YHA Taupo Finlay Jack's Backpackers, Taupo

Great homey feel

big rooms, friendly staff, and great location.

Blackcurrant Backpackers is a friendly and pleasant hostel. The building's design encourages guests to sit outside together and socialize.

The Location

Blackcurrant is only a few blocks from the Intercity bus stop, though it's easy to get turned around and walk the wrong way. By car, it's an equally easy turn off Spa Road. Look for the Pak 'N' Save and a "The Warehouse" store -- Blackcurrant is across the street from "The Warehouse" and one block from the Pak 'N' Save. The bad part of all this accessibility is that the traffic noise is terrible. Cars, trucks, and motorcycles are always roaring by.

Rooms and Bathrooms

Unusually, Blackcurrant Backpackers has the design of a motor court motel -- think Motel 6 or Econo-Lodge. All the rooms have two entrances, a front entrance from the parking lot and a back entrance with sliding glass door. Only the back entrances are in general use, though, because the traffic noise is so bad near the front. Some people with cars put up with the noise long enough to bring their luggage in by the front door.

All rooms are ensuite, with a full-sized bathroom and a nice, large shower. Each main room is large enough for two double beds; in the dorms, this space is filled by four non-bunked twin beds. Private rooms (single and doubles) have their own refrigerators. The rooms have many electrical outlets, and the Global Gossip Wi-Fi works in most if not all rooms. Three kiosked computers are also available.

The downside of the sliding glass doors is that room temperature fluctuates widely. Rooms can be cold at night, but hot in mid-afternoon when the sun shines in. All rooms have heated mattress pads, and a space heater is available. There's no air-conditioning, so most guests leave their windows and even their doors open during the day in summer.

Common Spaces

Rooms are in two buildings separated by a garden, with trees and picnic tables. During daylight hours, at least while we were there (in February), most guests preferred to sit in the garden or on the deck outside the kitchen. There is quite a lot of chatter and noise from suppertime until 10 or 11 p.m., but after that things quiet down.

Besides the garden, there is a small lounge next to the kitchen and a larger lounge (the DVD lounge) downstairs. The DVD lounge has a large television, though it apparently does not receive broadcasts. People who want to talk and make noise after 11 p.m. are asked to go inside to the DVD lounge.

The kitchen is well-equipped and has herbs and spices, but one of the gas burners is acting up and the oven door has to be held shut. The kitchen closes at 10 but those who want to use it at other times can request a key from reception.

Summary

Blackcurrant Backpackers is an excellent value for money, and if the traffic noise weren't so bad it would be truly exceptional. We enjoyed our stay.

Excellent, friendly staff, intimate.

The last of refurbishments was completed during my stay, and our room was brand new, clean, and very comfortable. Fantastic staff made our stay very pleasant. We stayed an extra two nights in fact, as we found it hard to leave! Great new kitchen and top advice from office staff. Stay here -- it's awesome!

Blackcurrant Backpackers is a cheap hostel that should be used whenever some of the nicer and prettier hostels in the area are full. It performs adequately in most ways, but lacks anything extra or memorable or frankly worthwhile. It isn't a bad hostel -- it just doesn't stand out in any way and everything is fairly mediocre. Use it as a backup option when others are busy.

The Location

Blackcurrant is in a great location that is close to everything in town, but far enough away from the bars and action that it isn't too loud at night. The travel center and i-site are a three- to five-minute walk down the street and anything you need (groceries, cinema, pubs, lake) is within seven minutes at the most.

Rooms and Bathrooms

The dorm rooms are very plain with little or no decoration anywhere other than the occasional section of wall painted gray. Each room has a sliding glass door and a shared balcony of sorts, which creates a very comfortable feel within the room. Most of the dorm rooms have no bunk beds, which is a rather nice change from most hostels. There are no lockers within the rooms, but since five or six people is the largest dorm room, your belongings still feel secure. They have the option of singles/doubles/dorms or anything in between.

The bathrooms, again very plain, are adequate and certainly not spectacular. Water pressure is acceptable and there is space to hang your towel, but little else. They are clean and have more or less everything you'd expect from a normal bathroom. Most of the dorm rooms have private bathrooms and since there are only three or four other people using them, they're quite clean for the most part.

Common Spaces

Common space are nothing special. The standout is the nice small courtyard with picnic tables and grass and trees, but everything else is quite small and less than desirable. The sole TV looks like it is from 1989 and can't be properly seen from more than ten feet away. There is a book-share (technically) with about thirteen books nobody born in this millennium would enjoy reading. The kitchen is quite small (with two sets of stoves and an oven), but since the place itself isn't very large it never seems too overcrowded. That's about all there is in terms of common spaces and so it makes you want to spend time doing things outside of the hostel or in your room, which can be a good thing, especially in such a wonderful place like Taupo. The people staying there are just like the people staying everywhere else -- friendly, foreign, and cheap. It is definitely not the party hostel of the area, but was still social enough to remain entertaining.

Summary

Blackcurrant is a nice enough place overall. There are many places in Taupo that are better and possibly a few that are worse. It is often the last hostel to fill up so if you can't find room elsewhere, look here. The staff fall into one of two categories. They are either foreigners working for a couple weeks who are very friendly, but know very little. Or they are locals and thus very knowledgeable, but for whatever reason angry at life and not as helpful as you'd expect. The hostel is reminiscent of a cheap motel with more people in your room, but the cheap rates are still worth a gander if you can't find room elsewhere.

I stayed here with my friend for four nights. Burkes is an awesome place to stay! The staff was very friendly and helpful (cheers John) -- the facilities were really nice, and the grounds were really clean -- really good prices, i mean what more can i say! I Love Burkes, and i would recommend it to anyone. I'll definitely be going there again!

The girl that took our booking wrote it on the wrong day in the diary. Luckily there was another room available, and she upgraded us for free. There was free soup in the evenings for hostel patrons. And a old but comfortable lounge area with a free pool table. We met a very nice couple from the U.K. and a group of about ten of us cramped into the lounge to watch the finals of the Amazing Race.

Very friendly staff and I met loads of people there, who I still keep in contact with. Worth a look.

I found the rooms small and walls very thin. We had a quiet bunch of Japenese girls next door, yet we heard every word and got little sleep. To be fair they were very quiet compared to some neighbors we had. We had a longer walk to the action than the other backpackers too! I much preferred the downdown backpackers. Even though it was a bit rougher with the trout bar upstairs and relaxed atmosphere. After all, you are only passing thru and the holy cow dance on the tables bar is around the corner full of kiwi exp. bus girls and boys fresh from europe doing what you should while in town...having fun!!!