hotels

[Renee Stillings]

Alarming when $330 for a double (melody hotel) is "not very expensive" these
days by Moscow standards. Right now it is much more affordable to rent a
short-term apartment in the center. You can get a studio apartment for more
like $150-200/night, complete with internet access and free international
calls. We have a way to book these via our site at
http://www.sras.org/travel_services but there are a few other agencies
offering the same. 

The difference between $330 and $150-200 may not be critical for 1-2 nights,
but for anyone staying more than a couple of days that adds up. 

Those not speaking any Russian may be concerned about an apartment not
having front-desk help with things like (overpriced) taxis, but given that
many of these apartments are right on Tverskaya, all the fancy hotels are
just a few minutes walk away. So it is still possible to hang out in their
more cushy lounges and bars and pick up a Moscow Times, have meetings, etc.

Otherwise, in terms of hotels, the only way to get the rates down to
something rational for anyone other than businessmen on a lush expense
account is to go outside the ring to tourist-class hotels like
Izmailova-Vega.

St. Pete definitely as a much wider range of rationally priced boutique
hotels in the center.


Renee



**


Otherwise, I
would say that the Melodia hotel in Moscow

http://www.melody-hotel.com/
 is centrally located and not very expensive, other cheap options would be
hostels. Unfortuantely, Moscow is too overpriced now so all cental hotels
are ridiculously expensive...

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