RECOMMENDED BACKPACKER HOSTELS: what are yours?
RECOMMENDED BACKPACKER HOSTELS: what are yours?
Hey,
I met up with my bro in oz for 3 weeks so dont have tons of experience but would def recommend the following places;
Melbourne: Cooee
Sydney: YHA Railway Square- clean, friendly and really central!
Byron Bay: Backpackers Holiday Village- small dorms, clean and central…a hop, skip and a jump from Cheeky Monkeys!
Im planning my year long trip and def gonna stay at these places again!
I know its not one for questions….but anyone know of any great places to stay in Nadi, Fiji for 1 night when I first arrive?
Thanks
Victoria xx
im staying in nomads skylodoge! they do a transfer too and a meet and greet! i havent been there yet so cant say how good it is!! not going till september
hope that helps
Nikki
xx
I’ve stayed in a ton of hostels so far this year, so here are my favourite ones….
FOR PARTIES…
Rome, Italy - Yellow Hostel: Famous hostel in Rome and deserves its reputation. Great location, fantastic bar and very easy to meet people.
Ios, Greece - Far Out Beach Resort: Beds start at 10 Euros, and the place has a pool, pool bar, restaurant and beach… what more could you want??
Budapest, Hungary - Carpe Noctem: My three days here were literally the most hedonistic of my life, that’s all I’ll say…
Tallinn, Estonia - Tallinn Backpackers: Mad hostel with nightly drinking games and pub crawls (Weds night - drink your height in beer, for example!). Great location in old town.
FOR ACTIVITIES….
Nice, France - Villa St. Exupery Beach Hostel: Near the beach, fantastic food and bar, and lots on offer to do in the region. Pricey but worth it.
Ulaanbataar, Mongolia - UB Guesthouse: Not much to do in UB but this places offers a ton of tours, you will usually find something to go on within 24hrs (tours usually around $40-45/day).
FOR CHILLING OUT…
Berat, Albania - Berat Backpackers: The most chilled out place I’ve ever stayed in; enjoy cheap beer and food in the garden under the mountain views of beautiful Berat.
Plovdiv, Bulgaria - Hostel Mostel: A nice little hostel in Bulgaria’s nicest city; free dinner and beer in the evenings!
Olomouc, Czech Rep - Poet’s Corner Hostel: Like staying in someone’s house; very chilled out and clean place, its hard to leave! (and the town is wonderful)
Beijing, China - Happy Dragon Courtyard Hostel: So good I’ve already booked it for my next two stays in Beijing. FANTASTIC place with funny staff and great food, and a cool courtyard to chill out in.
FOR MEETING PEOPLE…
Naples, Italy - Hostel Of The Sun: A nice homely hostel that is great for meeting people and enjoying cheap cocktails in the evenings.
Athens, Greece - Athens Backpackers: A great modern clean hostel with a nice rooftop bar right in the centre of Athens.
Bratislava, Slovakia - Blues Hostel: A large hostel in the city centre, but easy to meet people and a great atmosphere.
Riga, Latvia - Naughty Squirrel: A good central hostel with a very social atmosphere without the crazy party antics of the more famous Frank’s.
St. Petersburg, Russia - Soul Kitchen Hostel: Wonderful small hostel in St Petersburg with great staff and super easy to meet everyone.
Hey,
I met up with my bro in oz for 3 weeks so dont have tons of experience but would def recommend the following places;
Melbourne: Cooee
Sydney: YHA Railway Square- clean, friendly and really central!
Byron Bay: Backpackers Holiday Village- small dorms, clean and central…a hop, skip and a jump from Cheeky Monkeys!
Im planning my year long trip and def gonna stay at these places again!
I know its not one for questions….but anyone know of any great places to stay in Nadi, Fiji for 1 night when I first arrive?
Thanks
Victoria xx
im staying in nomads skylodoge! they do a transfer too and a meet and greet! i havent been there yet so cant say how good it is!! not going till september
hope that helps
Nikki
xx
I stayed in Nomads Skylodge, it was superb! It was the cheapest one around Nadi but was really clean, spacious, had really friendly staff and an excellent swimming pool.
