The Hostelz.com Review
Annies Place in Adelaide is a bright and cheery hostel that will make you feel welcomed and at home. The set-up is more like a very large 2-story house, with a gorgeous hallway filled with information for travelers on the multiple bulletin boards and hall tables. At the end of the hallway, newly arrived travelers will find the reception area, and opposite, the kitchen. After the easy check-in procedure (where there no need for a key deposit, which is great) you are pointed towards your room, which opens with a keycode.
Most rooms are ensuite with a nice, fairly clean toilet, sink, mirror, and shower. Some rooms, such as the 6-bed dorms, may be slightly cramped with a lack of room to spread out your things much, but other rooms are larger and less cramped. In an old building like this one, every room has its own character and design, making this hostel all the more unique and fun. Beds are comfortable, and as a bonus, some of the top bunks have side-rails, which can always be helpful! Sheets are provided, though they are rather odd in being one very long sheet that you fold in half at the the feet to make a bottom and top sheet. Duvets are nice and thick, and each room is also equipped with heating and air conditioning. Rooms also come with a television.
The common area is a patio between the back of the main building (near reception and the kitchen) and an outer building home to additional rooms. There are a number if tables varying in size, and there seems to be travelers there enjoying the atmosphere throughout the day. Movies are sometimes shown on a television screen above the tables. Bathrooms are nearby, including a huge wheelchair-friendly bathroom.
The kitchen is fair-sized with a large wooden counter in the middle for preparing food, cubbies for storing non-perishables, and a large refrigerator for perishables. A free breakfast is provided in the morning from 7-9 a.m., and happily, the kitchen is open day and night.
As for getting to the hostel, a shuttle is provided from the bus station nearby, and they meet all incoming trains at the station as well--just look for the sign at the far left as you face the tracks. The hostel's location isn't in the main downtown area, but it is close enough (it might take perhaps ten minutes to find the main downtown streets your first time, and of course hostel staff are available to provide maps and help you find your way!).
All in all, this is a great place to stay while you're in Adelaide. They aren't called "The Friendly Backpackers" for nothing, and you will find yourself happy and well looked after during your stay.
Most rooms are ensuite with a nice, fairly clean toilet, sink, mirror, and shower. Some rooms, such as the 6-bed dorms, may be slightly cramped with a lack of room to spread out your things much, but other rooms are larger and less cramped. In an old building like this one, every room has its own character and design, making this hostel all the more unique and fun. Beds are comfortable, and as a bonus, some of the top bunks have side-rails, which can always be helpful! Sheets are provided, though they are rather odd in being one very long sheet that you fold in half at the the feet to make a bottom and top sheet. Duvets are nice and thick, and each room is also equipped with heating and air conditioning. Rooms also come with a television.
The common area is a patio between the back of the main building (near reception and the kitchen) and an outer building home to additional rooms. There are a number if tables varying in size, and there seems to be travelers there enjoying the atmosphere throughout the day. Movies are sometimes shown on a television screen above the tables. Bathrooms are nearby, including a huge wheelchair-friendly bathroom.
The kitchen is fair-sized with a large wooden counter in the middle for preparing food, cubbies for storing non-perishables, and a large refrigerator for perishables. A free breakfast is provided in the morning from 7-9 a.m., and happily, the kitchen is open day and night.
As for getting to the hostel, a shuttle is provided from the bus station nearby, and they meet all incoming trains at the station as well--just look for the sign at the far left as you face the tracks. The hostel's location isn't in the main downtown area, but it is close enough (it might take perhaps ten minutes to find the main downtown streets your first time, and of course hostel staff are available to provide maps and help you find your way!).
