The Hostelz.com Review
Backpackers is an easy-to-reach-by-bus hostel. The bus stops in front of the hostel and the name appears on the screen in the bus. The Backpacker bus also picks guests up when they make prior arrangements. There are airport and hostel pick-ups and drop-offs around noon. Guests with rented cars could park at all three locations (Beach House, Main House, and Plantation Village). Kam Highway is a very busy road, so use caution when turning into or out of parking areas. It's also safer to walk on the pedestrian path, rather than the main road, especially at night.
The location is unbeatable. Backpackers is across from Three Tables Beach and a short walk from Waimea Bay and other North Shore beaches. Foodland requires a five minute walk from the hostel and there's also a Starbucks at Foodland. And Planet Surf offers Internet access. A serious shopper will have to take a bus to Haleiwa!
The cabins at Plantation Village offer dormitory accommodations. The rooms are small, no lockers are available, and the rooms could get very stuffy with four people in them. Bathrooms are often disgusting and there is only one bathroom per cabin. The kitchens are not well-equipped and could use some thorough cleaning. The common areas in the cabins are frequently used to have meals or hang out in -- but unfortunately also for smoking. The outside common area has laundry facilities, a payphone, TV and a vending machine. Backpackers offer bike, boogie, and surfboard rentals.
The "Main House" has two bathrooms and five rooms. The rooms have big lockers and four bunkbeds. Linen is provided. The bathrooms are mostly not clean. The floors are wet, counters not wiped, and the shower mats are wet and covered in sand.
The kitchen in the Main House is huge, but there are no storage shelves for food. Food is mostly stored on top of the two fridges. A lack of cutlery, dishes, mugs, utensils, pots, and pans creates a challenge to the guest. A microwave is available. Guests tend to hang out in the kitchen while cooking and having meals.
A small lounge adjacent to the kitchen has a TV. There are coin-operated laundry facilities, a vending machine, and a payphone outside the Main House. An outside table could be used by smokers or for dining purposes.
The hostel caters to surfers and surfing is the main topic of discussion. Drinking is allowed in common areas. Non-drinkers and non-surfers might feel out of place, but young social surfers seem to enjoy the atmosphere and don't mind the noise.
The location is unbeatable. Backpackers is across from Three Tables Beach and a short walk from Waimea Bay and other North Shore beaches. Foodland requires a five minute walk from the hostel and there's also a Starbucks at Foodland. And Planet Surf offers Internet access. A serious shopper will have to take a bus to Haleiwa!
The cabins at Plantation Village offer dormitory accommodations. The rooms are small, no lockers are available, and the rooms could get very stuffy with four people in them. Bathrooms are often disgusting and there is only one bathroom per cabin. The kitchens are not well-equipped and could use some thorough cleaning. The common areas in the cabins are frequently used to have meals or hang out in -- but unfortunately also for smoking. The outside common area has laundry facilities, a payphone, TV and a vending machine. Backpackers offer bike, boogie, and surfboard rentals.
The "Main House" has two bathrooms and five rooms. The rooms have big lockers and four bunkbeds. Linen is provided. The bathrooms are mostly not clean. The floors are wet, counters not wiped, and the shower mats are wet and covered in sand.
The kitchen in the Main House is huge, but there are no storage shelves for food. Food is mostly stored on top of the two fridges. A lack of cutlery, dishes, mugs, utensils, pots, and pans creates a challenge to the guest. A microwave is available. Guests tend to hang out in the kitchen while cooking and having meals.
A small lounge adjacent to the kitchen has a TV. There are coin-operated laundry facilities, a vending machine, and a payphone outside the Main House. An outside table could be used by smokers or for dining purposes.
