The Hostelz.com Review
A fun hostel with a large common area with a pool table, foosball table, and TV. The reception desk also doubles as a bar. It's a social hostel and a fun place to hang out when you're not out on the town. There's also a restaurant downstairs with outdoor tables and decent food for at a decent price. The rooms and bathrooms aren't exceptional but they're clean. The locatiion is in the former East Berlin, within walking distance of many bars and clubs, and a large stretch of the original Berlin Wall (the famous "Eastside Gallery" of wall paintings).
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
Their Description
Globetrotter Hostel Odyssee Details
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Globetrotter Hostel Odyssee Reviews from the WebHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Excellent first hostel experience, thanks to GlobetrotterHostelOdyssee It wasn't my first time in Berlin (actually it was the third) but it was my first experience in an hostel. I was there from the 24th to the 28th of December 2011 and it was simply great. the hostel is really simple, nice and cheap: you pay what you have. you can have duvet, towels and blankets but no hairdryer room service. the position of the hostel is perfect, the real Berlin from the eastern area with the walls covered with graffiti and cool alternative people walking around the "neighborhood": this is Friedrichshain. There are not megastore or big malls, a kebab seller, a supermarket, and lots of clubs or bars or pubs it's enough. you can find next to you (5 min walking) the best clubs in the word, Panorama Bar, Watergate, and so on. the metro stop (warshauer strasse) is just in front of this place, amazing. the hostel is cosy, with cool young people around, clean, shared bathroom and toilet of course (where you can meet interesting people) and locked closet as well. it is not the most luxury place in berlin, it's just cheap (15 euro per night), with a good location, easy-staying, simple but with a nice style (in the main room you can find a pool table, cool sofas, poster, flyer and drawing everywhere) and cool people. 3 euro all you can eat breakfast is perfect. I really recommend this hostel to people that want to travel cheap but in a nice place and moreover to group of friends (like 5-6 people) that want to stay all together in this kind of dormitory-room. I will go there again, for sure! — martina saladino , italia (2011-05-14) Cozy This was the first hostel I ever stayed at, and it was above my expectations. The bathrooms were cleaned daily, and were as clean as my dorm room in the States. The rooms themselves were nice and themed (a bit oddly themed, but I appreciated the effort). The breakfast was 3 euros and I was happy with Brie, salami, toast, muesli, nutella and fruit--all you can eat. The lobby area makes it VERy easy to meet people and I met a lot of great people at this hostel. Safe neighborhood too, if not in the center of things in Berlin. — Evie , USA (2009-07-25) This hostel is a little out of town but is fantastic if you want to be treated as person, not a tariff and the meals are fantastic!
LAYOUT/LOCATION
This hostel is more of a large suburban house that has been converted into a hostel. Run by a little old couple who will do anything to please, it is 3 stories of dorms and private rooms, a common room with internet, book exchange and drinks for sale. It is very homely, you feel more like you are at your grandparent's house than a hostel and Damian (customer liaison and adorable old man!) will pick you up from the station, drop you into town, do your washing for a very low price and arrange a 3 course traditional Slovenian meal for 6 euro!
The hostel is about 5km out of town but they will pick you up from the station when you arrive and usually do about 2-3 trips into town a day (10am to take you into town and 7pm to pick you up – if you arrange a few people he will also do special trips to the mountains, gorge or sporting activities is you are nice!). The hostel is just below the mountains amongst corn fields and churches and a bike ride around town is the perfect way to see a traditional Slovenian village. Although it is a little inconvenient being 15minutes from the lake itself, there is still plenty around to see and is a great location to take in the countryside. To get there, catch a train to Lesce Bled station and Damian will pick you up from there. Sundays not all the trains are running so check the timetable.
ROOMS AND BATHROOMS
The rooms are small, some are underground with little light but some have balconies and are slightly larger. Some rooms have their own bathrooms, and other's don't, it really depends on how many beds in your dorm (more beds, more chance of a shared shower). The rooms are slightly chilly but there are large fluffy quilts and pillows and places to hang your clothes.
The showers are small and slightly falling apart but they're hot and do the job. Don't expect a whole lot of room here to spread your stuff out and if Damian sees your clothes strewn about the room he will comment on your likeness to living like a goat, but all in good humour!
COMMON SPACES
There is not public kitchen but breakfast is included (cereal, tea, coffee, eggs and toast) and a fantastic 3 course dinner is available for 6 euro, well worth it.
There is free internet, it's a bit slow though and perched on top of a shelf that is way too high so surfing for too long will make your neck sore!
The common areas are welcoming and covered in photos from all over the world and thank you letters from the people who have stayed there, an indictment on the hospitality offered.
There are bikes to use free of charge, they will let you use the fridge to chill your wine and will happily arrange any activities for you (horse riding, canyoning, rafting) but it pays to be nice to the old couple as they sometimes get a bit stroppy if you forget your manners – treat them like you would your grandparents!
