Where to stay in St Petersburg

Budget accommodation in St Petersburg
Hostels are still a relatively new phenomenon across Russia which means two things – there aren’t many of them but those that there are tend to be new and good.

Hotel California, on Marata Street, is the cheapest of all and probably the best place for the full hostel experience – coming complete with reputation as top haunt for hardened drinkers and hard-up hippies.

HI St Petersburg is clean and crisp but, like so many HI hostels, is also lacking something of a soul.

Probably the best of all is Nord Hostel, where the beds are spacious and soft, the staff helpful and the position – within tripping distance of the Hermitage – unbeatable.

Affordable accommodation in St Petersburg

Check out Hotel Neva for one of the city’s oldest hotels, full of character after nearly a century welcoming visitors to the city.

Rachmaninoff Art Hotel, on Kazanskaya, has a great location and fantastic decor which mixes old and new and, like the relaxed Fifth Corner hotel, on Vladimirskaya, offers free wi-fi availability throughout.

Luxury accommodation in St Petersburg

Set in an 18th century building and lavishly renovated insided in 2001, the Radisson SAS Royal Hotel has a superb location right in the middle of Nevsky Prospect.

The Kempinski Hotel sits in the grandest of buildings and offers spectacular views of the River Moika from one side and the Hermitage Museum on the other while the Grand Hotel Europe has won a string of accolades for its faultless service and spectacular facilities and can probably claim to be the city’s premier place to stay.

Martin Frimet