Pretty decent hostel, one that I would definitely recommend to other backpackers visiting London. Alright, lemme break it down for ya:
YAY:
+ Fantastic location! It's located right across the street from the British Museum! Also, it's about a 5-minute walk from several Tube stations, including Holborn and Russell Square. It's also about a 10-minute walk to the Leicester Square area and numerous bars and pubs. There's also a Sainsbury supermarket about a 10-minute walk away, which is awesome if you are, like me, a budgety backpacker and want to pack your own picnics every now and then! So yeah, a very central location!
+ Affordable beds! I think I paid, on average, 19 pounds/night, which was a great price for a hostel so centrally located. For the several nights I stayed there, there was some work being done on the pipes on that street, so it meant that we didn't have hot water for a night or so, but the hostel staff gave everyone a 15% discount, which was much appreciated.
+ Awesome breakfast! Man, I was making myself tasty ham and cheese panini sandwiches every morning here. That is pretty damn awesome for a hostel. In addition to the meat, cheese, and bread, there was also milk, tea, coffee, jams, jellies, nutella, and several different cereals of the corn flakey, muesli-ish, and corn pop-y variety. A great and filling start to your busy day. Plus, I even packed myself a meat and cheese sandwich for a picnic and snack on a coupla the days too. Woot!
+ Decent rooms and beds! It was pretty clean, the beds were comfy, the duvet and sheets were SUPER COMFY. So comfy that I wanted to take the duvet with me, it was even more comfy than my sheets at home! I slept pretty well when I was there, thanks to that.
+ There's totally a "global village" feeling, and I really loved that. The kitchen was a great communal space, especially during breakfast time when everyone's gathered there. Great space for meeting people, and they organize pub crawls and social events too, so it's always an option if you want something to do with fellow hostel peeps.
+ A coupla other awesome things: the staff is also super friendly and helpful; you get a card with 40 minutes of free internet access upon check-in; there's a luggage room in case you arrive before check-in time (2pm) so you can store your things and then go off to explore; and I liked that you can use the kitchen whenever you wanted to and store all your foods in the fridge.
NAY:
- The rooms could get kinda hot on certain days. The first night, I was on the 4th floor, and it got quite stuffy, which made it difficult to sleep. And when there's no A/C, it just makes it kind of annoying.
- I appreciated the fact that there were cages/lockers under each bed, but many of them squeaked and were hard to pull out from under the bed. This is annoying when you're trying to quietly put your stuff away in the middle of the night and everyone else in the room is sleeping. I feel like this could be easily fixed, and they should get on it quick. Little details like that can make for a much better experience.
But yeah, despite those small annoyances, I really liked this hostel and would recommend for any young backpacker. Oh, and a quick note that you do have to be young to stay here: they check your ID and you need to be between 18-35 years old.
If you do decide to crash here, have fun, safe travels, and happy backpacking! read more