Warsaw is Poland's capital... an amazingly friendly blend of Soviet and European with easily the best food anywhere on the continent (Italy can keep its pasta and pesto etc, it doesn't compare to a good portion of periogi). Getting around is easy as well. If you're a student or have an ISIC card the metro, trams and buses cost about 8p (UK)!
An interesting city, more than in any other place I've been to are eastern and western European influences exactly in balance here. Particularly peculiar are the one truly tall skyscraper of the city (a greyish brown monster that was donated to the country by Soviet dictator Stalin out of gratitude for Poland's resistance against his Austro-German colleague Hitler), and the "Old City" of Warsaw, which actually isn't old at all. It was built after WW II, when the centre of the city had been destroyed almost entirely, and it was decided that constructing an exact copy of the city centre as it was before the war, rather than getting creative and designing something new, was the most honourable thing to do. The result is an "Old City" with a highly surreal atmosphere. It's fake, but then again, it's not. The reconstruction was VERY well done, but when you look carefully, you miss the wear & tear, the colouring of moss and other tiny growths that you will invariably find on buildings that…
Nathans Villa Hostel Warsaw in Warsaw … This is the best ever, probably. you are gonna love this place, great staff, great rooms, clean, cosy, funny, great atmosphere... great everything! Highly recommended! Check out the Nathans in Krakow too!
Jazz-Pol Youth Hostel in Warsaw … This place is great!
Dom Przy Rynku Hostel in Warsaw … This place was so nice! It was friendly and perfect if you want to stay in the old town (although it's a little out of the way for the city center). It was sparkling clean all the time.
Big Blue Hostel Warsaw in Warsaw … It's a very good hostel! It offers good service for a low price, and every room has a bathroom and fridge! The receptionists are very nice people. There is also a mini market inside the building!
Hostel Helvetia in Warsaw … Just finishing our stay here now. The hostel is amazing, rooms are clean and very comfortable with lockable cabinets in (your given a padlock to lock them as well). The staff are great, really friendly and speak great English, we had no problems at all. The kitchen is really nice and has everything you would need, sink, cooker, fridge, freezer. There is cutlery to use as well. Theres a TV with limited sky and a dvd player and a CD player in the common room. The hostel is also literally five minutes walk from everything, so when you're drunk you can easily find your way back! I had great fun here and met amazing people! I highly recommend this place!
Gosciniec in Warsaw … Gosciniec is a great hostel -- newly renovated with nice clean rooms, and some of them even have private bathrooms. Even though my room wasn't, the shared facilities were as clean as at home and I always got hot water from the shower. Staff are friendly and a light breakfast is included in the price. The only problem is that you can hear almost everything that is happening outside your room.
Gosciniec is located at a great place -- close to one of Warsaw's biggest shopping centres.
Oki Doki Hostel in Warsaw … Great central location. The free Internet is a plus! There's no real social/lounge area; we only really met the people in our dorm. The kitchen, bathrooms and dorms were all super-clean, but you had to go to the toilet in the dark and walk up a flight of stairs for the shower in the morning. Our dorm didn't have a locker, and I don't recall an amazing 'arty' decor, but we were satisfied with the hostel and would recommend staying there.
Jump Inn Hostel - Prokuratorska in Warsaw … Rooms were kitted out completely in Ikea, which was good and bad. The beds had a support bar underneath them, which stuck into your back. The staff were awesome and watching Lizzie Maguire in Polish was a highlight. They have cable TV and a projector. Hostel is really close to the city and has a spa bath! Awesome.
HI - Warszawa - Smolna Hostel in Warsaw … The lockout SUCKED, and when I stayed there (Fall 1999) there was an earlier curfew — if you missed the curfew, you had to sleep on the park bench outside (well, this is what one person did, and he got mugged). There were not many Polish backpackers staying there, there were actually students — commuting from the country into the city because it was cheaper to stay at this hostel than live in the city.
HI - Warszawa - Karolkowa Hostel in Warsaw … The rooms were nice and clean. It is the first hostel I've been in where you have your own TV in your room. A very quiet place, but with very cold staff.
Tamka Hostel in Warsaw … This hostel has several issues. One I have been lucky to have not experienced at other hostels. Small round flat redish bugs with legs protruding out the side. Found seven huddled in a locker in my room. A girl in the room found them in her blanket and on her. Found lots of them on the wall. The girl found lots of small ones coming from red speckled spots on the wall. Can't get sheets to fit the beds. An eight man alternate room offered has nine beds in it. That's three bunks and one bed. Two of the bunks have the bed wedged between them. The room just has only walking space between the the other beds. There was not room to open many packs or cases. That room is packed. I like the one kitchen. The trash cans are so small, about eight litters. Trash spills over by late evening.
Boutique B&B in Warsaw … We stayed in Boutique B&B two nights in May 06 and I have to say that we were quite disappointed. Biggest dissappointment was that our room did not meet the description in B&Bs web pages at all. Here below you can find quotes from B&B’s web pages (in quotation marks) and our comments to those. Even though the owner writes: “I sometimes catch myself suspiciously looking at certain websites. These sites contain colourful and glossy pictures, and I often look at them cynically, judging whether what these pictures show is in fact real.” His own pictures nor written descriptions were not real. Location: “The building locating my B&B, 14 Smolna, dates from 1910. It is exceptionally safe and modern, and it is kept in the Berlin-style modernism (Bauhaus).” Our room was not located in that building, which would have been nice to know in advance. Our building was probably from 1970s. Real communist era masterpiece. In the pictures and descriptions of room types…
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