Villa Saint Exupery Hostel

The best choice for backpackers in Nice

I have stayed in many hostels throughout Europe and this was by far my favorite one. When I arrived at the train station I jumped on the local bus heading up the hill to the villa were some staff members of the hostel awaited with a van to take us the rest of the way.

The room was what you would expect from a hostel, just the basics of course but the view out the bedroom window to the villa below was simply amazing. This hostel was one of the more socially active ones I had stayed at. The evenings everyone gathers in the lounge area for some cheap drinks and relaxing atmosphere to share travel tales and make new friends. So far this is the only place on earth were I have found a soda machine that dispenses 1 euro beers :D

Unique Quality: Was once a French monastery.

Worst stay in my life!

Virtual Tourist.com is basically my “must-read” before my travel. I had about 20-24 trips to make in a year, including work and leisure. I always respect the people who share their experience here. However experience may not be the same even though somewhere was named “ the best hostel in France” – my recent visit to Villa Saint Exupery in NICE is the worst stay I had in my life, believe no one can beat it.

We were so excited to check in Villa Saint Exupery as most talked about how good it is but in fact it wasn’t. May be when nothing went wrong, it is good. The way they deal with mess, ad hoc issue was awful indeed.

Room price includes airport pick up if you arrive after time when there is no bus running from airport to their place. They said it would take 30mins for them to pick us up, in the end it was more than an hour. Just for the check-in, it took us nearly three hours! First Staff M said “ Hi guys, something went wrong with the system, it booked you two here for 5 nights however in different rooms!” “Different rooms every single night? NO.”
“ We can put you in a single room for the 1st night and you only need to change once, and the rest of nights you will be in a 3-bed room.” To us, a couple who had been traveling for more than 12 hrs, and not even had dinner, we just want to eat, take a shower and sleep asap! “ Ok, I will take this”

15mins gone, staff M came back to us and apologize “ Guys, I am really sorry, there is no room left for the first night. The hostel is overbooked but you can stay in one of the staff’s room, he is not returning tonight” It is a single bed room and I can put a mattress for your husband.” Is this unbelievable? How can they do that? We pay for sleeping on a mattress on the floor? But it is already mid-night, what else can we do if they have no room. All we feel is helpless and pissed of course. The compensation given was 20 Euro deducted from our bill. Staff M rushed to clean up the other staff room for us and we were there freezing in the dark with an empty stomach.

Another 10mins, he was back with again a “sorry” face. “Gosh, what is happening this time?” Staff M said “ Brother of that staff is returning tonight unfortunately, we can’t have that room for you.” THIS IS TOTALLY RUBBISH. ARE THEY FOOLING US?
HOW CAN THAT HAPPEN? “Ok, tell me what you can do.” “We are really sorry and here are two options: one is to have you guys staying in a 3-star hotel in downtown which is about 15mins from here, we can drive you there and pick you back again when tomorrow you are coming back to check in.” We preferred to this option than the other one. “ As a compensation, our hostel will pay 30 Euro of tonight’s fee at the 3-star hotel and you need to pay another 30 Euro.” After a long negotiation, we managed to get a deduction of 30 Euro from the hostel bill, so it seems that our first night is free, in a way.

Well to be honest, I preferred to gain more rest, save hassle rather than making our first night free. Tiring and it definitely leaves us a very bad impression to us – first visit to France.

Another late pick up for us from the 3-star hotel, this time nearly 1.5 hrs. I advise you not to save a bit of money otherwise you choose “time loss or pay a bit more” THEY are totally unreliable.

On our second night in Nice, we finally check in this so called “best value hotel” nominated by Lonely Planet. Then what? My husband told me it has no hot water in the bathroom! March, we can take cold shower though. There was water coming out the bathroom b/c the shower curtain is so tiny and not good to cover splashing water when showering. We complained to the reception and different staff told me it happened due to different reason. One even suggested me to take shower in public bath but we paid private room en-suites, why public bathroom? During our four nights, only one day we have hot water for shower. We have to take shower super carefully because if you do a bit bigger action, water will splash outside.

Finally, we made our complaint the whole to the owner Olf, he is the worst owner we have ever seen, he kept denying, kept saying “It’s impossible, no hot water? what do you mean?” “It is impossible to be overbooked, are you booking from hostelworld, we just book whatever they booked!” “ Flooding in the bathroom? I never heard of anyone complaining about that? Do you have a curtain in the bathroom? If you know how to use it, where is the water coming from? From the roof and go over then curtain?” “I know nothing and I need to check with staff in 20mins. “I give you 20mins to check that out!” And his reply is: I ‘ve got a lot of guest here looking for my travel advise, if you are coming back tonight then we will talk by then” HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMEONE LIKE THIS? HE LOOKED SO HELPFUL WHEN GIVING TRAVEL ADVISE IN THE BREAKFAST ROOM and now you see the real face! I did come back and he never mentioned anything and seems totally forgetting the whole thing. It is truly hopeless to follow up with him, if he is a responsible and polite person; otherwise I better save my time. We just wanted to leave this place, leave Nice and never return!

