Varandas do Arraial- Hostel

The facilities were good and the people were amazing. For the price, I really can’t complain. I only meant to stay 1 night, but ended up staying a week.

It felt like staying with family, and everything was clean, even the ceiling fan. The location was great, and I had a lovely time, even though my stay was short.

The kitchen supplies were very basic, and the equipment was old and poorly maintained. There were several bathrooms, but they were missing basics like hand soap and paper towels. The rooms were a different story from the friendly, polite service and very central location. They had no air conditioning, just a ceiling fan, and all the windows were left open to try to manage the heat, which was considerable. There were no curtains on the bunk beds, so the light came straight in. In the end, the nightly price wasn’t worth it.

I left before my planned departure, even though I travel almost exclusively in hostels. It’s one of the worst I’ve stayed in. Everything was old and worn, and it didn’t feel comfortable. If this counts as a two-star hostel, then every other hostel must be five-star. The dorm bathroom had ice-cold water, the street noise was loud, and there weren’t even curtains to block the light. For two days in a row the toilet bin wasn’t changed, and it was full to the brim, with toilet paper covered in my roommates’ period blood or feces in plain view. The whole place gave me the impression that nothing gets invested back into the hostel and the money goes straight into the owners’ pockets. Avoid.