Listvyanka
This purpose-built hostel located at the far end of ul Chapaeva provides top-notch digs for backpacker prices, leaving Listvyanka’s other flat-footed…
Listvyanka
This purpose-built hostel located at the far end of ul Chapaeva provides top-notch digs for backpacker prices, leaving Listvyanka’s other flat-footed…
Olkhon Island
Occupying a sizeable chunk of Khuzhir, this intricately carved timber complex has grown (and continues to grow) into one of Siberia’s top traveller hang…
Ulan-Ude
So central is this high-ceilinged apartment hostel, you might even catch a glimpse of Lenin’s conk from one of the windows. The 14 beds are divided…
Krasnoyarsk
Housed in a 19th-century former religious school for girls, the romantic French theme and impeccable personal service set the Iris apart from most…
Irkutsk
Experienced tour guide Jack Sheremetoff had a super-central apartment hostel in Irkutsk long before the word even entered the Russian language. Despite…
Krasnoyarsk
A sparkling oasis for budget travellers who have made it all the way here through Siberia’s snowy wilderness, this boutique hostel features a large…
Tuva
Cupped by bare hills at an attractively sacred site by the Yenisey River, the luxury yurts at this upmarket complex have flushing toilets, air…
Eastern Siberia
Well signposted from ul Olkhonskaya, SB’s best guesthouse maintains immaculate and imaginatively designed rooms in three buildings, providing glimpses of…
Tuva
Located 55km north of Ak-Dovurak, the Say-Khonash Yurt Camp is the quintessential nomadic experience and brings visitors as close to the authentic rural…
Eastern Siberia
The best reason to get off at Tayshet is Igor Shalygin, an English- and German-speaking travel enthusiast who runs a cosy homestay in the old town,…
Olkhon Island
The owners, a former Soviet table-tennis champion and his polyglot wife, indulge in interior design passion, as you will immediately notice when you move…
Irkutsk
Described by some as the finest luxury sleep east of the Urals, this very central Japanese hotel gets rave reviews and justifiably so. The 24 rooms enjoy…
Ulan-Ude
UU’s only 21st-century hotel is a swish pad indeed and completely on a par with any Western four-star establishment. From the trendy retro-veneered…
Olkhon Island
Looking from the outside like a research station in Antarctica, this upmarket establishment has rooms with laconic Scandinavian-style interior design…
Ulan-Ude
The gleaming 17-storey, 89-room ‘White Horse’ offers spacious, crisply designed, almost understated rooms, lots of amenities and a 14th-floor restaurant …
Eastern Siberia
This log house on the outskirts of Chita has developed a bit of a following with the international biker crowd, particularly Korean and Japanese…
Lake Baikal
Trekking and cycling enthusiasts Rufina and Yevgeny run this cosy and well-equipped homestay with just two rooms and a large shared bathroom, which…
Eastern Siberia
One of the loveliest hotels in Abakan, the purpose-built Chalpan is colourful but not gaudy, with imaginatively designed rooms, flashy bathrooms, free tea…
Krasnoyarsk
Definitely the brightest-coloured building in central Krasnoyarsk, this progressive hotel achieves an optimal value for money ratio by cutting out…
Irkutsk
Rising high above the 130 Kvartal, this professionally run, freshly minted timber hotel mixes traditional wooden architecture with boldly contemporary…
Lake Baikal
Twenty years ago, you could only find such folksy timber mansions, known as terem, in illustrated fairy-tale books, but now terem-styled hotels are…
Irkutsk
Not your honeymoon dream, but a budget hotel that goes an extra mile to compensate for cheap decor and drab surroundings. Smallish rooms are clean and…
Irkutsk
Just a few steps off ul Karla Marksa, the 30 rooms at this purpose-built tower hotel remain stylish and unfrumpy despite the antique-style furniture and…
Olkhon Island
This well-liked option has nine rooms, three in a typical village house and six in a purpose-built, pine-fragrant building opposite. New showers and…
Eastern Siberia
Occupying the 5th floor of a smoked-glass tower at the busy intersection of ul Lenina and ul Profsoyuznaya, this is Chita’s best luxury offering with…
Irkutsk
With its Kolchak-inspired name, this cosy 13-bed apartment hostel has become well-established digs for Trans-Siberian wanderers. The lower bunks sport…
Lake Baikal
A real architectural solianka (apart from the soup, this Russian word means a mix of random items that happen to be at hand), this modern turbaza has a…
Eastern Siberia
The city's most elegant hotel occupies an Alpine-styled wooden chalet with tastefully designed rooms, where the smell of natural wood all but suppresses…
Irkutsk
The stated goal of opening sister hostels in every major city of the world is yet to be achieved, so for now this hyper-ambitious project is confined to a…
Krasnoyarsk
Centred around a rather characterless courtyard, the 81 light-filled rooms at Krasnoyarsk’s top business hotel are immaculately maintained and have become…
Listvyanka
On a ridge behind the shore road, cute little wooden huts (named after Baikal’s winds) with stove-heaters, private toilets and hot water (but shared…
Irkutsk
This timber-built 14-room boutique hotel in the 130 Kvartal has an unpretentious feel with a brown-beige colour scheme and stripped wooden floors sporting…
Lake Baikal
Not too busy with its main occupation, Port Baikal's pretty railway station is part-timing as a hotel. Clean and bland in an almost nostalgically Soviet…
Listvyanka
This chalet-styled log house has a large common balcony with a distant view of the lake, and pine-scented rooms with soft mattresses and good shower…
Krasnoyarsk
Comfortable and professionally run with rooms approximating Western standards, albeit without air-conditioning. Satellite TV includes Western channels and…
Irkutsk
Well-established, cosy backpacker hostel around a 10-minute walk from the train station offering a kitchen, washing machine, a high bathroom-to-bed ratio…
Irkutsk
Yet to live up to its immodest self-description, this airy modern place stands out in the long list of Irkutsk's claustrophobic converted-flat hostels…
Irkutsk
Freshly opened when we visited, this brightly coloured hostel occupies a new building and has lots of common space, unlike its labyrinthine competitors in…
Lake Baikal
The only fully fledged resort in the whole of Baikal, the Riviera is good value for money, with simple though tastefully decorated summer-only wooden…
Eastern Siberia
A funky piece of architecture, this triangular-shaped hotel has modern rooms with large comfy beds and attic-like reclining ceiling. There is a restaurant…