The Hostelz.com Review
Nomads Cairns Serpent Hostel is another hostel of the Nomads chain, which you can find all along the east coast of Australia. The Serpent Hostel is one of the two Nomads Hostels in Cairns and probably the better choice. Painted in bright colors and with lots of light, open spaces and common areas, it's a nice place with a fun and friendly atmosphere -- a great place to meet people!
The Location
The hostel is the furthest hostel out of town (and closest to the airport), located in a quiet residential area. A free shuttle bus operates at almost every hour of the day, from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m., otherwise there is a bus stop one block away or you can walk to the city center in about thirty-five minutes. The hostel has a plenty of parking spaces. One block away you can find a news agency, Subways, pharmacy, and a bank, and some specialty stores.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The building and the dorms are in an average condition, with colorful walls and air conditioning in every room. The rooms are competitively priced and range from cheap but crowded budget dorms with ten beds to four-, six- and eight-bed dorms, doubles, and twins with shared facilities and even deluxe ensuite doubles. Also, there is a parking lot in front for those of you with cars or camper vans. You can stay in your camper van and use all the facilities in the hostel for a really reasonable price.
Rooms are generally clean -- there are some moths and geckos in the corridor (because it is a building with open spaces) and the occasional cockroach (but those are hard to avoid up here). Rooms have small lockable cupboards and mirrors, all rooms have windows. However, there are only two plugs in every room, which can be annoying if you want to charge your camera or phone. Rooms have locks which open with key cards.
Bathrooms on the second and third floor (where most dorms can be found) are large and contain about six toilet units and six shower units, with separate bathrooms for boys and girls. The shower units are of a decent size and have hooks to hang towels on, a shelf, and a soap dish. On the ground floor (where the private rooms are located) are two separate bathrooms with shower and toilet, these are suitable for disabled people. There is no elevator in the building.
Common Spaces
The shared facilities include a kitchen, which at times can be quite a mess, although the kitchen is cleaned by staff several times a day. There is a lot of fridge space and cupboards to store your food. The kitchen has several electric cooking plates, but some of the pits are not working. Cutlery is sometimes hard to find, as are mugs. Also available are microwaves, electric kettles, and toasters. The hostel has a big television area with some comfy couches, a small book exchange, some games, internet facilities (Global Gossip with computers and Wi-Fi for a charge), laundry facilities, and lots of outdoor seating.
The Serpent bar on the premises is opened from 3 p.m. until late and organizes daily activities and games in which prizes can be won, usually 2-4-1 trips in the region (Cape Tribulation, Rafting, Great Barrier Reef, Rain forest). Because the Serpent Hostel has a bar on the premises, it does mean that bringing your own alcohol is not allowed. However, the Serpent bar is probably one of the cheapest bars in town. The food that is served in the bar is excellent, although the main menu is a bit pricey for the average backpacker. In the past, the hostel served free hostel meals (entrée sized) which could be upgraded to a range of main meals for a price, however recently it became required to buy a drink to receive your free meal. The hostel offers a free continental breakfast of two pieces of toast with butter/jam/peanut butter and tea or coffee.
Summary
Overall, this is a great place to stay if you are not to bothered about staying out of the city center. To get to the hostel, simply give them a call from the free phone at the airport arrival hall, with your cellphone if you get dropped off at the Greyhound bus stop near the Reef Fleet Terminal, or walk to the Nomads Esplanade hostel across the lagoon to catch the hourly free shuttle bus (this is the usual drop-off and pick-up spot).
The Location
The hostel is the furthest hostel out of town (and closest to the airport), located in a quiet residential area. A free shuttle bus operates at almost every hour of the day, from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m., otherwise there is a bus stop one block away or you can walk to the city center in about thirty-five minutes. The hostel has a plenty of parking spaces. One block away you can find a news agency, Subways, pharmacy, and a bank, and some specialty stores.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The building and the dorms are in an average condition, with colorful walls and air conditioning in every room. The rooms are competitively priced and range from cheap but crowded budget dorms with ten beds to four-, six- and eight-bed dorms, doubles, and twins with shared facilities and even deluxe ensuite doubles. Also, there is a parking lot in front for those of you with cars or camper vans. You can stay in your camper van and use all the facilities in the hostel for a really reasonable price.
