Hotels in Istra

The main reason to come to Istra is the New Jerusalem Resurrection Monastery, conceived by Patriarch Nikon as a "Russian Palestine," and the region's largest museum and exhibition complex, New Jerusalem, right beside it. There aren't many hotels in the town itself and all of them are small, but they sit within about a twenty-minute walk of the monastery, with the railway station in the same radius. This is the option for a one- or two-day trip built around history and walking, when you don't need a car at all.

Istra is a rare destination this close to Moscow where a night's stay costs noticeably less than a country house by the water: the choice here is small hotels near the edge of town, apartments and roadside hotels along the New Riga highway. People take this format for a night or two — a stopover on the way, a late-evening arrival, or an early start for the monastery. There's minimal infrastructure, but you get parking and everything a short stop requires.

The Istra Reservoir begins 8–15 km northwest of town, and its ragged shoreline has long since turned into a holiday cluster of its own. People come here for the water rather than for sightseeing: in summer for private access to the sand and boat rentals, in winter for ice fishing and skiing. Waterfront properties go first, and a car makes the trip far easier: about an hour from the MKAD ring road along the M-9 with no traffic.

Alyokhnovo, Yefimonovo and Rodiontsevo are villages on the western shore, where people stay when a park hotel feels too big and a town hotel too small. These are detached houses with a plot of land, a grill and pine forest outside the window, with the water a few minutes' walk or a couple of kilometres away by car. It's a format for a family or a small group that wants its own kitchen and quiet instead of neighbours through the wall.

A wood-fired banya and an open-air hot tub are what most often brings people out of Moscow to the Istra district for the weekend. Such houses are scattered around Polevshina, Yeremeyevo, Dukhanino and the settlements along the New Riga highway: each has its own plot, a barbecue area and parking by the gate. The format works best in winter, but the tub is just as good in September rain as in January frost.

The New Riga corridor runs on a "weekend without Moscow" script: settlements have grown up along the highway — Shishaikha, Riga Green, Nordic — where houses are rented whole, with no reception desk and no neighbours. There are no sights nearby, and that's the point: forest, fields, your own yard and at most an hour's drive from the MKAD. People usually book for two or three days with family or friends, and reach the monastery and the museum in half an hour if they feel like it.

In Anosino, roughly 29 km from the MKAD along the New Riga highway, you'll find a format that's rare this close to Moscow — a full sanatorium with medical treatment, chosen instead of Kislovodsk when there's no time for the long journey. Alongside it are country hotels with a pool, spa and restaurant: the choice for anyone who wants infrastructure rather than an empty house with a set of keys. This kind of stay works well for a week, with parents or over the winter holidays, when it's too cold to be outdoors all day.

When eight or ten people get together, or there's an occasion to mark, the search is for a whole house — with a large living room, a pool or a banya and private grounds where no one gets disturbed. Places like this stand in the cottage settlements by the reservoir, along the New Riga highway and in neighbouring areas closer to Moscow, and some of them are genuine architect-designed builds. Book well ahead: on long weekends and over the New Year holidays they go first.