The Hostelz.com Review
Surfside Coogee Beach Backpackers is in a good location and has an excellent common area. It is clean and tidy but has serious issues with security. Short-term stays could be all right but we would consider other hostels for longer term stays.
The Location
This hostel in in an excellent location. It is opposite the beach, with views from lounge area and room balconies, and is in the centre of chilled out beachtown -- Coogee. It is very easy to find, and cheap buses run from Coogee into town and most other areas of interest (Bondi Beach). The bus stop is just outside the entrance. A fairly large car park is available outside the front of the hostel.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The rooms range from double rooms to six- to twelve-bed dorm rooms. They all have wooden floors and metal framed bunk beds, and some rooms open out onto the long balcony with beach views. Duvets, sheets, and pillows are given to you on arrival. However, some rooms have been known to have cockroaches and bedbugs. The room locks seem pretty secure, but the general security in the whole hostel is not great -- anyone can ring the doorbell downstairs to be let in without having to prove their identity. After staying here for only two days, our dorm room had been broken into and personal belonging stolen and searched by a stranger who had been let in by the staff.
The bathrooms are clean and the showers work really well. They have a hanger for your shower gel, sponge, and soap, but no hooks or changing areas. The downfall is also that there are only two showers and two toilets for each sex on each of the two floors, so when the hostel is busy, this could be a problem.
Common Spaces
There is a big kitchen, plus dining and lounge area with sofas and all Sky/Foxtail channels. The kitchen has all common appliances but crockery is only available from the reception -- this makes it hard to cook/eat when it's closed over lunch and for early breakfasts. The kitchen has serious issues with other backpackers stealing food, the hostel tries to prevent this by selling lockable food bags (but these are easily ripped apart so they don't prevent stealing). The dining table is very long so it seats many but there are only two three-seater sofas. There is a small balcony off this room with beautiful beach views. The reception is also here but is only open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Computers are accessible in this space too and you can pay as you go, so they are always available. There is no USB ports available, though so you can't upload photos here. Books can be exchanged from the bookshelf and magazines are normally on the dining table. It is a fairly busy hostel but quieter during the day. The laundry cupboard has only one washing machine and two dryers.
Summary
Surfside is a good place to stay in terms of location and views of the beach, but security is terrible and the staff aren't particularly friendly or helpful. They do offer travel and job advice but don't seem too keen to give it. The rooms are quite good and smaller dorms are the same price as bigger ones, which is good, but bathrooms should be either bigger or they should install more.
The Location
This hostel in in an excellent location. It is opposite the beach, with views from lounge area and room balconies, and is in the centre of chilled out beachtown -- Coogee. It is very easy to find, and cheap buses run from Coogee into town and most other areas of interest (Bondi Beach). The bus stop is just outside the entrance. A fairly large car park is available outside the front of the hostel.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The rooms range from double rooms to six- to twelve-bed dorm rooms. They all have wooden floors and metal framed bunk beds, and some rooms open out onto the long balcony with beach views. Duvets, sheets, and pillows are given to you on arrival. However, some rooms have been known to have cockroaches and bedbugs. The room locks seem pretty secure, but the general security in the whole hostel is not great -- anyone can ring the doorbell downstairs to be let in without having to prove their identity. After staying here for only two days, our dorm room had been broken into and personal belonging stolen and searched by a stranger who had been let in by the staff.
The bathrooms are clean and the showers work really well. They have a hanger for your shower gel, sponge, and soap, but no hooks or changing areas. The downfall is also that there are only two showers and two toilets for each sex on each of the two floors, so when the hostel is busy, this could be a problem.
Common Spaces
There is a big kitchen, plus dining and lounge area with sofas and all Sky/Foxtail channels. The kitchen has all common appliances but crockery is only available from the reception -- this makes it hard to cook/eat when it's closed over lunch and for early breakfasts. The kitchen has serious issues with other backpackers stealing food, the hostel tries to prevent this by selling lockable food bags (but these are easily ripped apart so they don't prevent stealing). The dining table is very long so it seats many but there are only two three-seater sofas. There is a small balcony off this room with beautiful beach views. The reception is also here but is only open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Computers are accessible in this space too and you can pay as you go, so they are always available. There is no USB ports available, though so you can't upload photos here. Books can be exchanged from the bookshelf and magazines are normally on the dining table. It is a fairly busy hostel but quieter during the day. The laundry cupboard has only one washing machine and two dryers.
