Hostel de las Manos

There was a large shared area with books and other things, plus a kitchen where I could make food. My stay was very comfortable, with spacious rooms and really comfortable beds. The staff were friendly and felt like family.

We had the place almost to ourselves when I stayed in September 2019, as the hostel was nearly empty. The managers were friendly, and it was quite clean. Breakfast was decent, and we had no trouble cooking lunch and dinner. The internet only worked in the common room, and they accepted cash only, no cards. It's 7-9 blocks from the main street. I'd gladly stay again.

The beds were clean and the wifi was decent, but there wasn't much else to recommend. The receptionists were unfriendly, and the thin walls and floors made the room noisy. It smelled of chemicals, and breakfast was just bread, butter, and jam. The kitchen was poorly equipped, and we couldn't use it after checkout. I wouldn't recommend it.

When we got off the bus in el calafate, a man asked if we needed somewhere for the night and offered $500 pesos off, maybe more if his boss agreed. We said we were a couple and wanted a double room. He said the wifi wasn't working so he couldn't call his boss from the bus station, then walked with us for 40 minutes to the hostel. There, he ran into his boss as she was leaving in a hurry and told us no discount was possible after all. We asked to see the room, but he said we had to wait for her to return with the key. Ten minutes later he realized the key was there and took us upstairs, past a filthy set of stairs. The two grim rooms available at that price had separate twin beds, clearly not what we'd asked for, and he'd led us to believe otherwise. I'm pretty sure they regularly try to scam people this way at the bus station. I wouldn't suggest staying there.