Hostel Sol

After seven months of travelling, this is probably one of the worst hostels I've stayed in. It felt like prison, and at £20 I thought the whole thing was a bit of a joke. I've paid the same for luxury hostels in many parts of Argentina, so there's no excuse. We found a good Airbnb for the exact same price afterwards and have absolutely no regrets. The bedroom walls were black with mould and really horrid. There were plain white sheets and sponge pillows, as the photos show. The nights were freezing, and our thin sheet did nothing to keep us warm, so we dug out our sleeping bag. We were only there for one day, so I tried to let it slide. Then there were the showers. The cubicles were tiny and unbelievably dirty, and the showers were super grimy. At least the hot water was relatively well behaved, though we had to keep adjusting the temperature. We had only booked one night, so I wasn't too fussed. Breakfast was served from 8am to 10am. There was water and bits of bread, plus warm milk, coffee, and butter. Truly the worst breakfast I've ever had. Check the photos for proof. To leave the 'Hostel', you had to ask the gate keeper to let you out. If you were gone for a while, you had to hope somebody would be there to let you back in. This happened to quite a few people. After we were released from prison, staff kept badgering us about when we were leaving and even asked us to give them a time to vacate by, literally at midday.

The beds were nice, and it was very quiet at night. San Telmo and Obelisco's monument are nearby, with bus lines close and the metro just two blocks away. Breakfast is the Argentinian kind, so don't expect eggs or anything like that: bread with sweet, milk and coffee, sometimes cookies. Argentinians like a light, sweet breakfast. Thanks, Hostel Sol!

I didn't stay for breakfast. I got the hell out at 7am. I'm not sure if it was the off season or if the hostel has changed direction, but it seemed to have more people living there than backpackers or travellers, and the vibe was weird. I was put in room #3, where the fan made the curtains fly open so people outside could see in. I was looking out from behind the closed door when a man walked past, looked in, and waved at me! The doorbell either didn't work or staff couldn't be bothered to answer it. After a long walk, I rang a couple of times and got no response. I waited outside for close to 20 minutes until someone happened to go out for a smoke and let me in. Upstairs, a man, not the girl who checked me in, came to the counter and told me to make sure the doorbell had a light on. They should have told me that at check-in, not after I couldn't get back in. Knocking was pointless because the outside door opens onto a stairway, and reception is on the 2nd floor. The website said there were individual lockers in the rooms, but there weren't any in room #3. The girl who gave me the key didn't give me a locker key either, and there were no lockers I could secure with my own lock. Worst of all, I left a tupperbox of peeled oranges in the fridge and only half were left when I went to eat them. The box had clearly been moved, though at first I thought someone had shifted things around to fit other food, which happens all the time in hostel fridges. So there was a thief in the hostel. Be very careful with your belongings!

Our room wasn't ready when we got to the hostel after 11pm, so they had to find us another one. The beds were noisy and uncomfortable, and even for a hostel the breakfast was too simple.