The hotel is very clean and staffed by REALLY friendly Russian folks. Many of them are students who speak very good English. They are happy to converse with you at the bar, and are VERY helpful and personable at the front desk. And yes, I encountered my fair share of what they call the Russian "outside persona" - which is horrible - in my wanderings.
My best piece of advice is to make sure you have the metro map in Cyrillic, if you take the metro into town. Get this from the hotel (it's in one of the guide books in the lobby). You won't be able to get one at the metro stations, trust me. My Fodors only had it in English - and that doesn't get you far, trust me.
I loved the fact that they had a currency machine in the lobby - insert dollars and it spits out Rubles (-: no trip to the bank necessary!
Also, it's worth a walk down the road to the cemetery in the back of the hotel. It is VERY cool and interesting!
- Maxima Slavia Hotel Moscow
- Maxima Slavia Moscow
