This hotel, part of the German-owned Kempinsky luxury chain, provides reliable European-style rooms in a superb location, on the fashionable Moika Embankment and right next to the Winter Palace. The rooms and suites are large and comfortable, and furnished with marine-themed antiques in sumptuous blues, reds, and golds. Bathrooms are large, and they all have heated floors. You can choose aromatic candles and bath salts and oils to suit your mood, as well as pick out individualized bed linens. The service is excellent, as is usual in Kempinsky hotels, and the hotel's French restaurants and cafés are good, with a nice wine list. It's one of the very few hotels in Russia to provide free Wi-Fi everywhere.