Kaycie M.

Review of Hostelling International New Y...

It's a hostel. What can I say that hasn't been sai...

It's a hostel. What can I say that hasn't been said. A lot of people raved about the location. It's just ok. Proximity to the 1 line is literally one block over so that's the plus if you hate walking. It's not necessarily a bad area but not a great one either. It's the West side, just short of Harlem. I actually have stayed in Harlem east and felt safer there. Also if this is your first time in NYC just a heads up Central Park is 2.5 miles long. From this hostel, you will enter on the far northwest side, which is a long walk to Manhattan. Not that that's a terrible thing, but don't think you're just going to pop on over to 5th Avenue. I'm actually not a fan of 5th Ave. and I despise Times Square (which is even further south) so this worked out just fine for me.
The hostel itself, was very busy at checkin. It would've been nice to have a little more instruction, like which door to enter. But I get it, there was a long line of tired backpackers.
The dorms weren't at all ventilated. A humid New York July makes for a sweaty feet smell in the room. Also breakfast is not included which makes the price seem a little steep for dorm style lodging. But they do have fair priced options in the cafe downstairs. I didn't try anything. It all looked fine, but it's NYC, there are lots of choices. Other than that it was ok. The mattress isn't the best. Each bed has a small lamp and a charging outlet. There were people coming in and throughout the night but this is to be expected. Bathrooms were cleaned on the hour. The co-working space and patio are nice, but don't come to New York just for that please. They hostel does have some local hook-ups like inexpensive walking tours and $12.50. Yankee tickets. If you want to see the city, this is not a bad place to crash. Self checkout is nice, just drop your key in the box and be on your way. Go to Brooklyn for pizza. Make sure know if you want to go uptown or downtown BEFORE you enter the subway. And again, don't spend too much time in Times Square. Enjoy!