PRICE:
Frommer's Highly Recommended

The Art Nouveau mosaic by Mikhail Vrubel that tops the Metropol's facade sets it apart in era and in style from other hotels of its class. Some of its grandeur has faded in comparison to the newer luxury hotels in the neighborhood, but the Metropol, built in 1901 and last renovated in 1991, remains a historic and visual treasure. Even the elevators are exquisite: glass-and-wood chambers ringed with mosaics reflecting the building's exterior. The tearoom is a cozy alternative to the almost-too-opulent main dining hall. The rooms are compact for the price, but several offer antique writing tables or armchairs once belonging to aristocratic Russian families that you won't find elsewhere. The Metropol counted author Leo Tolstoy and artist Kasimir Malevich among its guests before the Soviets took it over as offices. More recent guests have included Jacques Chirac and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although today's Moscow may be a capitalist wonderland, the hotel faces a statue of Karl Marx in Revolution Square, and the Metropol's western wall is still etched with stylistic letters reading: THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT IS READY TO FREE HUMANITY FROM THE YOKE OF CAPITAL. Across from the Marx statue is the Bolshoi Theater, making the Metropol an ideal spot for a post-theater bite. Now that the Hotel Moskva across the square has been razed, the Metropol has a view straight through to the Kremlin.

Facilities: 3 restaurants; nightclub and casino; health club; spa; Jacuzzi; sauna; concierge; tour desk; transport desk; limo; 24-hr. business center; shopping arcade; salon; 24-hr. room service; massage; laundry service; same-day dry cleaning; nonsmoking rooms; executive rooms

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Moscow & St. Petersburg, 2nd Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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