Grand Hotel Europe (*****)

The Grand Hotel Europe has traditionally played host to celebrities from all over the world and from all walks of life. Pyotr Tchaikovsky spent his honeymoon here, and for Ivan Turgenev there was no better place in the whole of St. Petersburg. Grigori Rasputin dined here, as did George Bernard Shaw with Maxim Gorky. Dmitri Shostakovich played a sonata for Sergei Prokofiev in the latter's suite, and Elton John performed in L'Europe Restaurant. Former US President Bill Clinton took a rest for four hours in the Lidval Suite. Actress Jane Fonda cooked her own food at the hotel, while Queen Elizabeth II praised the hotel's kitchen.rn