The Hostelz.com Review
If you're looking for a place to hang out with people from across the world in a clean, safe, and fun environment, then HelloBCN Hostel is the place for you. Tucked away behind the Apollo theater, it is conveniently located near the harbour and Metro (stop Parallel).
On the ground floor you will find the spacious bar and kitchen area. The bar is large with couches and is a great place to hang out and meet people. Drinks are available at the bar, but those on a tight budget will be pleased to know that you are allowed to bring your own. The kitchen is clean with plenty of storage and utensils, but a bit cramped at meal time. If you forget the key ingredient for your favorite pasta sauce, or you want to pick up a few drinks, there is a supermarket that sells food and alcohol just a two-minute stroll around the corner.
The dorms are clean as are the beds and bedding. Each bed has a security locker that is operated by personal swipe card. Each floor has its own male and female bathroom -- these are spacious, clean, and and never crowded as there are sufficient bathrooms for the number of beds. All rooms, including the bar, are nonsmoking but there is a terrace on the second floor for those that need it. The only problem with any of the rooms is that those on the lower floors may experience some noise from the bar and kitchen.
There is also a great selection of free things available at HelloBCN -- free breakfast of self-serve bakery items with juice and toast. They offer free tea or coffee at all times. They also have four free internet stations, so you can plan ahead while sipping a frosty beer from the bar. And don't forget there's tons of free info from all the helpful staff. All said and told this is a great place to stay in Barcelona and it is almost impossible to find fault with it
On the ground floor you will find the spacious bar and kitchen area. The bar is large with couches and is a great place to hang out and meet people. Drinks are available at the bar, but those on a tight budget will be pleased to know that you are allowed to bring your own. The kitchen is clean with plenty of storage and utensils, but a bit cramped at meal time. If you forget the key ingredient for your favorite pasta sauce, or you want to pick up a few drinks, there is a supermarket that sells food and alcohol just a two-minute stroll around the corner.
The dorms are clean as are the beds and bedding. Each bed has a security locker that is operated by personal swipe card. Each floor has its own male and female bathroom -- these are spacious, clean, and and never crowded as there are sufficient bathrooms for the number of beds. All rooms, including the bar, are nonsmoking but there is a terrace on the second floor for those that need it. The only problem with any of the rooms is that those on the lower floors may experience some noise from the bar and kitchen.
There is also a great selection of free things available at HelloBCN -- free breakfast of self-serve bakery items with juice and toast. They offer free tea or coffee at all times. They also have four free internet stations, so you can plan ahead while sipping a frosty beer from the bar. And don't forget there's tons of free info from all the helpful staff. All said and told this is a great place to stay in Barcelona and it is almost impossible to find fault with it
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
November 2006
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HelloBCN Hostel Reviews from the WebHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Too expensive and impersonal There are better places to stay in Barcelona. The hostel BCN Backpackers is too expensive and impersonal. — Jon , germany (2009-08-25) More a backpacker apartment hostel than just a hostel When you plan your trip to Europe, make sure you book a B.A.H (Backpacker Apartment Hostel) instead of just a classical hostel. I just stayed at BCN loft. I must say this place was actually quite interesting. It is a backpacker apartment hostel, not just a one hostel building. The "hostel" is actually small apartments perfectly located directly on las ramblas. One of the best aspect was the freedom. No curfew and no lock out times during the day made all the difference for me! for me, the travel is all about being free. No freedom, no good trip! God! did not think it was so difficult to find hostels without those ridiculous curfews and lock out in Europe! Before I book my accommodations for my trip, my brother, who traveled to Europe three times, warned me, "Some hostels can be excellent in certain countries, like in Switzerland and Sweden, in the north of Europe. When it comes to South of Europe, like Italy, Spain and France, go for backpacker apartments instead!" He knew what he was talking about. Though I've enjoyed my stay at BCN Loft, I would not give them five stars. For example, if you arrive past 9 p.m., you have to pay 20 euros extra. This sucks a bit. Also, the private double were we stayed on the first night was too small and too noisy. Then, we moved to the loft. This one was great, with balcony and kitchen (make sure to book it). OveralI I give BCN loft four stars. Free internet is also a big plus and I love the lifestyle apartment anyway. In general, backpacker apartments are much safer than hostels rooms were everybody can come and go into your room and steal your belongings. — Nico , Greece (2008-05-17) Excellent choice! Hello BCN is very well located, the rooms are clean, it is very safe, you have a big locker, the breakfast is ok, you can easily cook in the kitchen, you can have a beer or a delicious sangria without going out of the hostel, isn't it perfect! And the showers are hot with pressure! — Marie-Pier , Canada (2008-01-09) A good one The hostel is nice and very clean, the location is very good (about six to seven minutes from Rambla), the rooms have air conditioning, and the staff is friendly. It is also fine that they give electronic key for your room and locker. However, there isn't any furniture in the rooms (except lockers, which do not have shelves and are not very comfortable in use). The breakfast is quite poor, they do not give ham or cheese. So it is not very suitable to stay there for a long time. — Vlad , Russia (2007-09-24) Great, great, great! Great helpful staff, great location near by metro station. Nice breakfast with different kinds of breads, jam, butter, juices, and hot drinks. Rooms an ok size and window with good, thick glass that gives you some silence at night. Walls dividing rooms could be thicker since if you have noisy neighbours you might have a lot of noise at night. Good, clean bathrooms with hair dryer, but push button showers a bit annoying. Great security, everyone gets a keycard that opens front door, room door, and your huge