Hotel Europe — Hotel in Irkutsk

I went to Europe hotel with 6 friends and my parents, they all stayed here for most of the week and everyone had a good stay.||My wife is russian, from Irkutsk, and we had our wedding party here, so it's very convenient for everyone to have the sleeping quarters very close. I stayed only 2 nights here, but enough to write a short review.||||Because we had the wedding here, my wife and i could stay in the bigger suite. It's spacious with a nice bath, big round table and kingsize bed. The room was specially decorated for the wedding, but i guess this is not common for normal guests :)||I also stayed in a single room, just the night before the wedding day (tradition). This room was a lot smaller, but big enough for me, just needed it for sleeping :) Although the price for this room was a lot higher in comparison with the double rooms, so i suggest to travel in pairs if you want to stay in this hotel.||If you compare prices with europe, it's cheap, but not for local people. It was in the first half of october, just the end of high season, and we had small discount because wedding party was organised here, but i still think the price is very okay.||||If there are parties in the restaurant, they will only take until midnight, at max.||Our room was on the street side, can be a bit noisy if you leave the windows open, as we did. Everywhere in russia the heating inside is at maximum, luckily you can turn it down in this hotel, but still it takes some time to cool the room down after opening a window.||||Breakfast is Russian style, most of the choices not really to my taste, but then again i don't eat much in the morning anyway.||||Staff is really friendly, but don't expect everyone to speak english, only the people at the reception will and some in the restaurant perhaps. This was no issue for us, it's enough.||||The hotel is just outside the center, but in good walking distance, 15-20min. There's a new district on the way to the center, lot's of good restaurants.||||So, in general a very good stay, nothing bad to comment. Will write a review about another hotel from this chain we stayed in Listvyanka, the same style as this one, but slightly better to my...

We had booked a budget room with two twin beds, as we were not expecting to spend much time in the room, and were pleasantly surprised when we got upgraded to a double at no additional cost. We asked for a quiet room on an upper floor and our room was on the fourth out of five floors. Although our neighbors, few as they were, were quiet, I doubt if there is really a quiet room here. Sounds from parties in the restaurant, and apparently this is common, weddings and such, filtered all the way up to our room, and street noise was inescapable. But the room was clean and comfortable. Although they advertise that they speak English, I had some trouble communicating with the front desk, so left most of that to my Russian wife. Even then we had trouble getting local restaurant information. We never did have a chance to try the hotel restaurant because of private parties. Breakfast was good, my wife appreciated it more than I, with slight variations over our 4 mornings (the Olivier salad on mornings 3 & 4 was almost as good as my wife and I make), but hearty enough to get us through our days of sightseeing. WiFi worked fine for us, unlike some other reviewers, although I had trouble accessing some sites, like email. Not sure where the problem lay there, though. Location is not bad, and after we learned how the streetcar system (15 rb per trip!) works it got a whole lot more convenient. Not a...

After struggling with the language barrier for 4 days to negotiate clapped-out taxis and find sustenance I was overwhelmed and instantly subdued by the quintessential European ambiance striking me as I entered classic European style reception to be greeted by a friendly English speaking lady.|My single room is small but clean and cosy and the bathroom is immaculate.|The breakfast buffet included the best coffee I've had in my 9 days in Russia with a delicious soufle style thing condecendingly titled 'omlet' and a very light yummy cheesy dumpling, rum ba-ba's and a girkin / potato salad culminating in a most interesting and tasty breakfast.|The receptionists booked a private car for me to visit 'the' lake in my quest for smoked Amul at just 400 rubles and further more in finding a repair shop for my camera. Great !|Following that perilous journey with numerous blind summits and the drivers temporary delay by the police for having tinted windows, I needed a drink and ventured to the hotels rather grubby, jaded and boring restaurant bar where they offer wine for 6000 rubles per bottle and paid an astonishing 940 rubles for two vodka martinis, stired not shaken. To re-visit the title I mention that I know I'm not James and remind the management that this isn't the Casino Royale, or even Europe; we're...