HI - Genoa - Ostello Genova Youth Hostel

Inexpensive Hostel with helpful daytime staff
We stayed here two nights in dorm rooms. The daytime staff lady was excellent in offering advice and guidance on how to navigate the bus system and get to where we were headed. The dorm rooms and bathrooms were clean and typical of a youth dorm. We arrived late and crashed immediately. They have a restaurant with quite a few dishes at reasonable prices, plus beer and wine. Breakfast is spartan but available. The bus route up to the hostel and back down can be tricky if you don't know where to get off and on. We came from Stazione Principe, which required a transfer at Via Napoli. Practice your italian if you want help. The hostel was decent and the daytime staff lady was very helpful and pleasant!

Genova is great city, but don't make the same mistake I made. Ostello is poor place to stay. If you decide to visit this hostel expect and prepare yourself for room filled with dust, for unwashed bedsheets, and poor breakfast (skip it). View is great but it's not worth it!

It is a big hostel, which means it is loud because of all the people, aged from fifteen to fifty, in it even if they all don't scream. But which hostel of this size is quiet? Everything is clean, the staff has been friendly and very auxiliary, gave us lots of hints about places to go, possibilities to get there, information on the transport system, which isn't as bad as described before. There are two buses going up the hill where the hostel is placed, additional there's the possibility to get uphill by the cog railway, which starts downtown near Piazza della Nunziata (where you also can catch the bus to the hostel) and ends at the top of the hill. From there it is still a walk of approximately one kilometer, but you don't have to walk up the hill anymore. And at the hostel and downtown at tobacconist they sell day tickets valid for the buses, the underground and the local trains for 3 Euro. The hostel might be to far away from the city centre to take the trip more than twice a day, it takes approximately forty minutes from Piazza Nunziata to the hostel by bus, but even later on you got the possibility to get back from town with the night bus. There's also a small supermarket one hundred meters away from the hostel and a great pizzeria/ restaurant some meters on. And the view from the terrace is just great!

This place is decent. It was very cheap, the staff were helpful, and the view from the balcony is stunning. They didn't enforce the no-alcohol rule, which was nice. The cheap restaurant is very useful if you're trying to save money. And, okay the location is distant, but there are regular buses from the town centre, and you don't have to pay for them because no one checks. A very good option.

Don't bother coming to this hostel. Between the rude staff and long distance away from the city center you are better off staying somewhere else. Your time and money are better spent at a hotel in the center than waiting and paying for transportation to the hostel. Big thumbs down.

i hated my stay in the hostel just because of the manager lady. she made us pay one more night that we didn't stay and when we refused to give the money, she tried to get the deposit money (a higher amount)instead of it. we argued a bit about that and whenever she couldn't reply, she started to shout in italian. finally we gave up trying to make her understand us and gave her the amount for one night's stay and took our deposit back and left the hostel in order to spend our last perfect night in genoa in a hotel. my advice for you, try finding one around Principe station. they are cheap, clean, the staff is really kind and plus the breakfast they offer is really a breakfast when compared to the one in Ostello.

We did not enjoy our night in this hostel at all because of the rude staff. They were very rude when we checked in. And in the morning, when we wanted to pay and leave, they asked us to turn in our two (!) keys. We only got one key the night before from the very rude man at the reception. They told us to search our bags and accused us of doing it on purpose. After 20 minutes we gave up, paid the fine of 8 euros, and left. They just told us they never make mistakes, so we must be doing it on purpose!

It was a little difficult to navigate around in Genoa, BUT! the people in Genoa are friendly. Although this hostel is rather far (quite impossible to walk from the old city to the hostel), the bus ride is interesting enough with a great view of the city, the rooms clean, very large, friendly and helpful staff, with a reasonable breakfast (not too fantastic), clean bathrooms, a rather inconvenient lock-out, and the most reasonable price ever! (15 euros-night)

I didn't find this place all that special. The rooms and staff were nice enough, but the location is rather hard to get to (it's high on a hill), and the showers were horrible (there was no water flow). I guess there's not a whole lot of choices in Genoa, but for what it's worth I could have skipped the town completely. There's not a whole lot to see or do.

This hostel was clean and the dining hall in it was very convenient. They offer a good pasta meal for only 4 euros. The view is amazing, especially at sundown and sunup. The staff are okay, too. The most annoying thing is that the last bus going to the hostel leaves Brignole station at 8:30 p.m. so you can't really go out in Genoa. The city is nice, though. The aquarium and harbor are really cool. Get off at the second stop for Via Castonzi when you go to the hostel so you don't have to walk up the big hill.

This is an excellent hostel with an excellent view of the city. It has nice people, a nice bar, and it's in a nice city. Congratulations.

This is a typical HI hostel, clean and functional with a very institutional feel. If you are arriving by train, arrive at Brignole and take bus 40 or 640. If you arrive at Principe you have to change. The hostel is about 20 minutes out of town on top of a huge hill. It has wonderful views. The dorms are large, eight-person, but very spacious. You need to bring your own for the lockers. It's a very large hostel, making it very easy to meet people.

We did not enjoy our stay at the hostel very much because of the misunderstanding with the staff. We only wanted to pay one stamp for 3 euros each, instead of each of us paying for a whole membership card (as is possible in the Italian youth hostels). We were not allowed to do this, and we were insulted in a rather brutal way. We won't stay at this hostel again if we return to the beautiful city of Genoa!

Fine overall: clean, good facilities and helpful staff, but it can get hot in the rooms and it's about a half hour bus ride from the city centre. The cheap meals are a good way to save a bit of money here.

At nighttime the view is breathtaking. It is great when there is a whole bunch of you together; that way you can all fit into one room.