Ocean Backpackers

I stayed in this hostel for 2 nights and it was value for money. It's located about 5 mins walk from the city centre (harbour and all the Victoria highlights). It's also perenially booked, and doesn't have the most helpful of websites either. But it's very easy to find, and sems to be in a very safe area, it also has got some very good reviews which made me choose it.

The rooms are well equipped although I thought we could do with more power plugs. The hostel is very self contained - you have a bar, a lounge, reception, internet centre, everything. You can buy breakfast (muffins, etc) or cook in the kitchen - it's huge and lots of utensils.

The 3 big drawbacks with ths hostel are:
1. parking space: You need to call in advance and "reserve" a parking space. I say "reserve" because you're not guaranteed you'll get it. Plus, you've got to pay 6C$ for a parking spot. I wish this was written a bit more clearly in the website versus "we have parking" which was very misleading.

2. The hostel is extremely busy and noisy, very difficult to get answers from the staff because they're helping 10 other people at the same time and don't have much time for each person. I thought the staff was very helpful, but they're just crammed with requests and people waiting in queue the whole day.

3. At nights, the place looks like a seedy joint and not like a hostel. It has a very "groupie" feel. I went downstairs and there was some live band playing (yes, it's got all that!) and you had tons of people just sitting there in the dark, couples snogging, etc... it looked very shady and reminded one of a pub. It didn't have the open family friendly feel of a hostel, the types I've seen in the UK and in other places.

But overall I'd stay here again. I think the goods far outdo the bads and the hostel is in a fantastic location as well.