The Hostelz.com Review
Toronto Global Village Backpackers is a big hostel with friendly staff and a good atmosphere. There are four floors of rooms, lounge room with TV, and a backpacker bar that's not particularly cheap. Breakfast is available to buy and there's a kitchen to cook your dinner. Laundry costs $3.00 to wash and dry and internet access is $2 for half an hour (free wi-fi if you have a laptop). The area is ok and there are food, bars, and tourist attractions nearby. But Toronto is a big sprawling city so it can be a fair hike from one side to the other. Chinatown is close and a good source of food.
The hostel is fairly clean and tidy and the rooms are nicely painted. The dorms are ok. Sheets are included and the mattresses are comfortable and properly sized. There is a lack of bathroom facilities though. At the time of our visit there were only two or three working showers for women and the same for men between the three floors. Toilets are few and far between as well.
This hostel is a 20-30 minutes walk from the train or bus station (rather than the 15 minutes they say), but it's a flat walk. It's not really far enough to justify the $2.50 fare for public transport if the weather is fine. The hostel is on the corner of Spadina and King street, which are both major streets so it's not hard to find on any map.
The hostel is fairly clean and tidy and the rooms are nicely painted. The dorms are ok. Sheets are included and the mattresses are comfortable and properly sized. There is a lack of bathroom facilities though. At the time of our visit there were only two or three working showers for women and the same for men between the three floors. Toilets are few and far between as well.
This hostel is a 20-30 minutes walk from the train or bus station (rather than the 15 minutes they say), but it's a flat walk. It's not really far enough to justify the $2.50 fare for public transport if the weather is fine. The hostel is on the corner of Spadina and King street, which are both major streets so it's not hard to find on any map.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
December 2005
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It's a flophouse. Ok for one night at most This hostel is only ok if your new to Toronto. Its in a good location and thats about it really. Staff are posers and lazy. Wi Fi drops every 5 minutes even you though are in central Toronto. Rooms and cramped and you will have to lug your backpack up very narrow winding stairs. Plenty other better options. — Anonymous , Ireland (2011-03-01) Unhelpful The guy at the Front Desk really didn't care. I came in and asked for a room. He wouldn't say much, just asked for my passport. After clicking on his computer for a bit, he told me You can't stay here Buddy. I asked why, and his reply was I wasn't eighteen. I told him I would be eighteen in eight days, so he could trust I wouldn't behave irresponsibly. His only reply was come back in eight days. Please! I've stayed all around Toronto in Hostels and they wouldn't make a problem of it. did he just have a bad day? I get there's a policy, but going this strict doesn't help anyone! — Rasmus Geertsema , Dutch (2009-10-11) Beware of policy for minors under eighteen years of age! Beware -- this hostel has a policy that minors younger than eighteen should stay only in a private room (not dorms!) even if they are accompanied by parents. This information is not mentioned in the hostel description nor during the online booking. We (me, my wife, and our ten-year old daughter) did an online booking of three beds in the dormitory. Arriving late at night we have been denied checking in ("according to our policy you need a private room but we have no private rooms left") and had to search for another place to stay -- a very frustrating and disappointing experience. — Alexei , France (2009-07-27) Could be better I didn't like this hostel. The location is great, however, it is very loud there (because of the street cars). Facilities are not great, there is only one shower and one toilet for each sex on floors. The kitchen where they cook breakfast is quite dirty. Sometimes they ran out of toilet paper; the Wireless connection was quite poor and disappeared for several hours from time to time; electronic keys did not work sometimes, so we had to go down to the front desk to recharge it again. The staff was very friendly and helpful though. — * (2008-06-08) Very good hostel Staff friendly and willing to help with problems/queries. Hostel within walking distance of all amenities -- the CN Tower, Chinatown. Bar was a great place to sit at night under the stars, drinking Canadian beer! Met so many nice people from all over the world -- much more than the other hostels I've been in. The only reason it didn't get a five-star was due to the bathroom facilities. Only two showers on my floor between at least twenty people and bathrooms needed a revamp as they looked old fashioned. Would still go there again for the beer, pancakes, and the laughs! Great place to be. — Aileen Hardie , Scotland (2007-08-19) Long-termers Hang out Not a bad hostel however