Some basic advice for travelers:
Don't be afraid to book a hotel that’s not in the city center, even if it’s a little further out. But make sure there’s a metro station nearby. Even from the most distant metro stations it takes no longer than 30 minutes to reach the city center, and close to many of these stations you can find a nice park, be it Izmailovsky or the Soviet-era VDNKh, or perhaps an exceptional historical site or museum. In addition, the metro is also an important site that deserves to be enjoyed. Check out the interactive metro map here metro.yandex.ru.
- Hotel Astrus – $60-150* (next to Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station, red Line 1)
- Hotel complex in Izmailovo: Alfa, Beta, Gamma, Vega, Delta – from $40 to $400 (five big hotels of various quality next to the huge Izmailovsky Park and Partizanskaya metro station on blue Line 3 and Moscow Center Railroad)
- Holiday Inn Sokolniki (metro station Sokolniki, red Line 1, next to the beautiful park) – $60-200
- Hotel Cosmos (next to VDNKh metro station on orange Line 6 and VDNKh, with space museum and oceanarium inside) – $50-220
If you’re traveling for a sporting or big musical event:
Sergei Bobylev / TASS
We strongly recommend inquiring in advance about your stay before such major events as FIFA World Cup™. Prices are quite high at these times and hotels are overbooked, so you might have to rent an apartment, which is not always a guarantee of a good price-quality relationship.
If you need to be close to Spartak Stadium:
- Aquarium hotel, $130-190
- DOSAAF hotel, $30-80
- Happy Hotel, $72
- Mini hostel next to the stadium, $10-40
For Luzhniki Stadium:
- Hotel Corston, $80-300
- Hotel Luzhniki, $145-160
- Hotel Yunost, $80-130
- Sweet Dream hostel, $10-30
For CSKA Arena:
- Triumph Palace Boutique Hotel, $145-320
- ART Hotel, $40-180
- Aeropolis Hotel, $40-140
- CSKA Hotel, $40-70
For VTB Ice Arena:
- Maxima Panorama Hotel, $60-200
- Apart-Hotel PointZil, $45-95
- Best Seasons Hotel, $45-80
- Hostels Rus – Avtozavodskaya $7-10
On a business trip:
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If your personal assistant hasn’t booked a good hotel, or if you don’t have a personal assistant yet, then it’s better to stay close to your office or conference hall, or a rail station with Aeroexpress trains to airports.
- Ibis Kievskaya situated on blue Line 3 is fine if you need the Moscow City business hub or Crocus City. If you need Vnukovo Airport, then the nearby Kievskaya rail station is right there with a fast train to the airport – $50
- Nearby is Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel by Kievskaya metro and rail station, $100-300
- Novotel Moscow is right in the Moscow City business center, from $80
- Hotel Crocus Star 15-minute walk to Myakinino metro station, Crocus City Hall and Crocus Expo. Nearby is the indoor ski and snowboard venue, Snezh.com, $70
If you want to party hard:
Andrei Makhonin / TASS
Moscow has great nightlife, and clubs open 24/7 can be found almost everywhere. But these places have a large concentration of restaurants and bars: Pyatnitskaya Street, Patriarshiye Ponds, Tverskaya Streets and the former Red October factory zone. The best option will be to choose something nearby to save money on taxis (the Moscow metro works from 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.).
- Marco Polo Presnja Hotel, $70-250
- Peking Hotel with a rooftop bar, $65-150
- Citycomfort Hotel Novokuznetskaya, $40-60
- Fabrika hostel gallery café, $46-120
If you’re in town for museums and cultural life:
Yevgeny Alexeyev/Tretyakov Gallery
If you’ve come to Moscow for the first time, the most important things to see can be found in a maximum range of 20 minutes walk from each other. There are two options. The first is the area near the Kremlin, State Historical Museum, Pushkin Museum for Fine Arts and Multimedia Art Museum. In that case, the following hotels will suit you:
- The National – just 5 minutes walk from Kremlin. If you can’t afford staying here, have breakfast at the Dr Zhivago restaurant; from $270
- In Time Hotel next to Kremlin and Biblioteka Imeni Lenina metro station; $70-100
Option No. 2: if you prefer the Garage Museum in Gorky Park, the State Tretyakov Gallery and New Tretyakov Gallery, then:
- President Hotel, $90-200
- Medea hotel Novokuznetskaya metro station, $90-160
A riverside room please:
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The Moskva River might be not as famous as St. Petersburg’s Neva, but its banks are no less picturesque.
- Swisshotel Krasnye Kholmy is not far from Paveletskaya metro station and the House of Music concert hall, from $190
- Riverside Hotel (from $120) shares with Radisson Royal (from $270) in a Stalin-era skyscraper and former Ukraine hotel building. Nearby is a pier for Moskva River boat tours.
- Moscow Point Red October on the former factory site and full of night clubs, $90-170
- Ivan Chai - hotel and coffee is not far from Kolomensky Park and metro station, $40-60
If you’re a badass luxury traveler:
Hotel Baltschug Kempinski
These hotels don’t need special introduction; they have history and offer services at the highest level. But they’re not affordable for everyone. Foreign celebrities, presidents and sheikhs often stay here.
- Four Seasons Hotel Moscow – from $500; built anew based on the Stalin era plans; this is probably Moscow’s most expensive luxury hotel and the closest to the Kremlin.
- The Ritz-Carlton, from $560, with Novikov restaurant on the first floor.
- Ararat Park Hyatt, the rooftop bar has a fantastic view, from $400
- Hotel Baltschug Kempinski Moscow
- St. Regis Moscow Nikolskaya, from $300
- Metropol, from $200; the mosaics by Mikhail Vrubel on the façade can be enjoyed for free
*All prices are taken from Booking.com’s summer offerings.
Don’t forget to read our guide, What to do in Moscow 24 or 48 hours (you can even download and print it as a small brochure).