Location/ContactGuests are shown around and given an antique-style key to their rooms and a key code for the front door for after-hours entrance. The quad-share rooms have bunk beds and the double/two-person rooms do not. Both spaces have plenty of space, even with a night table beside each bed and a love seat (couch) in the rooms. It is a lovely touch to be able to relax in one's room without feeling cramped. Beds are made and a fresh, warm towel is presented to you upon arrival. Rooms are sparsely decorated, but the trim is Pepto Bismol pink, rounding out the female experience. Temperatures inside are good, noise is low, and the atmosphere is relaxed. While this hostel has the solo-traveler vibe, it does not have the isolated-traveler feeling that so many other quiet hostels seem to develop.
Varying seasonally, amenities at this hostel include the opportunity to use the washing machine for free, a comfy entertainment room with a wealth of movies, a very spacious kitchen (and a second, smaller kitchen), a small but impressively diverse book exchange (in terms of languages), a whole separate section for travel books, a job board, and a lovely garden with herbs for use (peppermint, lemon balm, apple mint), strawberries for the picking, and two pet guinea pigs in a lovely cage.
In terms of cleanliness, while this hostel did not give the feeling of sterility or white-washed hospital walls, the showers and bathrooms were well cleaned (despite some stains on the carpets and a few old ceiling/wall stains as well). One of the showers wasn't draining very well during our stay, which we luckily discovered before commencing.
In looking for possible faults of this lovely facility, besides the lack of y-chromosomes (if you consider this a fault), we find just a couple. First, there is one outgoing phone line for the entire hostel, which meant we waited for an hour at one point for someone else to finish. On the other hand, it is always a welcome sight to find a phone with free local calls at a hostel. For an all-women's hostel, we find it ironic that we passed a prostitute on a street corner two blocks away, and a few boarded-up houses on the way there. During both of our passings, our safety was not threatened.
And finally, we were concerned that walking up the creaky stairs or opening and closing squeaky doors near bedrooms at 10 p.m. might wake up other guests. Lively travelers, do not fear. There was a slight hum of a movie and quiet, happy laughter when we entered the hostel on the main level, and the noise was unnoticeable from the upstairs landing leading to the bedrooms of sleeping guests.
-- Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
