I came to love this hostel during my weeklong stay. I chose it for its cost for single rooms (there…read moreare only two, and these are accessible by passing through dorms - so be aware of this) relative to other hostels doing with similar offerings. The real joy of a small backpacking hostel is the sense of community one gets. The staff are largely friendly and accommodating (be sure to tell them if something seems to miss the mark!), and the bathrooms were kept in good clean order. The bed was comfortable enough, and every room has windows for good circulation of air. The wifi is a bit slow - that's the only detractor. (The showers worked well and there were sufficient bathrooms for the small hostel.) I would recommend staying here if you do not insist on being at city center. It's easily accessible by public transport (s-Bahn and u-bahn).

Love Love this hostel…read more It is by far the most affordable hostel to stay at and enjoy the staff that work there as well. I met so many cool people at this hostel and I enjoy the neighborhood because it was so walkable and nearby many transit lines to get around as well. East Berlin is amazing and I will stay here again.

When I travel alone I tend to get a little disorganized. So when I arrived in Berlin I had the…read moreaddress but not a reservation to stay here. I was lucky to find rooms to all my days, but because of availability (and economy) I ended up changing rooms and checking in and out everyday (for about 5 days). Despite what I said above I had a great time a St. Christopher's. The hostel is in a great location, just a few blocks from Alexanderplatz and right in front of a U-Bahn, and nly two blocks from a main avenue, where you can take the bus to the main Berlin train station. The hostel is very big, so lots of floors and rooms. In the main entrance they have a bar, which is open to the general public - don't worry you will meet some cool locals that come hang out here and meet the tourists. Also, breakfast is included in your rate and it's also served at the bar. The rooms are comfortable - I tried 3 different options. I personally liked the 6 people rooms better, as I found the bed nice and it wasn't so noisy. One night I spent at the 12-people room and to make it more private they have curtains in each bed, but I felt very claustrophobic sleeping inside them. Staff is nice and helpful, and if you are up to a Free Walking Tour they come pick up groups in the hostel, just check the brochures at reception.

What can I say, I love St. Christopher's. I've stayed twice at the one in London and when I was…read moreheading to Berlin it was at the top of my list. I stayed in "Apartment 1" which meant I had my own bedroom and shared a kitchen and bathroom with just one other occupant(s). When you've stayed at enough of the big hostels like this one, you're willing to pay 10 euros or more per night extra not to sleep with 20 other people anymore, hoping people don't turn on the lights at night or early in the morning, or make a ridiculous amount of noise, or swipe your stuff. Pay a little more and have your own place. Very friendly staff and great place. If you have to do some work - just beware that there is no internet in the room so you'll have to make do with the bar which is quiet between 10am and 2pm but noisy all other times. I've also never in my life walked out of a metro station and across the street to my hostel. AWESOME.

This was a nice Hostel with a great vibe…read more There were a lot of people interacting, there were fun events (tours, karaoke, etc.), the staff was really friendly! They had a really nice (and modestly priced) café along with a bar downstairs. I had a great time during my stay! Everyone spoke English well.

What a great place!! There are a few minor points here and there where they can improve, but…read moreotherwise this is a very nice place at a very good price. I stayed in the hotel last year, but decided on the hostel this year. The Hostel private room with a shared bathroom is light years better than the hotel across the street. Read on. I got a single room with shared bathroom. I was a little afraid before arriving that the bed would be on the short side. It has a head and foot rail, but I was delighted that it's about 7 feet long. No problem there. A couple of points: 1. It's not evident that you need to rent a towel for € 1 at the desk. Westerners might waste time searching for them; I know I did. 2. There are no phones in the room. This is understandable as it's a no frills place, but just a heads up to everyone in case this is important. The front desk was SUPER SUPER kind to come up and tell me I had a call from my work, though. That was amazing service. 3. Big problem: The doors slam loudly, including the door to your room. Going to sleep requires ear plugs for just this reason. If they could put some kind of rubber stop on the doors so they don't make the very audible clack when they close, that would solve that problem. I understand they do this to make sure doors close, and lock, but that slam is all night, every night. So a very few and minor things to be mindful of. I love that the rooms are fairly large, almost 18 feet long, and 7 feet wide. Built in desk, clothes bureau, in-room safe. The best compliment I can give them, however, and probably of unique importance to westerners, is the fan. Sitting atop the closet like an icon of gold was a little desk fan. I was overjoyed. Last year (and you can read in my previous review of the hotel) I told the Hotel that I would pay dearly for the privilege of using a fan. Perhaps someone read that or the hostel is just run differently. Either way, that little fan makes an incredible difference, and was my new favorite child sitting on the desk. I'm very, very happy the Hostel does not require a key card to keep the lights on. Their sister hotel across the way does however. This can be very dreadful for others sleeping in your room, and a bit of a pain. My only suggestion is that they put a little sign in every room laying out the ground rules of how things work, such as the towels. I am an American, and for that I apologize, but I'm use to the way things work over in the western hemisphere, and feel a tad awkward in confessing I don't know about small things like towels. A little sign or paper when I check in with frequently asked questions would be very kind. The showers are a little small, what you might call dorm showers. They're private and you have a door you can lock and all, but getting in and out of that tiny room might be uncomfortable for the newly arrived. However the showers and bathrooms were always clean. Downstairs the staff is very nice, and they all speak great English. There's a nice cafe called Catz and Mouse with a darn good burger, the front desk has stamps, phone cards, and drinks for purchase. Book sharing in the lobby, a nice front patio, postcards, and just a lots of little things that really make it convenient. I love the Circus Hostel and I'm definitely a fan. I will probably never stay at the hotel again now that I've experienced the magic of the hostel's private room with shared bathroom, but maybe next time I'll splurge the extra euros for a private bathroom. This is a great place to stay.

