Day 10: The Hostel

The hostel that we stayed at while in Moscow was the Napoleon Hostel (www.napoleonhostel.com), the same place I stayed last year.  Like most hostels, it's a bit hard to find on the outside but inside the place is well maintained.

Hallway leading from the lounge and kitchen to the dorm rooms.	Inside one of the dorm rooms.

The biggest advantages of the Napoleon Hostel are:

1) Location.  The hostel is about three minutes away from a Metro station (Kitay Gorod) and about a ten minute walk from Red Square and the Kremlin. 

2) Price.  As with all hostels, the rates are very affordable, especially compared to the high prices of hotels.  In the high season, it costs 800 rubles per person per night (about $27)

Other things of note about the hostel: they have a kitchen if you want to buy/make/eat your own food, there are two desktop computers that you can use (though it can be handy if you know how to change the current keyboard language settings from Russian to English - every once in a while it gets switched to Russian.)  For a fee they will let you do laundry, they have an iron/ironing board you can use, and there are two showers (though the small shower tends to get a bit humid and seems more like a sauna).

There are small lockers that you can store valuables in (you need to provide your own lock) though in general if you keep things out of sight and have luggage locks that is generally sufficient. 

There are some disadvantages to the Napoleon as well:

1) It's a "party" hostel - if you're out in the lounge area there's always people there who more often than not are drunk and in the morning you'll often find a few of them passed out on the couch.  You can't hear them from the dorm rooms and the activity is kept confined to the lounge.

2) Customer service varies.  College students are often used as the day and night shift managers, and some of them care more about their job than others.  For instance, one of the managers changed which beds a Chinese tour group had while they were out during the day.  They came back and were, rightfully, upset and having been moved without being informed.

3) It's still a hostel.  Private rooms aren't available, so if you want that extra level of privacy or a little more luxury in your lodging, find a hotel.

Other things to note: the hostel is on the 4th floor and there is no elevator, so if you have a lot of luggage it's a bit of a beast to get everything moved up and down at the start and end of your stay.  However, they will let you store your luggage behind the desk or leave it in your room after you check out if you have an evening flight or train to catch.

Door leading from the stairway into the hostel.