studentsineurope

Review: Yoho International Youth Hostel, Salzburg

Yoho's bar is cozy and cheap

I checked into Yoho International Youth Hostel in Salzburg on November 1. You may be unaware, as I was on that fine, cold morning, that November 1 is All Soul’s Day, a national holiday in Austria (and many other places in Europe). Everything was closed. The streets were dead. I wondered what I’d gotten myself into and what I’d eat for dinner that night.

I ended up eating salami, cheese and bread, along with a big bottle of Stiegl beer, which I purchased in a nearby gas station. It actually wasn’t that bad. The hostel was extremely quiet and the Aussie at the front desk who checked me in told me the town would be bumping again by the next day. Indeed, it was.

My experience at Yoho International Youth Hostel was sort of mixed. The hostel itself is lovely and, at first, the staff seemed extremely helpful and cool. I even met a couple of other backpackers in my cheap, 8-bed dorm room with whom I went drinking in the hostel’s bar.

Normally, I don’t condone drinking in hostel bars, but this one just couldn’t be passed up. The worn lines of the wooden tables complimented the cheap steins of local lager (€2!) and the whole experience was both authentic and easy on the wallet, which I really appreciated.

But something happened to tarnish my view of Yoho International Youth Hostel, and it came in the form of a loud, drunken backpacker about 3 am. In fairness, it wasn’t really the hostel’s fault that said drunken backpacker couldn’t get his shoes off and ended up puking all over the room in the middle of the night. Still, when the on-duty staff member was called by another person in the room, he basically shrugged and said the loud, drunken backpacker would have to clean it up himself. Huh?

So, I did what any good, seasoned hosteller would do: I pulled the covers up over my face to plug out the smell of vomit (luckily I was on the top bunk), put on my iPod and went to sleep. When I got up the next morning, the drunkard was gone and the mess cleaned up.

Would I recommend Yoho International Youth Hostel? Yes. My bad experience there (and especially the lackadaisical front desk guy) could have happened at any hostel or in any dorm room across the world. The fact that it happened in Salzburg was just a matter of time.

The hostel itself, though, is quite pleasant. The bar is excellent, and they offer super cheap buffet breakfasts which are a nice amenity when you’re hostelling. It’s really centrally located, so you can get to the train station or airport bus within about a 15 minute walk, while Salzburg’s old town is only another 10 minutes walking in the other direction. Yoho International Youth Hostel is big, clean and has plenty of hot water for showers on cold Salzburg mornings. They also have lots of the standard backpacker stuff, such as towel rental, free WiFi and internet access in the lobby and a book exchange. There is no lockout, so you can taste-test local Austrian lagers into the wee hours and still get back to your room (though I wouldn’t recommend vomiting there, if you can help it). They also show ‘The Sound of Music’ on big screen TVs everyday, which is a little hokey, I’ll admit, but still in keeping with the local flavor.

My advice? Just don’t go anywhere on November 1 and always take the top bunk.