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Hôme Backpackers Details
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Hôme Backpackers Reviews on Other WebsitesHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Great! Great because I traveled alone but I didn't feel alone at all! The staff have time for your questions, there are activities like the walking tour or bar tour. It's very easy to connect with the other clients who are from all over the world, so you do something together like renting a bike! I recommend it! — Anelis , Austria (2009-10-25) Ok, but not that great. Have stayed in much much better. This place was ok. It was very clean and the roof terrace was nice. But their advertising is misleading -- they say on a lot of sites that they have keycards and no bunk beds, but this wasn't the case. Its all bunk beds, six people in pretty small rooms and no a/c. Valencia is a very hot place, and all the bedroom windows overlook a heavy-metal bar that goes on till 4 a.m. so with the windows open (essential to get any sleep) its insanely noisy even with earplugs. Other things lacking -- you have to buy a padlock for your locker rather than having one provided. There are about forty-eight people staying on each floor and only four showers per floor, so the bathroom gets pretty packed. There was one plug socket in our room which was used to power the fan so there was nowhere to plug in phones, hairdryers. There are no reading light by the beds so when one person goes to bed then its lights out which is kind of dull if you can't sleep. The roof terrace also closes at 10 p.m., so if you want to cool down or smoke you have to go out in the street with the metal-heads! The kitchen also closes early, leaving only the really tiny common room open. It only seats four so its not a good place to hang out. This is all fine if you're only staying for two days and want to go out partying, but if you're staying for any longer you're kind of tied to going out every night and its quite hard to socialise in the hostel. Its also pretty pricey at 15 euros a night as there is no breakfast included, no free tea or coffee, no social events in the hostel, no vending machines (except for water which was broken when we were there), and you have to pay extra for internet. Overall, it was fine and could have been much worse to be sure, but I don't think its nearly as good as everyone seems to think. — Rachel , British (2009-07-07) Staff bullied a disabled person Please don't stay at this hostel. I have a disability and had a dreadful time here. It is one thing being bullied by other travelers, I can take that and learn to accept that it will happen occasionally when I am traveling alone. It is also one thing to be occasionally bullied by a member of staff. But when it is the man who appears to be the owner of this place and he encourages his staff to bully me, then it is not acceptable at all. In my five nights at this place I did absolutely nothing to this guy and was polite at all times. Yet he tells his staff to be aggressive and to bully me and then makes out that I am scaring him? Apart from that, I can't understand why everybody is rating it so highly. There really isn't even a lounge, just a massive kitchen with row after row of long tables. And yes, it is indeed in a lively part of Valencia, so those traveling alone might feel uncomfortable walking back at night. Valencia is the most beautiful city in Spain. But there are lots of better alternatives to this hostel. — Gareth , British (2009-05-07) Better than any hotel I have ever stayed in. Well this was my first visit to Valencia and I was only visiting because of a special flight deal. And my stay in Backpackers, well that was actually by pure chance. I had originally researched and decided to go to another hostel upon my arrival, but the address of the hostel on its website contained a spelling error and the taxi driver was unable to find it, so we settled on Backpackers. First impressions -- The hostel itself is part contained within an old church and this gives rise to some appealing architectural features and not the more mundane gray concrete block often seen. Walking around to the main entrance you see two huge frosted glass sliding doors and a buzzer to press, but these are usually wide open. The reception is right in front of these doors. The staff themselves are multilingual, coming from Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Brazil, and the U.K. and they will go out of their way to help you. Upon paying for your room you will be given a key, bed linen, and towel. They will also give you a map of the city, encircle the location of the hostel, and point out some of the nearby sites to visit with directions. The hostel itself is painted in very vibrant colours and really adds to the appeal of this place. There are art posters scattered around and a wide range of information leaflets about tours, bars, and clubs; city guides; and other literature that you can take. When I arrived I decided to book the cheapest room available -- a sixteen-bed dorm -- with the idea being that if it was not suitable I would upgrade to something better. There was absolutely no need. The room is located on the third floor just off the kitchen and is housed within the upper area of the old church, so you still have all of the main architectural features with massively high ornate ceilings to give an appearance of roominess. The room is partitioned in to two halves, so it really seems like two eight-bed dorms. Each bed has a lockable locker, but you will need to bring your own padlock. Saying that though, I just left things laying on my bed at times and nothing ever went missing. The dorm is also well lit, with main ceiling lights, individual table lamps, large stained glass windows, and two doors that open on to a large patio area on the roof. The kitchen area is massive, with five fridge freezers for the guests, a large eight-ring halogen hob, two sinks to wash the dishes, crockery, cutlery, chopping boards, microwaves, coffee machine, juice machine, and free food. There is a huge food preparation surface in the middle with enough space for about twelve people to prepare food at once, although people tended to prepare their food on the dining tables too. The cleanliness of the kitchen is quite unbelievable too considering the amount of use it gets, because apart from meal times when it is being used by everyone there is someone mopping, brushing, cleaning or putting away the dishes about every forty minutes or so. Even the fridges are cleaned. There is a lounge area at the back of the kitchen with a couple of sofas, a TV, cable box, and DVD player. The bathroom area is also on the third floor with a large black tiled floor, four wash basins, six self-contained toilets, and six self-contained shower units that have been split in to a changing area and showering area. There is a timed air freshener system for those moments of bad air quality, but like the kitchen and everywhere else this place is absolutely spotless. I found a staff member cleaning it at 4 a.m. one morning -- 4 a.m.! When I first arrived here I was a little worried about staying in a hostel as this was my first time, but I can truly and honestly say that it far exceeded my expectations and that I found it to be much better than any hotel in the past. You meet a large number of people from all walks of life, teachers, students, lawyers, business people, and there is absolutely no stress or worry because we all know that the staff will go out of their way to help us with any problem. The only caveat I had was with the computers in the basement and that is because the keyboard locale was Spanish, meaning that certain symbols were in unusual locations. The location itself is pure genius. Walk out of the hostel, straight down the street and turn left and you come to one side of the old city gates (think large medieval English castle turrets). Or walk out of the hostel and walk across a few metres of open ground to a small road, turn right and then first left and just walk for about three minutes before arriving at Plaza del Virgen. It is here were you will find the free walking tour of the city (organised by the hostel) every day at 12:30 -- just wait over by the fountain. Go to Valencia and stay in Backpackers because I can guarantee that it will make your holiday. — Stu , UK (2008-10-14) Stayed mid-July '06
Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant.
