The Hostelz.com Review
Harbour City Backpackers is excellently located just across the Domain from the City. It has good room sizes and great bathrooms. They have excellent kitchen facilities, a TV room, and video room. The Domain and Hide Park are located just across the road and there is easy access to the New South Wales Art Gallery and the Opera House. Circular Quay, the Rocks, and other inner city tourist destinations are within walking distance. The historic Woolloomooloo wharf and Andrew Boy Charlton outdoor salt water pool are fantastic locations to soak up a bit of Sydney sun. There are excellent surf and snow tours, and other tour operators pick up from this location.
This hostel is roomy compared to others in the inner city area and is reasonably priced. However, the staff were unfriendly and unhelpful after a problem with our room key -- we were treated extremely rudely by the girl on reception. This was our second stay -- the first time, they had excellent staff (however, most of their staff are travelers, so they do turn over). Good staff and management can make a great hostel.
This hostel is roomy compared to others in the inner city area and is reasonably priced. However, the staff were unfriendly and unhelpful after a problem with our room key -- we were treated extremely rudely by the girl on reception. This was our second stay -- the first time, they had excellent staff (however, most of their staff are travelers, so they do turn over). Good staff and management can make a great hostel.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
September 2004
Their Description
Elephant Backpacker Sydney Details
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Elephant Backpacker Sydney Reviews on Other WebsitesHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Location and price good Stayed 4 nights with friends in female dorm. Hostel is next to city centre and opposite gardens. it is peaceful at night and has beautiful views of city from roof. they have a new cafe that sells good priced food all day and night. Staff were helpful and gave us tips on trips and places to go. we enjoyed ourselves and would plan to come back after our trip. — Anonymous , Chinese (2011-11-29) AWFUL HOSTEL -- FILTHY, RUDE AND DISGUSTING. Worst hostel we've stayed in so far. I've been traveling with friends around New Zealand for the past couple of months and we've all stayed in hostels before, so to get to Australia and be greeted with this was awful. First of all the hostel is ill equipped -- you have to pay a deposit and rent everything including your crockery. The kitchen however has nothing else of use -- no utensils or anything useful for cooking. All the pots and pans were piled in the sink sky high and there was no cloths for washing the dishes anyway. You're forced to sign a contract when you go to Elephant with all the rules of the hostel and in return they promise the kitchen gets cleaned 5 times a day -- one look at the state of the floor, microwaves and general surfaces proves this is a blatant lie. We maybe would have attempted to stay put in the hostel if the bathrooms didn't have massive clumps of hair everywhere and there were 3 discarded dirty razors on the floor -- again from a room supposed to be cleaned 3 times a day. The ceiling of the boy's bathroom apparently was covered in mould too. Management were rude and the girl behind he desk had a serious attitude problem -- they all tried to claim we had unreasonable expectations and had just visited the bathroom/kitchen before cleaning but believe that to your peril. We checked out and paid for new accom elsewhere as we literally would've caught something staying there any longer. I can't stress this anymore DO NOT STAY HERE, unless filth, rudeness and dirt is what you're looking for. — Anonymous , Scotland (2011-10-11) Friendly and Clean I had a GREAT stay at Elephant Sydney! The staff was SUPER friendly and helpful, and they upgraded my room to a 4 bed dorm just because they had the space and they're THAT nice! Everything was super clean and very quiet. HIGHLY recommended! — Astrid , Sweden (2011-04-25) Good but noisy Room was very good and clean, big lockers. Showers and Toilets are good and clean, too. The hostel is right in the middle of Sydney. Just a short walk to CBD, only a few minutes. That's the really cool thing about this hostel! Amazing view from the roof. When we were there, there was a Punch Party in one of the rooms on the same level as ours. Some people got very drunk and were noisy until early in the morning. They threw up all over the toilet, so they couldn't be used any more. Very very good hostel with good stuff and good service. But can be noisy during nights (we stayed three nights and it was noisy all three). If you are looking for a party place, that's the one to go! If you want a quiet place, be sure you bring earplugs. — Math , Swiss (2008-08-29) It was good my first time in sydney and I stayed here with some of my family and some family mates it was good. it had good breakfast and a nice room. it's not really good for kids but sometimes there was too much noise but sometimes it was nice and peaceful. I think that they need more computers and less noise but it was a nice stay and not too far from st mary cathedral and the train station, which was good. Very Nice place. — mikayla , new zealand (2008-08-03) Terrible This is a 2008 review. Big Rats and bedbugs, smells, and noisy. Far better is available elsewhere. — sara jeveos , french (2008-06-02) great hostel, friendly staff, breakfast was good. shame it was out of season, but location is great, only five minutes away from Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Cheap-ish Internet at three dollars an hour. Overall -- great place to stay. i will be back there for sure! — Dave Yozza (2006-08-07) Absolute good place to stay when visiting Sydney. Friendly crazy personnel, nice other backpackers, clean awesome showers, good big dorms, and a nice balcony! Spooky rooftop, invest in that. — Anthon (2006-03-21) If you read about the hostel, you'll know exactly what you're getting. It's clean, the staff are attentive and will do their best to help you with whatever you need. You're paying for a place to sleep. Harbour City gives you breakfast and, if you're an American, a Brit, or any other native English speaker, an easy way to meet others like yourself. I will return. Don't miss wine and cheese Wednesday. — Lance (2004-03-18) Too big, very impersonal, a lot of British/Irish ppl, quite far from Pitt Street and train station, still $25 a night. The rooms were comforatble, as well as the beds and the breakfast was alright. I thought the kitchen opening-hours were a huge disadvantage as I always had to leave for work early and wouldn't come back before 10pm. Also, sometimes the toilets would be so dirty that we'd have to ask for them to be cleaned. — Wakey (2003-06-22)