All in all, this is a great place to stay while you're in Adelaide. They aren't called "The Friendly Backpackers" for nothing, and you will find yourself happy and well looked after during your stay.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
February 2006
Their Description
Annie's Place Adelaide Hostel Details
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Annie's Place Adelaide Hostel Reviews from the WebHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Nice, homey feel I stayed here in February 2011 and it was ok. We got upgraded to a private en-suite room because they overbooked or something. The hostel has a nice homey feel. Our room was across the courtyard in a separate building, which was a bit odd but ok. The only girl working there decided that the bar was closed because she was done with work, when it was supposed to be open for another hour. Not very close to the reset of town, but breakfast was good and the courtyard is nice for socializing. — Caroline , USA (2011-08-02) Distinctly 'meh. I stayed here for several days and booked a double room, so I can't comment on the dorms, but the hostel itself is just ok. The double room was big, with an en-suite and I was impressed, despite there being no curtains or blinds in the room and the ceiling splattered with the corpses of insects who have met their fate in the past. The rest of the hostel does not live up to its potential. It's a lovely old building but it could be restored to look gorgeous. As it goes, it's very second-rate, with worn out carpets, ancient computers that take an age to access the net on, and no social area at all apart from a courtyard that gets quite noisy, meaning your sleeping patterns had better be the same as other people's or you might not get any sleep. Overall, I've stayed in worse. The location is a tad inconvenient unless the only place you're going is Hindley Street -- getting down to Rundle Street is a bit of a trek. — Matt , British (2007-09-05) Annie's place is not a bad place but there are much better ones. The rooms are small and a little cramped and it didn't feel very clean. Still, the hostel is conveniently located, within walking distance of the city centre and the courtyard is quite nice. Internet is for free, too. — Judith , Germany (2007-05-21) It's a nice clean hostel central to the CBD. The rooms are nice with en-suite. The staff are friendly but seem to be there more to run the place than get involved with the people staying. Although when I first arrived the receptionist did shout me a coffee. It's not a party hostel. No alcohol allowed, the only place to hang out is the courtyard and there are notices saying it should be vacated when it gets late. No free coffee or tea. Three internet computers -- free, but long wait to get on. Nice kitchen, bit small, and gets crowded, but a good place to meet people when you keep walking into them by accident! However, I really like the hostel, it was clean, had an old villa character thing about it, and the people staying there were chilled out. It felt safe. I'd recommend it if you were a traveling couple wanting to take it easy or for groups of friends not wishing to get drunk. Party animals try somewhere else. — clive , nz (2007-05-07) I would rate this hostel as very average. The beds are ok (no bedbugs -- woohoo!), there was a TV in my room, but it was very poor quality. There is no indoor communal room, which was very disappointing. The staff are not very helpful or friendly that I found. The kitchen is ok, spacious enough, but hardly fabulous. The courtyard area is ok, but no bring-your-own alcohol is a major downfall of this place. I stayed here four nights, but if I'd do it again, I would only stay one, maybe two nights. Oh, and don't book this place solely because it's got free internet. You may be waiting a long time to use the internet, plus the computers are only available between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. They should introduce some form of time restrictions on using the internet, to make it fairer for all in the hostel. — Danny , Ireland (2007-04-27) It's ok. That's about as much enthusiasm as I can drum up about this place. The en-suite bathrooms are tiny and the kitchen isn't all it's cracked up to be. The staff will not help you with job hunting at all -- quote the girl on reception "we don't actively encourage that in our hostel!" The courtyard is really the only communal area, and obviously you want it to be a nice night to be sitting out there! Free internet although there's no time limit so you could be waiting a while. Shop around, there must be something better in Adelaide. Annie's Place is pretty average. — Kat , NZ (2007-04-21) Great people running it. Couldn't be more helpful. Nice vibe. Highly recommend it. — James (2006-05-05) Nice place, people friendly, good location. En-suite bathrooms for the same price as ones without. If you can, girls, get into room three it has a bath. Quite a luxury after long trip back from Alice Springs. — izusme (2006-02-23) I would really recommend this hostel. I stayed here for 2 weeks during April 2005, and it came as a major relief after spending almost 2 days on the train from Perth, to find a place with massive bathrooms, large dorms, and a decent power shower. I found the staff who were working there to be really friendly and helpful in any way they could. The hostel also has an employment wall, which lists any work available, (however shady it may be!!) This was of major use to me as I got a day's labouring for a computer company down the road and got $100.00 for my efforts!! The place it's self has a lovely hallway with wooden floors where you can just chill out and read a book, or one of the free magazines which is supplied to the hostel. The kitchen is large and square with loads of cooking space. However the piece de resistance has to be the outdoor courtyard, which permenantly seems to have the TV on with MTV playing in the background - the guy who was running the hostel at the time, was an Aussie who is a liverpool football supporter, so we could even watch the 'soccer' as they insist on calling it (as well as the endless hours and hours of 'aussie rules!!'). A very cool place to chill with a cold beverage indeed!!! Rock on Annie's Place - I even stayed at the Alice Springs branch and did Mulga's tour of the outback, which also comes highly recommended!! — Ollie Taylor (2006-01-08) Terrible! Everything is old and dirty, and as for the bathroom...! Luckily I stayed there only one night and after that I escaped! — Mirkel (2005-02-14) We love Annie's Place!!! We stayed here, working for our stay as cleaners, and still had fun!! It has a great atmosphere, bargain meals and free breakfast. The en suite bathrooms were a real bonus. It was so good we followed Mulga, the owner to Alice Springs!! Groovy. — Lisa-Marie and Sarah (2004-12-30)