City Public Hostel

City Public Hostel is a hostel that most travellers are best off avoiding. Apart from a complete lack of security, it has several unappealing qualities. In particular, the beds are so bad they should not be allowed by the Danish government! The beds are all narrow, squeaky, rickety bunks made of wood and something that looks like the predecessor to springs for a base. The "springs" are covered with a piece of thin and broken particle board and a thin layer of soft foam. The beds are partitioned from each other with more cracked pieces of thin particle board. The beds look like they came from an army camp in WWII and the particle board decor is reminiscent of sleeping in a cardboard box, which incidentally might be a better option than staying in this hostel. There is no linen provided, but you get a blanket and a mattress protector.

It is amusing to watch that the first thing everyone does when they walk in the dorm is shake their bunk and see if it's stable. But seriously, it's a shame that the bedrooms are uninhabitable because the rest of the hostel is quite cool. There are several common areas, a kitchen you can use for lunch and dinner, internet, BBQs with free coals, and a lovely courtyard to eat it in. The staff are nice enough and the location can't be beaten.

The showers leave a bit to be desired. They have no walls or doors. The toilets could use some serious renovating too, even if it's only to get rid of the graffiti slagging off the hostel beds on the back of the door!

If you need a bit of rest and relaxation this is not the place. Firstly, the rooms are big and noisy -– especially with the screeching of the beds. But worse than this is the "wake up calls" every ½ hour starting at 8am to remind you to get your breakfast. They get on the loud speaker and wake everyone up at 8am, but not everyone is even having breakfast because it costs extra. Then the people that think the wake up call means they don't have to be quiet anymore start calling their mums and noisily packing their bags and talking. If you somehow managed to still be asleep you might wake up to the 9.30 reminder that everyone has to get out of bed before 10am and let reception know if they are leaving or staying another night. Or maybe the 9.50 reminder will get you up. Or if you miss that one too, never fear you have no hope of missing the guy who comes around at 10am to make sure those people still in bed are suitably disturbed. Basically you can't ever sleep past 10am in this place because they only let you pay one night at a time and you must re-check in by 10am. So if you are jet lagged or need a decent sleep after too many night trains this is not the place for you.

— Avis exclusif de Hostelz.com
October 2005