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Please see Paris for other available Paris hostels and accommodations.
The Hostelz.com Review
A member of the international youth hostel association, HI - Paris - Le d'Artagnan Hostel is very large but very well run and friendly. Staff all speak English and French and also Spanish and German -- most languages are covered by the staff here!
The Location
The hostel is located in the 20th district of Paris and is very close to Gallieni, the international bus and train station. It's not in the center of Paris but still within easy reach, as the Paris metro (subway) is very efficient. There are permanent signs at the metro and bus stops, so it's easy to find. Take the metro from Gallieni to Porte de Bagnolet, exit the metro to the right and keep an eye out for the signs. You have about one hundred meters' walk to the hostel, straight past McDonald's -- cross one intersection and it's the first street on the right.
Rooms and Bathrooms
Four hundred-fifty beds make this a very large hostel! There are no mixed dorms, and dorm rooms range in size from three, four, five, and nine beds. There are twenty-five twin rooms with two single beds and there are seven double rooms with a king-size bed for couples only. All rooms have a bathroom, shower, and toilet.
The hostel uses a key card system, and rooms are not available from noon to 3 p.m. daily to allow for cleaning. There are no in-room lockers, but there is a commercial locker facility on the bottom floor -- though this is often overloaded (and you also have to pay for it). The hostel boasts a large commercial laundry and kitchen.
Common Spaces
There is a bar in the basement of the hostel, and it is totally commercial. Also there is a TV room that shows only French-language TV. Internet access is available, with eight public internet terminals, (no msn available) but it is very overpriced. You can also buy Wi-Fi access, which at the time of the review was only available in single-use blocks (this means you cannot logout of the Wi-Fi and return later to use your remaining time). Also note there is no kitchen here for public use -- only microwave ovens are available, so they hope you will buy the meals cooked here. The meals are small and quite overpriced, so you would do better to buy from a supermarket and cook for yourself. Breakfast is included in the price.
This is a nonsmoking hostel, though you can often find large groups smoking outside. Sheets and blankets are free, but towels are not. A security guard is on-site during the evening when reception is not open. A number of vending machines at the hostel offer some good deals -- make sure to buy your metro day-pass at the hostel, as it is quite cheaper than buying it at the metro station! This pass allows unlimited travel all day on the metro and is invaluable for your stay in Paris!
Summary
While this is a well run, large hostel, there seems to be the impression that anyone is allowed a room here -- some older guests in their sixties were staying during our visit, which does not quite fit in with the idea of a "youth hostel." During our visit, some female guests complained of unwanted attention from some older male guests, but did not seem overly concerned with this. Overall, this hostel provides a good stay and good price for a bed, and there is certainly no lack of other travelers to meet here!
The Location
The hostel is located in the 20th district of Paris and is very close to Gallieni, the international bus and train station. It's not in the center of Paris but still within easy reach, as the Paris metro (subway) is very efficient. There are permanent signs at the metro and bus stops, so it's easy to find. Take the metro from Gallieni to Porte de Bagnolet, exit the metro to the right and keep an eye out for the signs. You have about one hundred meters' walk to the hostel, straight past McDonald's -- cross one intersection and it's the first street on the right.
Rooms and Bathrooms
Four hundred-fifty beds make this a very large hostel! There are no mixed dorms, and dorm rooms range in size from three, four, five, and nine beds. There are twenty-five twin rooms with two single beds and there are seven double rooms with a king-size bed for couples only. All rooms have a bathroom, shower, and toilet.
The hostel uses a key card system, and rooms are not available from noon to 3 p.m. daily to allow for cleaning. There are no in-room lockers, but there is a commercial locker facility on the bottom floor -- though this is often overloaded (and you also have to pay for it). The hostel boasts a large commercial laundry and kitchen.
Common Spaces
There is a bar in the basement of the hostel, and it is totally commercial. Also there is a TV room that shows only French-language TV. Internet access is available, with eight public internet terminals, (no msn available) but it is very overpriced. You can also buy Wi-Fi access, which at the time of the review was only available in single-use blocks (this means you cannot logout of the Wi-Fi and return later to use your remaining time). Also note there is no kitchen here for public use -- only microwave ovens are available, so they hope you will buy the meals cooked here. The meals are small and quite overpriced, so you would do better to buy from a supermarket and cook for yourself. Breakfast is included in the price.
