There are some large travel agencies in Moscow who can get really good rates with local hotels but do not have websites or online booking facilities.

Hi we just returned from a 10 day trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow. I booked our hotel Petro Palace which was fantastic on Hotels.Com website and found that the reviews posted were very correct. We paid around 85-100 euros per night for a great room. The service at the hotel is good, we arranged airport pickup for $50.00 USD and they were waiting for us with our names on their sign. WE booked theatre tickets from there, guides to take us sight seeing and train station to Moscow delivery. The service very good and wi- fi everywhere in the hotel at no charge. I would highly recommend Petro Palace to anyone. We have travelled throughout France and Italy as well and always use Hotels.com to book our rooms. In Moscow we stayed at the Sheraton a 15 mon walk from Red Square again a great recommendation from Hotels. Com. I would also really recommend hiring a local guide to take you to see the sights...we booked one daily and it made the trip!!

We loved the Russian Museum...you can spend hours there. We also took in the Ballet "Swan Lake" it was fabulous!!! Only 85.00 per person....booked with our hotel concierge

Wenday, Petro Palace would be nice, but Hotels.com offers it now for my dates at over $220 a night for a standard room (including taxes) about $30 a night more than the hotel direct. The Other hotels I checked also were cheaper direct than with Hotels.com, but maybe they'd be better for last minute? I have often used Hotels.com to get an idea of what's available, but I honestly don't think I've ever found a rate with them better than booking direct.

be sure to google 10-15% off coupons/ promos for expedia and hotels.com or any other third party. They are available at times.

In St Petersburg we stayed here http://www.nlightsrussia.com/

Good prices and we really enjoyed staying there

alihutch, someone else mentioned Northern Lights. I hate to sound like a wimp -- and I live in a three story townhouse, but the idea of walking all day and returning to climb 4 flights to get to my hotel (maybe another flight inside once you reach that level?) just doesn't appeal to me. Especially since I'm normally the type of traveler who will go in and out of my hotel a number of times per day! And also those stairs can be torture on my bad ankle after a full day of walking.

Patrick,

Looking forward to a report come September...

An update:
I've now booked in St. Petersburg, 3 Mosta, a stone's through from the Hermitage and a less than one year old small hotel. Price is 18,000 R for the 6 nights or about $100 per night including taxes and breakfast for a small single room with private bath. It seems to have only raves TA (but too new to have very many) and it does have an elevator.

Looks like a fine place.. have a wonderful time.

bookmarking thanks

Patrick where did you get that rate for 3Mosta. I can only see rates of $200 a nite?

It's a single -- half price! I did it through booking.com, but it appears on other websites too.

yes I see that now. Booking.com has great rates. It is interesting how much cheaper it is as a single. In Laos it was the same price for one or two people. thanks for the clarification.

Well, this is a little different. This isn't a double room for single use. It is actually a SINGLE room -- with one twin bed.
I'm expecting a shoebox to sleep in. LOL

I was surprised though how many Russian hotels do offer a substantial discount for a single using a double room. They don't seem to do that much in the US or most other places.

Gee, Kelly, what is the point of telling us what company you booked your hotel through rather than tell us what hotel it was and reviewing it? Most of us here are more interested in actual hotel information instead of just a plug for a website.

NeoPatrick,

I remembered this thread I came back to find moscowhotels.net to do some researching for a possible trip and.... IT IS DEFUNCT.

Just an FYI. You might check with Budapest to see if you still have a room reserved...

oops. Maybe that was MY mistake. It's www.moscow-hotels.net
Try that.

They just sent me my Visa/ land voucher two weeks ago.

Good! Now I can get back to looking for a hotel...

Comrade Patrick is going to Russia :D

I was wondering if Neopatrick could come back and provide us with a trip report. I'm planning a trip to Russia as we speak and would love his input, as well as anyone else who has been there recently.

Independent traveler that I am, I'm actually toying with the idea of doing this as a tour, since I'm completely out of my element!

So . . . ttt to get updated input on this thread, and maybe get Patrick to finally do that report!

Surfergirl, last year after coming home from Russia and Ukraine I did indeed spend hours preparing a trip report. But when I tried to post it, it vanished into thin air. Perhaps it was too long? But in any case, I just never got inspired to try to put it all together again and make another attempt.

But I would be happy to answer any questions I can.

I can sum up things this way. I did it all alone and on my own, with the exception of signing up for a couple of day trips with local tours. I had a wonderful time and was surprised how easy everything really was -- even finding my own way to Suzdal and back. It was truly amazing to me how little the problem of language was -- and I don't have ANY knowledge of spoken or written Russian!

