St. Christopher's Inn - Village

If you're looking for a big social hostel hostel with a party atmosphere, St. Christopher's Village is a great choice. Surprisingly, unlike most party hostels, this one is also clean and well maintained. But it's not the ideal hostel for everyone.

The hostel is impressive from when you first walk in and the place just screams "fun." There's a huge bar in front, Belushi's, with a John Belushi theme complete with life size Blue's Brothers figures mounted on the wall. The reception, and actually the entire hostel, has pine wood floors throughout.

The dorm rooms are spread out over several floors. They're large rooms with the usual metal bund beds. But the mattresses are a little more comfortable than most hostels. The modern wood floors also make the rooms seem just a little nicer than most hostel rooms. The showers are interestingly designated for guys, girls, and "unisex." The unisex showers aren't aren't as intriguing as they sound; each shower is fully separated and completely private, and really they might as well have made all of the shower rooms "unisex." The showers and bathrooms are all modern and clean.

But still this hostel does have some drawbacks and not the best choice for everyone. The large size of the hostel makes it somewhat impersonal and you may feel like part of a crowd, rather than part of a small community as with smaller hostels. And people who like tiny hostel bars that are exclusively for use by the backpackers staying at the hostel may be disappointed that the bar at this hostel is open to the public and used by the locals as much as it is by hostellers.

Aside from the bar, common space is limited. One of the best spots is the rooftop sauna and hot tub (which most guests never even realize is there). There is also a little lounge area just for hostel guests, but it's small for the size of the hostel, so it gets very crowded at times. And unfortunatley smoking is allowed, so the smoke makes it an uncomfortable place to be. In fact there is no indoor common area anywhere in the hostel that's smoke-free.

A glaring omission is the complete lack of a kitchen. There isn't even a refridgerator for storing food or a microwave. In fact, there's really no where you're technically allowed to keep food. But "conveniently", the bar offers meals daily for a price, and this is well advertised all over the hostel.

And that's when you realize what the real downside of this hostel is. When you consider the high price of beds, the degree to which they push you to get a drink at the bar and buy food there, along with the lack of a kitchen, and internet computers priced higher than anywhere else in the city, it's apparent that this hostel it trying hard to get as much of your money as possible.

But still, if you're willing to overlook that, and you're looking a fun, modern hostel, this is a great place to stay.

-- Avis exclusif de Hostelz.com