Reviews of places, restaurants & hotels

• Portal del Sur, Buenos Aires
• Tango Backpackers, Buenos Aires
• Marcopolo Inn, Puerto Iguazu

Croatia

• House of Sandra, Split
• inZagreb ‘City’ Apartment, Zagreb

Uruguay

• Red Hostel, Montevideo

Value
Location
Cleanliness
Rooms
Service

Good hostel, friendly staff, excellent location
If you are interested to do a walking tour of Buenos Aires, then this is the place you want to stay because of it’s location. The hostel is easily walkable from main spots on Ave 9 de Julio and Congresso.

We stayed on the 4th floor in a 4-bed private ensuite room and were satisfied with the room and amenities. The hostel has friendly staff that speak English and the shared bathrooms are clean and well maintained.

Value
Location
Cleanliness
Rooms
Service

Rude staff, terrible layout
This is located in the heart of Palermo accessible to a lot of great restaurants, and a short cab ride from the Centro. The staff at the desk were very unhelpful and sometimes rude. When we asked for any suggestions on restaurants that serve soup (since our friend was sick), they didn’t have any! When we asked for some general information on places around, they just told to wander around and see!

The layout of the hostel is just weird and terrible. To reach our room we had to walk 2-3 times with the staff person to be able to remember our room. The beds were ok, but the pillows were very unclean and bad.

And the weirdest part was that they close the rooftop at 8-9pm and when asked they said because the neighbors complain. Which hostel in the world close their rooftops in summer at 8pm?!

Value
Location
Cleanliness
Rooms
Service

Great location, good rooms
This hostel has very friendly staff and great location in the center of Puerto Iguazu and is right across from the bus station.

We got a private room with 4-beds and a bathroom. The shower door was broken and so was the bathroom door. The swimming pool was closed and dirty, although it being the peak summer season in December. When we asked the staff they said they will open it but were not sure when.

Overall, this is a great place, with a good front open space for reading and catching up with other travelers.

Value
Location
Cleanliness
Rooms
Service

Excellent location, price & host
We stayed in apartment Marco for 2 nights and paid 80 Euros, which included a pick up from the bus station; which literally a 7 minute walk. The host was gracious enough to pick us up and spoke English too which helped us get guidance about the places to see and eat. The apartment is in a quiet neighborhood, very very clean (upon request, the beds can be separated or joined) and right next to a cafe for some morning coffee!

Remember that from the bus station, this is a bit of a uphill walk, so if you’re carrying heavy luggage, then reaching to this place (although just 5-7 min walk) can be a bit strenuous.

Value
Location
Cleanliness
Rooms
Service

Excellent location, good price & generous host
inZagrab operates many apartments across Zagreb. We stayed at the apartment ‘City’, which is 2 minutes walk from the Central Railway Station and 8 minutes walk from the Main Square of Ban Josip Jelačić. ‘City’ is a one-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a building which is not on one of the main streets, but yet busy during weekdays because it’s one of the streets that run from the train station to the main square. There’s a bar right outside the apartment building and can be noisy at night with Croats drinking away! But since the apartment is at the back of the building, the noise level is down. The HI Hostel is opposite this apartment building too.

Overall, this is an excellent apartment with all the amenities included in the price. We paid EUR 150 for two nights in May 2011. Clean bathroom, clean bed & sheets, excellent hosts and since you have rent an apartment, you don’t have to worry about hours (except for check-in and check-out).

You can also ask for an airport pickup for EUR 20 and they will drive you from the airport to the apartment, which is about a 40-minute drive.

Value
Location
Cleanliness
Rooms
Service

Friendly, good location, but…
The hostel is located in the Centro and close to Montevideo’s main attractions, but there are a few factors that gives a negative shadow to the hostel. First, the rooms are not clean. We stayed in room 11, which is a 4-bed mixed dorm and the roof was dripping water, and that too directly over an electric socket. We complained to the staff and all they did was put dry towels over the socket. I wonder how that’ll stop a fire! Second, there was no hot water for 2 mornings in the building complex we were in (they have 2 complexes), and so we were asked to use the showers of the main building. Third, the bathrooms in our building didn’t lock. So we had to make sure someone had to watch the door. Fourth, the beds are not comfortable at all, the pillows were nasty too!

The staff is friendly and nice. We had a great time with the staff when they kicked-off the pizza night.