You’ll love it there!
If you go in to Nadi town itself watch out for the dodgy guys inviting you in to their shop, they try and get you to buy stuff and then they’ll try and offer you trips and things, much better to book trips with the guy/girl in the shop in the skylodge.
Hope this helps!
Simon
As so many people have said, The Inn Crowd in Singapore is a good one.
I stayed at Wake Up in Sydney, and although it was clean, in a good location, and had a good bar, I didn’t like the people there…maybe that was just the situation though.
Brisbane: Birdies (as it’s called by most) or Bunk is pretty good - the room I stayed in had an en-suite :)
I also stayed in BASE Central and thought it was horrific, not helped by the fact that the fire alarm went off at 2.30am when i had to be up at 6 the following day and was already jet lagged….
Coolangatta (near Surfers, but 1,000,000 nicer imho): The Sands Hostel - it has the comfiest beds of any hostel i’ve stayed in, charging sockets in individual lockers so you can padlock your stuff away and an awesome communal balcony.
Sunshine Coast (a lot of people go straight through here on their way to Fraser Island but if you have a day or two you should check it out). I recommend Mooloolaba Beach Backpackers. Not the cleanest, or the cheapest or the most modern place I’ve stayed in but something about it just makes people keep coming back. I’ve been back twice already!!
Noosa: Halse Lodge YHA was nice, but i had a big issue with the fact that there were no insect nets over the windows and tops of the doors and ended up with ridiculously bad mosquito bites which have left massive scars :( otherwise lovely place :D
Cairns I stayed in Nomads Serpent which was ok, but there seemed to be much nicer much closer to the town centre.
Adelaide: I had no complaints with Hostel 109, they didn’t have enough dorm rooms so they upgraded me for free :)
New Zealand:
Auckland: I started out in QSB and thought it was horrific - stay away!!! I moved to the Nomads about 4 doors along and it was amazing - even had a hot tub on the roof. Really enjoyed my stay there and the people were lovely.
LA: I stayed in HI Santa Monica which was comfortable, clean and close to everything I wanted (surf, shops and easy public transport or organised tours to see the sights of LA).
San Francisco: Initially stayed at HI Fishermans Wharf and after a night of crying down the phone at the horrendous state of it to my mum (yep, we all need em at some point!) I moved to HI Downtown. Ok, so it’s half a block away from the tenderloin, but if you walk in the other direction theres some amazing sights to be seen (and some in the tenderloin too if you keep your stuff close at hand!!). The hostel was so comfy, big sofas and huge TV room that was the main common room. THey even bought us free pizza!!!
Hope that helps you future travellers :)
Thailand
Bangkok - Lub D is a great hostel if you don’t want to be anywhere near Khao San but still have easy access to lots of tourist attractions and shopping. The bathrooms were amazing! http://www.lubd.com/
Koh Samui - Penzy Guesthouse! Not really a backpacker hostel but I loved it too much not to mention it! Penzy became my adopted mum for a week, we kept extending our stay because we couldn’t bear to leave. Her rooms would seriously stand up against a good standard hotel’s. She’ll book everything you could possibly need for you, and for a bit of a discount sometimes. There are dvd players in the room and a massive selection of dvds to choose from downstairs, whilst you enjoy your free hot drinks or complimentary water! Don’t book it through her website though, we paid half what that is quoting.
http://penzyguesthousekohsamui.com/
Indonesia - Bali
Sanur - Big Pineapple/ Bali Best Hostel - It annoyingly has two names depending on what website you look on, but it was the friendliest place I stayed in for the whole of my trip. Only 4 in a dorm, lovely hot water shower (which is a luxury for this price!), swimming pool, TV room, Laundry, all set around a family compound. I felt like I was staying with my extended family the whole time I was there, the hosts and the other guests included. Mia cooks wonderful food for only a bit more than a night market stall. I wish I could have stayed for longer - lots of people do, they had a few long term residents!
Sanur is quite a good alternative if you want as many home comforts as Kuta but not the neon lights.
