Samay Sevilla Hostel

Samay Sevilla Hostel is centrally located and only about a year old. It is clean, quiet, and peaceful, for those of you looking for that kind of thing. There is twenty-four-hour access and reception.

The Location

It is not very easy to find, but hopefully with a photo of the entrance, you'll at least know what to look for. If you're arriving at the Plaza De Armas, it is further away from the hostel so we recommend taking a taxi. If you're arriving at San Sebastian, you should have no trouble finding the hostel by walking ten minutes or so. The hostel is located on a very busy street, so it is relatively noisy at night for that reason. But it is within easy walking distance of most of the tourist sights, attractions, shopping, restaurants, and nightlife.

Rooms and Bathrooms

The rooms are all accessed with a key card that you put a deposit on when you arrive. The key card also gives you access to the front door of the hostel so you can come and go as you please at all times. The dorm rooms each have their own en-suite bathroom, which is nice, although if you have to use the toilet and someone's using the shower, it can be rather annoying. There is only one other toilet with a shower for the whole hostel to share, on the top floor alongside the kitchen.

We stayed in a six-bed dorm, which is the biggest room they offer. The bunks are wooden and new and sturdy with railings for those of you that have trouble sleeping on the top bunks. There are in-room safes for each person staying in the room -- they operate like the ones in hotels that you have to put your chosen code in to open and are a great place to store passports, camera, wallets, laptops, and other small valuable goods.

The en-suite bathrooms are remarkably clean and well kept. There is a lot of room to put your clothes and hygiene products while you shower. The hostel also gives you free use of towels while you're staying there. There is hand soap in the bathroom as well. The shower would have been better if it hadn't been for the lack of hot water. We showered at around 7 p.m. and a few minutes into our showers, the water was freezing. All in all though, the rooms and bathrooms are clean and well kept and leave little to be desired.

Common Spaces

The kitchen is always kept pretty clean (for a hostel kitchen anyway) -- the only problem we found with the kitchen is that there are only two small fridges for the whole hostel to share. If you stayed here during the busier months, you'd have a hard time finding somewhere to put your groceries as we found we had a hard time finding somewhere to put our small amount of groceries in the winter.

There is also the gorgeous rooftop terrace -- more of a common area than the sitting area in the lobby -- that is definitely the highlight of the hostel. The terrace is also home to a hot tub, although in the winter, when we visited, it does not operate. The terrace is accessed through the kitchen on the top floor of the hostel. The kitchen and rooftop terrace can only be accessed from 7 a.m. to midnight, although that may change in the summer months.

The sitting area on the main floor is where two of the hostel's three computers are, as well as guidebooks, lots of pamphlets, bus schedules, and maps -- another computer is located on the first floor. The hostel has free internet and free wireless in the lobby.

Although we were staying at the hostel during a slower time of year, it is easy to see that it is more of a quiet hostel. It's a good place to stay to cook, relax, read, and get your laundry done (the laundry mentioned on the website is actually a laundry service that they provide for you -- not inexpensive, but if you're really in need of clean clothes, it's very convenient).

We've stayed in lots of hostels before and don't think of it as a party hostel at all. It is a friendly hostel where you will meet people, but we wouldn't stay here with that purpose in mind. It is a non-smoking hostel, but smokers can smoke on the little balconies in the rooms or outside on the rooftop terrace.

Summary

Sevilla's Samay hostel is a clean, quiet, and friendly hostel. We enjoyed staying there and would do it again as the price is quite inexpensive for what you receive. The staff are friendly and are always willing to help try to guide you around the very-hard-to-navigate Sevilla. We recommend this hostel to anyone looking for a nice, relaxing holiday in Sevilla.

— Avis exclusif de Hostelz.com
January 2009