Review from a HostelBookers customer 18 January 2010
Pros:
n/a
Cons:
n/a
Amy Noss
saw things this way
Maintenance
(3)
Cleanliness
(3)
Facilities
(5)
Atmosphere
(4)
(Review ID: 13982)
the staff were helpful andIt was extremly good value for money.the kitchen is modern and huge and a great place to cook up a cheap tasty meal and get chatting to other guests.it´´s well looked after, so everything is organised and clean, and you don´´t feel like you are staying somewhere cheap and dirty despite the price!!the dvd area is a great idea as valencian night life kicks off very late so relaxing with a dvd before hand is a fun thing to do.
showers arent the best but everything else makes up for this hostelgreat everything and amazing kitchen and chillout areas, great staffive stayed in all home hostels in valencia you cant go wrong with them!
Better than any 4 star hotel I have stayed in. 14 October 2008
Pros:
Staff, atmosphere, cleanliness, location, architecture and pure brilliance
Cons:
Spanish computer keyboards (I couldnt get used to them)
zhuge_liang
saw things this way
Maintenance
(4)
Cleanliness
(5)
Facilities
(5)
Atmosphere
(5)
(Review ID: 10904)
Well this was my first visit to Valencia and I was only visiting because of a special flight deal; and my stay in Backpackers... Well that was actually by pure chance. I had originally researched and decided to go to another hostel upon my arrival, but the address of the hostel on its website contained a spelling error and the taxi driver was unable to find it; so we settled on Backpackers. First impressions: The hostel itself is part contained within an old church and this gives rise to some appealing architectural features and not the more mundane grey concrete block often seen. Walking around to the main entrance you see two huge frosted glass sliding doors and a buzzer to press, but these are usually wide open. The reception is right in front of these doors.
The staff themselves are multilingual, coming from Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Brazil and the UK and they will go out of their way to help you. Upon paying for your room you will be given a key, bed linen and towel. They will also give you a map of the city, encircle the location of the hostel and point out some of the nearby sites to visit with directions.The hostel itself is painted in very vibrant colours and really adds to the appeal of this place. There are art posters scattered around and a wide range of information leaflets about tours, bars & clubs, city guides and other literature that you can take.When I arrived I decided to book the cheapest room available - a 16 bed dorm - with the idea being that if it was not suitable I would upgrade to something better. There was absolutely no need. The room is located on the third floor just off the kitchen and is housed within the upper area of the old church, so you still have all of the main architectural features with massively high ornate ceilings to give an appearance of roominess. The room is partitioned in to two halves, so it really seems like two 8 bed dorms. Each bed has a lockable locker, but you will need to bring your own padlock. Saying that though, I just left things laying on my bed at times and nothing ever went missing. The dorm is also well lit, with main ceiling lights, individualk table lamps, large stained glass windows and two doors that open on to a large patio area on the roof.The kitchen area is massive, with 5 fridge freezers for the guests, a large 8 ring halogen hob, 2 sinks to wash the dishes, crockery, cutlery, chopping boards, microwaves, coffee machine, juice machine and FREE FOOD. There is a huge food preparation surface in the middle with enough space for about 12 people to prepare food at once, although people tended to prepare their food on the dining tables too. The cleanliness of the kitchen is quite unbelievable too considering the amount of use it gets, because apart from meal times when it is being used by everyone there is someone mopping, brushing, cleaning or putting away the dishes about every 4o minutes or so. Even the fridges are cleaned. There is a lounge area at the back of the kitchen with a couple of sofas, a tv, cable box and DVD player.The bathroom area is also on the third floor with a large black tiled floor, 4 wash basins, 6 self-contained toilets and 6 self-contained shower units that have been split in to a changing area and showering area. There is a timed air freshener system for those moments of bad air quality, but like the kitchen and everywhere else this place is absolutely spotless. I found a staff member cleaning it at 4am one morning. 4am!When I first arrived here I was a little worried about staying in a hostel as this was my first time, but I can truly and honestly say that it far exceeded my expectations and that I found it to be much better than any hotel in the past. You meet a large number of people from all walks of life, teachers, students, lawyers, business people and there is absolutely no stress or worry because we all know that the staff will go out of their way to help us with any problem.The only caveat I had was with the computers in the basement and that is because the keyboard locale was Spanish, meaning that certain symbols were in unusual locations, i.e. the @ sign is found by pressing alt and 2 The location itself is pure genius. Walk out of the hostel, straight down the street and turn left and you come to one side of the old city gates (think large medieval English castle turrets). Or walk out of the hostel and walk across a few metres of open ground to a small road, turn right and then first left and just walk for about 3 minutes before arriving at Plaza del Virgen. It is here were you will find the FREE walking tour of the city (organised by the hostel) every day at 12:30 - just wait over by the fountain. The cathedral can be found here with the only version of the Holy Grail officially recognised by the catholic church. (I guess Dan Brown didn't know about this one).Go to Valencia and stay in Backpackers because I can guarantee that it will make your holiday.
11 of
12 people found this review helpful
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Anonymous
France
well done. Ideal for backpackers and others 5 December 2005
Pros:
n/a
Cons:
n/a
Anonymous
saw things this way
Maintenance
(5)
Cleanliness
(5)
Facilities
(5)
Atmosphere
(5)
(Review ID: 5528)
Very colourful, well equiped and attended by multilingual staff. Nightlife is so close so you do not spend on transport. The kitchen is amazing !. I'll go back
18 of
18 people found this review helpful
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Amber Sand
Edmonton, Canada
Very well set up 19 June 2005
Pros:
n/a
Cons:
n/a
Amber Sand
saw things this way
Maintenance
(4)
Cleanliness
(4)
Facilities
(4)
Atmosphere
(4)
(Review ID: 5529)
We were really impressed by this hostels set up. There are large bathrooms on each floor (a little stinky though) and the best hostel kitchen we've seen. The DVD room feels like a living room. The staff were nice if a little clueless however that may be the fault of Las Fallas the huge festival that was going on at the time (spanish insanity). We really enjoyed our stay here.
