Where to Stay in Moscow - Moscow and St. Petersburg - page 97

97

Getting Back Home

Keep a hotel business card or brochure with you at all times, with the hotel's
name and address written in Russian. You can show this to cab drivers or emer-
gency workers to ensure you get home safely.

you want a double bed. Single rooms and
single rates for double rooms are widely
available, so if you're traveling alone, be
sure to ask.
Few hotels offer car rentals in the stan-
dard sense, but most can arrange a car

with a driver for a few hours or the dura-
tion of your stay, generally at a reasonable
or negotiable price. The listings below
refer to this service as a “transport desk.”
See “Getting There & Getting Around” in
chapter 3 for a rundown on car rentals.

1 AROUND THE KREMLIN & RED SQUARE

VERY EXPENSIVE
Ararat Park Hyatt The newest addition to Moscow's top-of-the-line hotel
fleet, Ararat is worth a visit just for the view from—and of—its top-floor atrium bar.
Named after the mountain where Noah's Ark is believed to have landed, the hotel aims
for grandeur and succeeds. Unlike its neighbors, the Metropol and the National, the
Ararat inhabits a richly modern building with no claims to historical significance. It has
all the services expected of a 21st-century, five-star hotel. There's nothing quiet or subtle
about this patch of Moscow, with the Bolshoi Theater, Red Square, and the Kremlin just
around the corner, and the haute couture boutiques of Tretyakovsky Proyezd across the
street. The top-floor Conservatory lounge and bar offers snacks and cocktails, and its
split-level hall is ideal for watching midnight sunsets in July from the 10th floor. True to
its name, the hotel has an Armenian-themed restaurant as well, an updated version of a
1960s-era Moscow landmark. (Mt. Ararat was in Armenia until Turkey subsumed it in
1915.)
4 Neglinnaya Ulitsa. & 800/591-1234 or 495/783-1234. Fax [phone]. www.moscow.park.hyatt.
com. 220 units. 28,000 rubles double; 78,000 courtyard room; 238,000 diplomatic suite. AE, DC, MC, V.
Metro: Kuznetsky Most or Lubyanka. Amenities: 3 restaurants; 2 bars; babysitting; concierge; executive-
level rooms; health club; Jacuzzi; room service; sauna; smoke-free rooms; spa. In room: A/C, satellite TV,
fridge, hair dryer, minibar, Wi-Fi.

5

Le Royal Meridien National The National is a superbly located and impec-
cably designed spot from which to discover Moscow. Built in 1903, it housed aristocrats
and their arch-enemy Vladimir Lenin, who stayed here (in room 107, according to the
hotel—although the exact room number is debatable, a victim of Soviet revisionist his-
tory) as he imagined a Communist revolution. Perched on the edge of Tverskaya Street,
the National looks directly at Red Square and the Kremlin and the throbbing heart of
the capital. Rooms are decorated in dark lacquered woods and empire armchairs, and
even the trouser presses blend with the decor. Hotel marketing materials admit that the
single and double rooms are “not large,” though they make good use of the limited space.
An afternoon break in the mezzanine cafe will make you feel pampered even if you're not