The Northern Greenhouse

The Northern Greenhouse is a cosy, friendly hostel in the heart of Cairns city. We have stayed in this hostel for two weeks and like the environment but didn't use many of the facilities.

The Location

The location is great! It's only a block away from the city place and two blocks away from the mall. It's in the middle of everything but you wouldn't get too much noise from the bars nearby. It's very close to the bus stop, the lagoon, and the supermarkets. We took the airport coach, which leaves you straight at the door of this hostel.

Rooms and Bathrooms

We stayed in a female dorm with six beds. There is a small premium for a bed in the female dorm but you can discount your rate for any room if you book for more than seven nights. The girls that in our room were mostly clean, just occasionally leaving some used glasses in the sink.

All the rooms have en-suite bathroom, a sink, and a fridge. We really like not sharing the bathroom with hundreds of other people. The bed is quite comfortable and all rooms have air con. Unfortunately there are no lockers in the room, so you can only keep your backpack underneath your bed.

Our room that was on the ground floor right next to the pool. It got quite noisy at night, at around 4 a.m., when the other backpackers came back to the hostel drunk and trying to get a swim. They kept going in and out of the pool and made a lot of noise with the gate. We would suggest a room on the second floor -- it should be quite nice with a balcony. The racks in the fridge in my room had gone missing from the first day we moved in. We talked to someone at the reception after a week -- he marked it in the book, but no one followed up until the day we moved out!

Common Spaces

They include light breakfast in the room rate -- you can make some toasts and have some breakfast cereals there. The breakfast is not in very good quality but it's free, so you can't really complain too much. They have staff there to clean the kitchen in the morning so it doesn't seem too dirty. They have quite a lot of cooking utensils there so it should be enough for people cooking there (we didn't cook).

There are only two computers available in the hostel. Everyone is entitled to have internet access for thirty minutes a day and of course you can use it for longer when there's no one in the queue. We find it easier to get a seat in the morning while you are having breakfast -- we could always use it for at least an hour in early mornings. They have a Wednesday movie night -- a nice gathering for all people watching a movie in the common area.

Summary

Generally people staying there are quite young and nice. The staff are friendly but some of them do not know much information about the surrounding areas. We were looking for a Telstra store and a Commonwealth Bank ATM on our first day -- the lady at the reception actually had to look it up in the yellow pages and still couldn't find one (and they are actually just nearby in the next block down from the hostel)!

— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
October 2007