Zarya ("Dawn")

Simeonovskaya 30/27, at the corner with Tresvyatskaya, near the Tver bank and the Gertsen Library that has Internet access. 800-1500 rouble ($30-55) rooms. Great location. This hotel serves the needs of the Tver city administration and thus has none of the usual casinos etc.  Foreigners no problem, visas registered. Tel. 8-0822-342129, fax 34-71-34.  RECOMMENDED IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CAR.

The neighbourhood

The big advantage of the Zarya Hotel (and also ....... and Valday, of which Zarya is preferable unless you enjoy the sleaze/casino/small-town mafia atmosphere) is that is is close to most things you need, and a short streetcar ride from the train and bus station.

Food near Zarya. The best/cheapest/easiest to get without English source of food near the Zarya Hotel I've so far noticed is the Kulinariya Store on Boulevard Radisheva and Tverskoy Prospekt, one small block towards the Volga from Zarya. The food is on the display, prices are low ($3-4 will feed you well), and choice is plentiful. Lots of excellent vegetarian options too.

Internet near Zarya. Cross Tverskoy Prospekt (with streetcar tracks) till you see the Hertzen Library. Enter, leave your coat in the cloakroom (they are pretty strict about it) and follow "Internet" signs. Russian interfaces and unusually unfriendly stuff speaks no English. Perhaps they will be friendlier with you, a foreigner, than me, fresh from the woods, in my collective farm worker uniform, asking weird questions but when I asked on your behalf if they speak English or have any English interfaces the answer was the famous Russian NO of the sort that makes further discussion impossible.

 

Internet cards. TeleNet, Simeonovskaya 28, next door from Zarya when walking to Tverskoy, the main street. Turn left as you enter, and buy a card that will let you use the Internet from your hotel room.

Don't forget about an extra telephone cable and an adaptor. 

Banking near Zarya. Tver Bank is at the corner of Semionovskaya and Tverskoy. Pray that the bank machine works because dealing with the teller will cost you at least an hour of your life. Please once again be reminded to try to do most of your banking in Moscow.

Souvenirs. A souvenir shop is in the same building. I was immediately offered 3% for any business I bring them, and asked for a fee for keeping my Horse Rides cards (www.russian-horse-rides.com  ) in their shop. Moscow was as petty as that back in the wild early 90s so the Tver souvenir people can be forgiven I guess. The set of souvenirs is most standard: cups and cutting boards with "Tver" on them and such. Look forward to seeing how they do in a year or two from now. I get a consistently funny response to my offer to add souvenir shops to my sites: "We are already in the Internet". Heard it in Moscow, in St. Petersburg, in Tver, and in a couple more places. Other types of establishments just say "sure" or "we don't know what it is and don't care but do what you like". Then of course they thank me after getting a few good clients. But souvenir shop keepers seem different.  Weird.