Rooms are generally clean -- there are some moths and geckos in the corridor (because it is a building with open spaces) and the occasional cockroach (but those are hard to avoid up here). Rooms have small lockable cupboards and mirrors, all rooms have windows. However, there are only two plugs in every room, which can be annoying if you want to charge your camera or phone. Rooms have locks which open with key cards.
Bathrooms on the second and third floor (where most dorms can be found) are large and contain about six toilet units and six shower units, with separate bathrooms for boys and girls. The shower units are of a decent size and have hooks to hang towels on, a shelf, and a soap dish. On the ground floor (where the private rooms are located) are two separate bathrooms with shower and toilet, these are suitable for disabled people. There is no elevator in the building.
Common Spaces
The shared facilities include a kitchen, which at times can be quite a mess, although the kitchen is cleaned by staff several times a day. There is a lot of fridge space and cupboards to store your food. The kitchen has several electric cooking plates, but some of the pits are not working. Cutlery is sometimes hard to find, as are mugs. Also available are microwaves, electric kettles, and toasters. The hostel has a big television area with some comfy couches, a small book exchange, some games, internet facilities (Global Gossip with computers and Wi-Fi for a charge), laundry facilities, and lots of outdoor seating.
The Serpent bar on the premises is opened from 3 p.m. until late and organizes daily activities and games in which prizes can be won, usually 2-4-1 trips in the region (Cape Tribulation, Rafting, Great Barrier Reef, Rain forest). Because the Serpent Hostel has a bar on the premises, it does mean that bringing your own alcohol is not allowed. However, the Serpent bar is probably one of the cheapest bars in town. The food that is served in the bar is excellent, although the main menu is a bit pricey for the average backpacker. In the past, the hostel served free hostel meals (entrée sized) which could be upgraded to a range of main meals for a price, however recently it became required to buy a drink to receive your free meal. The hostel offers a free continental breakfast of two pieces of toast with butter/jam/peanut butter and tea or coffee.
Summary
Overall, this is a great place to stay if you are not to bothered about staying out of the city center. To get to the hostel, simply give them a call from the free phone at the airport arrival hall, with your cellphone if you get dropped off at the Greyhound bus stop near the Reef Fleet Terminal, or walk to the Nomads Esplanade hostel across the lagoon to catch the hourly free shuttle bus (this is the usual drop-off and pick-up spot).
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
May 2011
Their Description
Nomads Cairns Serpent Hostel Details
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Nomads Cairns Serpent Hostel Reviews from the WebHostelz.com Guest Reviews
It is still good for us! We return to here for our second visit its still nice from our stay few years ago on our first trip to australia. It is clean rooms and the bar is nice but the communal kitchen is terrible. People were nice and make our stay enjoyable. The staff were better this time except for there was no Nate the chef! We are so dissapointed as he was our highlight of australia -- our partyman and good guy and best chef ever! we could not find him anywhere and we told he left cairns! where are you Nate! So sad, but we made new friends and for second time the shuttle bus to the woolshed became our best friend. We recommend a stay here as the price is good for the facility — Karin and Sara , Sweden (2008-09-07) Pretty good, great for sociallisng I found this hostel pretty good. i forked out the cash for a private room and was happy with it. Even tho the air con is turned off during the day, i found my room to always be a comfy temperature. During my stay here i was surprised to see they had changed the free dinner to a free breakfast comprising of toast or cereal and coffee or tea. Was not happy that they didn't inform me but did not complain.
This place is just out of the main drag of cairns but does have a shuttle service. Was really good for socialising. — Bry , Australian (2007-11-27) Overpriced hellhole I stayed at the serpent for six weeks. the place is a joke. the rooms crawl with bugs. they turn the air conditioning off during the hot times of the day (9 a.m. until 5 p.m.) so your rooms are left boiling and stinking to high heaven. when you ask them to sort it out the response was that it was the heat and any other questions were answered by the arrogant staff with "who cares what you think you're only a backpacker." they offer working for accommodation, and put you in a staff room that has food thrown all over the place, bedbugs and if you try to put a light on before 2 p.m. you get slated. don't go to this hostel, you are treated like sh*t. — anonymous , uk (2007-09-08) Ok We just came back to this hostel from last year and had good times again but we were upset to not find Nate the chef in the kitchen! He was the best cook and most fun person we met on our trip! If the bar is cheaper (backpacker friendly cheap) and nate's food is back on menu we will come back to live! — Sofia , Sweden (2007-07-24) Good Hostel, except that its too far from town and you are stuck with a bar and restaurant that are a bit overpriced. They have a shuttle service that drops you you off, but they are not there when they promise and a bit forgetful as to when they say they will pick you up. NOT GOOD FOR DIVERS since whatever money you save on on housing will be spent of non-discounted tours, transportation, food, and drinks. You would do better to stay in town if you are looking to book trips because you can get a MUCH better price when you can shop and compare prices. — Craig (2007-01-22) Mighty hostel with a great pool. The rooms are big and spacious and if you book well in advance there are rooms for 14 bucks a night. The girls on reception are sound and really looked after us during our stay.
