AZIMUT Отель Мирный — Hotel in городское поселение Мирный

Ongoing oilfield operations in Eastern Siberia led me to the town of Mirny where I spent a couple of days particularly in Zarnitsa hotel. The location of the hotel is in the town centre, close to city administration, cinema and concern hall, some shops etc. The town is not big anyways, so it is probably about 3-4 km drive from the airport (where you most likely will arrive if you are ever to visit Mirny, unless you go by car from another place). The landmark of Mirny is the diamond mine, which is a huge hole in the ground (1.5 km or so in diameter, half km or so deep - it is actually in world's top ten of the deepest holes in the ground, with an 8 km track for trucks carrying diamond ore. There is a kimberlite museum across the road hotel but you either have to be a geologies to walk around rocks and understand what makes them intersting to watch or book a guided tour. I guess it is worth giving a try if you are stuck there and can use time to explore (in a way) this undoubtedly interesting and rich province. ||To hotel: I think it is a good business hotel. The rooms we stayed at were pretty standard. The windows overlooked the town main square. The shower was nothing special but ok. TV-set could have been, should I say, a bit more modern - seriously, LCD or plasma are not that expensive nowadays, given that the price of the room are not at all budget (not that I cared much about the prices for the firm paid anyway). There is a little refrigerator, a bit hard to discover hidden behind one of those furniture doors - a little quest for you))) There is no kettle but one could be obtained froom the maid. The breakfast was included and it was allright. I quite like the fact that Russian hotels started providing some sort of variety for breakfast: they do not only serve typically breakfast foods like oatmeal, cereal, eggs but also put some "heavy" foods more commonly seen at lunch or dinner.||I should also mention the reception personell work, they were quite helpful. I couldn't estimate their foreign language abilities for obvious reasons but something's telling it is not a problem there. The problem is wi-fi. I put down "paid wifi" but it is a bit more complicated than that. The hotel reception sells wi-fi cards from some local operator. They never seem to have them, and if they do the price is 1 RUR (50 RUR per 1 USD) per 1 ...Mb (back to 20th century)!!! If you need wi-fi like urgently, there is a place called Banchette - it is a cafe that serves pizza and some other dishes they do have free wi-fi. If you are resident (Russian citizen) and have to stay for more than 2 days, buy a local sim card with some included internet. Look for deals I have purchased one from Megafon for 200 RUR with 3 Gb of internet on it. As long as you don't stream videos constantly this should be ok for checking e-mails, news, social networks. At the reception area they have a little souvenier shop.||To conclude it all - as I said Mirny is a small town and there probably aren't too many competitors for Zarnitsa hotel. Yet, at least the quality of service doesn't suggest the attitude "whatever, there are no other hotels in the place, you will (have to) come again anyway". So it gives hope that despite all the mentioned shortcomings things will only get better...

Mirny is a town in Siberia which has grown up to support the extensive diamond mining operations of the Alrosa company. The whole town is either owned or run by the company, and with no road or rail access, one might not expect too much from the local hotel.||The Zarnitsa Hotel in Lenin Square was therefore a very pleasant surprise, as it was notably better than any of the other five hotels we stayed at during our trip across Russia. It’s located in central Mirny, a five minute drive from the airport.||The rooms were larger than we’d experienced elsewhere and the general standard of the hotel was much better than we had anticipated.||The main restaurant wasn’t available for the two nights we stayed; there was a wedding celebration on the Saturday night and the restaurant is closed on Sundays. Instead, we ate at the small café, also on site. The hotel didn’t serve alcohol, but they were perfectly OK about guests ordering beers at the bar next door and bringing them back to drink in the café. Whilst the service was very slow, we were in no hurry, and the waitress was absolutely charming which more than made up for the wait. Like other places outside of major cities such as Moscow or St Petersburg, the hotel’s free wifi is only accessible if you have a Russian phone number, however, it was sometimes possible to log on via the ‘guest alrosa’ network although the reception was inconsistent. If you’re planning on visiting places off the beaten track in Russia, the best option is to buy a Russian SIM card when you first arrive in the country.||In the unlikely event that you ever find yourself staying in Mirny, in Yakutia, Siberia, I’d certainly recommend the...

The check in takes about 30 minutes per person, so if you're 3rd in the queue, it's very frustrating. Only one person working and he was very slow.||||One of the elevators won't go to 1st floor.||||hotel entrance was clearly designed by someone who had never been in a hotel before... lots of steps and doors that make it very difficult when carrying luggage.||||Rooms are tiny, dirty, and horrendously overheated. The only climate control is opening the window.||||Breakfast is disgusting. Bring your own if you can.||||Other meals are horrendously overpriced, slow, and not tasty.||||Wifi doesn't work well.||||No blackout curtains.||||I'm looking for an alternative for my next...