SUMMARY
This hostel is a very welcoming place, and reasonably priced (however don't be surprised if they tag on an extra few euro for the lifts). Overall, staying here was a very pleasurable experience, the type of place its very hard to leave!! — Clare , Australia (2008-10-01) Nice atmosphere, low substance I got bedbugs from their sheets. The location is scary at night. The directions they give are just plain wrong. The showers don't drain properly. It costs $2.25 for a Snickers bar. Do not stay here! It looks nice but it's actually filthy. — Ellie , USA (2008-08-25) I stayed five nights here in June — I won't stay again.
***Rooms — very poor lighting, only one power outlet per room. Not good when you're in a group and everyone wants to charge their camera battery/phone etc. Most rooms were colorful, some with rather bizarre designs. Beds ok. Rooms very small.
***Bathrooms — not clean!!! The shower didn't drain properly, the floors were fairly dirty, but what was worse — someone threw up in the basin and this totally clogged up the pipe. We asked to have these things fixed, but nothing happened. Not enough showers per floor.
***Staff — fairly friendly but smoked while talking to guests. Didn't always give the best advice. Didn't really communicate information about reservations among themselves well.
***Atmosphere — caters to the pot-smoking, late partying crowd. Smoking is banned in the rooms, but certainly not policed. Very noisy at night. Black paper-maché statues of strange figures in armor adorn the common room.
***Security — the rooms can't be locked from the inside. We don't think anyone tried coming in to our rooms at night, but we didn't feel secure about this at all.
***Breakfast — all you can eat, but not very good. Rolls were those "back at home" ones — sometimes fresh, sometimes left over from the previous day. I've had much better hostel breakfasts for the same price. It's served 8 a.m. until noon. Quite a late start if you have a day of sightseeing planned.
***Location — convenient to Ostbahnhof for travel to and from Berlin. Bus 240 runs every 10 minutes for most of the day.
***Facilities — Internet access ok. No laundry. — Katherine (2005-07-02) I have been here three years in a row. You will not find a better hostel in Berlin. Very clean. great staff, good bar and good music. — Anonymous (2005-01-16) Despite some noise a few guests made when coming back from a club at 3 a.m., this hostel was great. The rooms were clean and the wall paintings are awesome. The bathrooms aren't too fancy, but they were very clean, as were the toilets. Breakfast is definitely worth the few euros. The staff were very friendly and helpful. And the drinks at the bar are cheap. If I ever visit Berlin again, I'll go to this hostel. — Anonymous (2005-01-01) I had a good time at the Odyssee. It was a good party, for sure. — Anonymous (2004-09-28) It was very clean, and most of the staff were extremely helpful (although there was one girl there who was quite unpleasant). The staff weren't concerned about asking loud, obnoxious guests to be quiet at 3 a.m., which wasn't so great. I'd certainly stay here again, and would recommend it to others, but one thing to be wary of is that "things go missing." I accidently left my toiletry bag in the women's bathroom, and it got stolen, but that's not the fault of the hostel. — Anonymous (2004-09-02) We just stayed here. It was in a very nice location, close to the East Side Gallery, and only a couple of stops from the main train station. I will show you the good and the bad of this hostel.
The good:
- location;
- rooms were very nice (and so were the wall paintings);
- nice atmosphere in the downstairs bar/lounge area;
- great breakfast;
- staff were very friendly and helpful with the exception of one, the girl who checked us in too early. (There were no beds ready, she tried twice to give our beds to other people even though we called to confirm, and after checking us in she yelled at us for being in the room!!! It was not very pleasant, and not a good way to start our stay in Berlin.)
The bad:
- the one staff member I just mentioned, she made a bad impression on us and several other travelers;
- the fact that we made a reservation, called prior to arrival to confirm and they STILL tried to give away our beds;
- one of the cleaning staff stole our pillow and blanket (which sucks as you have to pay a deposit on that);
- the price we had to pay was higher than the price quoted to me when I made the reservation, yet they wouldn't adjust it to the quoted price;
- they checked in a huge group of immature filthy young teenagers who left the washrooms in a disastrous state, ran up and down the corridors screaming, yelling, kicking doors; throwing the pool table equipment around and basically disrupting all of the other guests at the hostel. Most of the other travelers in the hostel were pissed off by this group, but no one from the hostel management ever asked them to behave in a more appropriate manner. — Dave (2004-06-29) If you'd like to stay in a clean hostel with little to no hassle, cheap rates, and a friendly staff, in a location near a lot of happening restaurants and shops, stay here. BUT my towel was stolen, so make sure you lock up your stuff. — Nik (2004-04-25) I always go back to the Odyssee when in Berlin. Surely not the cleanest hostel in Berlin, but it's truly the cheapest I've found, and not only that, the staff are really friendly, they make you feel at home. This is a real backpacker hostel! — Anonymous (2004-03-28)