Corner Windy & Leichhardt Streets, Tennant Creek Tel (08) 8962 2719 Websitewww.touristrest.com.au
BUG Review
Tourist's Rest is a rundown hostel that offers very basic accommodation. It has a barren common room with a kitchen, internet access and a TV plus an old above-ground swimming pool. Your best bet is to avoid Tennant Creek and camp 100km north of town at Banka Banka.
Price Dorm bed $20 ($18 HI/YHA, VIP; $19 ISIC) Double/twin room $42 ($40 HI/YHA, VIP; $38 ISIC) Prices are in Australian dollars and are inclusive of all taxes.
I'd mirror what the guy below says. Really weird, but in a nice way.
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(Review ID: 8845)
Strange, but strangely nice!, June 30, 2003
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Anonymous
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I'm in 2 minds about whether to give this a 3- or 4-star rating. I arrived in Tennant Creek after a 29 bus journey - only 2 hostels were listed for the place when I looked up my Lonely Planet, and I chose this because I'd heard bad things about the YHA. When I got off the bus in TC, a clapped-out van came to pick myself and another girl up - I was a little worried by the rough-and-ready nature of the transport and driver!! The hostel itself consists of a series of huts with 2-3 beds in each. The huts form a small, higgeldy-piggeldy compound, a short dusty walk from town. It felt less like a hostel, and more like a desert outpost, to be honest. The common room was like someone's well-worn living room, and facilities were spartan, but surprisingly cosy and welcoming. I met a really nice, relaxed, and varied group of people - backpackers, and itinerant workers. It was a freezing desert night, and we mostly spent the evening sitting on the old lumpy sofas, watching a movie, huddled around a gas heater. The hostel provided scratchy wool blankets for that bit of extra warmth.It's not a hostel I'd give a glowing review to, but it's a curiosity. Friendly, well-worn and unexpected.Incidentally, a couple of the people I met had stayed there previously, and swore it was the only place worth stopping off in Tennant...
