12:12 Hostels

The neighborhood is quite nice, safe, and full of shops and restaurants, and there’s a kitchen, a living room with a couch and lots of books, and a big table for eating or working. They also rent bikes and offer organized tours, though you can do the tours yourself for half the price. For what this hostel charges, it doesn’t offer much compared with the many others we stayed at while traveling. The location seems to be what you’re paying for. They charge 5000$ for water, more than twice the store price, towels cost extra, and the dorm Wi-Fi barely exists. Downstairs there’s Wi-Fi, but it’s often slow or unavailable. We didn’t use the kitchen, so I can’t comment on it. Some basic things need fixing too. There were orange stains on the bedsheet, the bedside lamp had a broken bulb, some shower and bathroom doors wouldn’t close, and some taps in the women’s bathroom weren’t working properly. We arrived in the middle of the night, got our beds, and went straight to sleep, so I only spotted those issues the next day. Laundry was another problem. We asked if it was available and were told yes. We handed over two small full plastic bags, one from each of us, and when I asked the price, the employee said $20'000. I thought that sounded high, but okay. The next day she wanted $20'000 from each of us. She showed us that the price was listed per bag. Maybe I misunderstood her because she only spoke Spanish. The owner speaks English perfectly, but the other staff don’t speak English. We paid almost 13 dollars for laundry, which seems crazy to me. Since we handed the bags over together, they could at least have suggested combining them or asked if they could wash everything together. That’s how other hotels, hostels, and laundries handled it, but not here. To me, that’s very poor customer service. I wouldn’t recommend this hostel; you don’t get much for the price.

A fun, cozy hostel in a super safe neighborhood, with friendly staff. We took a “party bus” to San Andres restaurant, but it was really just a van. An Uber would probably have cost less.

The front desk service was exceptional, fast and reliable, and they kept things well organized. The location’s good too, with a carulla, coffee shops, restaurants, and carrera 7 all within walking distance. There’s a full kitchen with cupboards, appliances, and two sinks, plus a TV room with satellite TV and two computers. Still, I wouldn’t give it five stars based on my stay. The older man seems sweet and well intentioned, but being told to quiet down at 10:45pm when we weren’t loud, and that I couldn’t take a beer upstairs to the TV room, didn’t sit well with me on vacation, especially since I paid to stay there. For a hostel with such a communal setup, it would be nice to have something that brings everyone together, like a free beer at a set time or free bikes for Sunday ciclovia. The organized tours were too expensive. I did zipaquira on my own for 85k cop, so paying 180,000 didn’t make sense. The “party bus” to Andres Carne de res was similar: I stayed until Sunday specifically to go Saturday night, then found out it was a private taxi with only guys from my hostel. Two of them took an Uber home anyway, so the bus seemed pointless. The couches in the shared area were very worn, uncomfortable, and bulky, to the point that I almost didn’t want to sit there. The kitchen pans had no handles, and there wasn’t an oven mitt, so I had to use a small towel. That was inconvenient. Wi-Fi was slow and sometimes nonexistent, and I actually looked forward to using it at coffee shops instead. It did the job as a hostel. I’ve stayed in better places and worse ones, so that’s just my take.

Best value in Bogotá! Maria was a wonderful host and, as the owner, even took us to the Salt Cathedral for a day. Big thanks to Santiago and Jaqueline too. Looking forward to staying here again on our next visit.