The pedestrian Arbat is where Moscow keeps its souvenir lights and street musicians, and it is the wrong place to wait for a private hour. Cars are restricted, curbs are crowded, and an escort flat sits on one of the side streets that feed into the walk, usually in a courtyard that opens from a lane too narrow for a long stop.
After eleven the main strip is still bright while the lanes go quiet. A guest who writes only near Arbat often ends up at the wrong corner, because three different lanes share the same tourist label on a map. The building number and the arch colour are boring details, and they save the first twenty minutes.
Hotels near the Arbat ring the pedestrian zone but use entrances on parallel roads. Send the hotel’s street name, not the word Arbat alone, and say whether the guest should meet in the lobby or go straight to the room. If the plan includes theatre or dinner on Taganka after the theatre, budget a separate ride back: the Arbat lanes do not connect to Taganka on foot the way the centre looks on a postcard.
Orientation: Arbat on Google Maps. Also in Moscow: Moscow City and the way back, Kitay-gorod lanes, and Patriarch Ponds after nine.