My First Hostel Experience At La Guitarra Gdansk
Monday, 23 January 2017
Today's post is a hostel review! Not something I thought I'd be posting about in the past but I've really changed my outlook recently. I want to travel, and I want to do it more than two lovely holidays each year. I want to see the world and I want to experience it all and if that means staying somewhere that isn't a 5* hotel every now and then that's fine with me!
Hopefully you read about how I ended up in Poland in the first place (here) so with Selena being the expert, she talked me though booking my first hostel stay. First off, check location and accessibility, also whether it included free breakfast - all normal hotel stuff but then there were things like checking if it had lockers or whether you had to pay extra for towels, bedding or if there was a curfew - which is not all so familiar.
After we had narrowed those things down, it was about seeing which had the highest review ratings and picking a room. We decided on La Guitarra Hostel since it ticked all the boxed and was an 8.1 on hostel world. It had free internet, free breakfast and it was a fifteen minute walk from the station - passing though the center on the way. We decided on a four bed dorm - smaller rooms are usually more expensive but since it was my first time and the more expensive price was still only £7.55 we thought it was a good shout.
Hopefully you read about how I ended up in Poland in the first place (here) so with Selena being the expert, she talked me though booking my first hostel stay. First off, check location and accessibility, also whether it included free breakfast - all normal hotel stuff but then there were things like checking if it had lockers or whether you had to pay extra for towels, bedding or if there was a curfew - which is not all so familiar.
Checking in
After a short walk in the snow we made it to a very warm reception area. First box ticked, I was kind of a bit worried about spending our day exploring Gdansk in -19 degrees and then coming back to a cold room as well but that was not the case, reception was toasty (as was the rest of the building - our room had a huge radiator). Reception staff weren't all too friendly - most of the reviews described them as emotionless robots which I thought was a bit harsh beforehand but I can totally see where they are coming from having experienced them first hand. Still, not a problem, the guy gave us a card (the same one key card was used for the front door to the building, the dorm room and the crazy hi-tech electronic lockers) and the wifi password and we were off to check out our dorm. Reception also had a vending machine in case of emergency (running out of snacks).
Our Room & Roommates
Our room was on the first floor and had a brilliant view of the river. It had a bit of a university accommodation vibe but it was nicer than I was expecting. The room itself was in an L shape which turned out to be really great because it meant the other beds were around the corner and had we wanted to ignore them, it would have been very easy. Contrary to that, the couple we were sharing a room with were actually very nice! They were a Canadian couple travelling around Europe together and they were the perfect roommates for us. Turns out we were all in bed by 11pm reading a book (read: tweeting) and we were all very respectful of each other plus neither of them snored! We agreed on a time to set an alarm the night before - we were all off on the same tour in the morning which made that easy too.
The Bed
There were two sets of bunks beds and I took a bottom bunk. I was very impressed to spot a clean, thick, white duvet and huge fluffy pillow folded up on each bed which was super comfortable and very warm. There was also a little lamp and another socket next to each bed meaning I could charge my phone while I slept without worrying about someone stealing it. It was quite cosy actually! In the morning we were asked to strip the beds before we left.
Bathrooms
Toilets were outside the room in the hallway and were fresh and clean throughout my stay. Selena pointed out that the toilets and sinks were in different rooms which was a good thing and meant more people could use them at once but honestly I didn't see anyone else apart from our room mates though my stay. There was also a heater in each one for you to warm your towel whilst you shower!
Common Room & Kitchen
This was downstairs in the basement and oh so chilled. We popped in at about 10pm and the TV was on, some people were sitting around on the sofa with drinks and others were cooking a pizza. We came back again for breakfast in the morning and it was all very tidy set up with a simple continental breakfast. Just tea, coffee, cereals, ham, cheese and bread but it was more than enough - we both made a sandwich to take out with us that afternoon as well! I didn't fancy washing up so I ate mine off of a tissue - I'm surprised at how well I adapted to hostel life!
So what did I think? Well, maybe I just lucked out with La Guitarra or maybe everything I've ever seen surrounded hostels has been wrong. Probably a bit of both as Selena was also pretty impressed with it too! It was clean, I felt safe there and I felt like my stuff was safe there when I was out. So overall I would totally recommend!
Have You Ever Stayed In A Hostel?