The hostel caters to surfers and surfing is the main topic of discussion. Drinking is allowed in common areas. Non-drinkers and non-surfers might feel out of place, but young social surfers seem to enjoy the atmosphere and don't mind the noise.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
July 2005
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Backpackers Vacation Inn - Plantation Village Details
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Hostelz.com Guest Reviews
STAY AWAY The plantation has a distinct sort of country charm. This country feel came from the three cute little pigs roaming freely about the property. The numerous roosters did their part to ensure that you were awake early so you could smell the morning fresh dairy air. Dairy air, dairy air dirty stinky dairy air, but I wasn't on a farm just a stinky plantation village room. These roosters that were causing such a ruKus had plenty of reason to be at the plantation because there were lots of bugs for them to eat. I probably should have lured a couple of these birds into my room so they could feed on the assortment of insects available in that location. However the foul smell from my pillow would probably even scare them away. — Mike , Canada (2011-04-28) Great location, Great Value, Genuine Staff. We will stay here again. We stayed in the Beach House last Sept Oct. It was clean and presentable. The location is excellent, The Staff really friendly and helpful. That really made it for us as the kids just borrowed the boogie boards or snorkel gear when they wanted. Craig at the desk made them welcome and our holiday safe and fun for us by providing good advice. If you like to laugh meet other people and have a good time locally then this is the place to stay. Try the Shark Cove Grill too. Thank you Sharlyn and Backpacker Staff for a fabulous holiday. — John , Australia (2011-01-23) Place is filthy and rundown I booked 4 nights here and ended up leaving after the first night bedbug bitten and thinking that the people who ran this place couldn't give a rip about anyone staying here. All they care about is the money. If you are someone who doesn't care about anything clean, stay here. Otherwise stay away! — SamV , Canada (2010-11-22) Sad, sad place! Unfortunately the woman owner and her bicycle-sidekick suck big time. She has let the place deteriorate to a shambles even to the extent the whole place should be quarantined as a health hazard. It shows a deep disrespect to the heritage of the structures and most probably violates all sorts of codes for maintaining safe structures for inhabitants. Very sad indeed! Don't stay there!! — Bike man from Sweden , Sweden (2010-11-06) Cleaned Up Its Act! Great place! The hostel is fun and in the perfect location! Very relaxing, modest, and quaint accommodation with a great group of staff. No bedbugs, and our rooms were very clean. Highly recommended place to stay if you visit North Shore! — Bethany , Germany (2010-05-24) Affordable and convenient for short term stay Obviously this isn't the finest accommodation to be found on north shore Oahu. The dormitories aka plantation village is a collection of beach shacks usually containing two rooms, and a kitchen/living area. There are usually around six beds per cabin. each cabin also has a small porch. The cleanliness of the cabins largely depends on the cleanliness of its inhabitants. saying that this place is a little rough around the edges (like many hostels) is a fair statement, actually this place needs some serious TLC. termite damage is not uncommon and the hostels lick and stick policy of fixing things is not going to extend the life of these cabins forever. most suffering is staff cabin # 5 -- this otherwise charming cabin appears to have a rotted support beam underneath. the front porch dips deeply in one corner and if you sat a ball on the floor inside it will without being touched roll towards the refrigerator. the other cabins are in a little better shape. there's no AC which isn't to big of a deal. the hostel is in an awesome location on one of the nicest stretches of coast in hawaii, or probably in the world. foodland is an easy block or two away. there are bikes for rent and yes there are wild chickens running around on the property, just like everywhere else on the northshore. sometimes wild pigs are spotted on hostel grounds. there's mango and papaya trees on site. most of the people who stay here "long term" more than a few days, are usually surfers from all around the world who are on a budget and would be beach bunnies from far flung countries with overcast climates. like all hostels the guest are a mixed group of anyone and everyone. expect a little noise and probably some unnecessary drama (beer can be bought nearby and with so many people from different backgrounds, not everyone is going to get along all the time) most of the people staying there were happy to be on vacation and eager to meet new people, have a laugh and enjoy some sunshine. don't be afraid of this place it's fine and if you realize you'd rather be somewhere more commercial waikiki is just a bus or shuttle ride away. — john , United States (2009-04-23) This place is dangerous! Please think very carefully before you book! This place is dangerous! Infested with bedbugs, old, rundown, and very dirty! Nobody really cares much about anything except taking your money. I work as a fire fighter and was amazed at the poor maintenance. The place is dangerous. Old Broken Electrical Switches, No Fire Extinguishers or Smoke Detectors. No Evacuation Procedures and really old electrical appliances which should be condemned. Department of Health, Hawaii should look carefully at this place in order to help protect the health of visitors. Infested, dirty, and dangerous. — surfgallery , English (2009-03-05) Rundown, dirty Even for a hostel, this place was pretty dirty, mainly the kitchen and bathrooms. A girl staying in my room said she woke to a roach crawling on her. When I arrived, the guy running the front desk was getting high. Still, though, it was fun. Good location, they rent bikes from the hostel, and only the people staying in your cabin have keys to get in. — Stefanie , Texas (2009-01-06) A surfer squat I stayed in a cabin, it was filthy -- when I say filthy, the NYC subway comes to mind. It was very hot and our fan didn't work. We had to leave the door open, which was probably inviting to thieves if we'd stayed more than one night. There are rubber sheets, the pillows smell awful, and there were bedbugs. The bathroom