Europe > Russian Federation > Baltic Coast > St Petersburg > Articles > Sleeping in Moscow and St Petersburg

The current Russian hotel scene is simple to summarise: in winter, they haven’t got enough clients; in summer, they don’t have enough rooms. Which, basically, means give winter a chance and book well ahead for summer. But things they are a-changing. Both capital and former capital are on the verge of a hotel building boom – especially in the much-needed 3-4 star tourist category – that should have the situation properly sorted out in about 5 years. For the time being, expect a Standard Double Room including Breakfast & 18%VAT to cost you c.200$ a night 3 -star, or c.500$ a night 5- star. And there’s not much you can do about that short of staying somewhere depressing and/or schlepping in from the suburbs.Still, all the hotels mentioned below are at least have the ones twinkling brightest at their respective levels and they’re all bar two slap-bang central i.e. around Teatralnaya Square in Moscow & Nevsky Prospekt in St.Petersburg.

Your best bets in Moscow are the 3-star Hotel Budapest & the 5-star Hotel Savoy, only a few streets and as many minutes away from each other. This speaks volumes for the greatest asset of the Hotel Budapest ( 2/18 Petrovskie Linii St., Moscow 127051; Tel:007/95/9211060; Fax:007/95/9215290): its location, close behind The Bolshoi Theatre & Teatralnaya Square. And it fits perfectly into its surroundings because this grand C19th neo-classical edifice, all columns & carvings with bells & whistles on, is a preserved building from 1876. It doesn’t look like a 3-star hotel at all.The 121 rooms feel spacious enough with their tall ceilings & long curtains; they all have safe, minibar & satellite TV (essential in Russia, or it might as well not be there), but the fabrics & furniture are a bit ‘chintzy catalogue’. The Irish Bar offers a home from home atmosphere & the staff, unusual for Russia, absolutely major on the friendliness. Only Hungarians would have mixed emotions about staying here: nice to have the hotel named in honour of your capital, shame about the timing –1956! For everyone else, the Hotel Budapest (190$ DBB inc. tax) – even if you would pay less for its equivalent almost anywhere else in Europe – is good value in context and an astute choice.

Hotel Sretenskaya (15 Sretenka St.,Moscow;Tel:007/95/9335544;Fax:007/95/9335545) is a little further out, on a corner of a fairly non-descript street, and it took me some time to realise I was standing outside of it. Once inside, this recent conversion into a 38 room boutique hotel hits you with its character. They’ve gone for a happy twist on the Ancient Russian Folklore Look, with plenty of oranges & yellows & vivid stained glass to brighten the place up, whose star attraction is the jungly indoor Patio Garden/Lobby Bar. Rooms(250$ DBB inc.tax) have safes, satellite TV etc. plus there is a Health Club with sauna, fitness & billiards room, although I don’t think they’re related. More individual & luxurious than The Budapest, but not so well located. The choice is yours.

If I was making the choice for you, or indeed for myself, it could only be The Hotel Savoy (3 Rozhdestvenka St.,Moscow 109012;Tel:007/95/9298500;Fax:007/95/9298665). Old turn-of-the-century opulence from 1913 making it one of the oldest luxury hotels in Moscow, The Savoy’s character is far more that of a Gentleman’s Club. It doesn’t feel so ‘open to the public’ as hotels usually do; the liveried doormen seem to have more resonance to them. Inside, like a club, there are no signposts: a gentleman either knows where the breakfast room is or he doesn’t, nothing so vulgar as an arrow is going to show him the way. The marketing lady of this hotel was none of your routine dolly bird a bit unsure of her English , but a lady of mature years in a smart tweed suit who spoke impeccable English and wouldn’t have looked out of place in an Edinburgh drawing room. The Savoy is positioned down a quiet side-street where there’s no traffic noise(unlike The Metropol, more or less opposite); every corridor is an Art Gallery of traditional Russian paintings, individually lit, and leading to a lot more lingering in corridors than is usually recommended; it has a fantastic swimming pool, gym & sauna; the restaurant/breakfast room is worthy of Louis X1V, although possibly more in the décor than the food; the bedrooms are roomy, old-fashioned aristocratic - complete with that accessory essential to any gentleman, the trouser press. And now for the best bit, saved till last,: The 5-star Savoy is only 260$ DBB inc.tax which shows what can be done when hoteliers don’t get carried away by greed. It is, of course, the best value hotel in Moscow. The bad news is that it is closed for some re-designing until December 2004. It would be worth the wait to delay your trip.

