Murmansk hotel prices more than halved

Three years ago, a survey made by BarentsObserver rated Murmansk hotels as the most expensive among the ten largest cities in the Barents Region. Not so anymore if your travel budget is based on foreign currency rather than rubles.

At Meridian, a congress hotel located at the central square in Russia’s Arctic capital, a economy class room can be booked in weekdays in January for 3,300 rubles. That is today equal to €45. If you want more comfort, a standard room is 4,000 rubles (€55), a business room is 4,500 rubles (€62) and a two-rooms lux is (€81).

You don’t longer need to swallow a camel when preparing your travel budget to Murmansk. Here, the Meridian hotel. (Photo: Thomas Nilsen)

In other words; a normal room at Meridian hotel is today only one third of the price three years ago.

If you cross the square and want a bed at the newly renovated Azimut Hotel Arktika, the tallest building in Murmansk, you can now book a room for 3,000 ruble (€41). The city view and breakfast is then included. Prices on hotel rooms in Murmansk dropped when the Arktika hotel opened some few months ago, but it is still the ruble crisis that is the main reason for cheaper hotel rooms when you count in currency.

At Park Inn Polyarnye Zori, a popular hotel for foreign guests to Murmansk, an economy room including breakfast is now available for 4,700 rubles (€64) in weekdays and 3,500 rubles (€48) for a night in the weekend. Counted in Norwegian kroner, the room is around 550, also half the price compared with some months back in time.

In Arkhangelsk, the largest city in the Barents Region, you can now book a room at the top-end hotel Pur-Navalok at the price of €58 per night. A room at the next-door hotel Stolitsa Pomorya is yours for €43.

Traveling to Arkhangelsk, or anywhere else with domestic flights in Russia, isn’t less economical attractive if counting in air tickets that are way cheaper today than last week if you are a foreigner and count you travel expenses in anything else than rubles. 

All prices mentioned in this article is based on searching the hotels’ own portals for a room the night between the 12th and th 13th of January 2015, after the New Years vacation period in Russia is over.