Amazing staff, all really nice and friendly people, great facilities, fast working computers, great…read morekitchen, great beds, everything I could want in a hostel. On the last day of my stay they had loud construction workers right outside my room at 9am. No warning was given, so after a late night of drinking, not a fun way to wake up. Staff was very empathetic, but I should have been warned that this was scheduled. I would have stayed elsewhere on the last night.

When I come back to Berlin (because I will) I will come to this hostel too. It was perfect…read more We arrived earlier for the check in and the receptionist gave us a free beer to wait 15 minutes for our room to be prepared. The room and also the hostel was very clean, with a lot of light and everything pretty new. We even had a little terrace for us. There is also a big kitchen where you can cook or buy breakfast. Transport connections were perfect, only 5 minutes walking from the U-Bahn. I can't say anything besides this was a great choice!

One of the oldest hostels in Germany offering a unique atmosphere instead of just a bed. Easy going…read moreat breakfast and a friendly/Rocky bar vibe at night. As long you don't make a wish to the playlist and you accept the way things are - you have a new home. 1.4.2008 celebrating 10 years.

This was a fantastic place to stay. We had two beds in a five bed unit. All of our roommates were…read morerespectful. You will get more than you pay for here.

Honestly for a hostel this place was really good. The rooms were pretty big and they had big…read morelockers for you to keep your stuff in. The guy at the front desk when we checked in was super friendly and helped explain a lot to us about the city, public transportation and such. This place was more than I expected for what the price was. Happy with the decision to stay here.

Impressive hostel, very quiet, large rooms and a good breakfast spread…read more I stayed here for 4 nights in July with my partner. We got a double room with ensuite. the room was great! Huge and very clean. The bathroom/shower was really great, felt like a minimal hotel room. Our room was very warm however, an although there was large windows there was no airflow. A fan would have been ideal. The reception is great, really pretty decor, bar(with happy hour) and pool and games tables(2). The breakfast each morning was €5 each and was buffet style. Really good spread, cheese, meats, fruit, cereal, yogurt,eggs, coffee and herbal teas. This was extremely good value and sets you up for the day of playing tourist. 2 things I dislike about the hostel is its location. As a tourist I found its location pretty sketchy. The u ban is a 10 min walk away and from there until the hostel you have to walk on a very dark long road and then through a high rise housing estate. I would not have felt comfortable making this journey alone or in a small group late at night. After 10 at night you must use the side entrance which walks you through the hostels smoking area which as a non smoker is a really unpleasant welcome back when you've had a long day of huffing it across the city. There is also a guy who sits outside the hostel all night reminding people to keep the noise down, I *think* he's a security guard from the hostel, either that or a concerned local neighbour. Just be aware that he may jump out on you if your talking too loudly coming home. He gave me a bit of a fright! Lol

Literally had bed bugs so gross. Management was not very helpful with the situation probably don't…read morestay

The hotel/hostel is more hostel than hotel. Private rooms (at least in my case) share bathrooms…read more Not a big deal, as there seemed to be enough bathrooms, and they were cleaned daily and seemed to stay pretty clean throughout the full week of my stay. Pros: courtyard, lobby seating, quiet hours enforced, friendly staff (exception: Sunday-AM girl was working harder than anyone I've ever seen to ignore a queue of guests, requiring us to verbally interrupt her to get her attention even for a moment - everyone else was superbly kind and helpful!). Cons: as in much of Germany, the wifi infrastructure for the bandwidth demands are outstripped by the needs of the customers - consequence: internet was spotty except for in the lobby, and sometimes it crashed altogether (it seemed frequently to emit dead signals to the room areas of the hostel/hotel). The cost (at €43/nt) was competitive with all comparables but is not an amazing deal for the overall picture. It depends: The beds are firm, which I prefer. If you like a soft bed, this is not a comfy situation for you. And no AC, but plenty of air flow, so it didn't matter for me in mid June.

