The hotel is the best western style accommodation choice in Vladimir. The room was clean, although the carpets were stained and there was a little mould in the shower. The temperatures were quite hot (32 degrees Celsius) and there were no fans or air conditioning in the room. The hotel only has smoking rooms, and as non smokers, we found the smell quite bad. The hot weather and smell meant that we had to sleep with the windows open. That would have been fine except for the noise - drunken revelers, traffic and church bells next door that chimed every 15 minutes. On a good note, the restaurant is good with really tasty food, especially the shasklik's. The breakfast was OK, and the restaurant has free wireless internet.

The town itself is a good base for travelling to the other towns of the Golden Ring. There is a great express train between Moscow and Vladimir, and Vladimir has good bus connections to pretty much anywhere in Russia. Vladimir itself has a few interesting sites to visit, and has some nice cafes and restaurants. I'd recommend it for the convenient location, but if you want better quality accommodation, I recommend trying a cottage in Suzdal, they are gorgeous!

No complaints about this hotel. It's certainly not the Ritz but it's a good base for independent travellers exploring Vladimir and surrounds. The staff were helpful, the room was clean, and the included breakfast was ample. I'd stay here again.

Well located, up-to-date and quiet hotel unless you are on the second floor directly above the nightclub restaurant. Like many locations in Russia, there is a lot of smoking that occurs so the lobby smells and likewise some of the rooms if the previous guest smoked. The rooms are modern, roomy and comfortable. The bathrooms are great. The breakfast buffet while not elaborate has a nice variety of choices. The staff is responsive and helpful. There is no internet available except in the common area on the ground floor but it is wireless and free. Otherwise go to the Coffee Bean (fantastic coffeehouse in the nearby mall!!) or Whiskey Bar for free WiFi.

We spent 11 nights in 9 hotels Northeast of Moscow in an area known as the Golden Ring. Our primary mode of transportation was bicycle [a van transported our things from hotel to hotel]

The Vladimir Hotel was our first stop. The Vladimir Hotel provided us acceptable stay without strong positive or negative. It was functional, and clean, and except for the rooms lacked local charm. The 2009 global recession seems to have impacted their business – the hotel was maybe 20 pct full.

The outside of the building was clean, sharp, and bright and made a good first impression especially when compared to neighboring buildings in Vladimir. The great first impression quickly dissipated when it took 10-15 minutes to find our reservation [plus much discussion on our behalf -- in Russian of course – by our guide]. Without the services of our guide, we might never have gotten a room since the front desk staffs’ English was limited to rudimentary words.

The common areas were well cleaned, but are showing signs of wear and tear. The lobby and common areas have minimal furniture. The hallways are large with an institutional feeling. The elevator was creaky. So we were quite surprised when we entered our room and found a well-furnished suite consisting of entry vestibule, sleeping area, and sitting room. Some of the furniture showed signs of wear, overall the impression was pleasant. The bed was comfortable, queen size, and medium firm [no pillowtop]. The room was warm from sunshine when we arrived so we opened the window [no screens] to permit cool air to enter. Unfortunately we could not sleep with the window open due to noises from the adjacent major road and therefore we had some challenge to be comfortable under the heavy bedding.

The bathroom was adequate and clean except that it took over 5 minutes for the hot water to arrive in the morning.

There is an indoor restaurant [we didn’t use], a pleasant outdoor café, and a breakfast lounge. As seems to be the custom in Russia, the café, restaurant and breakfast lounge all had loud and distracting music/television playing. Thankfully, the outdoor café had an English menu [with old prices so you may get charged more than the menu price]. The wait staff spoke no English. Dinner cost R1200 [$35]. Breakfast consisted of more strange food than recognizable food.

There was free wireless internet accessible from the outside café – and only at the outside café. When we wished to do a morning email download, we discovered the outside restaurant was closed and we had to go sit by the glass door in the indoor restaurant to get a signal.