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Please see Paris for other available Paris hostels and accommodations.
Please see Paris for other available Paris hostels and accommodations.
The Hostelz.com Review
The BVJ Quartier Latin is a hostel in undoubtedly one of the nicest areas of central Paris. The Latin Quarter area is within close walking distance to a number of the top tourist attractions, most notably the Notre Dame, which is a five- to ten-minute walk, and the district epitomises the Parisian lifestyle the world loves so much. There are plenty of street-facing cafes, great restaurants and bars, beautiful shops, and lovely buildings and monuments.
The hostel itself is reasonably priced for the area and its rooms are basic but sufficient. The street-facing rooms offer a nice little view. En-suite rooms have push-button showers, which are irritating to say the least -- but the general level of cleanliness in the rooms and toilets is acceptable.
The staff speak good English, although the cleaning ladies/breakfast monitors speak little or none, but you will be better rewarded attempting to speak some French to them. Some of the staff are more helpful than others but overall they are quite professional. Reception is open twenty-four hours and there is no daytime lockout.
The free breakfast every morning is reasonable too -- coffee or hot chocolate, a selection of juices, French bread, butter, jam, and cereals. There is no bar or facility to buy drinks. There is a supermarket called Champion five to ten minutes' walk away, although there is no cooking facility at the hostel, only a kitchen for breakfast use only. The hostel also has a small internet kiosk that is expensive and quite slow.
Perhaps one low point of the hostel is the social atmosphere or ability to meet other travelers. There is a common area near reception with some tables and chairs and a TV that appears to never be used. This doesn't leave much room to meet other travelers, but it must be said that a number of French students appear to use this hostel too so it has a slight institutional feel about it.
The best thing about this hostel is definitely the location. It is literally around the corner from a metro stop (Maubert Mutualite). For the best places to eat and drink, and generally get amongst the real Paris, head up the hill away from the Seine River to Rue Mouffetard and its numerous side streets. You will not be disappointed!
The hostel itself is reasonably priced for the area and its rooms are basic but sufficient. The street-facing rooms offer a nice little view. En-suite rooms have push-button showers, which are irritating to say the least -- but the general level of cleanliness in the rooms and toilets is acceptable.
The staff speak good English, although the cleaning ladies/breakfast monitors speak little or none, but you will be better rewarded attempting to speak some French to them. Some of the staff are more helpful than others but overall they are quite professional. Reception is open twenty-four hours and there is no daytime lockout.
The free breakfast every morning is reasonable too -- coffee or hot chocolate, a selection of juices, French bread, butter, jam, and cereals. There is no bar or facility to buy drinks. There is a supermarket called Champion five to ten minutes' walk away, although there is no cooking facility at the hostel, only a kitchen for breakfast use only. The hostel also has a small internet kiosk that is expensive and quite slow.
Perhaps one low point of the hostel is the social atmosphere or ability to meet other travelers. There is a common area near reception with some tables and chairs and a TV that appears to never be used. This doesn't leave much room to meet other travelers, but it must be said that a number of French students appear to use this hostel too so it has a slight institutional feel about it.
The best thing about this hostel is definitely the location. It is literally around the corner from a metro stop (Maubert Mutualite). For the best places to eat and drink, and generally get amongst the real Paris, head up the hill away from the Seine River to Rue Mouffetard and its numerous side streets. You will not be disappointed!
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
January 2007
Their Description
Bureau Voyage Jeunesse - BVJ Quartier Latin Hostel Details
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(To add or correct information for this listing, please use the Listing Update Form.)