This is a nonsmoking hostel, though you can often find large groups smoking outside. Sheets and blankets are free, but towels are not. A security guard is on-site during the evening when reception is not open. A number of vending machines at the hostel offer some good deals -- make sure to buy your metro day-pass at the hostel, as it is quite cheaper than buying it at the metro station! This pass allows unlimited travel all day on the metro and is invaluable for your stay in Paris!
Summary
While this is a well run, large hostel, there seems to be the impression that anyone is allowed a room here -- some older guests in their sixties were staying during our visit, which does not quite fit in with the idea of a "youth hostel." During our visit, some female guests complained of unwanted attention from some older male guests, but did not seem overly concerned with this. Overall, this hostel provides a good stay and good price for a bed, and there is certainly no lack of other travelers to meet here!
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
September 2008
Their Description
HI - Paris - Le d'Artagnan Hostel Details
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Map
Location/Contact| Address | 80 rue Vitruve, Paris (20è - Père Lachaise Cemetery Area), Île-de-France, France |
| Location | |
| Directions | Take the metro to the Port de Bagnolet station (line 3), use exit 1 "Bd. Davout" and continue on Davout (away from the traffic circle) for 500m then go right on Rue Vitruve and the hostel is 50m on the left. |
| Website | www.hostel-in.com |
| Telephone | +33 (0)1 40 32 34 56 |
| Fax | +33 (0)1 40 32 34 55 |
How is HI - Paris - Le d'Artagnan Hostel rated on other websites?
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Hostelz.com Guest Reviews
Traumatized for life.You will cry. I stayed at this hostel over a year ago and the fact that I'm writing about it now proves that the experience still haunts me to this day. I feel a moral obligation to review this hostel in hopes that others will steer clear. I've stayed at other HIs before and had always had great experiences -- until I stayed with this one, obviously. The building itself looks cool but clearly, all of the money was invested into the unnecessary games room downstairs and not into basic, clean amenities. Let's start with the staff. They do not give a damn about anyone and look completely annoyed when approached by guests. In my experience, hostel staff are usually very outgoing, friendly and helpful. The staff at this hostel were not even the least bit polite. The Internet. I imagine that unless you brought your own computer, you had to pay to use the computers there (like I did). You had to purchase an Internet card and then realize that THE INTERNET DID NOT WORK AT ALL and that of course, the staff could not care less about this. They clearly knew that the Internet was a joke and continued to tell guests to purchase Internet cards. And if you ask them where the nearest Internet cafe is you will be met with looks of exasperation. The beds. Paper sheets. Ugh. The bathrooms and showers. Absolutely filthy. Push button showers with no hot water. Vomit in the stalls and pee in the showers DAILY. They even put signs up that said to stop using the showers as bathrooms. *obvs, bring your shower shoes/ full body suit*. When you cannot look forward to a good night sleep or a decent shower, what can you look forward to? No lockers -- unless you want to pay 1 euro a day to put your stuff in a downstairs locker that you can only open once a day (that's right!). You're not allowed to be in your room from 12-4 PM because the staff is "cleaning". That's obviously not what they are doing so its really just a big waste of time for everyone. But in fact, not being allowed in your dirty rooms for a few hours might be a blessing in disguise. Overall -- pick a different hostel or just find a cheap hotel. This one is not worth it to save a single cent!! — Rachel , Canada (2011-11-17) The staff ruin the experience The building itself (except for the washrooms) would be bearable if properly run. It's a bit out of the way, and can be hard to find on your first try. Too far from the centre of town to run back to and get off your feet for a bit before dinner, say. The big problem is the staff -- they act like the guests are just a nuisance to them. No one seems to give a rat's a** about quality of service -- as if they know people will come no matter how rude or indifferent they are. Breakfast was ok, not great. Ultimately, I'd say why bother with this place. — Anonymous , Canada (2010-04-14) Good, Clean, Nice staff I have been there in september 2009. I stayed 3 nights and I have to say that I was satisfied of the services which where offered. The bedroom-shower-restroom-bed were clean. The breakfast was enough (cereals, milk, hot chocolate, cafe, orange juice, jam, cheese, ham, chocolate pasta, honey). Staff was ok, helpful. Of course you can't compare to a starred hostel but for me there was a real "good value for money." — Fab , Belgiium (2010-01-12) No, never So happy to be back home, away from this Hostel. It was to me the worst ever. No Soup, no toilet paper, and everything was just dirty! Don't go there! — Guido , German (2009-11-30) Bad, Bad, Bad Ok, where do I start? I shared my room with two other girls, who were great. The bed itself was bad, I came home with insect bites all down my arm. I thank