locker (but only yours -- I've tested with a friend and confirmed it did not open. we wouldn't have any problem of someone opening our lockers). Great meeting/lounge/dining room. Small but nice kitchen. They even have a gym room and a quiet room on second floor for those who want less noise to chat or even play a game. Really worth it! Special thanks to Piedade and Maria, who were angels -- keeping the entire hostel absolutely clean! — Adriana , Brazil (2007-06-23) Nice modern hostel, pretty good location about ten minutes' walk from ramblas. Metro stop around corner if needed. May have just been low season but hostel seemed pretty quiet when I stayed there. Good free breakfast, cool staff, rooms and bathrooms have loads of space, and clean as well. Person running the bar was also a pearl jam fan -- which is always welcome! — Jonny (2007-02-22) This is a great Hostel, the kind you miss when you leave. While it was clean and comfortable and the breakfast was decent, it is really the staff, other guests, and atmosphere that make is so awesome. I found the push button showers weird but then realized they are great for water conservation, and I love that there is no lockout time. If you are staying in Barcelona and want to party, this is the place to go. There is also a grocery store very very close by as well as the metro and several restaurants with good cheap food. — Tomirika (2007-01-18) Bad place to stay. I booked for four nights but only stayed one. The room is pretty small and very cold, the heat was broken and I frozen all night long. Also the shower is difficult to use. In the next morning I have lots of troubles to cancel my reservation. The owner is very very crazy about money and charge me a 30 Euros tax. I really don't recommend stay there. For 30 euros you can get a private room in a nice and safe hotel next the Ramblas. — lidisampa (2006-12-15) There are no words -- this turned a jaded american brat into a lover of Hostels. It is an incredible place with as much community and great people as you can ask for. The bartender orders Pizza for everyone each night, football on Sundays, really cool, and in some cases utterly attractive people (Yes, I thought I was going to be surrounded by hobbits). You are located very close to the bars, the staff always knows where to send you, and the rooms are clean, airy, and filled with light. Rent a bike, get involved, make some bad decisions, and tell the brazilian behind the desk that I love her. — Henry Lihn (2006-11-25) This place is fabulous! The staff is very relaxed with a great sense of humor and happy to help. The computers were never broken and there is a free twenty-four-hour coffee machine! Breakfast is simply grabbing a light croissant and some juice or coffee, so don't expect to be filled up. The place is really clean and although the rooms are small, they fulfill their purpose. I was on the second floor and it wasn't loud, but perhaps the first floor might have been. The reception area always has people in it and it has some TVs. I was glad that there was also a small lounge above the reception area, so people could just chill and read without the loud music and noise of the bar and stuff downstairs. The map they give you at the hostel is not extremely helpful, but neither is the one from the tourist booths on the street. Between the two of them you should be able to figure out how to get wherever you want to go. Everyone that I roomed with was very pleasant and people are generally pretty respectful about noise and stuff. You can rent towels, but that deposit is not returned. Also, the doors have key cards that also lock the lockers. Figuring these out at first was a little tricky. You have to push the green button with the key card, not just hold the card in front of the lock. Enjoy this place! It's great! — Megan (2006-11-09) This place is excellent -- definitely highly recommended. Not exactly in the city centre, but the area is safe, its right around the corner from parallel station, and the bus stop to take you to the beach is round the corner too! The staff are SO friendly, the place is really clean, and we felt really safe there. Definitely the best hostel i've stayed in in all my time backpacking. — Mary McCluskey (2006-10-25) This hostel is great! The staff is very friendly and helpful, especially Christopher. I think this was the most helfpul staff I met during my whole three-week journey. They give you a pretty good map of the city with places of interest on it. The hostel is located one or two minutes from the metro Parallel, seven to ten minutes walking from Las Ramblas. They have a big eating/socializing room/bar with TVs and air conditioning. The atmosphere is very social, you can meet a lot of travelers there. Breakfast is free, and the drinks at the bar are cheap. They also have a kitchen you can use for cooking up till 11 p.m. They have about four computer stations with free and fast internet, and elevators. They have an electronic key you use to enter the room, as well as to use your secured locker in the room. The only downside are the push-button showers and no a/c in the room, but this could be improved. — Yulia (2006-09-30) I love that hostel! So near about everything (metro ja buss stop). Only possible negative thing is a location from the beach, but by bus you can go very easily! I'll come back to that hostel that's surefire! Here you meet new persons around the World and learn more new things! — Mikko Säylä (2006-09-11) Wow i can't believe no one has reviewed this yet. This was a great hostel when we stayed there in july '06. It had only opened five days before we got there, so they were still getting the air conditioning up and running, as well as the internet, but the staff was super friendly and so incredibly helpful. The best of anywhere we stayed on our tour of europe. The kitchen is really nice, and big, and there is a pretty nice workout area if you're interested in that. They provide a nice little roof area for you to hang clothes to dry, and the rooms are clean and they provide sheets. This was definitely the cleanest hostel we stayed in, maybe because it was so new. But they had these electronic key cards, which was for your room and for individual lockers that were big so you could fit your luggage in there, which is really nice. The rooms aren't that big, pretty institutional, but very functional and nice. The people here (guests and staff) were really nice, and it was just overall a great environment. The showers are push showers, but they're clean and it's fine. I really enjoyed my time here, and would definitely stay there again in the future. The location is pretty good, not right on las ramblas, but definitely close enough to walk without any problems. just a great place and i would highly recommend it! — Lynn (2006-08-01)