The only fault I can find with this place is the number of stairs to ascend at the end of a (guaranteed in Valencia) drunken night. The place is clean, in a great location (middle of town and across the road from two supermarkets), great kitchen, incredible terrace (day or night, brilliant to socialise) ... and some of the best staff I've encountered in any hostel.
You can't ask for more - and if you can, go find a hotel! — Phil (Oz) (2006-08-15) A very welcoming, chilled out hostel with friendly accommodating staff. This being my first experience of staying in a youth hostel and being in Spain, I can only say I am glad that it was here! An amazing place to meet new people in a relaxed atmosphere with a minimum of rules! Love it!! — Claire, Ireland (2006-07-12) Home Backpackers was probably our favorite hostel in Spain. The building was big and airy with lots of color. Bathrooms were average -- by no means the cleanest we saw. Our room was a ten-person dorm which had an easy chair in it but not enough lockers for everyone. The kitchen is indeed huge and the roof terrace is a great place to get some sun (although you can't see any views from it because of huge fences). The beach is a thirty-minute bus ride away and the place was very noisy at night, but during the day we really enjoyed ourselves. Staff members were friendly and helpful. I would stay here again only if I had enough vacation time to accomodate the extra time it takes to get anywhere. Good luck! — Lee (2006-04-27) Wicked hostel. I ended up staying twice as long in Valencia because I was having such a good time here. The kitchen is a great place to meet people when you're traveling alone. It has a great balcony upstairs and a vending machine with beer just in case you run out. Top place to stay; I will definitely return. — Wandering Hobo (2005-08-18) This place seriously rocks. If you're reading this now, and considering booking a place at this hostel — just do it now. It's cool, chilled, laid back and non Franco-esque! Unlike some other hostels in Spain — I mention no names! It's ideal to meet new friends, and you can come and go when you want to. No curfew, yay! The staff are cool, and not old or too "down with the kidz" liberal, free love and all of that exists here. Plus the soothing music that greets you when you first walk in is sure to put you at ease. I stayed in a wicked room with ace people, and there was a BALCONY, yes, you can have a fag [cigarette]! and in the common room. Great kitchen facilities, spoons, plates and the like. Showers do go cold after ten minutes, which is a bit of a pain, but they're clean, and who cares, because everything else is great here. I ended up staying longer in Valencia because of the people I met at this hostel! Book it! Adios! — Anonymous (2005-04-18) I only stayed here two nights in a twin room, which I found dimly lit (it felt a bit seedy) but nevertheless, it was clean, which is the most important thing! Surprisingly, the room was large and the beds comfortable (although we didn't get much sleep!) but the noise from outside was not welcome. There were loads of school kids for some reason; too young to drink in bars so they thought it would be cool to hang out on the front door steps and scream until the early hours of the morning. Good location, some good eats and lively bars around, not too far to walk into the center of town (15 minutes). I like that they've tried to brighten up the place with color and decoration (for some reason they have a "bubble" and "love is in the air" theme going on) but there was no hiding from the constant odor from the bathrooms on level 2. The bathrooms were kept relatively clean enough, but they are co-ed so if you're uncomfortable with that then stay somewhere else. The showers were a pain in the arse because they were push-button — the water would stop after 10 seconds so it was a constant battle to keep the water running. No lift either, so if you're lucky enough to be staying on the third floor (big flights of stairs, too) I hope you're fit! As for the staff, I only came across three receptionists, two of whom were dull with no personality. But the third was a Valencian local with curly hair who was nice and helpful enough. I didn't use the kitchen so I can't comment about it, but it looked big enough and clean. The roof terrace is great, and probably even better in the summer, but for fellow smokers you can smoke in the reception and common area anyway. — Anonymous (2005-02-07) I am not so convinced that this place was OKAY. The showers were atrocious, the worst in Spain! The staff were helpful enough but there were beggars and crowds of young locals hanging around outside all night. The building is secure, though. The showers just really killed it for us. There was no breakfast either. — Anonymous (2005-01-02) I loved it! It's very different from other hostels. It's clean, friendly and has a fantastic living/kitchen area. It's a great place to meet people. — Anonymous (2004-11-18) This is one of the best places I've ever stayed in! The staff and other travelers were all really fun and laid back, and the decor only added to the great time. :) The kitchen is huge and fully stocked, and there was a huge daily market right down the street for self-catering. — Anonymous (2004-09-17)