Hotel Barnaul

Hotel/Resort

The Hotel Barnaul Provides Easy Access to the City's Attractions

By Yvonne Lanelli, Freelance Writer

January 2008

After an all-day bus ride, all I wanted was a hot shower when I checked into the Hotel Barnaul in Barnaul, Siberia. The matron on my floor smiled a welcome as she verified my room key with her list. Minutes later, I shivered in my ensuite shower, waiting for the water to heat up. Then I remembered: the hot water isn’t turned on until after 5 PM.

Welcome to Barnaul.

“The city generates its own steam which is piped into factories in the daytime. Then at night, it goes to hotels and apartment buildings,” explained a local resident.

About seven hours’ flying time from Moscow, the isolated city of Barnaul is not on the usual tourist itinerary. It is, however, the perfect jumping-off point for expeditioners or whitewater rafters heading for the Altai Mountains about 180 miles south.

As in many Russian hotels, the reception clerk will register your passport with the local police if it hasn’t been done already. Registering one’s passport within 72 hours of arrival into the state of your final destination is mandatory. Reception will also issue your room key which you must present to the matron in charge of your floor. She checks you every time you enter and leave your room.

Refreshed by tepid showers and checked out by “Floor Mother” as my companion referred to her, we explored the large (650,000 est. pop.) industrial city and Administrative Center of the state of Altai Krai. Within five minutes’ walk from Hotel Barnaul, one can catch a trolley (the equivalent of thirteen cents) to anywhere in the city or simply walk to churches, monuments, parks, residential neighborhoods, a university campus (Barnaul boasts five universities), an amusement park, the cinema (one doesn’t say movie theater), restaurants, shops and local markets.

After dinner with Russian friends at a medieval-themed restaurant, we walked them to the train station then returned to the hotel, all in less than ten minutes. (And walking at 9 PM didn’t cause distress.)

Because we had an early flight the next morning, we didn’t sample the hotel’s restaurant, pool, sauna, beauty salon or casino. But my companion peeked in at the restaurant and casino. “Pretty big,” he commented.

I paid the equivalent of $14 per night for a fourth floor room with a view of the park, a clean bed, ensuite toilet and shower (with sometimes hot water). In the August afternoon, I opened the window to catch mild summer breezes and dry the dainties I had hand laundered. The hotel’s hardwood floors and somewhat worn throw rug evidenced that this was not a new hotel, (the website says it was built in 1982) but the plumbing, elevator (this is a twelve-story hotel) and electricity worked, the paint didn’t peel, nothing with six or eight legs ran along the floorboards and the staff were courteous. Not fluent in Russian, I didn’t miss TV. Although I stayed there only once, my companion stayed there several times, all but once arriving without a reservation. He isn’t fluent in Russian but reported no trouble booking a room as a walk-up. The hotel accepts American Express and Visa as well as rubles and American dollars and will change money.

IF YOU GO

Hotel Barnaul

656046 Altay Region, Barnaul, Krasnoarmeysky Prosp., 135

(3852) 62-62-22

www.WaytoRussia.net/Siberia/Barnaul/Accommodation.html

http://allhotels.ru/barnaul/hotels/index.en.html (requires site registration)