Summary
Surfside is a good place to stay in terms of location and views of the beach, but security is terrible and the staff aren't particularly friendly or helpful. They do offer travel and job advice but don't seem too keen to give it. The rooms are quite good and smaller dorms are the same price as bigger ones, which is good, but bathrooms should be either bigger or they should install more.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
August 2008
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Surfside Coogee Beach Backpackers Reviews from the WebHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Bad In all honesty do not stay here, there are far better options for only a couple extra dollars a night, which you end up paying here anyways due to hidden fees. Terribly living conditions, disgusting bathrooms (not due to the tireless and patient cleaning staff, but the residents), noisy until all hours, cockroaches in the bathroom and kitchen, no one cleans their dishes so you end up doing yours twice. All in all save yourself a trial and go somewhere else. On top of this I had a booking issue which ended up with me being double booked, which cost me an extra 80$, I was back in my home country when I realized and this hostel is blowing me off, cool people. — GB , Canada (2011-03-14) Rename it backside shitpackers disgusting, dirty, and disrespectful -- and really expensive. I've traveled the world and this is one of the worst. — Anonymous , new zealand (2011-01-25) Poor Worst hostel i came across during my whole year in oz. Unfriendly staff, dirty, no aircon or fans in peak summer, cramped. People stealing food constantly, Rooms like saunas and a poor atmosphere overall, would not recommend to anyone. — Anonymous , uk (2010-12-21) What a craphole -- AVOID Where to start, embarrassingly overpriced for what you get, which would be dirty rooms and generally unhelpful staff. residents can crash about all through the night but if you are making noise after 10pm you are quickly threatened with deposit loss. only good thing about this place is checking out and going to anywhere else that seems like a palace in comparison. dump, rubbish, an actual joke. AVOID. — Anonymous , English (2010-09-20) Dump Hated the time l spent here. Rooms cramped, nowhere to store belongings, fixtures in bathrooms broken and not enough of them, noise until the early hours. Coogee is a beautiful place to visit but l'd never stay at this hostel again. Only thing l have good to say about it is that the staff did try their best to help but it just wasn't good enough. — F , British (2009-01-16) Terrible Absolutely filthy, full of cliques and loud people. Never again. — Tricia , Ireland (2008-08-14) Awful This is the worst hostel I stayed in in Australia. Unfortunately it was my first one so I thought all hostels were like this and it was ok that random people would walk into the rooms. Very, very, very poor security; moody staff; dirtiest kitchen and bathrooms; lack of facilities (the computers are always broken); four showers for girls in the whole place; extremely noisy; and more. Never stay there if you care about your possessions and your sleep. Drunks and druggies sit around all day, complete wasters. Not one positive thing to say about it. — V , British (2008-04-28) Good for a piss up Were there in 2003 and stayed in room four! Generally a really good hostel party atmosphere! — kenny duncan , scotland (2007-10-07) Quite nice, many english backpackers, friendly staff, a good place to stay. — Iska (2007-05-14) Great location and if you like meeting people and partying go for it -- balconies are good to meet people/have a drink. Best thing about the place was the people i met -- absolutely awesome and great fun. Downside -- Tony is a loser, he pretends the hostel is full if guys call up and if a girl calls up and sounds hot he'll book them in. He'll sleaze on every girl that comes in, keep rooms free so he can take girls back there. If you're a new female traveler to Oz don't fall into the trap of friendly kiwi guy being helpful. — Anon , English (2007-04-19) Lived in this Hostel for six months. (In 2002 and Part of 2003) Make sure you get into Room one or six to avoid noise and have the best view. Last time I was there Tony the walking Woody was in one of these rooms. Watch Out! He will shag anything that walks on two legs. Bathrooms were just awful at times but usually we were too hungover from the great night prior at 'The Palace' or 'Coogee Bay Hotel' to really care. Manager Rich is a bit of a prick as well. If you are looking for a good time in Sydney this place is great. — Andy Jackson (2006-07-11) I stayed here in March 2006 for a week and had a right laugh. Okay so it's not overly clean, but if you want to party it's a great place to stay. It's within close reach of Coogee's two main pubs, C.B.H and The Pallace which are good fun and always packed. Great views over look the beach, I spent many an evening gettting drunk on the balcony with all the people I met which was cool. Good lounge with twenty-four-hour foxtel (Sky TV) for all the football, and they do your laundry for you if you give them seven dollars. A great place to stay if you're arriving in Oz, much better atmosphere that those city hostels, get down to Surfside! — Dave (2006-06-22) Hmmm. The best thing I have to say about the place is the fellow backpackers I met, and that was pure luck. Everyone was charged defferent prices depending on how the person on the desk felt that day. There were no fans in our room so the heat was stiffling. Not that we could have slept over the door slamming, music and noise anyway. We woke up to find a bloke walking through our all-female dorm so not too sure about security. I can only speak for the female facilities but there are only four toilets and four showers for a huge number or guests. And no one seems to know what's going on here -- a lot of the "staff" are just randoms that are staying there, and the managers like Tony and Rich, (when you can find them) are nothing more than schizophenic -- sometimes friendly, sometimes rude. We were also unable to find anywhere else in Oz that charged you to clean the bed linen, or such an extortionate key deposit. Not recommended. — Sarah (2006-04-29) We stayed in Surfside for 7 weeks over the xmas and new yr period and have to say we had the most enjoyable time there. We stayed in room 6 and Tony was the man! I even cried when i left!! It is very clean and the free wine and cheese nights will never be the same anywhere else. We made loads of great mates and will go back there before heading off to N.Zealand. Loads to do in Coogee and the beach was just right...not too crowded like Bondi. I would rate this hostel very high and you should all go and stay there. — Sarah (2006-02-05) Its a great hostel if you dont mind the smell and the sand everywhere. I also recommend not getting too involved with the staff that work there Tony is way too over friendly so watch yourself with that one! — anon (2005-12-13)