Hotel + guides in Russia

With a Viking River Cruises trip in Russia planned to start on Oct. 1, 2006, my husband and I decided to arrive a day early in St. Petersburg and also stay an extra night in Moscow after the cruise. My first job was to secure hotel reservations, which proved to be very difficult mainly because only about 25% of the e-mails I sent were answered or the hotels were already full. The other reason is that prices are high in Russia for even basic rooms.

One of the exceptions to this was a little gem of a hotel whose owner answered every question. Casa Leto Hotel (34 Bolshaya Morskaya, St. Petersburg, 190000, Russia; phone +7 812 600 10 96 or visit www.casaleto.com) is a family-run hotel perfectly located by St. Isaac’s Cathedral.

Through them I arranged a driver to pick us up at the airport for €40 (near $50), and when we arrived he was waiting inside with a sign with our name on it. It could not have been easier. He deposited our bags upstairs, and the hotel asked that we not pay him as they would take care of it and add it to our room charge, which was €150 ($190).

Our room was nice, spacious and clean, with a comfortable bed. The surprise was a heated bathroom floor.

The staff, who spoke excellent English, went out of their way to be accommodating. There was a small bar and kitchen, and they offered to make us a sandwich and also refreshments and snacks. In the morning, when they saw we were awake early, they cooked us a private hot breakfast (included) at a pretty table set for two. I could have stayed there another night easily, but our guide was waiting for our tour.

Our guide in St. Petersburg was Julia Ivanushkina (phone +7 812 379 26 33 or mobile +7 921 324 46 40 or e-mail julia@spbwondertour. com). Her charge was €20 ($25) per hour and included a van with her husband as driver. She picked us up at the hotel and at the end of the day dropped us off right beside the ship for embarkation. Since she is licensed, we did not have to pay for her admission to the museums.

Because her husband was able to drop us off close to the entrances and stay with the car, we felt we saw so much more than we normally would have. Julia has had experience with Viking River Cruises, so she had an idea as to what we were going to see on their tour and made great suggestions as to other places to go.

A simple one was a large supermarket, where she pointed out sweets, vodka, etc., that we might want to buy at very good prices and take on the cruise. It was fun to walk through and see what was sold in the cases.

My husband and I both had read “Siege and Survival” by Elena Skjabina (1973, Pinnacle Books), about the 900-day seige of St. Petersburg by Germany in 1941-1944, and when Julia took us to see the Siege Memorial it really made the event come to life. We found Julia to be educated, organized, efficient, knowledgeable, eager to please and very proud of her country and especially her city. We also made a great lunch stop at a local restaurant.

In Moscow, after debarking ship on Oct. 11, we stayed at the Ukraina Hotel (2/1 Kutuzovsky Prospect, Moscow, Russia; phone +7 [495] 933 56 56 or visit www. ukraina-hotel.ru) for $225 plus tax.

Moscow was much more expensive for most things, and I had a very hard time finding a hotel in our price range in a central location. After the Ukraina e-mailed me and said they were full, I finally used AAA, which was able to book a room there.

This hotel has about 700 rooms and 29 floors and is one of “Stalin’s Seven Sisters” or skyscrapers he built. It has a lot of history, not to mention a beautiful lobby, several restaurants, a bar and gift shops. Our room was large but not memorable, but the fabulous breakfast buffet (included) more than made up for it, we thought.

Our guide for Moscow was Arthur Lookianov (phone +7 [+8] 495 946 0440 or e-mail arthur@moscow-driver.com). A jovial young man who is knowledgeable of the history and speaks English well, he picked us up at the ship in his new car and took us first to the hotel to check in.

He knew his way around Moscow, and together we chose sights that we did not see on the Viking tour. We had a ton of questions for him and he did his best to answer them all. For lunch we stopped at a great restaurant that the locals eat at.

Arthur charged us $150 for the day and even added some bonus places that he wanted us to see. He returned us to our hotel that evening. We liked him so well, we hired him to take us to the airport in the morning instead of hiring a taxi. It takes a minimum of an hour to get there, and he charged $60.

Arthur is really likable, and we highly recommend him in Moscow as well as Julia in St. Petersburg.

We had a worry-free, educational and truly enjoyable trip, and, after doing a lot of research, I feel all of the prices we paid were of good value, for the area.

PAM ZENT

Chelan, WA