We arrived at Vyborg on board of MS Karelia from the lovely lakeside city of Lappeenranta / Finland through the industrially important Saimaa Canal and its beautiful surrounding scenery, as part of a touristic cruise package The hotel’s interior and exterior was completely designed by Finnish architects and it seems that they even had the choice, where to put the building. A matter of “friendship”, as the name of the hotel tells. So they selected a place with a 270 degree view over the river and the town’s skyline in a riverside park and still at a distance of only 300 m from the important railway station. Other buildings of Finnish influenced architecture are the library in Central Park designed by Alvar Aalto and some Art Nouveau bank building on Lenin street. Since the time zone of this town differs to that of Finland by one hours we enjoyed an even longer occasion for evening sightseeing. The reception is professional, but do not expect a smile, they are still not trained to that kind of customer orientation. The doorman however was very friendly and carefully stored our luggage. We can recommend room # 333 in the riverside corner of the building, we liked the decoration, the bathroom was ok, the bed linen clean. The carpet however obviously stemmed from foundation time of this enterprise around 1986 and screamed for change. For local standard however accomodation would deserve an "above average"....We arrived at Vyborg on board of MS Karelia from the lovely lakeside city of Lappeenranta / Finland through the industrially important Saimaa Canal and its beautiful surrounding scenery, as part of a touristic cruise package

The hotel’s interior and exterior was completely designed by Finnish architects and it seems that they even had the choice, where to put the building. A matter of “friendship”, as the name of the hotel tells. So they selected a place with a 270 degree view over the river and the town’s skyline in a riverside park and still at a distance of only 300 m from the important railway station.

Other buildings of Finnish influenced architecture are the library in Central Park designed by Alvar Aalto and some Art Nouveau bank building on Lenin street. Since the time zone of this town differs to that of Finland by one hours we enjoyed an even longer occasion for evening sightseeing.

The reception is professional, but do not expect a smile, they are still not trained to that kind of customer orientation. The doorman however was very friendly and carefully stored our luggage. We can recommend room # 333 in the riverside corner of the building, we liked the decoration, the bathroom was ok, the bed linen clean. The carpet however obviously stemmed from foundation time of this enterprise around 1986 and screamed for change. For local standard however accomodation would deserve an "above average".

The in-house Bankomat cash dispenser is quite useful if you need to change money. Service in the restaurant and coffee shop was efficient, you just need however to adjust yourself to the taste of some dishes. Coke of course is ok, apple cake was nice, coffee somewhat weak. Hot buffet breakfast offered a good selection, but with mixed quality and taste.

For dinner we recommend Siesta Restaurant (Italian and Russian style) and some downtown cellar restaurants close to the castle bridge. Vyborg is a charming place worth visiting, but in urgent need of refurbishing. Do not expect too much knowledge of English, if you are unable to speak or read Russian, the default language is Finnish ……More