Meeting Hostel, Figueira da Foz

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Meeting Hostel Reviews

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Meeting Hostel has quite modern, pleasant facilities and rooms and is located close to the main areas of interest. It claims to be nonsmoking but isn't. It has Wi-Fi in most areas. Our stay was out of season, and during that time, staff -- though helpful -- were mainly there just to check people in from the afternoon onwards. Though a big effort has been made to create a young hostel decor, there is not a lot in the way of travel or tourist information.

The Location

This is a somewhat strange town with no significant central business district. Having said that, the hill behind the hostel is the Old Town with many cafes and restaurants and some specialty shops but no supermarkets. The walled estuary and the historic fort are close by and the beach is under a kilometre away, but once you arrive there you have an eight-hundred meter walk across flat sand to the beach itself! There is a small minimart nearby -- turn right from the hostel then take the first left and walk about two hundred fifty meters, but the nearest supermarkets are close to the bus and rail stations on Rua Republica more than a kilometers away.

Rooms and Bathrooms

The dorms are good with solid and comfortable bunks; there are multiple power sockets in the dorm and there are large lockers with keys supplied. The rooms are also secured by a numeric key which also operates the front door. To its credit, the hostel policy is to not force sharing in dorms until it is necessary.

The ground-floor bathroom facilities are gender specific but shared on the level above. On the upper floor, there are no locks on the toilet doors. All toilet cubicles are so small that knees are likely to be squeezed up against the doors, and when there are no locks the doors always swing open. The very skinny shower cubicles have nowhere to place soap, a towel, or clothes except a single small bench (one to four showers) outside the showers, and the flimsy curtains do little for modesty when the warm air sucks them in onto the bather's body. In the case of the upper-level showers -- which are mixed gender -- there are no locks, and flimsy curtains; this is simply not good enough. The showers are activated by a push button, allowing only about thirty seconds of water and there are no shower head holders on the wall. Showering is not a great experience, even if you are not shy!

Common Spaces

There are a few common areas -- the major one with a TV is associated with the minimalist cafeteria. Smoking is permitted in this area (it apparently complies with regulations, because there is a sliding roof), but still the smell of cigarettes can pervade much of the building. During our stay, there was also a dog in the cafeteria and kitchen. There's a small, soft-seating lounge adjacent. The level above has a small guest kitchen and a reasonable eating area.

Summary

This could easily be a top-quality hostel, but it fails to make the grade because it does not match its advertising regarding smoking, allowing a dog in the cafeteria area, some toilets having no locks, the shower cubicles being tiny with nowhere to hang clothes, and some mixed gender bathroom areas being essentially immodest (to put it mildly). The hostel claims to be nonsmoking on one booking site and to have a bar! We would look elsewhere on another visit unless management rectifies the issues.

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