Global Village Backpackers

Very good hostel
Staff friendly and willing to help with problems/queries. Hostel within walking distance of all amenities -- the CN Tower, Chinatown. Bar was a great place to sit at night under the stars, drinking Canadian beer! Met so many nice people from all over the world -- much more than the other hostels I've been in. The only reason it didn't get a five-star was due to the bathroom facilities. Only two showers on my floor between at least twenty people and bathrooms needed a revamp as they looked old fashioned. Would still go there again for the beer, pancakes, and the laughs! Great place to be.

Long-termers Hang out
Not a bad hostel however severely lacking in toilets and showers (two of each between what could be sixty people). The staff seemed friendly and helpful and the noise from the bar wasn't too bad. However the atmosphere of the hostel and bar is not so great. There seemed to be a lot of guests who had been there for a while and not many travelers. The kitchen is quite small however the second kitchen is currently being renovated. Breakfast is good with pancakes aplenty.

A friend and I stayed here in August of 2006 and met some awesome people from around the world. The hostel staff were nice, the bar wasn't too bad, and the price was right. However, unknown to him at the time, my friend was attacked by a wicked amount of bedbugs during our week long stay in room 215, some of which ended up in his bag on the flight home and took up residence in both of our apartments. Professional extermination for those things was about $600 a room. With that added price we could have skipped the hostel, stayed in some ritzy hotel, and gone out to local bars. Be careful.

This is a typical North American grunge hostel. Its safe, clean, but not as fun as it could be. Location is doable, and they let me check-out at 4 a.m.!

I stayed there this summer for a couple of nights and it was rather disappointing. There aren't enough facilities (seats in the lounge and the patio, Internet terminals, kitchen space) for the number of people staying there. Also the room is rather darkish and situated on a main crossroad with a noisy streetcar running below your window, so don't expect to get too much sleep. The breakfast consists of pancakes and syrup every single day. The staff was ok, the toilets and showers tidy.

Not a very good hostel. I have been travelling around Canada for around seven months and this is probably one of the worst I have stayed in. Rooms are small, dark, and dingy. Lockers are very expensive and not an option if you want to be in and out of them regularly as you have to pay everytime you open them. Some of the staff are more concerned with looking cool than helping customers. Some staff are awesome though. Yes, it has a bar, but why go to a new country and then not bother going out of the hostel to a local bar? However, this hostel is pretty good for meeting people and socialising than some others.

Ok, so, some of the reviews on here are true. The good and the bad. It did find the place like a clique, but it was just because when I went everyone there was with friends. So, travling alone I felt kinda weird. But I did talk to a few people and they were nice enough. The bar was nice. I didn't find it that overpriced. However, it was really cramped. Really. I dont even think they had the option of lockers. And the bathrooms are crapmed. I think there were two on my whole floor. The lack of privacy didn't bother, me but rather the lack of facilities. I think on my floor there were 3 toilets for who knows how many people. But I liked it

What an overrated hostel this place is! Rooms are cramped, much more so that the HI places available. They are ridiculously hot and there was just one shower/bathroom to serve an entire floor. The bar prices are high. No promotions as such, except a happy hour which runs 7-8pm. Except they won't usually open the bar until 7.30pm. Staff were particularly helpful. Being more interested in chatting with friends, surfing the net and generally acting cool. It felt a little clique for my liking.

I spent only one night at the GVB but came back to the bar many times over during the month I spent in Toronto. The outdoor area was fantastic and you can meet so many people out there. The hostel is really lacking in showers, though. They need at least five times as many showers on each level for the amount of people they accommodate. I found the staff were not friendly or helpful, and make you stand in line for ages. They need more staff! Toronto GVB is too big. More showers, staff and a caring attitude are what is needed to make the GVB a great hostel.

I visited this hostel about six times between October 1999 and March 2003. I stayed here every time I visited Toronto. The location is safe and incredibly convenient to public transportation and the rest of downtown. There's a really good atmosphere here, and people are always hanging around the common area. The beds are what you'd expect—they're comfortable enough, though I personally prefer thicker pillows. My experience with the hot water was hit or miss, but the bathrooms were nice enough. Put it this way—this place was cool enough for me to return to again and again, for as long as two weeks—it's like a second home, and I never even felt the need to test out the other Toronto hostels. There are lots of nice people here.

This place is contagious; I can't stay away from it! Every time I go to Toronto I get stuck in their bar! Jeff the bartender is cool. This place is great in the wintertime, also.

GVB is summed up by the most fitting sprawl of graffiti ever to pattern a Toronto washroom wall: "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!" So many of us foreigners have began our year-long student work visa in this hostel, stayed for a week or two and still find ourselves in the bar several months down the line. With pitcher in hand we prop up the bar, cursing our decision to spend yet another Friday night at the same seat; breaking thought only occasionally to feed off the warmth of false hope of sexual success we are fed from the fabulously cool, sexy and flirtatious Nina –- the best bartender in TO. The GVB bar hooks you in because it's cheap, friendly and comfortable. Eventually your will to experience the city's real nightlife will prize you away, but it quickly becomes a habit that is hard to break. It's the best hostel bar I have ever been to and simply should not be missed if you are around in the summer. The accommodation on the other hand, is substandard. Rooms are dirty and bathrooms cold and in poor repair. Also, reception staff may well ignore you while they talk on the phone to their friends. One of the day staff goes about her life as we speak, completely oblivious to the fact she was a hair's breadth away from being arrested for theft a few months after she signed a false signature for my package (several of them had been delivered to the hostel by mistake). If only I wasn't such a lazy bastard I would have taken the final step in pressing charges against her. I also hear the rooms sometimes attract bed bugs and drunks who have too many GVB pitchers and mistake people's backpacks for the toilet. GVB is about the bar, not the accommodation, and best of all you don't have to be a resident to use it. So don't be. Avoid the bag-pissing drunks and Christmas present thieving staff; stay one night to find the bar…then move to Canadiana. Five stars for the bar. Three for the accommodation. None for the reception staff.

Been there twice - will come back - one of the coolest bars in Toronto (I know it sounds wierd), met REALLY chill Aussies and Brits there - the place attracts friendly peeps.

Really coooooooooooool bar out there with good music and really nice atmos. I kept coming back there from more acclaimed bars and lounges in Toronto. True about the showers though...

I wouldn't go here unless you want a crowded, dirty, smoky experience. The beds are really close together, and the bathrooms are icky.