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Business Hotel Karelia  K  Their new rooms are great, but the location is bad.
St. Petersburg, Russia   www.karelia.spb.ru   Phone: 7 (812) 118-4048

Rates of rooms renovated in year 2000: Luxury suite $108; semi-luxury suite $90; executive single $54; executive double $58; executive twin $68; executive single large $58; executive double large $62.

Rates for older unrenovated rooms: From $26 to $62, depending upon the size.

Location Rating: Very poor. The views from the hotel are awful. Ugly, soviet style apartment buildings are all you see. No nearby businesses. Very far from the metro. A really dull neighborhood with nothing interesting in sight.

Proximity To The Metro: Extremely Poor. You can't walk there, unless you want to waste an entire day hiking. We picked up the 28 mini-bus outside of Ploshchad Vosstaniya Metro Station, and for 10 rubles per person it will take you straight to the hotel. But it is a fairly long drive. Coming back, we took the 320 mini-bus (9 rubles per person) to Ploshchad Lenina Metro Station. It was a punishing ride, as the roads were in terrible shape. We also noticed that the 185 mini-bus would take you to Ploshchad Aleksandra Nevskovo Metro Station.

Lobby Appearance: Old. Needs new furniture.

Room Appearance: The new rooms are really nice, comfortable, and big. The bathrooms are big too. The older, lower class rooms for $26 or $32 are much better than the Sportivnaya, which wanted about the same money. But the rooms are still old and basic. The $26 room I saw had an odor. The administrator who showed us the rooms often had difficulty with the keys and locks. And if she had trouble opening them, you will probably have trouble opening them too.

Useful Nearby Businesses: The hotel has an old, beat looking restaurant with a stage. It is a big restaurant. The cafe was okay. They have lots of pool tables, an air hockey table you can play for just 10 rubles per game, a couple pinball machines and a few gambling machines. Outside of the hotel complex there are no other businesses within sight.

Hotel Restaurants: See above.

Other Amenities: Their brochure says they have a night club, currency exchange office, sauna, laundry and beauty salon.

Would I Stay Here? Yes, I would stay in the renovated rooms. They are very comfortable. But the location of this place stinks. So it would not be among my first choices.

Staff Speaks English? The administrator who showed us around understood some English. She was very accommodating.

Comments: An advertisement says they have 174 rooms. But only 72 have been renovated. With the landscape full of tall, unattractive soviet-style apartment buildings that are in varying stages of decay, and nothing else, this location is a bit lonely. It is far from the excitement of the inner city. It takes too long to get to a metro station. There is nothing interesting to see here; no interesting place to hangout and relax; no river; no canal; no monuments; no gardens; no historical sights. Just a large, plain open space area surrounded by apartment buildings. Very, very dull. But they do have rooms that I would find very comfortable to spend the night in. They look new. Most of them had a wooden floor look. One had carpeting. We saw about 8 rooms altogether. The older rooms I would not be thrilled about staying in. For the money, the newer rooms are a good deal.

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