Hotels in Abakan

Every full-service hotel in the city fits inside a small square between Lenin Avenue and Karl Marx Street. From here it is a 5–10 minute walk to the Khakassia National Museum of Local Lore, Preobrazhensky Park and the railway station, and the republican government offices and the cafés along the avenue are closer still. This is the best choice if you are in Abakan for the first time or came on business and would rather not depend on taxis.

More than half of all places to stay in Abakan are daily rental apartments, and several apartment chains operate in the city. Their main addresses are Nekrasova, Kolkhoznaya, Bogdana Khmelnitskogo and Sovetskaya streets — a 10–15 minute walk from Lenin Avenue, exactly like the hotels downtown. An apartment is priced per unit rather than per guest, so for a couple or a family it usually works out noticeably cheaper than a room of the same standard.

The cheapest way to spend a night in Abakan is a bed in a shared dorm: the city effectively has a single hostel, and it stands on Promyshlennaya Street, away from the center. The next step up is a plain one-room apartment on Katya Perekreshchenko, Trudovaya or Kirova streets — cheaper than any three-star hotel, and still with a kitchen and a washing machine. A sound option for a stopover, a short work trip or a night before heading out into the republic.

When four or five people travel together, the math in Abakan works in favor of apartments: the price covers the whole unit, so a two-room apartment comes out cheaper than a pair of hotel rooms. The roomier options belong to the apartment chains on Karl Marx, Nekrasova and Bogdana Khmelnitskogo streets — walking distance from the center, with a kitchen and enough space to unpack for several days. For a group or a large family gathering the city also has a standalone cottage with a pool and a sauna — a whole house rather than a hotel.

There are no five-star hotels in Abakan, but the top of the market is covered by a few properties with a pool, sauna, spa and gym. All of them stand slightly off Lenin Avenue — on Kirova and Shchorsa streets and on Druzhby Narodov Avenue — and each has a conference room along with a restaurant or a café. This is the choice for a business trip built around meetings, and for anyone who wants to warm up after a day of driving around Khakassia.

Abakan's railway station sits almost in the center, so anything within walking distance of the platforms is also a short walk from Lenin Avenue. Both options on Vokzalnaya Street suit travelers changing trains or arriving late in the evening who would rather not spend money on a taxi. One of them is still a full hotel with a pool and a sauna, the other a minimalist place to sleep with nothing extra.

V. G. Tikhonov Airport lies 5–6 kilometers northwest of the center, surrounded by the blocks along Generala Tikhonova and Aviatorov streets and Druzhby Narodov Avenue. Staying here is worth it in two cases: you have an early morning departure, or your plane lands well after midnight. It is also a convenient starting point if your first day takes you straight to the north of the republic — to the Tuim Sinkhole and lakes Shira and Belyo.

If the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam, the Salbyk Kurgan or the ski slopes near Sayanogorsk are on your list, spend the night on the southwestern edge of town along Askizskaya Street: in the morning you pull straight out onto the R-257 highway, skipping the traffic on Lenin Avenue. Anyone who would rather not drive back into the city every evening should simply base themselves at the destination — up in the mountains by the lift or on the shore of Lake Belyo. The out-of-town options are especially good in summer, at the height of the season for touring the republic.