Drop Bear Hostel

The rooms are big and the beds are comfortable. With Santa Marta so hot, the pool becomes the main hangout during the day. I was also happy the kitchen made proper bacon. Those filling breakfasts came in handy with the bar having eight happy hours throughout the day.

The pool was the only good part of this hostel. We were really disappointed: the beds were uncomfortable, music played at full volume all day and night, and once it didn’t stop until 4:30am, so a decent night’s sleep was out of reach. There’s also a construction site right next door that starts work at 7am. The kitchen was ridiculously poorly equipped. The fridge was tiny, the dirty pots and pans had no handles, and there was barely any cutlery or plates. The microwave and toaster were only for kitchen staff. The strangest and rudest thing was seeing kitchen staff take food for themselves from the free food basket meant for backpackers.

I loved having the big deck and its roughly 15 hammocks, plus a huge room for games and TV. The place is spacious, with a pool, and it's in an old drug cartel mansion. It's a bit out of the way for Santa Marta, but I wasn't there to hang around town. The staff were so friendly and helpful. Every night, they politely got me to leave the bar because I was always the last one there. I spent 19 days in Columbia, and this was one of my favorite hostels.

There’s plenty of room in the rooms, and everything was clean. The crew were friendly and helpful, and the bar was a nice spot to chat and meet other guests.