Plaza de Armas Hostel

The location was great, right in the center of the old town, and there were lots of reasonably priced places to eat nearby. We stayed three days in a very basic private room with its own bathroom, which suited our needs. Breakfast was pretty good, with a nice range of boiled eggs, fruit, cereal, breads, and juices. A lovely extra was the free Pisco Sours on Friday evening.

The security stood out: you have to be buzzed in and out, there’s a doorman downstairs, and someone operates the elevator. I’ve used this hostel four times in five weeks as a base. It’s right on Plaza de Armas with access to two subway lines, which made getting around easy. The rooms are good for the price, and the sixth-floor common room looks out over the main square.

The balcony overlooking Plaza De Armas is lovely at sunset, especially with a beer while street performers are out. The location and security are the hostel’s main advantages, and the kitchen and seating areas are adequate. At $12 US dollars a night, it can work for a few nights, but sleeping was hard for me: the music goes until 2am, and the room layout lets you hear almost everything outside your room. Light sleepers will struggle. There’s just one women’s toilet for everyone, and it has no seat. The three shared showers face each other, with only a see-through plastic panel between them.

The staff were helpful and spoke very good English, and they’ll lend you a metro card if you need one. Breakfast was great, with cereal, bread, fruit and hard-boiled eggs. The bathrooms were cleaned daily, and the showers were good for a hostel. My usual men’s shower was being worked on during my stay, so they let me use the suite shower, which was excellent. The hostel is on the sixth floor of an apartment building right on Plaza de Armas, so there’s a great view, but the busy square brings noise all day and night.