Pioneer Hostel Prince Rupert

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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

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...