Budget Backpackers

We stayed at the Budget Backpackers Hostel during our 5-day stay in Edinburgh last week. I was clueless about Edinburgh and was too lazy to do extensive research so I chose the hostel that came up first in Google. Their website was nice. It had pictures of the rooms and facilities and it boasted of their awards and how central their location is that you can see Edinburgh Castle from their windows. The staff were easy to deal with and were fairly responsive to emails. The rates were reasonable too so I booked our room right away.

I guess it's my fault that I didn't research about Edinburgh beforehand because when we got there, we learned that maps can be deceiving. In the map, Cowgate looked like it was just 2 blocks away from Waverley Station but what we didn't know was that we have to go up and down the hill first.

The hostel itself was nice. It had colorful interiors, a cozy common room with tv, internet kiosks, kitchens, and a reliable hot water supply (very important during winter). We booked a twin room with a bunk bed and surprisingly the room was big. There was no sink in the room, though. The beds were clean and comfortable, but what freaked me out about the room was that it had a window with a view of the Greyfriars Graveyard which is right across the street. When I sleep facing left, I actually have a view of tombs! Haha, I know, I'm such a scaredy cat. Actually, I really thought that graveyard was beautiful and we even visited it twice during the day. It was one of the most hauntingly beautiful cemeteries I've ever seen! Greyfriars Bobby was buried there!:) I didn't know about the ghost stories at that time so I was brave. But after we went on the City of The Dead Graveyard Tour and learned that Greyfriars was the site of one of most notoriously known poltergeist activites (so famous that BBC had to investigate it) it suddenly became hard to sleep.:p

The hostel had common showers, which might be good news for some.;) We ended up having to walk a little further from our room to use the strictly-for-females one.

Overall, I think it's a nice, clean, and reasonably priced hotel for which you need a good pair of walking shoes and a bit of courage. Considering that Edinburgh is mostly built on a volcano, I guess the location is as good as any you can get.

Friendly staff. Central in the Old Town, Edinburgh. Cosy common room with tv (dvd's available at reception). Free pub crawl (mon to fri), this is a great way to meet new people! Pool compititions, winner gets booze. Clean! Hot showers! Not a 5 star hotel, but a great backpackers!