I unfortunately did not have a good experience. The photos looked nice, but it wasn't how it…read moreseemed. Check-in. It was so slow, and the receptionists were so chatty with other hostel guests they could barely focus on my check-in and kept forgetting I gave them extra money for towel deposit. Room. I stayed in 4 bed dorm. My guest mates were so loud, it was so hard to sleep. One of them was a smoker who got up so frequent at night to smoke and open the door, making the room cold. Also my guest mates were stinky, unlucky me. But also the bed was sooo uncomfortable. The cleaning of the room appears questionable too. This is not a quiet hostel. Everyone stays up late and you can hear them talking from the lobby at night. Also this place is next to Berghain, a 24hr party rave club on the weekends, so you have a lot of people staying here to go to this club. The bathroom was actually decently clean. However, there was no hooks on the shower walls so it was hard to put your stuff anywhere. Location, 10-15 minute walk to transit, a little inconvenient. You need to rent bikes is the best way of transportation.

3.5 stars Pros:…read more-Despite first impressions of the lobby, our room was very clean and modern. It felt like a completely different hostel compared to the lobby. -Up on the third floor is was very quiet at night, as long as we kept our window closed. -Nice room darkening curtains that helped us sleep in. -Friendly staff -Good beer at the bar, although I wish they had it on tap -Close to a very good metro station with multiple lines to take you anywhere you'd want to go, including Potsdam. Meh: -Our room was very small, but no smaller than hostels we've stayed in throughout Europe. (We had a double with private bathroom). -The neighborhood is extremely hipster, as is this hostel. Cons: -The room was stifling hot. A small standing fan would have made the experience 100x better. -Washers and dryers were broken and/or barely operable. -For us, we'd have probably chosen elsewhere had we known more about the neighborhood and grunge hipster vibe. We didn't have much in common with the other guests. -The location, although well connected on the metro, is not walking distance to many tourist attractions.

Plus Berlin is more hotel than hostel, which speaks to its excellent service, relative cleanliness,…read morequality of amenities, and breadth of activities and services offered with local businesses. Small things like the extremely courteous service (24 hours, by the way), free towels, sleak building design, spacious rooms and hallways, TONS of pub crawl tours each day of multiple varieties, ample selection of daily activities, and more separate Plus from the pack. Sure, some of these things sound like things every hostel offers, but I think what's different about Plus is the sheer number of activities going on both inside and outside the hostel. It's also very affordable (roughly $20 USD/night for a 6 person room), located close to the trains/clubs, has a pool/sauna, and very fast wifi.

Excellent hostel in a great location! Just a few minutes' walk from the East Gallery section of the…read moreBerlin Wall. I stayed here with a Contiki group, and we had a great time with the fabulous courtyard and Matrix nightclub across the street! Some of the best hostel-prepared food I had in Europe: the cooks whipped up an excellent traditional dinner, and breakfast was plentiful each morning. Would definitely stay here again! This hostel was one of the reasons I fell in love with Berlin.

If you find yourself in Berlin and on a budget then this is the spot for you my friend. The service…read moreis just what you'd expect for a budget price but I certainly didn't complain. The beds are a bit lumpy but who needs to sleep when you are enjoying some of the best clubbing on the planet? Whatever you do don't accidentally wonder in to the flower shop close to the street thinking its the hotel because the shop keeper must've have had to deal with this mistake one too many times! One of the GREAT things about this spot is that it is right around the corner from one of my favorite spots in Berlin...Panorama Bar.

I came to Ostel looking for the "Ostalgie" (that sense of nostalgia for the east) and in that sense…read moreaesthetically this hostel provided that. Unfortunately if I'd known it would also come with the customer service and cleanliness of a Soviet hotel pre-reunification then I might've looked somewhere else. The single rooms themselves are reasonably sized and are relatively clean, however the walls are paper thin. If you like the sound of your neighbour getting her rocks off to the latest motown hit single by Marvin Gaye or alternatively perhaps the Turkish dance party in the room next door you weren't invited to at 3am this place is definitely the perfect destination for you! Smoking indoors is definitely not allowed but complimentary as are the numerous dirty stained towels left discarded in the bathrooms. Please note: there is ONE communal bathroom for each floor only! This means that when there is someone else's blood/crap/etc on the toilet seat the cleaner withholds the right to clean it up. In Soviet Germany, toilet cleans you! Perhaps I'm expecting too much, Berlin is a party city after all and I'm all out of party. The wifi was average (don't expect to get it outside of the reception area downstairs) and the lack of a social friendly "atmosphere" does remind you that you were perhaps a little ambitious booking a kitsch hostel in for two weeks.