HI - Neustiftgasse
- July 8, 2001
- Rated 1 of 5 by
actonsteve from London, United Kingdom
Everybody has good and bad experiences in hostels. The best hostels you rave about swearing to go back as you have had a good time. The worst, in retrospect, you can never remember why you ever agreed to stay there.
HI Neustiftgasse fits into the latter category and I''m afraid put me off hostels for life, and I haven't stayed in one since. But this is a subjective opinion and there are plenty of people who have had a wonderful time at the hostel.
It is perfectly situated in Neubau only a few streets away from the Ringstrasse and within easy walking distance of the Westbahnhof and its tram terminus. It has a very institutionalised feel and a curfew from 10.00am to 4.00pm although guests are allowed to wait in the garden.
The rooms are small and crowded, and even have a bathroom on suite. The bathroom, once used, activates the pipes to make a deafening noise which wakes everybody else in the room. Worse still was construction going on outside the window and we were woken every morning by the sound of a pneumatic drill. I could have lived with all this but the invasion of Austrian schoolchildren was very hard to cope with especially when they were running around at 3.00am keeping everyone awake. The management was reluctant to keep control of them.
All in all,the five nights spent there were very hard. Saved by the other travellers I met there and the fact that I kept away from the hostel and experienced the Viennese nightlife as much as I could.
From journal Vienna: City of Imperial Nostalgia