HI - Stellenbosch - Stumble Inn Hostel

This hostel is a well-established backpackers’ favorite in the historic university city of Stellenbosch at the heart of the Cape wine-growing region. It is popular with overwhelmingly young overland tour groups, who will typically have come from as far afield as the Victoria Falls and will participate in a wine-tasting tour run by the hostel’s own company, Easy Rider Wine Tours, before ending their journey in Cape Town.

The Location

Stumble Inn is located in a traditional “Cape Dutch” style house on Market Street in the historic center and an annex a few doors down the same side of the street. Both properties provide similar facilities, including a combination-operated secure entry system. Neighboring properties include prosperous private residences and a large hardware store. The neighborhood is generally regarded as safe.

The train and bus stations are a long walk or short taxi ride away, and there is a slight difficulty in finding the hostel when arriving by private vehicle, because streets in the area are of similar appearance and it is necessary to know that street names are painted on the curb at the end of each street. There is ample free parking belonging to the hostel at the front of both buildings and on the same street nearby. Parking spaces in front of the main building are often occupied by large overland tour vehicles, and sometimes people park in such a way as to block each other’s exit.

Rooms and Bathrooms

The sleeping accommodation consists of simple, six-bed, mixed-sex dorms, all with with room locks but no lockers; private double rooms with shared bathrooms; and camping on the lawn for travelers with their own tents. Camping is an amazingly cheap option, especially as campers have full access to hostel facilities. Upon request, management will store residents’ valuables in the safe and luggage in a lockable store room.

There are ample mixed-sex toilets and showers. The toilets sometimes fail to flush properly and both the showers and the kitchen occasionally run out of hot water. There is space to change in the shower area, and there are hooks for clothes but no soap dishes. In some cases there is limited space to open the shower door, making it difficult to squeeze in and out of the shower.

Common Spaces

There is a reasonably well equipped kitchen and dining area in each of the two hostel buildings. Common areas include a TV room in the main building and a swimming pool for the use of all residents in the annex. The main building has a café serving coffee and alcohol and a few internet computers for use at a per-minute charge. There is a large amount of common space with ample seating both inside the hostel buildings, some of it open to the elements, and on the lawns. The main building has a residents’ pool table.

There is luggage storage and a laundry facility but no book exchange apart from a few books in a variety of languages that previous residents have left lying around. It is generally a friendly, social hostel, where partying is not infrequent. The main clientèle is youthful, although older travelers are not uncommon. Music, sometimes loud, is played all day, although silence is officially observed from 11 p.m., and the hostel is usually quiet until 10 a.m. and after 9 p.m. There are no restrictions on smoking and drinking on the premises, and it is difficult for nonsmokers to escape the smoke, except perhaps in bedrooms and bathrooms.

The hostel is only cleaned once a day, so the toilets are often dirty; there is sometimes an unreasonable build-up of dirty dishes, utensils, pots and pans in the kitchen; and the common spaces often have full ashtrays and become littered with cigarette butts, empty cigarette packets, and beer cans.

Summary

One of the best reasons for staying at Stumble Inn is its low rates. Accommodation is usually available even during high season. Other advantages include the friendly, informative staff; the central location; and the convenience of joining winery tours organized by the hostel.

— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
December 2009