St. Petersburg's Mini-Hotels

During the Bolshevik Revolution many of the city center's lavish mansions where appropriated from their owners and divided into communal apartments. Though some residents still live in these apartments, many have moved to private residences in the suburbs. This created an opportunity to dent St. Petersburg's chronic lack of hotels, and entrepreneurs transformed the former mansions-turned-apartments into "mini-hotels."

Much nicer in this reincarnation, these small guesthouses offer an intimate, reasonably priced alternative to the city's major hotels.

¢-$ Central Inn (2 ul. Yakubovicha, Apt 14. 812/571-4516. www.central-inn.ru. 14 rooms) is in a prime location next to St. Isaac's Cathedral and has a small gym and a sauna.

$-$$ Comfort Hotel (25 ul. Bolshaya Morskaya. 812/570-6700. www.comfort-hotel.ru. 14 rooms) is close to the Admiralty with plenty of good restaurants nearby. Single rooms are a great value but the doubles are a bit overpriced and Bolshaya Morskaya can be noisy.

$ Herzen House (25 ul. Bolshaya Morskaya. 812/571-5098. www.herzenhotel.spb.ru. 20 rooms) is located within the same building as the Comfort Hotel and has rooms with air-conditioning.

¢ Nevsky Inn 1 (2 Kirpichny per., Apt 19. 812/972-6873. www.nevskyinn.ru. 7 rooms) is small, inexpensive, and friendly. Watch out if you're carrying heavy luggage, there's a steep climb to the fourth floor.

$ Nevsky Inn 2 (9 ul. Malaya Morskaya, Apt 3. 812/312-2686. www.nevskyinn.ru. 4 rooms) has relatively large rooms with sofas and air-conditioning. However, the windows face a noisy street and the kitchen is very small.

$ Old Vienna (13 ul. Malaya Morskaya, entrance on Gorokhovaya ul. 812/312-9339. www.vena.old-spb.ru. 14 rooms), with its stylish art nouveau interior, sauna, and DVD players in the rooms is a step above most mini-hotels. It's a bit hard to find, though, on the third floor of the building.

$ Rachmaninov Yard (5 Kazanskaya ul. 812/571-7618. www.hotelrachmaninov.com. 25 rooms) has views of Kazan Cathedral and busy Nevsky prospekt, and is furnished with antiques. Herzen University is nearby.

$ Residence by the Admiralty (8 Gorokhovaya ul. 812/312-7377. www.residencehotels.ru. 4 rooms) is popular with Russians and has a business hotel feel. There are two other mini-hotels within the Residence group as well.