Front desk was sincere and polite, which made us felt very welcomed especially in view of our early morning arrival. Hotel accommodated our prior request to check in at 7am. Good view of the Angara River from the room. Room is rather basic but clean. While not right smack in the core of the city center, Irkutsk is a small town and walking to the hotel from 130 Kvartal took just around 15mins - not bad for an after dinner stroll.
We stayed at this hotel for one night while travelling on the rail between Moscow and Beijing.
We arrived about 6.30pm with dinner included after booking in earlier in the day and had a set dinner for 7.30pm.
Unfortunately the dinner quality was very poor and luke warm. Breakfast was similar.
we understand the hotel is being refurbished but this should not have affected the meal.
On the other hand our room was excellent and was among one of the largest rooms we had stayed in on this trip.
The hotel is at boulevard Gagarina, border with the Angara river promenade. The building itself look from the Soviet era hence has lack of beauty, also I was told it had renovated in 2006. But I guess the renovation has not reached the rooms. We had superior twin room overlooking the river which was spacious and clean. It was extremely large, twice size of normal rooms. May be it is ridiculous to complain about a large room when most of the room are very small. But it was too big I think we can play football there. At the entrance was a very wide place with wardrobe. We have lot of space (actually too much), for our entire luggage.
The room was very clean so was the shower. We had a good firm mattress and a couple of pillows that enable good sleep. They cleaned the room every day and fresh linens were provided. There was a fridge in the room and Wi-Fi.
It is not very far from the center, and since Irkutsk`s touristic part is not very big, we walked to most of those historic spots by foot. It takes about 10mins walking to Karl Marx Street, one of the mains.
Desk staff was very good and helpful, some speak excellent English, others struggled a little but we never had unsolved problem.
Breakfast was good not outstanding, but enough.
All in all it is a good value for money.
We 2 senior citizens stayed in that hotel 4 nights in September, as a stop of our travel with the trans- siberian train. We got a twin bedded studio on the sixth floor. It was above our usual standard, we left our reserved hotel because it was not good, and it was difficult to find a free room. The unit was really large, and the view was superb, the front wall of the room was a large glassed window, facing the Angara river. But the interior of the unit, the furniture, carpet, wall decoration, were old fashioned and worn out. This unit could be a pearl, but it deserves an urgent renovation. The public areas of the hotel are renovated.Anyhow the beds were good, and so the bathroom. The reception was very helpful , the best in our east siberian tour. The lifts were good. The breakfast buffet was not rich, but good enough to be well fed.
Great hotel with the Soviet past. It is situated on the river Amhara and gives you plenty of opportunities to walk or take tours from this very place. You can use ferries to Baikal from there. The city center is here you will be in the heart of activities. Inside it is a little bit tired.
