Empire Hostel is wonderfully located on the (quieter) edge of busy Little India and is one of the cheaper hostels in Singapore.
The Location
Little India is full of great restaurants, and there is a McDonald's just across from Empire Hostel, and food courts all around. The Mustafa Shopping Centre is great for grocery shopping as well as items like electronics, clothing, toiletries, pharmacy, money exchange. There are also buses that run from Jalan Besar to Orchard Road and other tourist attractions. The Raffles and Marina Bay is about thirty minutes away by foot.
The hostel is within walking distance of MRT stations Bugis, Little India, and Lavender (the latter has a direct connection to the airport, just one tiny hop on/hop off at Tanah Merah, which is compulsory for everyone). To get there from the airport, get off at Lavender Station, walk west along the river and cross over the river on Syed Alwi street. There, simply walk straight, about five hundred meters, until you see the McDonald's on the left hand side, on a street corner, and the Empire Hostel is opposite, on the other side of the road. It's fairly discreet because there is no sign, just an A4 piece of paper with the name stapled to the front door. Ring the bell and the friendly employee will come and open the door for you.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The dorms are fairly small and the double rooms consist of one bunk bed, which isn't very romantic if you're a couple. Many rooms also don't have windows, which can feel a bit claustrophobic. The beds have beautiful Ikea sheets and covers and very nice duvets, and everyone gets not one but two pillows. The whole hostel is spotlessly clean thanks to daily cleaning. So are the bathrooms, with nice powerful showers -- four of them. The bathrooms look very sleek and chic. It's just fairly narrowly built, so you need to squeeze past the sinks when people are using them to get into the showers, but it's very nice. A great plus is that you can get a towel at no extra fee, you just need to pay a deposit.
Common Spaces
There is a small common TV lounge in the entrance hall, which is also the hall to the first floor rooms. This means the TV (with free DVDs) and (free) internet is off at midnight so everyone can get some sleep. The other common space is the breakfast dining room, where there is also a kitchenette you can use and where free breakfast is served every morning (toasts, jams, margarine, and tea and coffee). It's not a very good breakfast, but you can always go buy a roti in the street.
Summary
Empire Hostel is really a sleek place to stay with a good vibe, but there are some really tight places and some windowless rooms can get a bit prisonlike. It's highly recommended.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
May 2009
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