Where to Stay in Moscow - Moscow and St. Petersburg - page 111

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opulence and kitsch. Deep discounts are common, and suites are not worth the sharply
higher price. The Leningradskaya is well-equipped for kids but lacks any family-friendly
food options on the premises.
21/40 Kalanchevskaya Ulitsa. & 495/627-5550. Fax [phone]. www.hilton.com. 220 units. 9,000
rubles double; from 21,000 suites. AE, DC, MC, V. Metro: Leningradskaya. Amenities: Restaurant, cafe-bar;
babysitting; concierge; health club; room service; sauna; spa. In room: A/C, satellite TV, fridge, hair dryer;
Wi-Fi.
Sovietsky Hotel Everything about the hotel is big: The 12-foot-plus ceilings, the
malachite columns, the Art Nouveau chandeliers, the regal corridors built on a space-is-
no-object scale. The guest rooms have relatively generous floor space and seem even
bigger because of the high ceilings. The Sovietsky was built in the 1950s on the site of a
legendary restaurant, Yar (p. 132), there for more than a century. It fell into disrepair as
the country that it was named after collapsed, then launched massive renovations. It's
now increasingly popular with business and pleasure travelers, Russian and international.
The room decor remains largely stuck in the Soviet era, with clashing flowery prints on
wallpaper, curtains, bedspreads, and carpets. The restaurant is worth a tour to glimpse
the wall-to-wall-to-ceiling frescoes. The summer terrace in the courtyard is a calmer place
to dine. Pets are accepted, and all rooms now have air-conditioning, still rare in Russia.
32/2 Leningradsky Prospekt. & 495/960-2000. Fax [phone]. www.sovietsky.ru. 100 units. From
7,200 rubles double; from 8,800 rubles suite; 20,000 rubles apt. AE, DC, MC, V. Free guarded parking.
Metro: Dinamo. Amenities: Restaurant (plus summer terrace dining); 2 bars; nightclub; lounge; children's
center; concierge; health club; room service; sauna; free Wi-Fi in lobby. In room: A/C, TV w/satellite, fridge,
hair dryer.

MODERATE
Alpha This is one of the hotels in the Izmailovsky Hotel Complex, a collection of
adjacent, nearly identical hotel towers that were originally under single ownership as
Moscow's biggest hotel, with more than 8,000 rooms. Now they are four separate entities
named after letters of the Greek alphabet. I've included three of the hotels in this section;
the fourth hotel, the Beta, is in such disrepair that I don't recommend it. The complex is
far from the city center but right next to a metro station—and to the biggest outdoor
crafts and souvenir bazaar in town, the renowned Izmailovsky Market (see chapter 8 for
shopping hints). The drab 28-story towers are linked by terraced concrete plazas with
fountains in the summer, a design that seemed futuristic when they were built in the
1980s but now seems rather bleak. The Alpha is closest to the metro and the most garish
of the complex's four hotels. Its labyrinthine lobby clearly posts its rates on a huge board
and harbors a sushi bar.
71 Izmailovskoye Shosse. & 499/166-4602. Fax [phone]. www.alfa-hotel.ru. 945 units. From 4,100
rubles double; from 8,200 suite. AE, MC, V. Metro: Izmailovsky Park. Amenities: 3 restaurants; cafe; 2 bars;
concierge; health club; room service; sauna. In room: TV w/satellite, fridge, Internet 180 rubles/hr.

5

Cosmos This sweeping, semicircular structure looks down over the show-
case All-Russian Exhibition Center (p. 152) that, like the hotel, was built to shameless
Soviet scale. Size does matter at the Cosmos: 25 floors, more than 1,700 rooms, nine
restaurants. Built for the 1980 Olympics, it is back in demand among foreigners of all
nationalities. The style is late Soviet, where practicality trumps aesthetics. Endless corri-
dors lead to basic rooms, most of which have views of large swaths of Moscow—though
not its most picturesque. Guest rooms and bathrooms are surprisingly compact. Location
is the major drawback. Though the metro is nearby, it takes a good 5 minutes just to walk