smelled less of urine than our bedroom. Roosters will keep you awake all night. There are hostels in third world countries that are nicer than this. This hostel will appeal to the following -- people under twenty-five, people who surf full-time, people who want to meet surfers, people making a documentary on surfers, and people who have lost their vision and hearing and sense of smell. For these people I would recommend you happily spend $20 (highway robbery) for a dorm bed. If you can afford more and are considering a cabin or private room, do yourself a favor and find something, anything, else. — James , Canada (2008-11-20) Dirty, loud, smelly, and expensive. Yeah this place is in a great location but this does not make up for how loud, dirty and badly maintained the facilities are. I did feel like running away in the middle of the night (almost did since I couldn't sleep due to the stench of my pillow, the hot room, the broken fan, and the roosters who were loud the entire night, I could also hear people farting in the room next door, which says a lot about the horrible thin walls). Luckily I was able to get a refund due to the kind lady in the front for the rest of my three nights (I made up a terrible lie to get out of this place) and I ran back to Waikiki to get a decent place to stay. Yes, I could see that this could be a great experience if you like loud, expensive, dirty dumps, but this is not a hostel -- it's a shelter for drunk, twenty-year-old surfer boys. — Julia , Canada (2008-11-19) Young staff is friendly, location is great, but place is just rundown I stayed in one of the cabins with communal kitchens and living rooms at $75/night (you get your own room where the door locks -- all I usually need). On the north shore of Oahu you really don't have too many choices. What this place does have is a more upscale part where there are completely private rooms, more like hotel rooms with their own cable TV and bathrooms at $115/night (I think the picture of the bedroom with the comforter on the bed is one of those rooms). I wanted to stay in one of them but they were booked solid. Also, this hostel's staff were largely young surfers and travelers who stayed here short-term for free in exchange for free accommodation and thus didn't have much of a vested interest, unlike at other hostels I've been at where the people running the place either own it or are at least long-term employees. There was a chain-smoking middle age woman of in the main office who was very friendly and funny. This place also has problems that are largely not the staff's fault. In a nutshell, the cabin was like a rundown college dorm. The room was fairly clean and habitable when I got there, but the bathroom and kitchen really weren't -- all minimal cleaning by the staff who do little more than empty garbage. Part of the problem also is people are coming in and out all day, tracking in sand from the beach that sticks all over the floor and makes it hard to keep clean. Furthermore, other occupants of the cabin rooms were cooking fish or something else that was smelly in the kitchen and it just stunk up the whole place (not the staff's fault but I really didn't like it). The location was great -- right across the street from a fairly quiet and nice beach that was not crowded but for a few surfers, there is a great place next door to get some breakfast and/or lunch (and takes credit cards!), a really great supermarket as well where you can pick up the essentials, and you're not that far from anything exciting on the north shore which is the part of Oahu I prefer for the most part -- great hiking, isolated beaches, and Dillingham Airfield -- not touristy at all but plenty of good restaurants in nearby Hale'iwa. The location here can't be beat -- just try to stay in the $115/night rooms with their own bathrooms and I think you'll have a much more pleasant stay than I did. The cabins are not for the faint of heart and I wouldn't even dream of staying in the completely communal dorms! — Chris J , USA (2008-01-11) Enjoy the North Shore It's not a luxury hotel, but if you are a little bit adventurer you'll like it, it's so surf style! I stayed one week with my girlfriend, it's quiet, typical, and relaxing. I just loved north shore at first sight, and now that i'm here in italy looking at pictures, i'm crying like a child. Surely i'll come back there. — Michele , Italy (2008-01-10) F***ing Amazing! For the True Independent Backpacker! My experience won't be like anyone else's. I loved Plantation Village. I stayed on Oahu for four weeks between Waikiki and Northshore. And if it Wasnt for Backpackers i dont think I would have enjoyed my stay for the time I spent. I met some amazing beautiful individuals (whom i'm still in contact and am really close with). It was a Party if you wanted to Party and it was a place to chill out if you wanted to chill out. The Atmosphere was great. You have to be prepared to meet some truly strange but harmless individuals (thats just a rule of thumb for backpacking) and be open to new experiences. I also met this gorgeous brazilian girl while i spent my time at plantation village who changed my life. I was the "Rockstar" for once and it was one of the best times of my life! — Ray aka Billy , Canada (2007-10-21) Dirty and dilapidated, looks like it could collapse at any time. They took my money, before I even checked in. The manager was rude, and said it was what we deserved. As I'm fifty-three and partially disabled, I didn't appreciate this very much. The night we stayed, in early february, it was the coldest weather in living memory, and we ended up phoning for a taxi, and paying $125 to find a room in waikiki, in the early hours of the morning. I ended up paying $250 for half a night. This place should be condemned as unfit for human habitation. I urge everybody thinking of staying there to reconsider. If I could give it a minus rating, I would! — Altheman , British (2007-05-08) Avoid this place at all costs! It looks nothing like the pictures. The bathroom walls were black with mold, a dead rat had been lying in the dinette area so long that it had been reduced to bones -- right next to the box of rat poison -- and there was a sea of cockroaches. I could go on and on about this dive. They even had the nerve to post a sign which read, "We don't have a paid maid service, so be sure to leave food and a tip." Are you kidding me! We decide to cancel our next night's stay and they refused to refund our money. This place is a total scam! Beware. — John , USA (2007-04-25)