Sleeping on the Cheap

Moscow is currently ranked as the fourthmost expensive city in the world. Hotel prices reflect this. So we asked two of our travel experts – Bob Greenall and Neil McGowan – to recommend some cheap places to sleep in Moscow. They came back with some frank opinions on where to go and where to avoid.

Bob Greenall: My first piece of advice about cheap accommodation in Moscow and St. Petersburg is: don’t stay in a hotel but arrange a homestay. It’ll probably be cheaper and quieter, you’ll get better food and have more contact with local people. Several reputable firms, such as American-International Homestays, have been arranging such stays for quite a few years now.

Neil McGowan: I’d definitely agree about homestays. In addition to offering good value, a great cultural experience, and often an enviable location, they have a hidden cost-saving too. With the cost of dining out spiraling upwards, any homestay deal which includes supper too is worth considering. You would otherwise need to factor at least US $15-20 for eating-out with an indifferent meal, whereas home cooking is likely to be a much nicer experience

Bob: As for cheap hotel accommodation, the best value is probably the Travelers’ Guest House. Though generally thought of as a hostel, it has single and double rooms, and is run by foreigners and caters exclusively to western travelers, which is a rare thing in Russia. The disadvantage is that it is located in a nondescript, modern part of the city and its location, though not inconvenient, is hardly central either.

Neil: Two points about the Traveller’s Guest House. The good news is that they recently merged with rival cheapie specialists G&R Travel, who are now managing the Guest House. Hopefully this should correct the slipshod trend in operational style. The less good news is that we’ve had several confirmed reports that Traveller’s Guest House Visa Support letters are being rejected by some Russian Consulates, notably in the Beijing Consulate, and messed-up Trans-Siberian trips to Moscow from there as a result.

Bob: Travelers looking for a central hotel with hotel-type privacy will find themselves severely limited, the choice being between big bucks and almost-as-big cockroaches. Unfortunately the city authorities still don’t seem to be aware of the existence of middle-range and budget travelers from the west and most of their efforts in recent years have gone into building or refurbishing five-star hotels. One of the ones they are promising to upgrade is the Tsentralnaya, but for the moment it remains a cheap option. It has not had bad press, though rooms are without bathrooms. It also has a history – it was here that foreign journalists were forced to live under Stalin.

Neil: There are still a few hotels within the Budget category in Moscow. Most well-known is the Hotel Izmailovo. Although the four matching high-rise blocks (built as accommodations for the 1980 Moscow Olympics) won’t win any design prizes from Prince Charles, the 2-star rooms are clean and decent, with en-suite bathrooms, tv/tel, and go for $40-55 per room. The weekend fleamarket is an attraction, as is the 15-minute metro ride into town. The service is more incompetent and offhand than actually rude, security is effective if intrusive. On the down side, in spite of the size of the complex and the passing trade from the fleamarket, it doesn’t have one decent place to eat.

A better, if less-known, bargain is the grim-sounding Hotel Tourist. Their “unmodernized” rooms go for only $35 for a twin, but the best bargain are their “upgraded” rooms, which are genuinely western 3-star, and a steal at only $45. There’s a cheerful and ultra-cheap cafe run by some jolly ladies (I had salad stolichny, sturgeon with vegetables, ice cream, two beers and a coffee and paid $9–the best bargain in Moscow). Against this, the exterior looks like a correctional institute, reception is chaotic–although friendly, and English spoken–and lit by one 40W bulb, and the entrance to the whole complex is extremely well-hidden, and topped-off with a barbed-wire perimeter fence. The metro is only a 5 minute walk, although it’s an open area by the River Yauza, and might not make an attractive late night walk for solo females–or even scaredy-cat lone males like me.

Bob: One other hotel which cries out to be recommended, though it is hardly in the budget range, is the Budapest. It is elegant, very central, extremely quiet, practically mafia-free and the service is better than in many of the five-star legion. At $110 for a single, it has to be one of the best values in town.

Neil: Bargains in the center are rare indeed–there are two old “Soviet-style” places which have yet to be upgraded and might be worth it. The Hotel Rossiya (Ul. Varvarka #6, tel: 298-5531) has a superb location, some rooms actually look onto St. Basil’s Cathedral. The Hotel Belgrade (Smolenskaya ploshchad #8, tel: 248-2841) is a bit better, the rooms are worn-out but usable, it helps if you are color-blind (green swirly carpet, purple curtains, orange bedspread, red chairs...). The location (opposite Arbat Street and the “Ghostbusters”-lookalike building of the Foreign Ministry) is excellent. Both suffer from late-soviet apathy among workers, pests in the rooms and hookers in the lobby, but will also only set-you back around $60-70 per room.

Bob Greenall lives in London, is a former managing editor of Russian Life and has written two books on travel to Russia (Explorer’s Guide to Russia and Explorer’s Guide to Moscow). Neil McGowan also lives in England and is the proprietor of The Russia Experience, Ltd. He has been organizing travel to Russia and Eastern Europe for over 16 years. (The opinions expressed in the article are those of their authors and do not necesarily reflect those of Russian Life or its editorial staff.)