Cherry Garden

This is a beautiful chalet-style property - we took the upstairs apartment and it was so spacious we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. There was an enormous bathroom, and a big metal IKEA bed with a comfortable mattress, as well as several pieces of older furniture that gave the place a lot of character. Beautifully decorated and clean, and even most of the art work was original and tasteful. I sound surprised, because having lived in Moscow for years and years and attempted many times to get out of town for a pleasant weekend, I've been habitually disappointed by the pure kitschiness of it all. The couple running the place are charming and professional. The grounds are spacious and well kept, and I imagine are beautiful when the snow melts. Our apartment had a large balcony looking across fields to church domes and the simple wooden houses of Suzdal. There is a fireplace in the big hall downstairs that they lit on the Friday night - a couple were having dinner by the fire. The sauna/banya is lovely and clean, with a big cold plunge pool. And it's reasonably priced at 700 rubles an hour. In fact price/quality ratio here is generally spot on, also a rare thing for a good Russian hotel. The only reason I give this a 4 is that we weren't overwhelmed by the breakfast and there was no good coffee. Some things are slow to change in the Russian regions :))