Hostel Blues

First of all, I'd like to say that I tried to post this entry in the accommodation section, but the format of the Erasmusu website doesn't allow you to do this if your stay was under one month long, and it also doesn't allow you to select 'hostel' as an accommodation option. I think they view 'accommodation' to mean only places you stay in for a prolonged period of time, but it would be good if they added the option to include short stays or visits within this section. In my opinion, this kind of accommodation is one of the most common ones people tend to use when travelling and visiting new cities, especially students and young people.

Hostel Blues is situated in the very centre of Bratislava, meaning that you can reach all the tourist attractions or clubs on foot, and quickly. For visitors who want to find out about the historic city, this hostel is also very near to the old town.

The hostel is a right next to a small shopping centre, and there's also a Subway in the same building as the hostel - for those of you who don't know, this is a fast food chain which sells mainly sandwiches which each customer can personalize themselves. They also sell coffee, drinks, biscuits and other small snacks suitable for breakfast or dinner. There's another small shop across the street from the hostel which sells as sandwiches, canned drinks, croissants and pretty good coffee at a reasonable price. Ideal for breakfast, or perhaps even for lunch and dinner.

There are several different booking and price options. The hostel offers a discount in price to students under 26 years old and on double beds in mixed dormitories. In the case of this last discount, the price is 9. 90 euros per person.

The beds are usually in shared dormitories or in private rooms. It's cheaper to share a room, of course, but if you're coming in a group similar in number to the amount of beds in a shared dormitory, you could just rent the entire room for yourselves. If you do this, the bathroom will only be used by people from your group, which is similar to having a private room.

The shared dormitories contain four to ten beds, and there is the option of choosing a mixed dormitory or a girls-only one. The beds are all bunk beds, and there are lockers in the rooms for storing your belongings. They have no locks though, so bring your own with you.

Private rooms can be booked for two, three, four or six people, and prices range between 18. 90 and 31. 90 euros depending on variables such as the size of the room.

All information on prices and availability is given on Hostel Blues's website, given below.

You can book online using a hotel or hostel search engine, or you can go directly to the hostel's website. You can view the page in seven different languages, so you shouldn't have any problems no matter where you come from or what language you speak.

The building has over five floors, with reception being on the first floor instead of on the ground floor as you might have expected. This is clearly signposted on the front door. There's a kitchen on this floor as well as a small living room. The building has a lift, so you don't need to worry about lugging your heavy suitcases up the stairs.

On the other hand, the hostel has free WiFi for guests everywhere in the building, although as usual the signal is better in some places than in others.

In terms of making a reservation, here's what happened when we stayed there:

• We reserved our room online a few days in advance, and had to pay 20% of the total price at the time of booking.
• When we arrived at the hotel, they asked for proof of our reservation and of our identities.
• They gave us a contract to sign which listed the conditions of use and the deposit amount (150 euros for a private room for six people with bunk beds). We were then given another document which comes from the State (the Slovakian government in this case) and their conditions of use, which we also had to sign.
• After sorting out the paperwork, they prepared the room for us and gave us the room key together with a card for accessing the floor our room was on. You're free to enter and leave the room and the building whenever you like with these items, since the card also opens the main door of the hostel.

When you leave the room, you should deposit the bed sheets and pillow cases at reception before 10am on the morning of departure so that you aren't charged for another day's stay. Return the key and the cards at this time, too. The staff will check that the room has been left in an acceptable state and will return your deposit to you after you have paid the remaining balance (up until this point, we had only paid 20% of the total price).

Personally, I really liked this hostel. The staff were welcoming, the hostel itself has a nice style and the price is affordable. The room we were given was on the fifth floor and had six beds, so three bunk beds. Everything seemed very clean and orderly. The room was quite nice, and we had a private bathroom to use. We had heating and window blinds, which isn't that common around here, but really helps you to sleep in in the mornings. The room only had four plug sockets, so we had to take it in turns to charge our phones, but this is the only complaint I had about the place.

There's a bar in the reception area where you can drink a nice cold beer while connecting to the WiFi on your phone or using one of the computers guests are allowed to use free of charge. There's table football, a chillout area, and a few tables and sofas just next to reception, too. A balcony near reception is a designated smoking area.

To conclude, I'd like to say that Hostel Blues was a really good deal. The reception staff spoke perfect English, so the language barrier that I usually experience in the country wasn't applicable in this case.