Location/Contact| Address | 44, rue des Bernadins, Paris (5è - Latin Quarter), Île-de-France, France |
| Location | Take Métro Maubert Mutualité or Saint Michel |
| Website | www.bvjhotel.com |
| Telephone | +33 (0)1 43 29 34 80 |
| Fax | +33 (0)1 53 00 90 91 |
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Hostelz.com Guest Reviews
Rip off! I'll start with the positive ... the location! Close to the Seine, Notre Dame and many shops/cafes. I understand that Paris is expensive, however, at 29 euro a night this hostel is terrible. My friend and i first arrived at the Louvre BVJ to find that though she had booked and even been in email correspondence with them, there was no booking for us. They sent us off to their other branch, in the Latin Quarter and we found that there were other people who had also thought they were booking with the Louvre branch only to find they had been sent on. The rooms are bare and extremely minimal. Small shelves in some and the top bunk beds don't even have ladders -- rather a stool to climb up from. The shower and sinks are right off the bedroom ... with no door or curtain even to the shower so you either make your own curtain or everyone sees everything. In the first room we were in, the shower button had to be held in to work. I've stayed in many hostels and the beds here were by far the worst i have encountered. The security system is questionable. Each room gets one key, supposedly you show your card at the desk and if someone already has the key then obviously just go on up, last person out of the room is meant to take the key down to reception. We had to move rooms after the first night because the key had gone missing and not only could they not find another one but they couldn't offer a locker or anywhere for our possessions to be kept safe. Again, for 29 euro a night you would expect at least wifi to be included ... but no, you have to pay 5 euro for 4 hours and it is very slow. Don't stay here! — Anonymous , Australia (2011-11-09) Awfull! Run away from this place! It sucks! They keep moving you from one room to another every day no matter if you made reservation in advantage for an specific type of room. Staff is even worse and too many kids tour without any supervision!! Find a better place! — Leah , Ireland (2010-02-27) Rude and disorganised booked a room from China in advance; asked if I could have a room at 7:30am as I was flaying in early & would just want to sleep. Got there and they couldn't find a record of booking. For half an hour. After arguing with them in French they said I could have a room. Come back in 2 hours! So I had to pay to store my bags there, and walked for 2 hours. Came back, paid for the room, they said see you at 2:30pm as we have a lockout while we clean the rooms!! I just wanted to sleep. Yelled and argued with them and they let me go to a room, take a shower and get changed and I came back after another long walk, then had to wait another hour. The showers are all push button and almost all broken -- buttons don't stay in. Because I had my room changed by them almost every night I stayed there, I fitted coat hangers to half the showers in the place to get the showers to work. Totally unreliable, but yelling in French seemed to get things happening. — Steve -NZ , NZ (2008-10-16) Can I give no stars?! Staff is rude (except for the blond one girl) and even make offensive questions like "Are you lesbian?" (an Argentinian roommate had to listen to that one when looking for me to give her the only key for the entire room!). No lift and six floors! They keep moving you from one room to another each day no matter if you've made reservation with forty days prior. They charge you the price of the bed in the room according to the number of beds, so one day you pay the amount for a bed in a four-bed room and the other they might make you pay for a single room if they move you into it.They made their way to make sure you don't have to keep pushing every five seconds the button to have water down the shower but there is no shower curtains at all so part of the room inevitably becomes wet! Mattresses are less than six centimeters thin and pillow just sucks! Annoying kids yelling and knocking your door until midnight. Lockout kicks you out almost the entire day. I know you are in Paris and you have plenty things to see and do, but until 4 p.m. is absolutely ridiculous! No internet. Good location and clean, but that's all good I can say about his place. Moved on the second day into another hostel in Marais that was very good! — Emy , Italy (2007-12-28) Don't count on it Bizarre -- reservations are irrelevant here. I reserved a month early for an individual room for four nights. Then I called to confirm three days before arriving, as they suggest. They told me that they would only confirm the room for two nights. When I arrived, they told me that there were no individual rooms left, but I could get a space in a dormitory room. I did, and the next day I went to pay for another night, and they told me it was full. I would definitely suggest that you do not count on this place. There were at least six others who lost their spaces the same day as me. At least they helped us find a better hostel. — Kimm , Canada (2007-07-05) TERRIBLE! Stay away from this place unless you want to keep change from one room to another in different floors everyday , having no guarantees you'll have money to pay for it if they decide to set you into a single room, for example. Terrible humor staff, horrible mattress and bad showers. Toilets could be better and giving preference to big groups of kids means kids yelling at the corridor until very late at night! Locating is good but thats not enough specially with that staff! My room mate for the first and ONLY night, asked at the reception I had already arrived (to know if she could go upstairs and there would be someone to open the door, cause they have only one key per room! The guy looked at her and asked her if she was lesbian!!! OMG! Unless none of this stuffs bothers you, go ahead. — Adriana , Brazil (2007-06-23) Beware! This place is absolutely horrible -- far worse than anything I have ever experienced! I booked two months in advance and had the booking confirmed -- I then triple checked, the last definite confirmation I received by email was the night before I arrived in Paris! When I arrived I was told unbelievably rudely that they had no rooms available! When I asked why they had confirmed just hours earlier, the desk bitch (sorry but that is actually being kind to this person!) shrugged and said "I can't change the world!" I was left in a strange country with no place to stay late at night and they added insult to injury by saying basically "tough luck!" Two friends stayed at BVJ's recently only to have their room broken into when they were out one night -- and guess what the response was? "I can't change the world!" Please avoid this place like the plague -- they are horrible, rude, and completely uncaring about young travelers. — Kato , Japan (2007-04-25) This hostel kind of sucked. It had a great location, but absolutely no social scene at all. The place was clean, but the blankets weren't that clean and the shower for the dorm room has no privacy curtain. Alcohol is not allowed in the hostel, and there is no hostel bar. Internet here is way overpriced, and the breakfast is only marginal. Don't stay here unless you already have a big group or you aren't interested in meeting anyone. The location is great, but overall, it was a disappointing place to stay. — Steve (2007-02-02)