Hotel de Russie: which room to book

Which room should you book at Hotel de Russie in Rome? I'd book the Deluxe Room with Garden View: at 45 square meters it is the largest room below suite level, and it is the one category where choosing the garden also gets you more space, 5 square meters more than the city-side Deluxe Room. The garden is the reason to stay here rather than closer to the Spanish Steps, so the room should look at it.

Hotel de Russie is on Via del Babuino, between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna, with a terraced 19th-century garden behind it that the hotel calls the Secret Garden, climbing toward the Pincio, the hill of public gardens above Piazza del Popolo. Every room below suite level is listed for two guests in the hotel's 2025 factsheet, and every one comes in a garden version or a version facing the city, or Piazzetta Valadier, the small square at the foot of the garden.

A French balcony is a full-height window with a railing, not a space you can sit on. The four suites with a real terrace are the Vaselli, Picasso, Popolo and Nijinsky.

The Superior Room is the entry room at 30 to 35 square meters; the Deluxe Room is 40, or 45 with the garden view. Both are listed for two people. Book the Deluxe Room if you will spend daylight hours in the room; the extra 5 to 15 square meters is the difference between a bedroom and a room you can sit in.

The Classic Room is not on the 2025 list. The hotel's older factsheet text, still on the same press page, lists a Classic Room from 30 square meters with windows over the streets, and still says the Vaselli Suite can be joined to one. If a booking site is selling a Classic Room, ask the hotel which current category it is and which way it faces before you pay.

Skip the Deluxe Room on the Piazzetta Valadier side if you go to bed early. That small square is where the Stravinskij Bar has its outdoor tables, heated so they stay in use in winter, so a room over it looks straight onto the bar. The same goes for the Family Room, the one family category the factsheet places over the piazzetta.

I would also not pay to move from a Superior Room with Garden View to a Junior Suite Deluxe on the city side. You gain 20 to 25 square meters and lose the garden, and the garden is what this hotel has that the hotels around the Spanish Steps do not.

Yes at Deluxe level, where it adds 5 square meters as well as the view; at every other level you are paying only for the view. The Superior, Junior Suite Deluxe and Deluxe Suite are the same size garden side or city side, by the hotel's own figures. Garden rooms also face away from Via del Babuino, the street in front of the hotel.

Take the garden version if you will be in the room at breakfast or in the late afternoon. If you will be out from morning to midnight, the city-side Superior Room is the same room for less.

Book the Family Suite Garden View: 100 square meters for four people, looking at the garden. The hotel lists three categories for four guests: the Family Room at 80 square meters over Piazzetta Valadier, the Junior Suite Family at 95 square meters on the city side, and the Family Suite Garden View at 100. Every other room below suite level is listed for two, so a family of three or four should start with these instead of asking for an extra bed.

For a larger group, the factsheet says the Popolo Suite can be joined to a Junior Suite to make two bedrooms, and the Vaselli Suite to a Classic Room.

Book the Popolo Suite if you want a terrace over Piazza del Popolo; it is the only suite that faces the square. It is on the top floor, 100 square meters inside with a 45 square meter terrace looking at the square and its church.

• The smallest suite with a terrace: the Vaselli Suite, 53 square meters with an 18 square meter terrace over the garden.
• A terrace and a second bathroom: the Picasso Suite, 80 square meters with a 25 square meter terrace over the garden, named for Picasso, who stayed at the hotel in 1917.
• Garden views without a terrace: the Valadier Suite, 77 square meters with three French balconies and a guest bathroom.
• Two bedrooms: the Nijinsky Suite, 172 square meters with a 239 square meter terrace looking toward Villa Borghese.

Hotel de Russie has 117 rooms, 47 of them suites, by its 2025 factsheet. The older text on the same page gives 34 suites, so the split depends on whether the family and junior suites are counted.

It has a pool, a small one. The Irene Forte Spa, relaunched in March 2026, has a saltwater hydro pool, a sauna, a steam room, five treatment rooms and a Technogym gym. It is a pool for sitting in jets, not for swimming lengths.

1. The view, by name: Secret Garden, city or Piazzetta Valadier. The Deluxe Room comes in all three.
2. The current category: if you are offered a Classic Room, ask what it is called on the hotel's 2025 list.
3. Four guests: book a family category, not a two-person room with an extra bed.
4. The rate: the factsheet publishes none, so price your dates on the hotel's own site before comparing it with anything else.

If you are still choosing the hotel, Hassler or Hotel de Russie puts the two side by side, and the Hassler room guide picks the room at the top of the Spanish Steps. Where to stay in Rome compares the neighborhoods.

Hotel de Russie backs onto the Pincio, which runs into Villa Borghese, so the Borghese Gallery tickets guide is a walk through the park from your room. The Rome airport transfer guide covers the ride in.