god that I brought my own sheets and pillow, because the pillows they had cannot be called a pillow, just hollow bits of cotton stuffed together. The nearest metro is about a ten- to fifteen-minute walk away and is it in the crappiest part of town. I asked a normal looking middle-aged guy for directions to the road where the hostel is at and he said that I had to take the next bus coming. He got talking to me and when we got onto the bus, I knew about ten minutes later that I was going in the wrong direction. I do not speak French, but when I think now about what he was trying to say to me, I realize that he was a pervert who wanted to get me to his house (where he attempted to take me!), get me drunk and into bed. He wasn't amused when I realized I was going the wrong way! The staff at the hostels are not helpful, they just sit around, pass time, and get paid for it. When you approach them, you know they are thinking "dont come to me, leave me alone." Why work in a hostel with that attitude is beyond me. Cater lady at breakfast time attempted to force me to take away and clean another person's dirty tray and was rude as hell. The guys in this area and generally in Paris are perverts. I got hit on so many times by men, twice in front of their wives/girlfriends! What is it with these people? Keep your belongings safeguarded. There are no lockers in the rooms, only an open communal one, where you can, insecurely, leave your stuff. God knows how this hostel got certified as a HI hostel -- which from my understanding, you have to abide by certain standards. This, in my opinion doesnt abide by any standards! — Neelam , UK (2009-06-02) Horrible! The worst ever! I had received a recommendation about this hostel from a guy in Brussels at the hostel we stayed at there, so we booked it over the internet. My three friends and I (two guys, one girl) arrived on a friday. They let us into our rooms, let me make sure you see the part it was rooms. We thought it was a little weird that we had been separated especially since we had booked together. So we brushed it off and went off for the day. When we got back, the girls in the guys' room freaked out that they would have to share a room with guys. Us girls had no problem sharing a room with our guy friends but the hostel would do nothing about fixing the situation. The first night we were there people rudely came in and out all night long. The doors slammed all night long. There was no security on our floors, all I saw was a guy sitting at the desk downstairs. There was only one outlet for the nine beds in our room. Things just kept adding up! In the morning, we went downstairs to check out the breakfast. There are illicit instructions of what each guest was allowed to have. I couldn't fit the orange that I wanted on my tray so I decided that I would come back to it later. When I tried to come back later, I was yelled at by the cook. I tried to explain myself but she kept yelling at me so I just took my orange and left. That night when we got back from our adventures, I tried to talk to the front desk about fixing our problems. The girl at the front desk could have cared less about my complaints. I explained to her that they had a zero noise policy and that I expected them to abide by it. That night a crazy, naked women starting screaming in the hallway at 4 a.m. waking me up. I went to get the security and got no reaction from them. The rooms were disgusting. They were greatly unaired. There were two small windows. The rooms smelt like a dirty locker room. The room we stayed in had nine beds, only one outlet and the bathroom that was attached to the girls' rooms didn't have a working shower (the temperature could not be regulated). The security is a joke! They are just some guys in white shirts that just sit around. The breakfast is horrible. Using the internet is way too expensive, 2 euro for a half hour, seriously. The hostel is super far from everything and in a very scary part of town. I almost forgot about the kids. They were everywhere! And they were rude, getting into everyone's way with no regrets. I will never recommend this to anyone and plan on filing a complaint to my credit card company! — Irina , USA (2007-08-15) I stayed at this hostel for a week with a school group of seventy-eight, so it was nice that we could all be on one floor, and I liked that the elevators worked. There was a Grocery Store nearby, which was nice, and the metro was decently nearby. However, it's in a pretty sketchy part of the city, and the rooms are a little drab, with dust everywhere, garbage on the shelves, and the floors were filthy. I didn't mind the food, but the washing machine prices were ridiculous, as well as the phone cards prices. I'd suggest buying one beforehand. Our fourth night, we got back at around 11 and found that all the girls' rooms had had their stuff rifled through, and moved. As far as we know, all that got taken were a pair of earrings, but the staff say they had nothing to do with it, and no one had access to our rooms. I'd only suggest this hostel if you have a really large group that prefers to stick together, otherwise, not the best choice. — Cassidy , Canada (2007-04-12) One of the worst hosteling experiences ever. The location was far away from everything in a dark sketchy neighborhood (which is what I'm finding with HI -- and I used to be such a fan of the chain!). The interior was dirty, the bathrooms