The Hostelz.com Review
This hostel is on the northern bank of the Landwehr Canal in the Kreuzberg district. It is along U-Bahn Line 15 about halfway between the Moeckenbrucke and Hallesches Tor stops and is a modern concrete 7-floor building with a large red M sign on the outside.
The hostel is fairly well located within walking distance of Checkpoint Charlie and there are numerous supermarkets and cheap takeaways in the area. There are seven floors of rooms with lift access. There is a hostel bar next to the building and breakfast (other meals are also available) is served on the rooftop terrace with a view of the city. The excellent breakfast was a wide variety of hams, cheeses, bread cereal, and coffee/tea/juice.
There are drinks and hostel souvenirs for sale at the reception and the staff there are friendly and helpful. The rooms are located along long corridors and are accessed with individual security keycards that also open the main entrance at night. The rooms and toilets are very clean. The double-deck beds are quite comfortable and there are large individual lockers (need your own locks). There is a TV and a table and chairs make up a common area in the room. Linen is provided at check-in. The hostel organizes regular group activities (such as Playstation competitions) in the bar or basement.
This hostel is obviously targeting the young backpacker market. However, the hostel has the atmosphere of a family resort and most of the guests seem to be elderly Germans and families (both German and foreign) who find it a good and cheap alternative to a hotel. But depending on your perspective that may or may not be a compliment for a youth hostel.
The hostel is fairly well located within walking distance of Checkpoint Charlie and there are numerous supermarkets and cheap takeaways in the area. There are seven floors of rooms with lift access. There is a hostel bar next to the building and breakfast (other meals are also available) is served on the rooftop terrace with a view of the city. The excellent breakfast was a wide variety of hams, cheeses, bread cereal, and coffee/tea/juice.
There are drinks and hostel souvenirs for sale at the reception and the staff there are friendly and helpful. The rooms are located along long corridors and are accessed with individual security keycards that also open the main entrance at night. The rooms and toilets are very clean. The double-deck beds are quite comfortable and there are large individual lockers (need your own locks). There is a TV and a table and chairs make up a common area in the room. Linen is provided at check-in. The hostel organizes regular group activities (such as Playstation competitions) in the bar or basement.
This hostel is obviously targeting the young backpacker market. However, the hostel has the atmosphere of a family resort and most of the guests seem to be elderly Germans and families (both German and foreign) who find it a good and cheap alternative to a hotel. But depending on your perspective that may or may not be a compliment for a youth hostel.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
July 2005
Their Description
MEININGER Berlin Hallesches Ufer Details
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MEININGER Berlin Hallesches Ufer Reviews from the WebHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Really good value! Stayed for three nights (June 28 - July 1, 2010). There's actually two buildings: the main one on the north side of the canal and a second one on the south side. Reception is only open from 7am-2pm at the south side location, so it's a pain in the ass because you have to check in at the north building and then haul your luggage over to the south building (which I had to do). However, the facilities were spotless. I got a four-bed mixed dorm with a private bathroom down the hall and even a small TV! It's a little hard to meet other people, but the people in my room were cool and really friendly. Breakfast was typical fare, but good and the staff friendly. Like previously mentioned, the subway is only a couple minutes walk away and relatively easy to get to all the main sights. For only 14 euros a night, this place was a steal. — Anonymous , Canada (2010-07-25) Breakfast! Clean! Still can't forget that amazing breakfast! Absolutely the best! Nice, big, clean rooms and bathrooms. Nice staff and great view from rooftop! Location might seem a bit isolated, but near U-Station and had no problem at all arriving late at night. Kitchen a bit cramped but has a big fridge and cook tops. Great stay! — Adriana TR , Brasil (2009-06-28) Awesome I really enjoyed my four day stay here. The hostel is a bit out of the way, but it is walking distance to everything you might want to see in Berlin (we walked pretty much everywhere we went to), and there are buses and metro stops nearby as well. The staff were all very helpful and friendly and the rooms were very clean. Breakfast was great -- the best I've seen at a hostel -- and it was really nice to eat out on their balcony. We met some great people here, though there are no real common areas except the dining room to speak of. I would definitely stay again! — Nicole , USA (2008-06-13) Best hostel