The hostel is composed several buildings. On the first floor of the main building is a canteen, bistro/café, dorms, and bathrooms. The other buildings have 2-3 floors with dorms and bathrooms.
The dorms have wooden bunkbeds (with 2, 3, or 4 per room). They are nice and spacious, have cupboards (one per bed), and sometimes a sink with mirror. The beds are very comfortable and in good state. There is a broom in the room and customers are asked to clean the room before they leave. Dust bins also have to be emptied by the customers in the larger garbage bins next to the main building. Only the common bathroom is cleaned by staff.
One of the more unfortunate details is that the doors slam very loudly. As this annoyed some people, they put cloth between the doorhandles so they wouldn't slam. Pretty effective and stress relieving.
The bathrooms are always full of sand except the first 5 minutes after being cleaned. Also, the tap and showers function quite bizarrely: they start with movement detectors rather than having to turn a handle. So if you dry yourself in the shower and move too much, it might suddenly start again! But on the positive side, there are enough showers and toilets to avoid queues.
You can only live there with full-board (meaning all your meals are provided and taken in the canteen). This explains the quite expensive price of (currently 24.90 euros a night). After the 4th night it becomes 23.20 a night. Upon arrival you are given a key to your room and to the building so there is no curfew. You also receive bed linen at no additional charge.
In the bistro, you can get beers and hot/cold beverages. You can also borrow boardgames and table tennis rackets, all free of charge. There is a pool (billards) which can be used for a fee. The bistro also has a vending machine which snacks. It is open after lunch and dinner until 10 pm.
The hostel is quite easy to find. When arriving by ferry, make a left at the sign "Welcome to Juist." Then walk straight for about 3 km with the sea and marshes on your left. Then, the road you are on turns right but a footpath continues straight ahead passing by a playground. Take that footpath and walk straight ahead crossing the road (past the yellow phoneboxes on your right) and straight ahead until you see the blue and green JH sign on the youth hostel (only 5 minutes from the playground). From the ferry it takes about 30-40 minutes.
From the airport just walk to the city center (follow everyone) and walk the same way as above. You can take a horse carriage taxi (there are no cars on the island) which costs 9 euros from the airport. It doesn't go much faster than by foot but you don't have to carry your luggage and you will arrive dry.
The hostel often hosts school groups which may be very annoying for some travellers. Think of 150 kids buzzing around in the dinning room at 7:45 am when you just woke up. Other than that, it's a great place to stay.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
November 2004
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