severely lacking in toilets and showers (two of each between what could be sixty people). The staff seemed friendly and helpful and the noise from the bar wasn't too bad. However the atmosphere of the hostel and bar is not so great. There seemed to be a lot of guests who had been there for a while and not many travelers. The kitchen is quite small however the second kitchen is currently being renovated. Breakfast is good with pancakes aplenty. — Helen & Sion , Wales (2007-05-29) A friend and I stayed here in August of 2006 and met some awesome people from around the world. The hostel staff were nice, the bar wasn't too bad, and the price was right. However, unknown to him at the time, my friend was attacked by a wicked amount of bedbugs during our week long stay in room 215, some of which ended up in his bag on the flight home and took up residence in both of our apartments. Professional extermination for those things was about $600 a room. With that added price we could have skipped the hostel, stayed in some ritzy hotel, and gone out to local bars. Be careful. — Andrew , USA (2007-05-11) This is a typical North American grunge hostel. Its safe, clean, but not as fun as it could be. Location is doable, and they let me check-out at 4 a.m.! — C* (2007-01-25) I stayed there this summer for a couple of nights and it was rather disappointing. There aren't enough facilities (seats in the lounge and the patio, Internet terminals, kitchen space) for the number of people staying there. Also the room is rather darkish and situated on a main crossroad with a noisy streetcar running below your window, so don't expect to get too much sleep.
The breakfast consists of pancakes and syrup every single day. The staff was ok, the toilets and showers tidy. — mat (2006-12-08) Not a very good hostel. I have been travelling around Canada for around seven months and this is probably one of the worst I have stayed in. Rooms are small, dark, and dingy. Lockers are very expensive and not an option if you want to be in and out of them regularly as you have to pay everytime you open them. Some of the staff are more concerned with looking cool than helping customers. Some staff are awesome though. Yes, it has a bar, but why go to a new country and then not bother going out of the hostel to a local bar? However, this hostel is pretty good for meeting people and socialising than some others. — Ed (2006-06-08) Ok, so, some of the reviews on here are true. The good and the bad. It did find the place like a clique, but it was just because when I went everyone there was with friends. So, travling alone I felt kinda weird. But I did talk to a few people and they were nice enough.
The bar was nice. I didn't find it that overpriced. However, it was really cramped. Really. I dont even think they had the option of lockers. And the bathrooms are crapmed. I think there were two on my whole floor. The lack of privacy didn't bother, me but rather the lack of facilities. I think on my floor there were 3 toilets for who knows how many people.
But I liked it — Me (2006-02-25) What an overrated hostel this place is!
Rooms are cramped, much more so that the HI places available. They are ridiculously hot and there was just one shower/bathroom to serve an entire floor.
The bar prices are high. No promotions as such, except a happy hour which runs 7-8pm. Except they won't usually open the bar until 7.30pm.
Staff were particularly helpful. Being more interested in chatting with friends, surfing the net and generally acting cool.
It felt a little clique for my liking. — Dave White (2006-02-14) I spent only one night at the GVB but came back to the bar many times over during the month I spent in Toronto. The outdoor area was fantastic and you can meet so many people out there. The hostel is really lacking in showers, though. They need at least five times as many showers on each level for the amount of people they accommodate. I found the staff were not friendly or helpful, and make you stand in line for ages. They need more staff! Toronto GVB is too big. More showers, staff and a caring attitude are what is needed to make the GVB a great hostel. — Aussie Brendon (2004-12-03) I visited this hostel about six times between October 1999 and March 2003. I stayed here every time I visited Toronto. The location is safe and incredibly convenient to public transportation and the rest of downtown. There's a really good atmosphere here, and people are always hanging around the common area. The beds are what you'd expect—they're comfortable enough, though I personally prefer thicker pillows. My experience with the hot water was hit or miss, but the bathrooms were nice enough. Put it this way—this place was cool enough for me to return to again and again, for as long as two weeks—it's like a second home, and I never even felt the need to test out the other Toronto hostels. There are lots of nice people here. — Kim (2004-09-06) This place is contagious; I can't stay away from it! Every time I go to Toronto I get stuck in their bar! Jeff the bartender is cool. This place is great in the wintertime, also. — Anonymous (2004-08-09)