includes: bed & breakfast/3 night acc

Smolenskaya, 5; Metro Smolenskaya: The same approach and style as a large chain, but this is an independent hotel with a convenient Smolenskaya location, opposite the Arbat St (“Moscow’s Covent Garden”). Bristling with features and facilities, this is the Grand Hotel experience for a little less than other Moscow upscale hotels are asking? Totally rebuilt in 1998-99.

includes bed & breakfast/3 nights acc

Ostozhenka, 32; Metro Park Kultury: The “restaurant with rooms” concept comes to Moscow – but when the restaurant is the most exclusive Georgian gourmet eaterie in town, you know their hotel is going to be a little special? A select handful of rooms only, superbly tasteful in the Georgian style (that’s Georgia in the Caucasus – not the one with Atlanta and a Midnight Train) style, and on Ostozhenka – downtown Moscow’s most chic address. Your neighbours are the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Our prices are based on standard rooms, we are able to book rooms with Ostozhenka view and Fountain Yard view Prices are available on request.

includes bed & breakfast/3 nights acc

Plotnikov Pereulok 12; Metro Smolenskaya: After three years of coaxing and wheedling, we’ve finally got a deal at the Arbat. 3* downtown hotels without a major sleaze factor are rarer than honest traffic police in Moscow – this one’s not open to the public, and owned by the Federal Govt, but they made an exception for us. Rooms are small and a little dowdy, but... location, location, location. In London terms you’re in the heart of Covent Garden – Arbat Street’s souvenir-hunting is outside your window, and the immense soviet monolith of the Foreign Ministry looks bizarrely like the “Ghostbusters” building – who ya gonna call?

includes bed & breakfast/3 nights acc

Adr. Bolshaya Filevskaya, 25: Yes, we’ve told them “Gof” doesn’t mean anything in English – it was supposed to be “Hof” (“Hall”) in German, but Russian hasn’t got a letter “h”. (Seriously, at Moscow McRonald’s they serve “gamburgers”). This one’s a personal favourite – a “Scandinavian-style” hotel at Filyovsky Park (where the Russian troops rallied against Napoleon), six direct-line metro stops from the Kremlin gates. Moscow’s most famous weekend market for not-strictly-legal electronics is nearby too... fun to look, anyhow!

includes 3* b&b or 2* room only/3 nights acc

Gostinichnaya Ul 1; Metro Petrovsko-Razumovskaya: Zarya is home for us – we have our Moscow office at this hotel too. Building 12 is upgraded to top-end 3* western standard, in spick’n’span Germanic style. Building 9 has been redecorated and hits a safe 2* rating, although the bathrooms are older-looking in the 2* wing. There’s a cheerful street market here, and although the metro station is a bit of a mouthful (“Petrovsko-Razumovskaya”) it’s just 4 mins walk past the market... a fifteen-minute ride takes you to the Circus, Pushkin Square, or the Kremlin’s Borovitsky Gate.