My itinerary:
5 nights in St. Petersburg: Hotel 3 Mosta
5 nights in Moscow at Hotel Budapest
2 nights in Suzdal in private "cabin"
1 night back at Moscow in Hotel Budapest
4 nights in Kiev at private apartment

Thank you, Patrick. I completely understand the vanishing into thin air trip reports -- that happened to me once, and ever after, I wrote it up in word, then cut and paste into a report.

So, my questions are:
1. for the hotels you stayed at in St. Petersburg and Moscow, did you like them, and did they have wifi?

2. How did you get from point "A" to point "B"? Did you have to book ahead for that?

3. Any interesting places to eat/people watch that you uncovered?

4. Which ballet company (if any) did you end up seeing?

5. What's the night life like?

Thanks!

#1: 3 Mosta Hotel was great -- super location, small very new hotel very close to The Hermitage. Breakfast was OK in the cafe upstairs. My single room was VERY small, but had a lovely bathroom, and was clean and neat. I did have wifi there that worked fine.
The Budapest in Moscow did not have wifi -- or if they did, I think it cost a small fortune so I didn't use it. I went to a nearby cafe and used their free internet. The rooms (since I returned there, I had two) were nice, quite large, and comfortable, but rather tired looking. The bathrooms were quite large. I found the staff to be very "cold" and not very helpful. If you asked how to get somewhere they'd only offer to sell you a tour or call a taxi.

#2: I did this as a One World award travel so had flights to St. Petersburg, from there to Moscow, from Moscow to Kiev. I bought my tickets for the train to Suzdal at the station on the day of the departure. And I took a bus back to Moscow -- booked in Suzdal.

#3: The cafes along the main street in St. Petersburg are great for people watching, as is the big park along the river by The Hermitage. You could hang out in and near Red Square in Moscow all day -- it's a world of entertainment by itself.

#4: I'm afraid I didn't record what balet company it was -- but Swan Lake was at the huge theatre right next to the Bolshoi (which was still closed down for remodeling).

#5: I didn't experience much night life. In St. Petersburg there was a really nice chic bar that had music at night. I had cocktails several nights at the bar and thanked them for letting me in (joking) as I was the only one there over about 30. I did go to the Circus one night in Moscow which was fun, and just made an evening out of walking and perhaps having a drink somewhere that looked interesting.

Very, very helpful!! Thank you.

You don't recall the name of the bar with music, do you? We're not 30 either, but enjoy going to bars with music and pretending we're 30.

Ah, I found it. Daiquiri Bar. It's very close to Church on Spilled Blood. I like to pretend I'm 30 too, but that just doesn't work any more!

By the way, I loved the sushi chain in both cities called "two sticks" but spelled in Russian. You'll need to ask someone. Very young and trendy and really good and reasonable.

We loved Moscowsuites.ru and had a fabulous apt in Moscow. For the time you are spending in each city, might want to consider an apt especially if you seach for one with a w/d.

jan47ete, I had originally thought of looking for apts in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, but unlike in Kiev and Suzdal where I found what seemed like really solid recommendations, I was thrown by the constant discrepancies for both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Every time I found an apartment that looked good, there would be some review or picture or item that made me back off, thinking it just didn't seem "right". Moscowsuites is one company I found that to be true with. I'm glad your experience worked out fine.
And incidentally, cost for an apartment was a concern, as I was able to get great single rates on hotels -- but not so with apartments. As a couple, the savings could have been significant.

I should mention also that Moscowsuites would show pictures of apartments, but when I looked at many, I realized they were using the same pictures for different apartments! When I finally emailed and asked about that I was told that yes, some pictures weren't the actual apartments but were "representative" of the real ones. That is something I just didn't trust!

I don't know if my advice will be helpful but I also met with the problem of expensive prices of hotels in Moscow. Most of the cheap hotels are very far from the center (Izmaylovskaya, for example), and I decided that the time distance from the center to the hotel to me is more important than living conditions. So I decided to look hostels.

In the center of Moscow there are very small hostel, which look like large apartment - just a few rooms. I stopped in February in "Bananas hostel" - very quiet, comfortable and clean place for 2000 rubles per night for a single room. The service was very good. They even arranged me train and made registration very quickly.

Personally I would stay at one of the Izmailovo hotels or some of the Holiday Inns in the suburbs if I was on that much of a budget. Some are renovated and it is so easy & cheap to get the the centre of Moscow by metro.

Lukas - first time poster?