insufficient for the number of people. Worst part -- I got robbed when the camera bag (camera, jewelry, money, music, film) was left under my pillow while I stepped away for a shower for five minutes. Staff did absolutely nothing to help, or direct me to the right place. Just dismissed it with "it's not our fault." I'd say avoid anything by HI, or at least research in advance, maybe there are good exceptions. — Masha (2007-01-25) The worst I've ever seen! I was forced to stay there during a week long bus excursion to Paris with my classmates. Everything is disgusting about it. Absolutely nothing positive. Extremely rude staff, rancid food, filthy beds and facilities. Crappy neighbourhood as well. Very noisy streets at night in terms of screaming and shouting in African languages. Staff robs your belongings if they get the chance. Bring anti-bugspray -- you will in fact need this. It was so bad, I have had serious considerations to leave the excursion group and return home by train on my own after one night there. One of my friends kept me from doing this however. Do not stay in this hostel! — Eduard - The Hague Netherlands (2006-05-21) This place was the worst hostel I have ever stayed at. I booked a package for two people from Australia, but when we got there they put us in two separate multi-share rooms, and wouldn't even find me a key for my room. The staff were extremely rude, even when I attempted to speak French to them (my French isn't the best, but I don't know the language so I tried), and I had to keep coming down to reception to get them to open the door to my room every time I wanted to go into my room. The bathrooms were dirty, and there were lots of kids running around everywhere all the time so it was really noisy. We stayed for three nights and on the second night we came back to our rooms and my partner's stuff had been removed from the room with no explanation, and he was moved to another room. When we questioned this the staff ignored him and didn't seem to care about security for his personal possesions he had kept under the bed (which they left behind). We then had to pay extra for storing nearly all of our luggage in the lockers downstairs because we didn't want a repeat of that incident or anything stolen -- what a rip off. For my money I would pay a little bit extra and go to a cheap hotel rather than go through the sh*t we did at that horrible place -- they really ruined our trip to Paris. — Angela from Australia (2006-05-12) I stay in this hostel with twenty-three other classmates, apart from the cenimas and the bar -- with i must confess has a wonderful bar man -- nothing else work there, the staffs were arogant and very rude. — Arawore Ikutegbe (2006-03-13) I stayed there two nights in November. It was OK . The room for three was big enough, In fact you can lift you mattress and put all your stuff secure this way, I mean backpack and all. The bathroom was extremely clean, the lift worked. The staff were friendly and helpful. Breakfast wasn't that good and the people serving breakfast not friendly at all. The short walk to the metro seemed to me a bit too long. There was a convenient small supermarket next door. — Marie (2005-12-22) This place is dirty, especially the bathroom! The personnel at reception were not very pleasant. But because of the bar there is really a good environment, especially thanks to the barman with piercings, who really plays varied good music. And he at least has a smile! — Mary (2005-09-25) This place sucks. It's noisy all the time. My bed was overbooked three times and I had to go down and talk to the unfriendly staff for 30 minutes to explain the problem to them. A lot of kids all around. The Internet is expensive and they even charged me higher than what they post here. The room was clean but the check in and out times are awful. You can't check in before 3 p.m. The place is in a very dirty and unsafe area in Paris and far away from everything. I stayed there for five days and they didn't change my sheets at all. The bathrooms sucked; they were dirty and cold. The security staff were rude and unhelpful. — Ray (2005-07-29) Hey guys!! I was in that hostel in February. I was there with my class, for a class trip. I think the hostel is in the dirtiest surroundings in Paris and there are many creepy and strange people hanging 'round there. Keep your money always near your body! On the evening when my friend and I wanted to drive home (alone) on the Metro, some really very scary old men wanted to talk to us. They had blood in their faces and we were very frightened!! (Obviously, they were drunk) A young nice woman told us just to get out at the next station and she went out with us. That was creepy!! Before I forget: look in your beds before you sleep in it! They are very disgusting; I had brown hair and a condom in mine. The shower is SO dirty. I couldn't believe what I saw! I think they never cleaned them!! But the toilets were more disgusting!!! The waste bins in there were overfilled and stank. But there are many positives, too! The people there (who haven't got blood in their faces) are very nice and help where they can and are very open. And I think they like to speak German. :). The Champs d'Elyse is exciting, and don't forget to go on top of the Eiffel Tower!! In the hostel there is a billiard table (2€) and every evening there is a disco. The food there is ok!! — Carolin from Germany! (2005-05-14)