Yulia 
Rostov, located on the banks of the Don River, 56 km. from the Sea of Azov and 1,000 km. from Moscow, is the most industrialized city in southern Russia.
A settlement of commercial importance over time is where the Greeks founded the Tanais colony, the Genoese raised the Tana fortress, and the Ottoman Empire turned it into the Azov fortress. The year of establishment of the city, a historic attestation, is 1749, when Don was built as a customs point.
Rostov was also the city of guarded stone arcade bazaars, crammed with stalls that featured the most diverse merchandise. Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Jews, merchants of all sorts were the characters of the old bazaars.
The city of the very hot summers and the harsh winters, in which cold wind blows from the north, Rostov is located at the intersection of commercial roads, it is the place where Turkish or Caucasian tobacco arrived to be rolled out in cigarettes in the four factories of the city, among the largest in Russia.
Hopefully, the weather during your travel dates will be hot enough so that you could also enjoy one of the beaches there!
Here you can take a stroll along Pushkin Street loaded with cafes and shops, a bit expensive, but in any case much cheaper than in Moscow.
Gorkovo Park is also a pleasant place in any season, especially near the New Year, when it is decorated with a huge Christmas tree. The Regional Art Museum is also a landmark.
Visitors who will come to Rostov-on-Don will be able to familiarize themselves with Cossack culture and traditions. Not far from Rostov-on-Don is the cossack capital of Don – Starocerkasskaia. The inhabitants carefully guard the way of life of the Cossacks from the past centuries.
Quite naturally, the Rostov’s traditional cuisine consists of fish soup, which is delicious!
Rostov-on-Don can be reached by plane, by train or by boat. The city is located near the Azov Sea and is often called a port at five seas, so getting there will be no problem. But now that you have figured out how to get there and decided that this city is 100% worth visiting, you will have to find accommodation.
Here are some of the best accommodations in Rostov-on-Don:
(we use Booking.com in Russia, and I recommend you searching on that web site because you will see all the options there)
Luxury hotels in Rostov-on-Don ($150 – $200)
Suvorov Hotel
The Suvorov hotel is situated 2.1 km from the city centre. This means that if you will book a room as soon as possible, you will be in the middle of the action and all the beautiful attractions that are worth visiting in the city.
This hotel offers rooms that are equipped with a kitchenette, comfortable showers and bathrooms for each room and a balcony from which you will have a wonderful view of the city.
The past guests have reviewed the staff as being very polite and helpful!
Guest House Ochakovskiy
This establishment offers free Wi-Fi, free parking, the price includes breakfast which is delicious and the staff is great and happy to respond to all your questions.
If you plan on visiting Rostov-on-Don, you should book a room as soon as possible!
If there are absolutely no hotels left, you can try Airbnb.com, but make sure to ask your hosts in advance if they can register you.
What is registration? It is a Russian (very outdated if you ask me) law, that requires every foreigner to register in the immigration office in the first (!) day when he/she arrives. If you are staying in a hotel, they do the whole procedure for you. But in case you stay in a flat, you will probably need to take care of this by yourself.
If you are staying by Airbnb, here is my 22 EUR coupon discount for your first booking:
Middle priced hotels in Rostov-on-Don ($100-$150)
Boutique hotel 9
Boutique Hotel 9 is located 1.2 km from the city centre. This means that you can get there without the usethe of public mean of transportation, and this is a great chance to get to know the surroundings and meet Russian culture.
The room are nicely designed, the front desk has a 24-hour working policy and the breakfast is served in the lobby bar or in the room.
If you are thinking about booking this accommodation, we advise that you do it in the nearest future, because if you’re going during the summer, in high season, there is no telling how much longer it will be avilable.
Hotel Par-House
Hotel Par-House is a wonderful establishment. As soon as you walk in through the front door, the design will captivate you. Everything is done with taste and past guests have stated that they will come back a second time.
The breakfast that is served is intercontinental and features traditional Russian and international cuisine.
This being said, it is only natural that this property will be on high demand in the summer, so it is best that you book a room as soon as possible.
Budget hotels in Rostov-on-Don ($50-$100)
Mini Hotel Uyut
Mini Hotel Uyut is located 900m. from the city centre, meaning that if you decide to book a room here, which we advise you to do as soon as possible, you will be in the centre of the action every time!
The rooms are clean amd the previous guests have given it high ratings on booking.com.
Maxi House Hostel
Maxi House hostel offers accommodation with a shared lounge. The staff is friendly and very helpful and is at your disposal at any time.
As a bonus, the hostel is located in the centre of the city, within walking distance from the central Bolshaya Sadovaya street, so this is your chance to meet Russian culture first hand.
Type your dates below to see the rates for all the available hotels:
Booking.comTrains in Russia
Oh, I know a lot about transportation in Russia, trains and Trans Siberian in particular. Writing a detailed post that would help you guys plan your journey is in my to-do list for forever.
Before I publish it, how about you ask me questions in the comments section below this post? I promise to reply!
For now I can say that this is the official site for Russian trains, but the interface is quite poor and sometimes it doesn’t accept foreign cards.
If you have troubles, there is a great friendly website that accepts foreign cards, PayPal, sends you SMS with train updates and is user friendly, the price is 5% higher on average, but I think it is worth it because you won’t need to spend hours understanding how the official one works. And one more cool things – if you need to cancel or change the ticket, you can do it online!
If you want to go for a short distance, you can also try buses. Here is a good site for buying bus tickets online.
Conclusion:
I hope you found this article useful and you were able to find something good and fitting your budget.
Even this is not Moscow, I really recommend visiting this city if you have time to add it to your Russia itinerary.
Have a great time in the city and do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions!
Yulia
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