Ostello San Frediano is a huge building on the inside border of the city walls of Lucca. It is the only hostel in town and it is part of the YHA.
The Location
Located within the walls of the historic center of Lucca, the hostel is certainly way more than the five hundred meters from the train station as written in their own description. From the train station, take the front exit and walk towards the city wall that is just in front of you. There you have the first direction sign to get to the hostel. Going into the narrow streets of Lucca, watch carefully for the next signs as they are easy to miss! Locals are willing to help if you get lost like we did.
There are also a few very small buses that can get you almost to the door of Ostello San Frediano if you don't feel like walking. The location of the hostel is excellent, as you are at walking distance to everything that has to be visited or seen in Lucca.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The hostel offers dorms as well as family rooms. Our dorm had eight average-comfort bunk beds, a personal in-room locker for everybody, and also a small sink in it. The beds are quite close one to the other, so hope you don't have a snoring person next to you! And get ready for some brain activity, because you have to remember how to get to your room. This gigantic hostel looks like a maze if you sleep in the dorms at the other end. The hostel in general is very clean and quiet.
The bathrooms are located usually in front of the dorms, and there are usually two showers per bathroom. Watch out because the bathrooms' door can be locked, so if somebody wants to monopolize the place to take a quiet shower, nobody has access to the other shower, to the sinks, and to the toilet! The showers are hot and pretty clean, but they tend to overfill so that the floor gets damped all over.
Common Spaces
People have access to some huge resting rooms with approximately twenty-five-foot ceilings and couches. There is also a TV room with a few tables, which is also the only place where people are allowed to eat their own food. There is no kitchen where guests can prepare food. The hostel doesn't serve breakfast for free, but they do have a restaurant beside the reception desk where you can buy one or buy a dinner.
Ostello San Frediano is not really a place where you can expect to meet friendly backpackers, maybe due to the size of the building. During our stay, the woman at the reception told us the hostel was full and we barely saw ten people during our stay.
Summary
Overall, Ostello San Frediano is a great place to stay to spend a good time in Lucca, because it is really in the central area of the town. Facilities provided to travelers are of relatively good quality and are definitively adequate for backpackers as well as families.
— Informe exclusivo de Hostelz.com
August 2007
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