The Hostelz.com Review
Nathan's Villa Krakow is slapped between Krakow's Old Town and the Kazimierz district. The hostel's location makes it easy for the night birds to enjoy all the clubbing in the Old Town as well as the wonderful eating and drinking opportunities in Kazimierz. And it's only two tram stops from the train and bus stations (or a 20 minute walk). As a bonus, a 24 hour grocery and alcohol store is located right around the corner from the hostel, and it is well taken advantage of by the look of the vast collection of empty vodka bottles located on top of kitchen cabinets.
It has great rooms, some of them having wildly colorful travel themes: Asia, Europe and more to come. The beds are very nice, even if the "western style matterace" claims by the owner get a bit repetitive. The bathrooms are great, with warm water 24/7 and steel handle bars. There is a small kitchen and common area, so it gets a bit crowded, but it also encourages social behavior. There is now also a full service bar in the hostel.
There is free breakfast and free laundry (!). No curfew or lockouts, which is a must in a student city that lives to party seven days a week. They have good tourist information, non-alcoholic drinks, and overpriced phone cards available at the reception. It is a very popular hostel, with a large number of repeat visitors, so often it's quite difficult to get a bed, so getting a reservation ahead of time is highly recommended.
Nathan's Villa Hostel Krakow is a magical place in a magical city that sucks you in like black hole's event horizon. You may have trouble leaving.
It has great rooms, some of them having wildly colorful travel themes: Asia, Europe and more to come. The beds are very nice, even if the "western style matterace" claims by the owner get a bit repetitive. The bathrooms are great, with warm water 24/7 and steel handle bars. There is a small kitchen and common area, so it gets a bit crowded, but it also encourages social behavior. There is now also a full service bar in the hostel.
There is free breakfast and free laundry (!). No curfew or lockouts, which is a must in a student city that lives to party seven days a week. They have good tourist information, non-alcoholic drinks, and overpriced phone cards available at the reception. It is a very popular hostel, with a large number of repeat visitors, so often it's quite difficult to get a bed, so getting a reservation ahead of time is highly recommended.
Nathan's Villa Hostel Krakow is a magical place in a magical city that sucks you in like black hole's event horizon. You may have trouble leaving.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
July 2004
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Nathan's Villa Hostel Krakow Details
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Nathan's Villa Hostel Krakow Reviews on Other WebsitesHostelz.com Guest Reviews
GREAT/FUN HOSTEL! I stayed here twice (in 2010) and it was great! Friendly & helpful staff, great little bar/hang out area, pool table (bar size), movie room. As clean as I would expect a hostel to be. Showers/bathrooms were fine. Location is great! I would definitely recommend it and I plan on staying here when I go back to Krakow! — Mike , USA (2011-04-25) Fun but Smoky! It was a really relaxed place for the most part. In addition to your reservation, you get a complimentary shot down at the bar. The people were all really cool and Nathan had so many stories to tell. The main thing I didn't like was going downstairs where everything was. I'm not a smoker and smoke kinda bothers me. The thing was, the smoking room wasn't closed off or anything, it was just an open room and smoke filled the basement. As for the music, basically, you closed your door and it wasn't much of an issue, overall I thought it was a fun and friendly environment. It was actually one of the better hostels I've stayed at during my two-month Europe trip. — Jared , United States (2007-12-28) Don't come to Nathan's if you want a good night sleep I spent a few nights in this hostel back in February and one night in September. This hostel has lot of things to offer, but at the same time it really lacks in the basics. Good things first -- location is near the Kazimirz district and five minutes' walk form Wawel castle; there is quite of a good basement bar and cinema room; and a lot of info displayed on the walls about activities in Krakow and elsewhere in Poland. Unfortunately, the bad cancels all that out. The room equipment is the cheapest you can get. The mattress for a start must be designed for discomfort. It was so bad I opted to sleep on the floor. The sheets are of a synthetic material really irritating and so are the blankets. On top of that the rooms are very noisy, and the windows don't shut properly. The so called breakfast consists of a few jars of jam, plain bread, and a jar of tea bags. The staff at reception is friendly only at times, while the owner, Nathan, does just come across as extremely arrogant. Stay in this hostel only as a last resort or if you just want to party round the clock. — Paolo , Italy (2007-09-19) Worst hostel ever In all honesty this was the worst hostel I have ever stayed in and I have traveled around Europe four times for several months at a time. First off, while some rooms are fairly big, the sheets look like they have never been washed and there are dead bugs all over the wall. The bathrooms may look clean but watch out for plugged up drains in the showers which leave you standing in your own filth. Also, make sure you are not put in the six-bed dorm right beside the reception because the staff keep you up all night partying at the reception and playing loud techno music and yelling. Breakfast is a joke -- some days there is a bag of bread and some days there is some bread and jam. the staff also likes to play loud techno music at 7a.m. breakfast. The staff is also extremely rude and crowd the common area. they try to scam your 10 Euro key deposit by claiming they cant find it. they lost my 10 Euro deposit and expected me to say oh well and be on my way. This place is disgusting. — Ashley , Canadian (2007-07-08) Watch out for bedbugs! Location was great. We were cheap so we walked from the train station, and it didn't take too long. We