The Hostelz.com Review
Glebe Village Backpackers Hostel is in a great location. It is forty-five minutes to walk into the city centre, or a short bus ride from the bus stop just outside the hostel. Glebe itself is a fairly quiet suburb with few other hostels. The neighbourhood has an artsy feel with many cafes, bookshops, and reasonably priced restaurants.
The hostel itself is quite large, occupying two old houses. Both dorm rooms and doubles are offered. The rooms are spacious, and although not immaculately clean, have a sink and heater. The bathrooms have two clean showers and a toilet for each area of the house. Take care not to get locked out of your room without the key card as there is no one available after 2 a.m., which we found out to our cost!
Outside the hostel there is a garden area with outdoor heaters and a BBQ. The kitchen is large and clean. During the week there are free rolls and bread (very nice), tea, and coffee. At the weekends they make free pancakes. There are also movie nights and BBQ nights. There are four computers with cheap internet access. The staff have lots of information about trips in and out of Sydney, and a large file of work-related info.
The hostel is easy to get to via a bus from central station (431), or the airport shuttle bus. If you're staying more than three nights, the hostel will reimburse one way on the shuttle bus.
The hostel itself is quite large, occupying two old houses. Both dorm rooms and doubles are offered. The rooms are spacious, and although not immaculately clean, have a sink and heater. The bathrooms have two clean showers and a toilet for each area of the house. Take care not to get locked out of your room without the key card as there is no one available after 2 a.m., which we found out to our cost!
Outside the hostel there is a garden area with outdoor heaters and a BBQ. The kitchen is large and clean. During the week there are free rolls and bread (very nice), tea, and coffee. At the weekends they make free pancakes. There are also movie nights and BBQ nights. There are four computers with cheap internet access. The staff have lots of information about trips in and out of Sydney, and a large file of work-related info.
The hostel is easy to get to via a bus from central station (431), or the airport shuttle bus. If you're staying more than three nights, the hostel will reimburse one way on the shuttle bus.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
August 2006
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Glebe Village Backpackers Hostel Details
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Doing the bare minimum for your dollar. This backpackers is in the same "chain" as "The Nunnery" in Melbourne which I rate highly. So I thought it would be safe bet and booked my stay. Big mistake. The moment you enter the reception area which is untidy with generic tourist flyers you can see the disregard for their customers. Sydney is a pretty interesting place but you are not likely not to see any evidence of that here, posters for yet more crass wet t-shirt contests. The backpacker working for their keep behind the counter gave me my key but couldn't tell me where my room was and didn't seem that interested either. Actually an air of tired boredom permeates the whole place. What a waste of an Victoria era heritage building. The place is ugly, musty and uninspired. If you plan a stay here make sure you have a full schedule of activities planned so you do not have to spend much time on the actual premises. Oh and I didn't even mention the cold showers. — CassieP , Australia (2011-11-29) Don't go the bathroom The private rooms are cute and funky, not bad for $65. Comes with a TV, desk, chair, bedside table, bed (which is not that comfortable for more than a few nights, unless you like sharp springs poking into your back) and clean linen/towel. Nice high ceilings, big window over-looking a few trees, floorboards, a heater, even a mirror (always handy), clean and tidy. Glebe itself is awesome if you want a nice, peaceful, quiet place to come back to after a busy day of traveling around noisy, chaotic places in Sydney and I would highly recommend staying/living here. In fact, I liked Glebe so much I'm even considering moving here after my stay. The Thai place a few doors down is really good too, if you want cheap, good quality, delicious food. As far as the hostel itself goes, I found it really quiet and lovely the first night I was there. I thought the rooms were just really well insulated but I was VERY wrong. That was only because I arrived on a Sunday when people were more relaxed I guess. By Tuesday, it was raining heavily all day so had to stay inside. The other people were so noisy, MY GOD. All day long you hear them shouting, ranting and raving, doors being slammed continually throughout the day. So it was really horrible, definitely not peaceful at all. Having said that, I don't think the sound insulation is good at all, I think whether or not you have a peaceful stay is determined by the day that you arrive and the kind of people you have staying in the next room. Considering I rented a private room, I think this is very disappointing, because I didn't get the peace, quiet and privacy that I was promised on the website. Then again, I don't frequent hostels often so I can only imagine how terrible it would be elsewhere. If you just want a bed to sleep in for a few hours after a full day of sight-seeing I guess it's alright. But if you are stuck inside all day because it's raining outside, don't expect to be able to hear yourself think or have a moment to relax while there are loud, obnoxious, inconsiderate lunatics ranting and raving next door. Also, you