Herzen House — Hotel in Адмиралтейский округ

We stayed here for 3 nights during our 12 day trip to Norway, Finland and Russia. We chose this hotel after reading about it in a Rick Steves guide. We came by train (3.5 hours) from Helsinki,Finland which was a very easy, comfortable way to travel (all passport paperwork handled from the comfort of your seat) and I'd highly recommend it. The only problem with coming by train and not by boat is that we needed a Visa. In order to get a Visa, you need an invitation from someone in Russia. I contacted the hotel beforehand and they processed our Visa invitations for the cost of about $15 USD per person. We then used Passport Visa Express to process the Visas. From the suggestion of Rick Steves, we also had the hotel provided a car service to pick us up at the train station. The driver was very nice, helped us with our bags, and accompanied us up the elevator dropping us off on the 4th floor in the hotel lobby. The hotel staff spoke English and was very helpful. We arrived at about 11 am - before the stated check in time - but we were shown to our room right away. We were able to eat lunch at a fast food place called Teremok which was a block away. Good homemade stuffed crepes - ask for the English menu. We had set up a private tour with Tailored Tours of St. Petersburg and spent 2 days with them - one day in the local area and one day in Pushkin and Peterhof. The hotel was no frills but clean and comfortable. They had a nice welcome booklet, addressed to us, with info about the hotel and area. I booked the standard room which did not include amenities and there was no shampoo in the room but we just bought a bottle for a dollar at a drug store around the corner. Next time I'd just bring my own. There weren't a ton of different choices at breakfast but it was good. The hotel was in an awesome location with many tourist sites, mini supermarket, drug store, and restaurants nearby. We enjoyed eating dinner at the Clean Plate Society nearby. More people then we expected spoke English so we were Ok navigating the city alone on our last day in St. Petersburg. The hotel held our bags after we checked out. We took the metro and it was very clean and decorative. Prices on everything were much less expensive then in Norway and Finland. For our last day we visited the Faberge Museum with the English audio guide. To get back to the train station, we had the hotel call us a taxi. The cost was much less then the car pick up service. We were very comfortable and happy with our stay at this hotel and wouldn't hesitate to recommend...

I spent 4 nights at Herzen House in a standard room. The room was extremely basic, no bed side tables and a small room. I think I was probably given the smallest standard room.The bathroom had a good shower however the towels were really threadbare. The hotel is located on the top floor and at least there is a lift to the hotel, so getting luggage up is easy. The layout of the hotel is disjointed with reception on one side of passage and the breakfast room and some of the rooms the other side of passage from the lift, and your access card is needed each time to open the doors. Breakfast is terrible, it was a reminder of backpacking through Europe. The breakfast room does provide 24 hour coffee and tea at a self help station, which was good as there are no kettles in the rooms. The metro was further away than advertised. If you want to be close to St Isaacs cathedral then it’s a good location, but the hotel has only its location going for it...I would suggest you find a hotel with the same price that is not as centrally located but close to a metro, as it’s Easy to use and cheap. I also used Bolt/Taxify all the time as it’s also very cheap. So location is not that important as the sights are so scattered over the city that you will need transport to get around. I wouldn’t stay...

We were in St. Petersburg during the White Nights and run up to the Scarlet Sails festival so the whole place was very busy.||Herzen House, although situated on a main road was an oasis of calm and quiet.||The hotel is on the top floor of a 4 storey building with the ground floor being occupied by 2 good restaurants and floors 2 and 2 belonging to a Comfort hotel.||Great location, most of the major attractions are within walking distance, and for those that aren't, the metro is 2 minutes away.||The staff were most helpful, even assisting us to print off attraction tickets at no extra charge.||Our room, although small was spotlessly clean and had all the amenities needed for a comfortable stay.||No tea making facilities, but hot and cold drinks were available 24hrs in the breakfast room.||Breakfast (0800-1100) was simple but adequate with good quality ingredients.||||2 very small critisms:||WiFi was a bit patchy.||Tea making facilities did run out later at night.||||If we were to stay in St. Petersburg again, we would definitely choose...