HI - Baltimore International Hostel

Spectacular! Incredible! Stupendous! No one word can describe it.
I stayed at the Baltimore Hostel of HI as an undergraduate pianist auditioning at the nearby Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. This was the first hostel I stayed in, and its service blew me away beyond all high-class hotels and, in fact, every temporary-residence building I've ever been at. The staff are super-reliable and amazingly friendly -- in calling a nearby restaurant to have a late-night dinner delivered, for example, one of the workers let me use his personal cell phone to make the call. The electronic numberpad-protected sleeping quarters have memory foam mattresses with provided pillow, blankets, and sheets. There is free drifting Wi-Fi Internet, a free-to-use XP Home with high-speed internet access, steaming-hot showers, even a Buddha statue in the basement (now that personally cracked me up). The restored 1855 mansion is naturally old but it adds a sense of peaceful and genuine, nice antiquity. There is a grand ballroom with an out-of-tune but decent grand piano -- being an aspiring pianist, upon showing my dextrousness, a worker asked, "Can you play Flight of the Bumblebee?" and I was only limited by the lateness of the night. The staff were incredibly engaging and friendlier than some of my own friends, sad to say! The only "fault" I could find was the relatively expensive $2 laundry -- yet the hostel even provided a free make-it-yourself pancake breakfast at the very kitchen pictured above! Throughout my entire stay (even though it was only two days, one night) I felt completely comfortable, safe, and at ease. I would immediately return here if I had to temporarily stay in Baltimore once more, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to family, friends, and strangers alike. Excellent, excellent people. I would come back with no hesitation.

Really nice, but also creepy
I stayed in the Baltimore Mulberry street hostel for one night in December. It was located near public transit, but I felt unsafe in the four-block walk over -- the light rail stop was surrounded by vacant and boarded-up buildings. Before getting off, I asked a guy reading a book if it was safe to get off, and he said it was, though. The first few blocks were just empty buildings and parking lots. The hostel itself felt sketchy, too -- one woman was sleeping in the dorm room when I arrived at 5 p.m. and still sleeping when I left the next morning at 9 a.m. -- sleeping for over sixteen hours generally means serious illness or post-drug hangover. Another woman was sleeping at 8 p.m. and still sleeping at 9 a.m. The hostel had a well-equipped and newly-renovated kitchen, nicer than my own with granite countertops and the kitchen was immaculately clean, and I met some great people in the kitchen, many of whom were interesting and staying in Baltimore for a couple of weeks taking a course or doing a health career rotation. Some of the guests in the hostel seemed to be vagrants or migrant workers, however. When I checked into the hostel at 5 p.m., the few people in the hostel were this more sketchy population -- the guys making dinner at that hour all stared at me and then had a broken-English confrontation with me because I'd turned off a TV in an empty room. When I went out and came back at 8 p.m., the guests there were more employed types. There's free wireless internet in the public library across the way from the hostel. Go to the African-American resource room in the annex.

Fantastic
This hostel was one of the best we've stayed in in the U.S.A.. we called the night before in mid September and they had room, which was great. The hostel is brand new, and has a lot to offer, brand new kitchen, en-suite bathrooms to the dorms, new beds and mattresses, and a lovely little courtyard at the back to sit in. The location is great, literally metres across the street to the Basilica cathedral, which is beautiful, and what's more, there was a proper supermarket around the corner with everything you could need to feed yourself (this is something we found to be very rare downtown in U.S. cities). The kitchen is well-equipped, and there are even little store boxes for things you don't want to put in the fridge. The staff here were American, and very helpful and friendly, they even did our washing for us! The hostel is beautiful inside, with really old features like massive ceiling roses. It was also really secure, the door is permanently locked, you get given a key when you arrive. Ultimately, this place was a home away from home, with all the comforts you miss as a traveler -- such as comfy sofas and TV, and a nice kitchen, en-suite bathroom. Away from the hostel, Baltimore is a hidden gem of a city, which is charming and has lots to offer, with public transport networks superior to most other U.S. cities, (ignore the downright rude bus drivers though!).

I liked this hostel, it was clean and comfortable.
A good hostel, near the harbour. The area around it is quite trashy but a few blocks away it's nice. The staff were good and helpful.