Great happy hours in the bar. Dont bother with the food- loads of supermarkets and shops in town . Huge kitchen at the hostel with cooking utensils and fridges for storage.
Nice bright and clean toilets and showers. Only be quick because they close at a mad hour in the morning for cleaning. — Eadaoin , Ireland (2006-09-15) My rating is probably a bit harsh -- the setup they have, with the bar, a pool, volleyball court, and open air lounge is great for socialising and ambience. The rooms themselves are not too bad, typical hostel-fare with barely any space and the lovely smell of feet. As someone on a budget though I was really annoyed to find that the "free dinner" advertised by Serpents is so completely tiny that it is misleading to call it a dinner. Basically it is a ploy to get you to buy an meal upgrade for seven dollars. So yeah, if you're choosing this place to save a bit on money, beware. You will probably end up having to buy dinner somewhere else anyway, which is a bit of a problem as Serpents is not particularly close to any restaurants or stores. — Misled (2006-06-30) This was a very impressive hostel. The dorm was clean, with a lovely balcany. The kitchen was large enough, with plenty of utensils. The bar was an absolute perk, and the pool was nice. There was a lot of space here also, and to top it off, some really nice people. The only thing that bothered me was this moody girl at reception, who would ignore us when she felt like it. The hostel needs to get rid of her as I've never come across a receptionist quite as rude. — mle (2006-06-14) this hostel was better than the one i stayed the night before. i did get a four bedded room to myself for the first night which was great and the staff were helpful. however that did not make up for the dirty stained pillows, mattress protectors or unchanged blue blankets. i also had a COLD shower on the first night because the hot water ran out by 8pm. had to walk 20min to get to the petrol station to get cash to buy dinner at the bar because ATM broke down and they wouldnt take card. it was only a measly portion of food for the price too and didnt taste good. WAY out of town but if you dont mind being on a timed schedule and catch the hourly bus into town its ok. pool was nice as was the bar. aircon in room was good too. i didnt see or hear of any bedbugs. — melissa (2006-06-11) The room we had was clean and spacious — although we did have a double room, as it was our first stop in Australia. The hostel didn't have much of a friendly atmosphere, which is usually the case with larger hostels anyway. Food was good, recommended, and the bar was quite nice. The pool area was also very nice. Overall, it was ok for a few days while we were finding our bearings in Cairns. — Naomi Dunnings (2005-09-23) I hated this place. It is crawling with bedbugs and fleas!!! The kitchen is disgusting. On my very first day I carried out some bed changing for free food and accommodation. The beds and mattress protectors were soiled with blood and stains. The "new clean sheets" used to change the beds are brown and dirty. The blue blankets were never ever changed between customers. The girl doing the beds before me advised the blue blankets were never ever changed and were a breeding field, and that almost all customers had complained. Also lots of people complained about the sofa's crawling with bugs. The frumpy frizzy-haired receptionist was a muppet who had never done anything to help. And so I left with 21 bites in tow. — Anonymous (2005-06-14) Don't think about it...just go! — Anonymous (2004-10-30) I stayed at the Serpent when I first arrived in Australia and I didn't want to leave. I ended up going back 3 weeks later and have been back again since! It's by far the best hostel I've been in during 11 months in Oz. It has clean, spacious rooms and excellent facilities. It was really good for socializing and I met friends for life at the Serpent. Some of my best memories from my trip are from this hostel. I have recommended it to heaps of people who tried it and agreed! — Anonymous (2004-08-03) I only meant to stay in Cairns a week, and it ended up more like two months. This is a cool place to hang around the pool, with clean rooms and good cheap food in the restaurant. Take your own drink, as the bar is expensive!! — Anonymous (2004-06-16)