Universitetskaya Hotel

I have discovered another budget priced hotel in Moscow, an expensive city. No sorry, it's not in the Kremlin, but it is well located near Moscow State University, hence the name Universitetskaya Hotel (http://www.hotel-universitet.ru.)
I had heard of the hotel before, but thought it was open only to people studying at the university. It is managed by the Pilgrimage Center of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church, and open to all. (However, the hotel's Website talks about its quiet, homey atmosphere, so don't expect party central.) Single rooms with bath and breakfast start at 1800 rubles, about $75, and basic doubles start at twice that amount. There is free parking, a rarity in Moscow, and the hotel is in a green area of the Sparrow (formerly Lenin) Hills.
It sounds like a good bet for those looking for a peaceful refuge in a busy city that is not far from downtown. It is rated three stars and is 15 storeys tall.

Not your mother's Aeroflot

I recently flew on Aeroflot Russian airlines (http://www.aeroflot.com) from Moscow to Irkutsk and back, and was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness and newness of the plane, as well as the service. Best of all, all announcements were bilingual in Russian and English.
I did suffer a little nostalgia for the good/bad old days of Aeroflot when a surly unilingual air hostess pushed my travel companion down in her seat when she tried to go to the washroom while the seat belt sign was illuminated. In Soviet times Aeroflot was an accurate introduction to the difficulties foreign visitors were likely to experience on the ground. Today, though, the airline is thoroughly modern. My only complaint was that I could not figure out how to order an alcoholic beverage in economy class. I think the drill is you have to order and pay for it in advance of the meal, but I'm not sure. Another change is that Aeroflot no longer serves Canada, so there is no non-stop flight from Montreal to Moscow as there used to be.
I flew in a comfortable Airbus, and on its Website the airline boasts that its fleet which consists of both Airbus and Boeing aircraft, is among the newest in Europe. No more lurching Turpolevs, and at least on the Irkutsk route, no more scrambling for seats because seats were often unassigned and overbooked.
The flight to Irkutsk is long, six hours, but proved to be smooth and I felt a sense of security knowing that if any problem did arise, we were over land and for most of the trip there was little on the ground to hit except for trees.
Aeroflot is advertising special fares on some routes within Russia, including a return fare as low as 2,000 rubles (about $75) to Mineralnye Vody in southern Russia, a spa town and gateway to the fractious Caucuses region.

Moscow Hotel Bargain

Last week during a visit to Moscow I spent several nights at the Alpha Hotel, part of the Izmailovsky Park complex of hotels. This is a large but pleasant hotel that caters to tour groups big and small, and the cost of my room, which included an enormous and tasty breakfast buffet, was included in my tour price. When I checked the price online, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the cost of a room at this time of year starts at only $77. Checking prices for September, I found that they were higher, but still as low as $102 per night. The summer price is about half what I paid last time I was in Moscow in 2007, for a hotel situated equally far from the center.
Rooms at the Alpha are basic but very clean, and mine had a tub, hard to find even in Russian homes. The Alpha, which is part of a five hotel complex comprising 7,500 rooms, keeps to the old Soviet system of having an attendant on each floor. You are supposed to leave your room key with her when you leave, and she also keeps track of the minibar and telephone charges. Long distance rates were moderate--about $10 for a five or six minute call to North America.
One big advantage of the Alpha is its location, literally just across the street from a Metro station. The station is listed on my Metro map as Park Izmailovsky, but now seems to be known mainly as Partizanskaya, and it connects directly to the stations near Red Square downtown. Another plus is that it is next to a very large park and to the Izmailovsky souvenir market, an ornate Disneyesque place with turreted buildings that is reputed to have some of the best prices in Moscow for souvenirs. Unfortunately the market is open only on weekends.
With such bargain room prices (for Moscow) there had to be a drawback to this hotel, and there is, especially for summer visitors. Rooms are not air-conditioned, and it looks as if the city is in for another very hot summer. If you leave the windows open for air at night, it can be hard to sleep because of traffic noise--rooms on higher floors are better. I was so tired because of the fast pace of my tour that I didn't have much trouble sleeping, but it is a consideration.
Rates quoted above are from the Website http://www.moscow-hotels.net.