joe

i'm going to russia in november on business and will be extending my trip for a few days to stay in st petersburg to tour around on my own. i've looked at the grand europe hotel, the astoria hotel, and the d'angleterre. they all appear very nice and are all about the same price. can anyone recommend one of these three over the others? thanks, joe

Marc David Miller

The Angleterre is a wing of the Astoria--same location, with less well appointed rooms. <BR> <BR>For a first-time visitor with little knowledge of Russian, the Europa is probably a better location for walking around, as it is just off Nevsky Prospect and near the Hermitage, Russian Museum, many concert halls (the Shostokovich is just across the street), and restaurants. The Astoria is in a grand location, but there are less tourist-type destinations nearby, at least within five minutes.

Marc David Miller

Joe, I topped a few message threads for you regarding a tour guide and Pavlov's dog <BR> <BR>Feel free to ask me questions--I have spent a good amount of time there in the last three years, have been to many of the restaurants, about 30 of the museums, etc.

jean

Joe, we stayed at the Astoria in Sept '96. Beautiful hotel with great service. It is across from St Isaacs and about a 10 minute walk to the Hermitage.

XXX

in 2000 I had similar dilema Astoria Europa etc... I decided on Sheraton Nevsky Palace and I was glad to do so. <BR>Not only I got a really good deal from Sheraton web page, but also found the hotel to be very nice and staff to be very friendly and helpfull (which I hear its not the case with either Astoria or Europa). Hotel is located on Nevsky Prospect within a a walking distance to many of the attractions. I have researched all the hotels before the trip reading getting all kinds of guidebooks etc. I think in Fordor's GuideBook reviewer indicated bad service in Astoria or Europa (not sure now which one). Anyway others indicated usually same but maybe not in so many words. Then at one time I read Travel section in CNN web site - this same exact review we talking word for word, but they have put that under Sheraton... this was unbelivable - I had written to CNN about this - that they may have some copyrights problems, their response was - "we get those reviews from third party - plus as you have mentioned they are not identical since hotel is differnt")))) I guess )))) <BR> <BR>Anyway below is the link - I stayed in this placed and love it. <BR> <BR>http://www.starwood.com/sheraton/sea...=yes&links=all