The Good: Yes Inn
When I say that this hostel is good, I mean relatively. It’s really not that great a place, just the best of a bad lot. There’s no common area besides a couch in front of the reception desk but it has free internet (including free wifi that oozes its way into the rooms), helpful staff, and the rooms don’t feel like prison cells.
I met a few people here and had a good time at the hostel. It always seems to be booked so if you want to stay here, make sure to make a reservation well in advance. It’s located on Hong Kong island across the road from the Fortress Hill MTR stop so is a bit away from the action. But it’s handy enough and there’s a supermarket across the road to stock up on cheap eats.
Work wise, I was able to get a lot done here. The dorm rooms are pretty small but I made some space on the floor in front of my bed, pulled over a small table and went to town. It helped that there were a couple of other girls in the room who decided to spend most of the day hanging out in the hostel so I didn’t feel like such a nerd and had people to chat to when I wanted.
The Bad: The Entire 11th Floor of Mirador Mansion
This place is a strange one. I thought I booked into Travellers Friendship Hostel but was instead put into a different hostel called New Garden. Both of these hostels are simply hallways going off a main hallway with different names affixed to the hall entrance. Each ‘hostel’ (hallway) has a handful of rooms and one of the halls is used as a dorm room. This is also a walkway to a balcony, the internet cafe, laundry room and only has a curtain separating it from the main hall. I was happy I wasn’t stuck in here.
The ‘reception area’ (main hallway) consisted of a plastic table in front of the elevators. The desk was manned by what looked like a father, mother, daughter combo of the most surly, nasty, unhelpful kind. It seemed like the check-in for all of the ‘hostels’ on this floor were done at that desk. I suspect they have loads of different hostel names to get a bigger slice of the pie when people search for hostels online. If they’ve got 10 ‘hostels’ there is a larger chance a traveller will pick one of theirs. It’s actually a good idea but not exactly ethical.
Because the wifi juice could only be received in the elevator area, I spent several hours parked on the floor in front of the reception desk attempting to work. I witnessed loads of people come to the hostel to check in, ask questions or complain about various problems. All of them were met with a rude reception and the hostel tended to blame most of its booking problems on Hostelworld.com. There were many, many booking problems.
The Ugly: Garden Hostel
Not to be confused with the New Garden Hostel which is located on the notorious 11th floor of Mirador Mansion, this hostel is actually reasonably ok. If doesn’t look like much but the staff are nice, the dorms have air conditioning pumping through them, the sheets are clean-ish and there’s a great garden area in the back complete with wifi and people practising martial arts. I loved working here. There’s something about the rhythm of people practising punches and kicks that really gets me into a relaxed mood.
At HK$70 per night for a dorm bed, it’s pretty affordable for Hong Kong. It’s also located on Nathan Road in Kowloon which is in the thick of all the action and a good spot to be if you have to sort out a Chinese visa. It’s one of the few places with a common area and good for meeting people.
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