But for some people the whole point of going to Moscow is to be able to say that they stayed at the Hotel Metropol (1/4 Teatralny Proezd, Moscow 103012;Tel 007/95/9276000;Fax:007/95/9276010). Its coffee-table brochure of the hotel’s design features, illustrious guests & the part The Metropol played in the unfolding events of Russian history is an absolute masterpiece in the genre of self-promotion, the best peacock performance I’ve ever seen a hotel puff up for itself. But unless you’re paying a fortune to stay on the VIP Floor, it’s the peacock’s legs for you – and they’re an altogether different experience. Some legendary hotels, like La Mamounia in Marrakech, fully justify and live up to their hype. The Metropol does not; 5-star, in my travels, doesn’t get any worse than this. The bathrooms are disgracefully small; their only Bar is in a pokey little corner of the well-lit public Lobby, just like an airport lounge would do it; their pool is no warmer and no bigger than a frozen Russian pond;the casino is provincial and drab, utterly devoid of any glitz; the ‘exchange’ rate was the meanest on record at only 26R/1$; the very cheapest taxi to the airport was 61$, so God knows what the others cost as a ‘service’ to their guests. One of the hotel tarts even cold-called me in my room made aware somehow that I was a potential target. How five-star is all that? But The Dining Room is gorgeous and you should definitely go and see it. Otherwise, I think The Metropol (475$ DBB inc.tax) is a vastly over-rated one-trick pony –or should that be peacock? Maybe that’s why, unlike its soul-sister The Grand Hotel Europe in St.Petersburg which deserves to be, The Metropol isn’t listed in The Leading Hotels of The World.

Across from The Metropol is the Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel(4 Neglinnaya St., Moscow 109012;Tel:007/95/7831234; Fax:007/95/7831235) which is the most expensive hotel I found in Moscow (595$ DBB inc.tax) but at least you get the goods. This is breathtaking modern design from transparent lifts in the foyer to bedroom telephones which are mobile throughout the hotel to a superb pool/gym complex right up to the amazing Conservatory Bar on the 10th floor with a great view over Moscow’s skyline. If you love modern design at its best and can afford it, this is the place for you.

Your best bets in St.Petersburg are the 3-star Hotel Oktiabrskaya & the 5-star Grand Hotel Europe or The 5-star Nevskij Palace Hotel, if you can get in on one of their ‘special offer’ deals. The Hotel Oktiabrskaya (10 Ligovsky Prospekt, S/P 193036;Tel:007/812/2776330;Fax:007/812/3157501) is wonderfully located at the intersection of Ligovsky with Nevsky Prospekt, handily opposite The Moscow Railway Station. Originally built in 1851 on the neo-classical grand scale, it’s become part of the Oktiabrskaya chain of Russian hotels. Or rather, Soviet hotels. The ambience is definitely, despite being created after its downfall, ‘communist chic’ - and all the chillier for it: shades of green & vanilla; worthy-looking , brassy statues & murals, if not in the content, then certainly in the style of Stalin; over-bright chandeliers glaring down on stark, bulbous 30’s furniture scattered parsimoniously around the reception area; the breakfast room is a canteen. Upstairs, you’d be expecting ‘battery bedrooms’. Yet, astonishingly, no two bedrooms in The Oktiabrskaya are the same(No, I was told) – other than that they have the vitals like satellite TV etc. and are inoffensive, plain and simple. But at only 140$ DBB inc.tax this hotel is the best value for money in St.Petersburg. By a whisker.

Or maybe not. There is a case which some may find stronger for the Hotel Neptun (93-a Obvodny kanal emb., S/P 191119;Tel:007/812/324461; Fax:007/812/3244611), part of the Best Western International chain. Rooms in ‘A’ Block(1991) come out at an equal 140$ DBB inc.tax and are only a bit smaller & duller than ‘B’ Block rooms renovated in 2000 at 200$ DBB inc.tax. But just look at all the extra facilities, seemingly conceived with the ultimate businessperson in mind: Internet connections all over the place; a lovely, little English bar for afterwards; or possibly after a visit to their Sports Complex - the like of which I’ve never seen in any hotel before, let alone a 3-star one. We are talking gym, sauna, oceanic pool & pool tables, tennis, squash, a golf driving range & an eight-lane bowling alley! If like me you’ve honed your body into a weapon over the years, access to these facilities might just sway it for you. The downside is that the hotel has, as its address suggests, an anonymous location superintending a minor canal & is, in an ideal world, a touch too far away from Nevsky Prospekt. The choice is yours.

