Meiga Backpackers

Meiga Backpackers is a stunning little hostel, perfectly located near the heart of this great city. However, unless you're a die-hard walking pilgrim, get a cab from the bus or train station, as both are some distance from the center.

The ambience is especially pleasant, with a sunroom, wicker basket tables, candles, comfortable couches, and TV in the common room (though in a city like Santiago de Compostela, where so much is going on, people don't spend much time at the hostel). The kitchen is small but lively, the place is packed with people from just about every country on earth (mostly young), and the life of the city goes on twenty-four hours a day, so the mood is upbeat and joyful.

One of the great Art Deco cafes in the city, Cafe Casino, with its overstuffed chairs and gorgeous woodwork, is just around the corner. The tourism office is in the same block, and the magnificent Cathedral, to which pilgrims have been coming for over eight-hundred years, is a short walk through arcaded granite streets, past little shops selling shell-orabilia from T-shirts to candy to fridge magnets, hats, shoes, purses, and balloons. The streets are full of musicians, clowns, and pilgrims in every imaginable state of health and dress, and the view from the hostel windows is full of life.

The only drawback is that there are only two bathrooms, each with a shower and toilet, so if it's early evening and everybody is getting showered and ready to go out, you have to go, you just have to cross your legs and wait for a long time. It seems a small price to pay for such a pleasant place in an ideal location. A real treasure.

-- Exclusive Hostelz.com Review