskaya embankment you can ride a bicycle or rollerblades on a separate path.

• Nizhny Novgorod Fair. In the XIX-XX centuries, almost a city-forming enterprise, Nizhny Novgorod Fair is now experiencing bad times. Several museums are open here, and from season to season come international trade fairs – from food to new cars.

• Cable Car. One of the longest and highest in Europe, the Nizhny Novgorod cable car connects the center of Nizhny Novgorod with the suburb on the other side of the Volga, the city of Bor. A one-way ride costs only 100 rubles. Here is the highest point from which you can look at the rivers of Nizhny Novgorod.

• Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Nizhny Novgorod is one of the few cities in Russia that can boast surviving red-stone fortress walls. Inside the Kremlin there are museums, an exhibition of military equipment, a church, a philharmonic hall and city administration buildings.