Our Arrival
Before this trip, I had never been to the French Riviera, so I was excited to see what it was like and to experience the atmosphere of southern France. When our train arrived in Nice, we weren't exactly sure where the hostel was or how to get there, and since we were in no mood to take any chances we just took a taxi and showed him the address. I should have known better, never take a taxi! They are so over priced! But, we got to Villa Saint Exupery with no troubles.
This place was amazing!! An adorable German guy, Toby, checked us in and showed us around the hostel. He told us that if we ever needed transport to the train station, that the hostel does it free of charge. He explained the city a bit to us and gave us a map of how to get to the hostel by bus and how to get to the best beaches and tourist attractions around the Riviera.
After dinner a lot of people began to gather in the chapel room and order drinks, meet people, and just hang out. The drinks they offered were incredibly cheap, and you could buy a whole bottle if you wanted to. I met so many great people, a girl from Sweden, a guy from Nicaragua, and a few Aussies. However, the night really got interesting when we met these two Scottish guys - go figure, of course they would have to be Scottish! Ben and Greig were so much fun, they would burst into song randomly (they especially liked to quote Team America). I even got them to do the Hook 'Em sign...it was amazing. The rest of the night was filled with laughter and great conversation.
I would definitely take advantage of their bar. Drinks are very cheap and you don't even have to go into town to have a good time. The reason why I loved my Nice experience so much was because of this hostel - the experience would not have been the same if I had stayed somewhere else.
One more tip - if you're booking online and it says they're full, try calling them. They'll usually find some way to fit you in. They're amazing!
