Euro Hostel Glasgow = Great rooms, bad pub
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Having spent roughly 6 months in European hostels over the past year I guess you could say I know a fair bit about them. What works, what doesn’t work and those hostels you should just stay clear of. Thanks to websites like HostelBookers and HostelWorld you can get the gist on hostels fairly quickly these days. Real reviews by real travelers.
I recently stayed at Euro Hostel in the city center of Glasgow, Scotland. With a 20kg pack on my back and pulling along a 10kg trolley bag, a good location scores highly in my books. Euro Hostel is literally a 5 minute walk from the central Glasgow train station, superb! When you think of accommodation close to train stations it is easy to think they are going to be crapy as train station areas are normally pretty dodgy. However Euro Hostel is located right by the River Clyde and is a stone throw away from the ‘Style Mile’ shopping street.
It is a big hostel that covers about 10 floors. One floor is completely dedicated to the kitchen and dining area where the free breakfast is served. It is nothing fancy but when it’s free, it really doesn’t matter does it. Bread for toast and spreads, 3 different kinds of cereals, juices and coffee machines with everything from tea to hot chocolate and a grand list of different types of coffees.
A floor up from the kitchen area you’ll find a chill out room with a pool table, book swap and even pokie machines. There is also a self-service laundry facility, which is great. £3s for a load and .50p per 8-minutes in the dryer. However if you want to be cheeky there coat hangers and plenty of room in the bedrooms to hang stuff. Well in the private rooms anyway.
My boyfriend and I had a double private room with our own en-suite. For £36 a night it was a great deal. We had a double bed, desk, TV, shower and toilet. Bed linen and towels are included as well. The only downer about the rooms was that the heaters needed to be turned down a touch. Because of this we had both the windows open at night. Surprisingly there was no disturbance by outside noise.
All up I was well impressed with the hostel. However the attached bar, the Mint & Lime, was not so impressive. Which reminds me that the hostels ‘free’ wifi was only for the bar. If you wanted to access it in the rooms you had to pay. For 7 days of unlimited access it was £12 or £4 for 24 hours worth.
You would think that a bar attached to a hostel would be comfy, relaxed and more importantly cheap. I’m thinking drink deals, themed nights and a general ambience of encouraging people to socialize. The Mint & Lime is nice, definitely, but it is more suited to be called a cocktail bar. There is a pool table tucked in the corner but other than that it is nothing to rave about. If you’re trying to impress your date then take them there but if you’re a backpacker on a budget I would suggest elsewhere.
Luckily the hostel is in a great location that you don’t actually have to go far to find a decent pub with good food and drink deals. There is a Wetherspoon across the road, Hootenanny is also a minutes walk and on the other side of the train station is Toby Jugs with meals costing a mere £3 and bottles of wine for £5!
I would 100% recommend Euro Hostel if you’re ever thinking about visiting Glasgow. It is cheap, comfy, clean and in an awesome location.