Kangaroo Island YHA Hostel

Great place -- shame about the tours
This is a great hostel, with a good kitchen, free tea and coffee at any time, and all looked after by a lovely chap who seems to care about his guests. There's a hammock in the garden and Fairy Penguins at the bottom of it! yes, really! The location is right by the ferry -- at most five minutes' walk -- which is ideal! Be warned that the place is a bit quiet and out of the way -- there is a pizza takeaway up the road (closes at 8:30 p.m.) and a pub (no food after 8 p.m.). And a supermarket plus bottle shop (shuts 8 p.m.). And that's it. This place is used by the bulk of the Kangaroo Island tours -- The YHA one, Aussie Adventures, and even Oz Experience all sell on their "add on trip" to Sealink, who in turn book you in here. The day I did it there were one-hundred-eighteen on the trip, of which quite a few came in here, and most had never stayed in a hostel before (many were off a cruise ship and in their fifties). This didn't make for a pleasant travelers vibe, and worst of all was the tour, which was rushed and impersonal -- so much so that I checked out of the hostel and went back to the mainland. But that is no fault of the hostel, which if you are traveling with your own car, is a great place.

Groovy!
This is a pleasant hostel. The decor in the kitchen is very seventies, which was no surprise when we met our host! He was a lovely chap though and really helpful. It's a really sweet hostel with a hammock in the garden and so close to the Penguin sanctuary that they sometimes wandered into the garden at night and we could hear them talking to each other, which was so sweet. We ordered a double room and got quite a large, family-sized one, which was a bonus. We were only sharing a bathroom with two other doubles and only one of those was in use. The location is beautiful right alongside the beach and really handing for coming in off the ferry. We stayed here the whole time and drove to Admiral's Arch at the other side of the Island. It took a couple of hours each way but was really scenic and easy to do in Oz distances!

The location is fantastic; the hostel is average. It is clean, has friendly staff, good facilities, but the common room is small and uninviting, and the place lacks atmosphere. I still recommend it, though — just because the town of Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island is one the most beautiful spots on the planet to hang out for a week or three.

This is just a fantastic place, beautiful, great views, I really recommend it.