Stay here if you want to try your luck every day and see if you will experience the same as ours or you want to go up and down the hill (20mins each way) and don't think it is tiring after sightseeing for whole day. Good luck then.

Unique Quality: Nothing at all.

Best Hostel in Nice

I turned up late in Nice about 12 midnight and the reception was still going (It's 24 hours, I found out later). So was the chapel, the common room, where everyone was having the best time enjoying the great (cheap) meals and drinks.

They picked me up from the closest bus stop, and if the buses aren't running, they big up from the airport or train station. Awesome!

The staff are very knowledgeable and friendly, helping with ideas for what to do for day. They have a large list of diverse activities you can do while in Nice!

My advice if in Nice stat here!

Unique Quality: It is in a converted Monastry,
12 computers with free internet in the common room,
Breakfast included,
free pick up
free phone number 0800 307 409

Converted Monestary

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average

Villa Saint Exupery Hostel

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Great For Students, Backpackers, Budget Travelers

Originally, I had booked my whole stay in Nice at a hotel, but when a young friend of mine decided to join me for two nights, I booked two rooms at the hostel for those nights. Fortunately, he had a car because it was pretty far out from the center of town. The staff will pick you up at the bus stop near the hostel, however, so that you do not have to walk up the steep hill or, if you are too tired, they will even pick you up at the airport or train station.

This was an extremely friendly and educated group of people running the place, including the owner, a very distinguished former international businessman. The owner was on site and interacted with the guests.

It was mostly students and an under 30 crowd, of course, but there were a few middle aged people, including a lady from Canada studying French at the Univerisity in Nice and a 48 year old hippy (hope he doesn't read this). There was also a father with 2 children.

Breakfast was included with the price. There was a good assortment of cereals, several choices of breads and jams, yogurt, and juice. Not an Irish breakfast, but certainly more than enough, as far as I was concerned.

My room was clean and I had my own bathroom, however, there were no shades on the window in the bedroom so I covered it with a spare blanket.

My complaints about the place would be that it was very smokey in the great hall and the walls were thin so you could hear every sound coming from other rooms. There was no "lights out" so the noise went on until well after midnight. Also, I was cold, even though the bed was right next to the heater. If you bring your sleeping bag and a sweater, I think you will be okay on that score.

The price was good. The latest quote from their website: single-25€ double-20€ per pers. small dorm-18€ big dorm-14€ Clean sheets and towels are included in the price.

You can book here : http://www.hostelz.com/display.php/17166+Villa+Saint+Exupery
or through the website.

Unique Quality: The outstanding characteristics for me would be the free use of the internet, the great hall where you could meet other people as well as eat your meals, and the friendliness of the staff.

There was a view all the way down to the sea, but this wasn't that important to me, as I didn't hang around during the day.

You can also stay long term if you are a student, for example. And they do have French and English classes.

• Opinion of Price: least expensive
• Related to: Budget Travel, Study Abroad, Backpacking

Villa Saint Exupery Hostel

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Villa Saint Exupery

It's not as it looks in the pamphlets or in their webpage.

When I arrived they were almost full.
There were only a few beds available in a 25-bed mixed dormitory. It was kind of a chapel converted in dormitory with lots of disorganized beds. It was hot like hell.

Later I went to see a 4-bed room and it was also extremely hot and the beds and not very comfortable.

Unique Quality: Popular among backpackers.
Breakfast included (you have to wash the dishes you use).
Free internet access (the computers are old and the OS in Win98 but... it's FREE!).
Friendly staff.
Relaxed ambient.
Beer distributor (1€ per 0,5 litre).

The owner has a van and sometimes, when he goes to the city centre, he takes people.
I don’t remember the price but it is cheap.

• Opinion of Price: least expensive
• Related to: Backpacking, Trains, Budget Travel

Villa Saint Exupery Hostel Photo: The chappel converted in 25-bed dormitory

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Villa Saint Exupery

It's not as it looks in the pamphlets or in their webpage.

When I arrived they were almost full.
There were only a few beds available in a 25-bed mixed dormitory. It was kind of a chapel converted in dormitory with lots of disorganized beds. It was hot like hell.

Later I went to see a 4-bed room and it was also extremely hot and the beds and not very comfortable.

Unique Quality: Popular among backpackers.
Breakfast included (you have to wash the dishes you use).
Free internet access (the computers are old and the OS in Win98 but... it's FREE!).
Friendly staff.
Relaxed ambient.
Beer distributor (1€ per 0,5 litre).

The owner has a van and sometimes, when he goes to the city centre, he takes people.
I don’t remember the price but it is cheap.

• Opinion of Price: least expensive
• Related to: Trains, Backpacking, Budget Travel

Villa Saint Exupery Hostel Photo: Villa Saint Exupery

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