El Guembe House

You can walk to shops and restaurants, and the bus terminal is close by. It’s a very basic hostel, but fine for a night.

The patio was a nice spot to sit, and breakfast was fine. The location is handy, just near the bus terminal, and the pool is there too, though there aren’t other facilities to expect. I stayed one night. The rooms are cramped and there are no lockers, so belongings end up on the floor where everyone has to step around them. There’s only one usable shared shower for the whole hostel. The other one is so tiny you have to stand in the toilet to use it. Wi-Fi was terrible. For a night or two it’s an okay place to stay.

The pool was a nice break after a hot day, but the rest of the stay was a very bad experience, and I wouldn’t recommend this hostel. We’d booked a 6 bed dorm and were instead placed in a Private 3 bedroom with just one other person, which felt very strange. Breakfast was poor, just bread, orange slices and crackers. Ants were all over the kitchen, perhaps because the food was left uncovered for the full 3 hours of breakfast. We also paid an extra 20% VAT on top of the online quote. It was in the small print, so we missed it, but others should check because it isn’t as cheap as search engines make it look. After I posted this on Booking;com, I got a hostile email saying I had "serious relationship problems" and claiming I could have avoided the 20% VAT by paying with card, though that option wasn’t offered to me.

The bed sheets were clean and breakfast was okay, with good fruit, bread with dulce de leche, and orange juice. The private room bathroom wasn’t very clean, with dirt and hairs, and the general cleanliness wasn’t great either. It would make more sense to put the breakfast food on the kitchen worktop instead of the table where people eat. It’s confusing there.