Our aMERRICKan Family: Hotel and Meals in Stavropol

One of the things about which we were very curious was what the accommodations would be like in Stavropol. A lot of Russian adoption materials say that you should not expect Western standards in Russian hotels outside of Moscow. We've read tales of no heat, no hot water, no English, etc. We were also interested in how the local cuisine might appeal to non-Russian palates. We learned on the Internet and from our agency that there are two hotels in Stavropol, the Intourist and the Euro. We have seen some pictures online and we were able to find the Intourist on Google Earth... but not the Euro Hotel. We stayed at the Euro Hotel and were very pleased. It's a lovely hotel and a place that just about any American would find comfortable. Our stay was in July 2008, so I make no guarantee about future prices but I'll list what we paid.

The Euro Hotel is located about 1 block north from Lenin Square in Stavropol. If you've looked at Stavropol on Google Earth, it's easy to find Lenin Square (just look for the big statue of Lenin in front of a large building with a large paved courtyard). The Euro Hotel is quite modern and the rooms were nice. It looks to be pretty new and is clean and well maintained. They are adding additional floors, but the construction was not an inconvenience for us. It's not the Ritz Carleton, but it's perfectly comfortable. The front desk always had someone on duty who spoke English and they accepted my Visa credit card. They have an ATM machine in the lobby where you can get cash (rubles) using your credit card if you need to. Unlike American hotels, you pay for your room each day or you can pay for the whole stay up-front. The hotel also took care of registering our passports and travel visas. This cost 200 rubles each and it had to be paid in cash up front. The lobby has a business center with a computer with Internet access. It cost us 20 rubles (80 cents) for 30 minutes of use (before 5:00). There is also wireless Internet throughout the hotel. You pay by the amount of data you send/receive instead of by the day. We bought the 29MB for 100 rubles ($4) plan. They also have something like 125MB for 500 rubles. 29MB was fine for us for 4 days of blogging and a few emails. The business center also has a travel desk where you will buy your tickets for your domestic Russian flight back to Moscow. The travel desk would also accepted my Visa card for a 1% fee. The Euro Hotel includes a breakfast bar in your room cost. They had Kasha (think thin oatmeal or grits), eggs, sausages (think kielbasa), Blinny's (think crapes) with sour cream or jam, yogurt, bread pudding, hard boiled eggs, Cinnamon bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, candied cheese (think ho-ho sized chocolate covered cheesecake), and pasta. It seems that pasta is common in Russia.

To drink they had coffee, hot tea, soda water, compote (think thin fruit juice), milk (think half and half... almost undrinkable to me and I LOVE milk!) and kefir (soured milk... not for the timid!). Eating a big breakfast is recommended because Russians don't usually eat lunch... and neither will you.

There is a lovely marble and decorative wrought-iron staircase and modern elevators. They have rooms with and without air conditioners. Our room cost 2400 rubles per day (~$100) and had two twin beds, a small refrigerator, a desk, television (seeing TV shows you recognize with Russian voice overs is a hoot!). The bathroom had a shower (not a tub), a western style toilet (not the porcelain hole in the floor you find in the Moscow airports), TOILET PAPER (unlike the Moscow airports) and towels (but no washcloths). They also had shampoo, soap, shower gel and a shower cap. They also had little bags where you... how to say an indelicate thing delicately... where you put your used bathroom tissue instead of flushing it down the toilet. There are no irons or hairdryers in the rooms. You can get a hairdryer from the housekeeping ladies on each floor (call the front desk). You borrow the hairdryer and return it to housekeeping as soon as you are finished with it. Oh yes, I almost forgot. The electricity. It's 220V 50Hz current and it uses a European plug. To use American electronics, you need a plug adaptor (we paid a couple dollars for one on Ebay). We saw a little kiosk in the shopping area selling them for 100 rubles ($4). If your electronics use dual voltage (almost all laptop power cords, video camera power cord, etc), then all you need is the plug adaptor. If the electronics are not dual voltage, you'll need a transformer. They are HEAVY and you only have a 20kg baggage limit... go buy a dual voltage curling iron... you'll be glad for it. Oh, I almost forgot.

If you want to use the electricity in your room, you have to put your room's keycard into a slot on the wall to enable the plugs to work. It keeps you from wasting electricity when you aren't in the room. There's probably a good lesson in that idea.

You can purchase bottled water and groceries (and a soccer ball) at the 24 hour supermarket that is around the corner (out the front door, go left, around the first corner and you are there). The supermarket girls had quaint uniforms that reminded me of a 1950's supermarket in America. They also were constantly baking fresh bread that smelled great. Most of the bottled water is soda water (they like it fizzy in Russia). If you can't read Russian, you can shake the bottle gently and look for the bubbles to see if you have regular water or soda water. They also have Coke and Pepsi (diet is called "light"). We also bought some cookies and things to try to stuff more calories into the kids. You don't need to be able to speak Russian to shop there. They ring you up and the total is displayed. You just pay and go.

In addition to the supermarket, the hotel is located in a very swanky shopping district. It reminded me of Easton for those who know the Columbus area. There were almost exclusively western stores (Gucci, New Yorker, etc) and they all play American dance music in them and sell clothes with English on them. We had a hard time finding anything Russian. We were able to find some Matryoshka dolls (nesting dolls) in a shop on the first floor of one of the "malls" (not the Galleria, the other one). The dolls were MUCH MUCH MUCH less expensive than the ones in Sheremetyevo airport. There are also several good restaurants along the shopping area. Yuri at the front desk of the hotel can give you recommendations and some had English menus available (the hotel restaurant has an English menu available). Yuri at the front desk is AWESOME... he can help with anything you need. We enjoyed the shish-kabob restaurant he recommended quite a bit. The restaurants in this area cost us about 800 rubles (~$35) for dinner for including diet Cokes and the customary 10% tip. If you are adventurous enough to wander down several blocks, you can find much less expensive eating... but be prepared to play charades to try to order if you don't speak Russian. We found a Pizza place that also had ice cream. Ice cream is VERY popular in Russia.

Reading this post, you'd think Stavropol is very upscale. The area around the hotel certainly fits that description (except for the falling down building next door). If you walk a half-mile, it changes to much older shops. Go a little further than that and you find crumbling fences and poorly maintained cottage sized houses. Other areas have rows and rows of Soviet era concrete apartment buildings.