didn't check out the bar or movie lounge as we were too busy checking out the city. Kitchen was relatively clean, although no one seemed interested in doing their own dishes and it was very small. Breakfast was simple, bread and jam (satisfied us, anyways. Better than paying!), and I found the staff to be very friendly. Bathrooms were alright, and the rooms were pretty clean, except that both my friend and I were eaten alive by bedbugs. Not the nicest thing to wake up to in the morning! — Lauren , Canada (2007-06-14) This hostel has a lot to offer -- great location, nice facilities, sort of clean. But the staff were really rude, particularly Nathan himself. It was weird. And the breakfast is just bread, like most places. — Danielle , USA (2007-04-16) this hostel was only so-so in my opinion. the staff were very nice but the private room i had was very unclean and stuffy even though there was a draft coming in through the closed window. the boiler in the communal bathroom kept stopping so there was no heat or hot water and i had to keep resetting it, not pleasant at 1 a.m. when you wake up cold. the location was good, not too far from the wawel castle or the old town but very close to the funky kazimierz district. a nearby direct tram to the station is good and buy a ticket, there are inspectors on them. didn't make use of the facilities, bar as there is too much to see to be hanging around a hostel. the breakfast was a bad joke. don't be taken in by "free breakfast," bread and jam in a box on the kitchen table. you can pick up pastries and local food anywhere nearby at little cost. — paul (2007-01-25) The kitchen is way way too small. The rooms smell bad. In the summer they get very hot so the windows are open, the street outside is very noisy. It's horrendously unsafe. The reception is a joke -- trained monkeys could do a better job. The laundry service seems to lose anything you put into it. The bathrooms have some weird disgusting mould in them, and nothing actually seems to get cleaned in this hostel. It's a dive -- do yourself a favour and find anywhere else to stay, it doesn't deserve the one star i gave it but there's no way of giving none. Worst hostel I stayed in during 2 months in Europe. — olipom (2006-08-19) The beds are clean as are the rooms. There are nice shelves and lamps with every bed as well as plug ins to charge things at your bed. There was a bathroom in our dorm room for eight to ten people. That was fine, but other rooms have no bathroom in them! The kitchen is pretty clean but it is rediculiously small for the number of people that are staying there. There is a bar downstars which has good prices and keeps the noise mostly to itself. The movie lounge is awesome with a good selection of movies, but you can hear all of the noise for the bar which is annoying. There is also a BBQ everynight for a small price. It is ok value, but the kielbasa was under cooked when we ate there. The staff was not friendly, and we were forced to pay five nights up front while others who came in right after us could pay by the night! They also had an extra person in our room one night. That was ok except she had a large dog! There should be no dogs in dorm rooms unless you check with all of the poeple to see if they are allergic or something. I woke up with a dog barking to get out! Not fun! — Raigne (2006-05-09) The location and lockers are good, but everything else about this hostel is kind of mediocre. The kitchen is too small, and there are far too few bathrooms (four for like 7 dorms — that is, one shower/toilet combo). The beds are uncomfortable, and the laundry is bad (they wash everyone's laundry at once, so it appears that you lose half your stuff, even though it takes 24 hour to wash it). And finally, the check out policy is horrible.
They seem to claim that there's no check out time, but that doesn't really work — there's always a couple of people waiting for their beds to be cleaned because there are still people in them. One of the nights I was there two guys had reservations for beds, but their flight was an hour and a half getting in. Because of that delay, they lost their reservation (the staff gave it to someone else), and so they had to sleep on cots in the hall. Come on guys, a reservation is a reservation — that's just unprofessional. — Anonymous (2005-05-31) The people working at this hostel were really nice and helpful, as were all the Polish people we met. I really enjoyed the three nights I stayed at this hostel. Krakow is a beautiful city and this hostel was a great place to stay. — Laura (2005-03-08) I didn't stay here but I talked to three people who did. They were much happier with this hostel than I was with mine, and commented on the cleanliness of the place and friendliness and knowledge of the staff. Food in Krakow is so ridiculously cheap ($1.20 for a bucket of raspberries, 30 cents for obwarzanki which is this ring of salted bread) that it should be the least of your worries. — Craig (2005-01-04) I loved this hostel. The staff were so friendly and the atmosphere was amazing! The location was perfect for both sightseeing and nightlife. It is within walking distance to everything. When staying in hostels it is a bonus to have a clean shower that doesn't smell of urine, and not only do you get that here but you also get free laundry service. Anyone who is traveling will know what a blessing this is! I have already recommended this hostel to others and will continue to do so. — Claire (2004-12-21) Compared to other hostels I've stayed at, this place was great. If you want more comfort, get a hotel. A hostel is still a hostel, people! The beds were big and new. There were numerous room options to choose from (big dorms, small dorms, and private rooms). The location was great — right between two major nightlife areas and between all the big sights. This hostel has free laundry service and definitely a helpful staff. Recommended. — Ed (2004-10-20) The place itself is a bit better than average. The beds are super-squeaky, but the thing about this place is the staff. They are smiling, friendly, and make your stay that much better. It's in an all right location; most things you need are close by. But the staff made the biggest impression on me. — Dan (2004-10-16)