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Hostels Guide > North America > Canada > British Columbia > Prince Rupert Hostels > Pioneer Hostel Prince Rupert

Pioneer Hostel Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert (Cow Bay)

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Hostels in Prince Rupert

Address	167 3rd Avenue East, Prince Rupert (Cow Bay), British Columbia, Canada Map
Price	$20.00-$28.00 Check Current Prices by Date Here

Location/Contact

Details

Their Description

Features

Kitchen
Lockers
Lounge / Common space
BBQ
TV
Book Collection/Exchange
Washing Machine (laundry)
Clothes Dryer
Travel information provided
Bike Rental
24 Hour Free Hot Showers
Phones (public or in room)

The Hostelz.com Review

Pioneer Hostel Prince Rupert is attractive, well-maintained, and spotlessly clean. The owners are friendly, helpful, and efficient.

The Location

The location is within twenty minutes' walk of the Greyhound station and is very easy to find, but the owners will pick up from there if you call them on arrival. A large Safeway store is located a short walk away, and other essential services such as the post office, stores, and restaurants are similarly situated. The Alaska Marine Highway terminal is a five-minute taxi ride away. The neighborhood is quite pleasant and reasonably quiet, and there is on-street parking available.

Rooms and Bathrooms

The sleeping accommodation is clean and tidy and is situated on three floors. There is one eight-bed mixed dorm on the third floor containing single, non-stacking beds, and all the other rooms have two bunk beds each. Shared bathrooms are clean and spacious, the showers are efficient with space for hanging clothes. A towel is provided. Residents are issued room and locker keys against a returnable deposit. Ample individual luggage lockers are situated either in the rooms or adjacent in the corridor.

Common Spaces

There is a comfortable lounge area with TV, small library with book exchange and Wi-Fi. For those without laptops there is one PC on the second floor, which has fast internet access, but file management (photo editing/uploading) is extremely slow. There is outside seating and a BBQ, although it rains frequently in Prince Rupert, and we were unable to take full advantage of these facilities. The hostel guests are friendly and sociable, although it is not a "party" hostel; the appeal is mostly to those of all ages who like it quiet. It is easy to find people with whom to share a taxi to the Alaska Marine Highway terminal. The kitchen is small but clean and well equipped. Unlimited free coffee is provided. Smoking and excessive drinking of alcohol are prohibited.

Summary

This hostel appears to be everybody's choice in Prince Rupert, whether you are merely hopping on the ferry the next day or staying in Prince Rupert for a few days. It is highly recommended.

— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
July 2009

Ratings & Comments

3.8 Average from 10 Ratings

This is an open forum, and unlike other hostel guide websites we don't censor out the negative comments.
We can't validate the legitimacy of comments posted on this site—so take what you read here with a grain of salt.

Comment by ryan, canada

July 2009

A beautiful hostel.
everything you need and more. i ended up staying longer than i expected and was able to explore more of prince rupert because of this amazing hostel. super clean and friendly. barbeques and backyard campfires shared with good company made this a very enjoyable stay.

Comment by Rod, Canada

March 2008

Not the best I'm afraid
I found the management aloof and not too friendly. They forced me to change my room and didn't apologize at all even though it was not my mistake. The building is so old it is mouldy and has bacreria. There are better lodgings too!
Response from the Hostel: I'm sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your stay with us - I try to ensure everybody is well looked after and comfortable while they are at the Pioneer Hostel. Your untrue statement of mildew is slanderous and shall be treated as such. We are a Tourism BC Approved accommodation, an organization which inspects the premises of every building listed stringently, and we have passed with flying colors year after year.

Comment by Robert Jardine, Canada (Martimes and Quebec)

January 2008

The best!
The best hostel I've ever stayed in, bar none! The best run, cleanest, nicest atmosphere, most professionally run. The building is very well maintained, secure, quiet with interesting decoration and architecture. A very relaxing place to stay, in a very good location for seeing the sites around Prince Rupert. Unfortunately it still suffers unfairly from a reputation from when it was a raucous boarding house years ago. The new owners (at least seven years) have completely renovated the place and run it in the best spirit of the modern-day backpacker traveler. A great home base while traveling! I stayed there on a train trip across Canada in Dec. 2007.

Comment by Angela Chen, Singapore

August 2007

A place to sleep only
If not for the free shuttle from the ferry, we would have probably gone elsewhere. When we got there, we had to drag our suitcase up three narrow flights of stairs. Two beds run the length of the room with one foot walking space alongside. The ceiling sloped from about three feet high wall to five-and-a-half-foot high doorway -- if you got up too quickly you would bang your head. But like I said earlier, the shuttle was good but as the other outfit only run theirs in the peak season we had no choice.
Response from the Hostel: The door mentioned is actually a normal, standard height, sliding door. To claim that it is five and a half feet high is factually inaccurate. The room is long and narrow. The ceiling is sloped. The two single beds have more headroom clearance on the lowest wall than most bunk beds do. We do have quite a few people stay with us who have never stayed in a backpackers hostel before. Most of them have a positive experience, but there are apparently some out there with unrealistic expectations of what budget accommodation is. However some of the comments in our guestbook here say this is the nicest hostel in Canada they've stayed in. We are, understandably, proud of this. We have put a huge amount of time and effort into taking what was a dilapidated flop house seven years ago and turning it into a hostel for backpackers that's clean, safe, cosy and family friendly. It is a wee bit hard for us not to take negative comments personally, as this building is our home too.

Comment by Claire, July 2006

August 2006

Great hostel -- clean and fresh rooms. Free Internet access, lovely communal areas, and excellent kitchen and amenities. Minutes from Cow Bay and the free shuttle service on arrival and departure was a great help. Would recommend.

Comment by Amy

June 2006

Awesome building, amenities, and atmosphere but the desk staff consists of one (the owner) and I always felt like I was a huge pain in her ass if I asked for simple things like to check in or where to find a cheap diner nearby. She never smiled, seemed to hate her job, made me feel like I was just barely being tolerated the whole time I was there, and I never saw her warm up to any of the other guests either. Whatever her motive for running a hostel, I came away thinking "it's a shame such a sweet place isn't being run by someone with an interest in travel instead of business."

Comment by Kezza

July 2005

Good place. Friendly, comfy sitting area, clean, in a reasonably quiet part of town. Not expensive. The kitchen is small but good and there is free Internet. They will also do pick-ups and drop-offs to the ferry terminal. Recommended.

Comment by Dave

July 2005

This is an A-one hostel, friendly and comfy, two thumbs up. It has a free shuttle to the ferry terminal. It's close to the visitor's center and historic Cow's Bay.

Comment by Stan, The Netherlands

March 2005

I visited this hostel twice last summer, and I can tell everybody this is a good place to stay!

Comment by Heike

August 2004

Very nicely done-up house and hostel. There was a small, but well-equipped kitchen, a nice lounge, and the rooms were well-designed, clean and comfy. A bit loud from the street, though. As most people take early ferries, be prepared for being woken up at around 5, when half the room is getting ready...

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Hostels in Prince Rupert

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