Hotels in Zelenogradsk

The resort side of town fits into a triangle two kilometres by two: Kurortny Prospekt, Gagarina, Turgeneva and Pogranichnaya all run straight down to the sea, and the water is a five- to ten-minute walk away. Almost every star-rated hotel and restored villa stands in these blocks, next to the pedestrian street, Queen Louise Park and the water tower with its cat museum. It's the option for a short two- or three-night trip, when you want to step out of your room straight onto the promenade and into the restaurants. One drawback: at the height of the season this is the noisiest, most traffic-clogged part of town.

Until 1946 Zelenogradsk was called Cranz and served as a German seaside resort — the guesthouses built in the early 20th century are still here and still working as hotels. These are small houses of ten to twenty rooms with a homey feel, old stucco mouldings and verandas, five to ten minutes' walk from the water. The format suits travellers who come for the atmosphere of a prewar resort rather than the facilities of a large hotel.

Apartments and aparthotels account for roughly a third of all the accommodation in town, and for a stay of five days or more with children they usually work out better value than a hotel room of the same size. A kitchen and a washing machine of your own take care of breakfasts and of everything that comes back wet from the beach, while the branded apartment complexes run almost like hotels, with a front desk and housekeeping. The greatest concentration is along Turgeneva, Okruzhnaya and the blocks near the railway station, about fifteen to twenty minutes' walk from the promenade.

The only road onto the spit leaves from the eastern side of town, so setting off from Bolshaya Okruzhnaya or Lermontova saves a quarter of an hour compared with the centre. It is also the calmest part of the historic core: fewer summer traffic jams, easier parking, and still about fifteen minutes on foot to the promenade. A sensible choice if the point of the trip is the national park with the Dancing Forest and Efa Height rather than a beach outside your window.

Zelenogradsk is officially classed as a balneological resort — mineral water and peat mud are extracted here, so a spa is an ordinary part of what hotels offer rather than a premium extra. Pools, saunas and treatments are available both in the hotels of the resort centre and in the sanatorium-style complexes on the southern edge. Autumn and winter are the most sensible times to come for this: the main flow of visitors disperses, while the spas, museums and promenade stay open all year.

Berlinskaya, Rossiyskaya, Primorskaya and the far houses along Gagarina sit one and a half to three kilometres from the sea, but there is room to leave the car and rooms come noticeably more modestly priced than in the centre. "Far from the sea" is a relative notion here: the beach is ten minutes away by car or twenty by bike. It's the zone for those who have arrived in their own car, plan day trips around the region, or are coming for a health-focused break.

If the trip is short or the budget is tight, the town has hostels and simple guesthouses literally a step from the centre, and many of them take one-night stays with no short-stay surcharge. The format is a help to guests in transit: a night before an early flight out of Khrabrovo, or before setting off onto the spit. What to count on here is a clean room in a convenient location, not service and a sea view.

The UNESCO national park begins right outside town, and you can stay in its villages too: forest and dunes outside the window instead of resort bustle, the sea on one side and the lagoon on the other. The choice runs from glamping and wooden cabins to park hotels at the water's edge, and from Lesnoy it is only a few minutes' drive to the ornithological station at Rybachy and the Dancing Forest. Keep in mind that cafés and shops on the spit are few, and the link with town rests on a single road that grinds to a halt in July and August.