Abstract: The article deals with the urban daily life in the capital cities of the Russian Empire within the context of the tourist activities that provincial visitors partook in Saint Petersburg and Moscow at the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries. Based on guidebooks about the Russian capitals, tourist memoirs and the descriptions of guided tours, the author analyzes life on the streets, public transport, shops and restaurants, and church services from the point of view of their position of significance in tourist visits. Special attention is paid to the possibility of a tourist's chance meeting with the imperial family that could happen in the daily space of the capital city. Using the comparative historical method, the author compares the place of urban daily life in the idealized activities offered to the reader of guidebooks with the real practices that tourists partook in. The examined material allows to come to the conclusion that during the studied period, the familiarization with the daily activities of the inhabitants of the capital cities was an essential part of the tourist experience and the city daily life was fascinating for the tourist in all of its aspects. Living out the practices inherent to the capital's residents and taking part in the daily life of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, the tourist , so to speak, appropriated the city for himself thus becoming a resident of the capital city in his own mind.