8 Hostels in Moscow

Red Star

The hostel has a couple of drawbacks: it’s in Bibirevo (on the outskirts of Moscow) and it’s a bit cramped. But the owners have tried to make up for these pitfalls with original design. One of the rooms is a jail cell (“The Shadows of Mordor”), another is a Russian village house (“Masha and the bears”). The beds in the third room will soon be put onto rails and it will be called “Trans-Siberian railway”. There’s a fourth one as well, called “Fairytale”, but giving it a clear description is a bit hard. The sink in the bathroom has been fashioned into a theatre box office, and the shelves are filled with fake books — wooden blocks with names burned into the binds. Russian kitsch intertwines with Soviet design elements: the fridge has been decorated with Gzhel ornaments and portraits of Lenin, the towels carry Soviet newspaper prints, there are wooden window shades in the kitchen and an army coat hangs by the entrance — all those things that foreigners visiting Moscow enjoy so much. The four-bed dorm (“Fairytale”) has a table and treasure-chest benches to put together a feast. But one should beware settling into “The Shadows of Mordor” — not only does it look like a jail cell, it also suffers from poor ventilation. There are games in the entrance hall, as well as a box of souvenirs — you can take other people’s and put yours in. Red Star is pet-friendly.