Vintage Hostel | Paris

Here is my review of my stay at Vintage Hostel. I thought it would be easy to find with the directions given from the hostel website.  We did as the site suggested and took a left out of Gare du Nord station onto Rue de Dunkerque. After that, it got real confusing. We got lost….. We didn’t realize that one block could easily turn into another block and that if you think you are on Rue de Dunkerque it could switch to another name because all the blocks seem to intersect. Or it felt that way to me anyway. Luckily, someone saw us looking confused and pointed us in the direction we needed to go. Still, we got lost…. We made our way back to Gare du Nord and started over again. Trying to find Vintage Hostel the second time was much easier than the first time.

Upon arriving at Vintage Hostel, we were given bed sheets and key cards to access our rooms. We were given 508 as our room number and then preceded to head up to our room. While there, the elevator didn’t work so we had to climb up five flights of stairs to get to our rooms. That wouldn’t have been a problem except for when we arrived since we had our backpacks that we needed to carry up to the room with us. The packs seemed to get heavier with every step we took. It was 92 steps…. I counted….

We opened the door to our room and after checking everything out, I realized the only thing I was going to love about the room was the big window that looked out onto the back of another building. Still, it was a nice view and at least we could open up the window whenever we wanted. Another added benefit was the air conditioning which worked really well. So well in fact that I would get cold at night because that is the only time we had it turned on in the room. I took the bottom bunk bed since I didn’t want to climb up to the top bunk bed every night to sleep. I slept close to the edge of the bed since I tried to stay away from the wall since it had some small holes in it. Onto the bathroom which I tried not to look up when I took showers because there was mold on the ceiling. I am sure the other rooms might be nicer than the one we were given but if I ever stayed here again, I would request another room that was not 508 and closer to the reception area so I wouldn’t have to climb up so many steps with my backpack. One more thing to add about the rooms is that there is a lock-out during the day so that the rooms could be cleaned. We never did get out of the room before the lock-out started at 9:00 am through 4:00 pm. It was never a problem coming back to the room after 4:00 since we were always out during the day.

The hostel did offer breakfast and free Wi-Fi which was included in the price of the bed. Breakfast consisted of rolls, croissants, jams, cereal and milk. Seriously what more could you ask for in a breakfast and a free one at that.  All the food that you need to get you started on the right foot in the morning. There was even a kitchen provided if you wanted to make your own meal while there. We used it once while we were there to make pasta for dinner and they had all the kitchenware provided for us to use. As for the Wi-Fi, it only worked in the common area and it was spotty at best. You had to sit in a certain area for the Wi-Fi to work better for you and if you weren’t in that area, then it was hit and miss if the Wi-Fi would work. In order to access the Wi-Fi, you would go up to the reception desk and get a piece of paper out of this fish bowl and it held the password for the Wi-Fi that could be used for the hour. Then you would go back to the desk and get another password when the hour was up so that the Wi-Fi was free for you during your entire stay. Or you could pay to use the computer that they had in the common area.

Now if you are like some people, you need lockers to put your valuables or backpacks in while you are gone for the day. Lockers were not provided in the rooms which are something the hostel should look into if they decide to upgrade the rooms. There were some lockers in the common area that you could use if any were available. We found one to use for our entire stay which we only used to put a few things into since we left our backpacks in the room. The lockers were free. You only needed to put some money in them as a deposit of sorts, put a combination into the lock provided that only you would know and then when you left you would receive the money back.

Leaving the room out of the equation, Vintage Hostel is really close to the metro which we used while we were there. Anvers. That is the metro stop we used to take to whatever we wanted to see in the city. Besides all the walking we did. Another thing is the hostel is close to my favorite place in Paris. Sacre Coeur…. I can’t attest to how close it was since we had to backtrack to see it from another area of Paris and didn’t actually walk to it from the hostel.

One thing to remember if you do decide to stay at Vintage Hostel is that parts of the area around the hostel can be dodgy. Or you feel as if you are in the bad part of Paris. I don’t know how else to say it but that is how I felt especially after using the Laundromat that was around the corner from where we stayed. We were harassed by one teenager or he might have been in his early 20’s that was speaking to us in foul language and wouldn’t leave us alone. He even said he would take our clothes out of the washing machine when we left to get some breakfast. We weren’t worried about that since the machines are on timers and you can’t open them until the timer goes off.

I am not sure how many stars or what rating I would give Vintage Hostel because it had some good qualities and some not so good qualities to it. Though, the bad far outweighed the good. Do with it what you will if you decide to take a chance and stay here. Everyone experiences things differently and your experiences at Vintage might be different than mine or they might very well be the same.

Vintage Hostel

Disclaimer – I was not compensated by Vintage Hostel for this review. This is solely my own opinion/experience staying at this hostel while in Paris.