ever! Perfect! Wow! Where to begin. The breakfast is delicious and huge! The rooms are comfortable with a toilet and a shower in the room. Hot shower, with pressure! Very clean! Well located! The cheapest hostel but the best one! incredible. — Marie-Pier , Canada (2008-01-09) Meininger is the place to be in Berlin! I stayed here in the summer of 2006 and it was one of the cleanest and friendliest hostels I have ever stayed at. Couple minute walk from the U-Bahn Station. The staff were very polite and the rooms were very clean and tidy. The rooms are non-smoking and there is an outside bar. It has a very safe feeling to it, and is not loud at all. Beds are very comfy and I wasn't awoken in the middle of the night by loud guests in my room. I really recommend this hostel. — Alex , USA (2007-04-16) Great, great, great! — Sof (2006-12-25) Stopped here three nights in November; nice hostel, really helpful and friendly staff. Clean and tidy rooms. Superb breakfast. could not fault this hostel at all. Do not miss the free berlin tour, it is excellent. would definitely recommend this hostel. — STEVEN CHAMBERS (2006-11-24) I've sent an email for the hostel, asking for a reservation (two bed in mixed dorms). The staff told me that they have vacancy, and after that asked for my credit card number. And I gave them. One day later I received an email telling me that they are full. Why they asked my credit card number? Don't recommend at all. — Gabriela (2006-07-27) Ikea dorms. If the kids get too noisy, just tell the desk as they are very efficient at quelling the noise and responsive to guest concerns. The best free breakfast buffet I've found in Europe. It is a busy place but they aim to please. — Greg Walker (2006-01-21) This hostel is definitely the best hostel I've ever stayed at. The rooms are huge; they don't just shove in as many bunks as they can like a lot of the hostels do. There are bathrooms in all of the rooms and they're spacious and so clean. They have a breakfast included that's amazing. Absolutely no complaints, highly recommended and will be returning on my next trip. Oh yeah, and it's super cheap too! — Erin (2005-09-28) INCREDIBLE! For the price I paid, I expected far, far worse. But no! There was breakfast included, sheets included (which looked like they'd just been purchased, they were so clean), a bathroom IN the cozy room of eight beds (bunk-style), which was cleaned every day. It also had a staff that was so open and eager to answer questions that I never felt lame for asking how to get to places, and a bar next door that, while it wasn't that cool, was nice to have and play pool in. The hostel is huge; it's like a hotel, so meeting people is a little more difficult. (Or easier, depending on your personality, I guess.) But there's a really nice balcony area on the top level that's great to eat breakfast on and just enjoy the breeze. Take the free bike tour and do the pub-crawl!!! Those are the two most fun things I did my entire month-long trip, no joke. — Christie (2005-08-06) So good… the bathroom is big, each bed has its own lamp and power, quiet environment, the supermarket is not so far, and the breakfast buffet is not different from the hotel's. And all of this just costs 13.50 euros (of course for the dorm). This is not an advertisement; it's really true. — potato (2005-07-22) I just checked out, and I enjoyed every bit of my one-week stay. The breakfast was great, I had a TV in my (8-bed dorm) room, and the other people in my room were really cool (well, except for a pair of obnoxious girls who were rather loud, when everyone else was sleeping). There were several groups that came in and out, and it wasn't easy to meet people from outside of your room, but I still thought it rocked. When I first arrived, the hostel seemed a little further away from the station than I'd expected, but as the week went on (and I grew accustomed to walking), it seemed super close. There's a bar right next door, as well as a drink store (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) about 50 feet from the front door. And, there's an Imbiss kiosk in front of the hostel, where you can get some delicious Currywurst.
From what I heard from other hostellers, apparently this place is constantly making improvements. My room didn't have a set of lockers (they hadn't arrived yet), but I think most of the rooms do. Oh, and a big time bonus — they have a luggage room where you can leave your stuff after checkout! Though it's located close to many sites, the area has a residential feel to it. Highly recommended. — Kim (2005-05-25) What was that breakfast??!!! This was the best of all the hostels I stayed in. Free all-you-can-eat breakfast with cheese, ham, yogurt, fruits, different kinds of bread, milk, juice, etc, etc. The rooms are very nice too, with en suite bathrooms. It's probably the best place I stayed in Europe. — Tarso, Brazil (2005-04-22) This hostel is just great, it's almost a hotel!! The room is beautiful, clean, and has a TV and bathroom, which is clean and has a really nice shower. The breakfast is awesome, the best I've had in a hostel. It's also very close to the subway station. Perfect! I would give it six stars if I could! — Camila (2005-04-22)