The Grand Hotel Europe (1/7 Mikhailovskaya,S/P191186;Tel:007/812/3296000; Fax:007/812/3296001) is always the hotel I would be happiest to come back to in St.Petersburg. If you’re on a budget perhaps try it for one night because, unlike Moscow’s Metropol, this Grande Dame of Russian hospitality, built in 1825, remodelled in 1991, run by Kempinski Hotels since 1995, was the first, and really still is the best 5-star hotel in Russia. It’s the hotel of choice for all your stars, Presidents, Royals & world-famous International Scientists with more degrees than a thermometer.The key to The Europe’s success is that its three main public areas – The Lobby Bar, Atrium Coffee Lounge & Restaurant/Breakfast Room – are all rooms that will have your camera out quicker than Wyatt Earp’s pistol & then present you with an overwhelming urge to want to sit down and be part of them. Be warned that should this happen in The Lobby Bar, a triumph of 1890’s Art Nouveau though it may be, you’re going to need a second drink just to get over the price of the first one.The gawp-worthy glass-domed Atrium Coffee Lounge is like a private indoor village but the piece de resistance in The Europe – as it is in Moscow’s Metropol – is one huge riot of a stained glass roof over the main Dining & Breakfast Room conjuring up an overall effect of Sistine Chapel meets Viennese Ballroom. Curiously enough, both hotels employ a lady in a ballgown to float harp music over the Breakfast Buffet , which creates an agreeable aura of Debussyian calm ahead of the more Wagnerian moments outside the door on an average day in Russia. The harp is probably the best instrument in the orchestra for non-morning people, and I swore it helped my digestion. Perhaps actually the best thing about The Europe is that it has retained its romance. You feel a snow-laden Tchaikovsky could burst through the swingdoors at any moment, as indeed he used to, along with Turgenev, Gorky, Rostrapovich – the list is endless. A night at The Grand Hotel Europe will set you back 480$ DBB inc. tax for a memorable slice of Russia.Treat yourself.

Alternatively, you could visit The Grand Hotel Europe whilst taking advantage of one of their many promotions on offer to stay at the 5-star Hotel Nevskij Palace (57 Nevsky Prospekt,S/P191025;Tel:007/812/3802001;Fax:007/812/3011937). They do a 3 night deal for 780$DBB inc.tax,airport transfer & dinner/show which is well worth having. The Nevskij Palace is a C19th building from the outside but a modern village inside, complete with 24 hr. shops at street prices, which is mightily convenient. The breakfast room overlooks Nevsky Prospekt so you get the entertainment of early-morning people watching; the roof-top Health Club has a most pleasant outdoor sun-terrace;The Landskrona Restaurant serves the best food in town; although the rooms are somewhat dowdily austere, the location is superb and you are welcomed on arrival with a glass of champagne. I thoroughly enjoyed my two nights at The Nevskij Palace.

Can’t say the same about either the 5-star Hotel Astoria (39 Bolshaya Morskaya, S/P190000;Tel:007/812/3135757;Fax:007/812/3135059) or the 4-star Hotel Angleterre (Same Address; Tel:007/812/3135666; Fax:007/812/3135125) which are two ugly sisters next door to each other and I only feel I have to mention them because, like The Metropol in Moscow, their investment in hitting all the right celebrity, designer & marketing buttons means you’ve probably already heard of them. Rocco Forte, flamboyant Western hotelier, blazes a trail into St.Petersburg in 1997, noisily hiring his own designer sister, Olga Polizzi, and the mysteriously but desperately trendy David Collins to give both places The Mother of All Contemporary Workings-Over. Thus, a regal princess amongst C19th hotels has been converted into two 2002 frogs.The bedrooms, for example, feel Scandinavian in their parquet wooden floors, white walls & one abstract painting; the public areas have a similar froideur, depressingly Soviet this time. It’s purely fashionable waffle to go on about their inspired choice of Volga linen, Russian porcelain crockery & marble bathrooms when the overall effect is so clinical as to be almost institutional. Forte may boast that The Astoria is “ the best luxury hotel in the city with all the 5-star facilities expected”. So why do 5-star guests have to go to the hotel next door for all of a Bank, a Casino, a Nightclub & a Health Club with a tiny pool? It’s hype over substance, again, and at inflated cost in both hotels for the privilege. The Astoria is 535$ DBB inc.tax; The 4-star Angleterre at 450$ DBB inc. tax, cheekily pricing itself on a par with the 5-star Grand Hotel Europe. Enough said.

• More from Graeme Harwood