Hotels in Kolomna

Everything people come to Kolomna for — the kremlin, Cathedral Square, the kalach bakery and the pastila museum — fits into a single walking loop, and staying in these same blocks spares you the trip across town each morning. This is where weekenders base themselves when they've come for the old posad quarter and its museums: step out the door and you're already there. The buildings here are old, so the accommodation is small in scale too — modest guest houses and mini-hotels that sell out well before a long weekend.

The local speciality is apartments set not in new builds but in nineteenth-century merchant houses of the old posad — a format you'll find almost nowhere else in the Moscow region. You wake up within the walls of the historic quarter, a few minutes' walk from the Pyatnitskiye Gates and the kalach bakery. It suits couples and anyone travelling for atmosphere rather than hotel service: you get your own kitchen, but usually no reception desk and no breakfast.

Between Old Kolomna and Golutvin lies a middle zone — Kirova Avenue, Pionerskaya Street, Sovetskaya Square. The kremlin is a half-hour stroll from here and a tram will take you to the station, so you aren't tied to either of the city's two centres. A sensible compromise if you'd rather not pay extra for an address by the fortress walls but still plan to walk the old town every day.

Suburban trains from Moscow's Kazansky station arrive at Golutvin, the south-eastern part of the city that grew up around the tracks. It's worth staying here if you're coming light for a day or two and want to walk to the platform in the morning rather than hunt for a taxi. The district is all apartment blocks, and what's on offer matches: flats and apartments by the night, often with parking in the courtyard.

The cheapest beds in Kolomna are in simple guest houses and the hostel — no breakfast, no round-the-clock reception, just a roof over your head and nothing extra to pay for. That's a reasonable choice for a single-day trip, when the room is only there to get you from the pastila museum to the train home. You'll find such options both in the centre, within walking distance of the old town, and further out.

Kolomna has only a handful of full-service, star-rated hotels, and they sit in different corners of the city — from Kirova Avenue to the Kolychevo district and the bank of the Oka. People come to them for what an apartment can't provide: a reception desk, a restaurant, secure parking, and at some of them a pool and a spa. The best option if you're driving, bringing the family, or here on business and would rather not think about breakfast.

The other way to do Kolomna is half a day for the kremlin and the museums, then an evening out of town where there simply are no neighbours. The surrounding area rents out barnhouses and forest cabins with a banya, a hot tub, a terrace and a barbecue area — the whole house, not by the room. A format for a couple or a small group over a weekend: you'll need a car almost everywhere, and in winter these houses are the first to be booked.

If you're travelling with children or staying more than a couple of nights, look at the countryside resorts and farms around the city: they have grounds, a pool, animals and a kitchen of their own, so there's no need to go anywhere for meals or entertainment. Many of them accept pets, which is rare in Kolomna itself. The kremlin is half an hour's drive away, so a day of sightseeing still fits — you just come back in the evening to open country instead of a hotel room.