Singapore
Beary Good Hostel - The staff really made this place for me. They were incredibly friendly and chatty, full of great information. During my stay the other guests only ever seemed to stay for one night, so I spent a lot of time chatting with the staff instead! Chinatown is a great location as well, this place couldn’t get closer to the MRT if it tried.
https://www.abearygoodhostel.com/
And a final tip for any private room in a hostel/guesthouse - check out the fan rooms and see if they have an aircon unit in them anyway. We stayed in a few places that the fan rooms were the same as the aircon rooms, they just gave you the control for the aircon once you had paid, but the aircon units sometimes had power buttons on the actual unit! Aircon for the price of fan ;)
My favourite hostel from throughout our trip in Australia was by far the Ritz for Backpackers in Melbourne. http://www.ritzbackpackers.com/
Although they did have trouble with bedbugs when we were there they did everything they could to erradicate the problem cleaning rooms as soon as they were told. They even changed the sofas in the tv room to leather when the linen ones got infected.
The facilities were great - although Wifi is a little expensive, Pancake breakfast in the morning, free BBQ night Friday and Wine and Cheese on a Tuesday. They held a pool competition once a week and the winner won beer and a bar tab usually for Base St Kilda.
The staff and long termers were really welcoming and friendly and it was quite easy to make friends. I have some amazing memories from that place and the only downside I would say is that being above a pub means certain rooms have to deal with noise on the weekend but we all take earplugs specifically for that reason.
I will definitely return to Ritz and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.
Lanta Thip house, ko lanta
Reggae mansion, KL
River city inn, singapore
<3
I love this thread.
Gecko Guesthouse on Langkawi, Malaysia. I spent a wonderful 2 weeks here. Pure bliss and highly recommended…
This thread is an absolute gem! I can’t contain myself, I’m so excited.
(this “reply” was blatently just to tag, hah!)
But must say, appreciating all these recommendations, niiiice one people, sadly I have nothing to offer in return..yet.
Miami Beach International Travellers Hostel - excellent value for money, amazing staff, great vibe and meals included. The nightlife is second to none and I don’t think i’ve ever been so sad to leave anywhere before.
I love this thread.
Gecko Guesthouse on Langkawi, Malaysia. I spent a wonderful 2 weeks here. Pure bliss and highly recommended…
Yeah that place was amazing (like the island itself). I never stayed there as it was always full, but I hung out there all the time, so much so I cannot even remember the name of the place I slept in (and it was only 2 months ago!).
This thread is ace!
I’m heading off this summer - hopefully I can add to it!
:-)
I just wrote a review last night on Caledonian Backpackers in Edinburgh. Pretty decent hostel
Have a read if you fancy;
http://fromfirsttolast1.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/hostel-review-caledonian-backpackers-edinburgh-2/
Im sure its been mentioned but hanoi backpacker hostel is amazing, always a great crowd there and most people head to the happy hour on the roof so you get to meet loads of people! Hue backpacker is also great, less busy than Hanoi backpacker but still a really good social element and the dorms are very nice.
Madame cuc in Saigon, I think there is three but I stayed in the one across from the big buffalo restaurant (cant remember the name but if your in Saigon you know what im on about). Its not dorms and they dont have a lift (had to walk EIGHT flights of stairs) but rooms are lovely, cheap, free breakfast and dinner and right in the heart of Saigon.
88 bacpacker hostel in Phnom Penh is lovely, massive beds and loads of space in dorm rooms, has a swimming pool, and really cheap drinks at the bar! The staff are lovely too (especially if you might want to find some weed…) and they brought us to the VIP area of a massive nightclub coz it was my birthday when we were there!
Monkey republic in Sihanoukville, rooms arent very nice but SO cheap and great atmosphere here.
Little bird guesthouse Chaing mai, dorms are 100 baht a night so you wont get better value especially as a solo traveller, very friendly hostel where you meet loads of people, however rooms are fan only so I suppose if your used to air con this might get uncomfortable.
Great thread….... SOOO excited just planning! x