definitely DO NOT want the room next to the bathroom. Take my advice on this one. Which brings me to the bathroom -- my God. You would be better off holding it in or going to the pub down the street unless you want to catch some horrible disease. The bathrooms are just ATROCIOUS. I don't think they have ever been cleaned. There are two disgustingly filthy showers covered in mould, dirt, urine, hair, and no doubt countless microscopic parasites/germs etc that have most likely built cities in there. I really think you would be better off not showering. In the same room is one toilet, yes ONE, (for like 10 rooms?!) with a door that barely closes and no 'occupied' sign so people are regularly interrupting you/trying to force open the door while you attempt to evacuate your bowels. Not fun. Unless you want to be constipated for days. The service was inconsistent. The first person I spoke to (a lady) was just so lovely, friendly and helpful, it was unbelievable. She went out of her way to help me. But then the next morning there was another guy at reception who was rude, arrogant, and unhelpful. So again, depends on your luck. Also, they do regular ‘room checks' which I find highly irritating. I didn't know this was a boot camp. Why do they need to check the rooms? While you are paying for the room it is yours and they should stay the hell out. I understand why this may be required for the dorms but it shouldn't be necessary for the private rooms. So yeah, all in all, the room is nice, but unless you don't mind not showering/going to the toilet and want to hear doors slamming and annoying, loud shitheads all day, I would probably not recommend it. Would be much better if they had the toilets and showers in separate rooms and also if there would be separate facilities for males/females. You definitely don't want to be showering while another person is taking a sh*t right beside you and you can hear/smell it. And we all know that females are much cleaner. The last thing you want is to be putting the urine-covered toilet seat down every time you need to go to the john. — Anonymous , Australia (2010-11-30) Good hostel Nice place with cool outside area, but no sufficient lockers. — Ben , Germany (2009-01-18) Average, kitchen opening hours 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. if it goes about this hostel itself, it was ok. i have spent a week in there. there are few cons though. firstly, the kitchen is opened only between 7:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. secondly, there were no lockers in the room. unfortunately, i have had one problem connected with the shuttle to airport, meaning i had it booked (at the hostel reception) at 6:15 a.m., waited twenty minutes and it did not appear at all. — pat , pol (2009-01-06) nice location however the service was not quite up to other hostels' standards. — stuart (2006-12-06) we're 3 days in sydney. the atmosphere in the hostel was brilliant, friendly staff. thanx for the free map, good idea! the kitchen was a little bit dirty but the bathroom was clean (thank good for that...)
for our walk in the city we needed 40 minutes, but don't forget the hostel-hawaii-feeling.
we say thank you and greetings from germany. — henrike (2006-01-20) I've been twice to Glebe Village, December 2003 and April 2004, and enjoyed it a lot. I think I stayed in total more than one month in the hostel. That had to do with buying and selling our car (Oraatje); actually that was a good excuse to stay for some days in Glebe Village. From the pancake-breakfast (on the weekends) to the quiz one Sunday I all found it awesome. But especially the late night conversations are things to remember. This week we've had a reunion in Amsterdam with people we met during those days in Sydney. I think that shows a little bit how brilliant our time in the Glebe Village was. This is not only a plea for how great Glebe Village is, but as well and in particular more how great our time was.
Greetings and love to the fabulous: Jamie, Epeli, Joey, B.B., Jasper, Tom, Martijn, Tully and all those others. — Stef - and I speak for some other Dutchies as well (2005-11-08) This place was a great stay. I had a problem when we were leaving but that was all my fault, nothing to do with the staff. They are very friendly and good to have chat with. Also the people that stay there are generally great. I was only there for a few days and they were all good fun. There are people from every nationality, Canada, Germany, Kiwis, Brits, Americans (well, not every nationality but you get the idea). It's a real good place to stay if you're looking for fun. — Andrew (2005-07-17) Don't live in room B7 if you plan to have any stuff left. Our door was broken or something, so during the day thieves came in and stole stuff from us. Don't expect so much help when it comes to stuff like this from the staff. Otherwise it was a nice place. It has a nice kitchen, TV room, and of course the table tennis rocked. :P Too bad they can't handle the security. — Anonymous (2004-10-05) Everyone is so friendly at this hostel. You only plan on staying for a short time, then you get caught up in its ambiance and laid-back attitude, and you end up extending your stay in Sydney because you can't bear to leave! I spent many a night outside playing table tennis, enjoying the BBQ, and many other things that can't be mentioned, like just chatting and chilling! — Anonymous (2004-08-25) Yes, this hostel is good for a VERY short stay. I don't know which rooms they renovated, but it certainly wasn't in MY block! It was loud at night, and it had a dingy, dirty kitchen. Plus, it was quite overpriced for what I got. I only lasted about four days there. — Anonymous (2004-07-12)