Kick Ass Greyfriars

Cant think of anything i didnt like, really. My boyfriend and I were in a six person mixed-sex room. Most of the bathrooms are also unisex which is fine because the doors are full length. One shower had only a curtain but the rest also had doors. The water was hot and pressure was good.

The food was filling and cheap. It was centered right in the middle of town, right by the castle and shops. There is laundry on site but only two washer dryers so gotta get there early.

I guess it kinda sucked going up to the top floor because there was no elevator but exercise is always good. In the rooms there were lockers if you brought your own lock but i just left my stuff on the bed and it was fine. On the bottom floor there is a 1£/day luggage storage. We fit all of our bags in one. Though we wasted one pound fiddling with the lock at first haha.

The card keys were a bit iffy sometimes is the only thing i found annoying i guess. But i had a somewhat negative idea of what hostels were so this was my first one and it was great!

Very nice and clean hostile. Friendly staff and chill environment! They have almost anything you need there!

A friend and I went to Europe for 5 weeks, through 8 countries, this was easily our favorite hostel. Great, friendly, and knowledgeable staff. They'll tell you who is playing what music and running which specials, rock out to some old school Metallica with you, or make sure you don't do anything *too* stupid out in Edinburgh.

Protips:
TAKE the free tour, it is really quite good. You'll learn a lot of intimate information about Edinburgh and its history.

Go on the pubcrawl (it too, is free)! It's a great way to make friends with people from all over the globe, see a variety of bars, and let's be honest...sometimes while drinking you just want to be sheepishly led to the next place.

10/10 would stay here again. The staff was friendly and helpful, the beds were clean and well-kept - really the entire hostel was well-kept. I was in a 12-person mixed room, and I was very happy to meet the other people, make friends, and have good company. Knowing that I good place to come back to at night made my stay in Edinburgh that much more of a treat!
Good thing to remember - there are lockers next to the beds. You can bring your own padlock if you want to use them. Otherwise, you can buy a padlock from the front desk or use a rent-locker. That being said, depends on the roommates.

There are many backpacking hostels in Edinburgh and each has its plus and minus points. This was my first stay at Budget Backpackers and I kinda knew what to expect from reviews and the hostel's city location.

I expected a big and busy hostel with lots of migrant workers and that turned out to be the case. There are many Spanish migrants here due to massive unemployment in that country and many are permanently resident at the hostel. A visit to the hostel's kitchen with all the food boxes says it all.

Despite the commercial undercurrent of the hostel I found this hostel to be very well run by nice 'can do' people. There is a definite buzz about the place which is likely to suit the younger visitor, those looking for a quite hostel for chilling out should look elsewhere. The hostel has a backpacking theme with various graphics and photos on the reception wall and throughout the hostel. Beyond the reception is a combined bar and restaurant with a widescreen wall mounted tv where you can buy breakfast, lunch and dinner. Later in the evening guests gather at the bar for drinks and there is a pub crawl if you're into such things.

The dorms were clean, the beds comfortable with firm mattresses which suits my bad back, plenty of space and lockers provided but you do need your own padlock whereas the lockers in some hostels have key lockers. You can buy padlocks at the reception desk but you probably have one chucking about at home you could bring along. One downside of lockers which require a padlock is that the use of a padlock tends to indicate something valuable inside the locker, whereas key lockers are all the same and so your locker doesn't stand out as something with valuable equipment inside. In saying that I haven't found any issues with security, bearing in mind the dorms are security keyed but it could be possible for someone staying in a dorm to lever open a locker and then scarper with the swag, after all it is only £10 or £11 per night, then flog the stuff at Cash Convertors, but there is a fully secure luggage room at this hostel which is locked and camera monitored should you require greater levels of security for your stuff.

The showers were clean, spacious and worked well with plenty of hot water which runs contrary to the experiences of previous visitors but perhaps this is something they have sorted out in recent months. The kitchen I found to be ok, if it had been better I may have given a full 5 stars but again it was really busy, utensils were scattered around and couldn't find a working tin opener, but this is largely due to the intensive daily use the kitchen gets from the migrant workers, all of whom need the kitchen to keep personal daily living costs down. But a lot of guests stayed clear of the kitchen because it's total bedlam in there.

The central location of the hostel is good for visiting the local city attractions but this makes car access more difficult so you have to park further out and then carry your stuff to the hostel. Some hostels further out you can park outside for a while which makes taking your stuff in much easier.

In conclusion I would be happy to recommend this hostel. Some of the older problems pointed out by other reviewers appear to have been ironed out. I liked the humorous themed bar which looks like an old VW camper van, the friendly staff, the showers and smaller dorms. A guest did show me inside the larger dorms which looked like the inside of a concentration camp so I would recommend paying a couple of pounds extra to stay in a much smaller 12 bed dorm.

For the price, this place is definitely worth it! I was there for 1 night and stayed in a 4 bed room, so I don't know anything about the massive rooms. I will say though, when coming home drunk in the middle of the night, I had trouble finding my room. So many doors and hallways and twists and turns. Very confusing when all I want to do after my kebab is pass out.

But the bed was comfy, the duvet was lovely, and I liked the lockers and the little shelf each bed had with a small light. The only negative for the room was that there was no mirror so I had to get ready entirely in the communal bathroom around the corner. Not very important, just a minor inconvenience.

The bar was great, had dirt cheap shots with even dirtier names. I would give you some examples, but I think I had too many of them that night to remember. I had already lived in edinburgh for a year so didn't need the free walking tour but it was really nice to offer that everyday for people who didn't know the city.

If I come back and need to book a hostel I will definitely come here!

I LOVE this hostel!
Its so clean, fresh and friendly...not to mention cheap. Showers are free and clean linen are provided upon arrival. Its in a nice central location and its so lively and bubbly :) the staff are really lovely and easy to approach, giving you all sorts of advice and are great for a general natter. There is no lift, so be prepared to carry your stuff up a few flights of stairs (depending on where your put!!)

Theres a lovely sitting area with a TV and pool table, BBP also provide breakfast but me and my friends were out before breakfast and usually ate out anyway so that wasnt a problem. You also get a locker each in your room for all your stuff :)

Ive been to Edinburgh a few times and we've always used this hostel. If your not bothered about sharing your room with strangers (but thats kind of normal for hostels!!), and just to use it for a base, its fantastic! I would happily pay more to stay here.

It is to say that rooms start from £7 per night, but thats for a 12 dorm shared and the prices go up a few quid the less beds there are in the dorms. We normally stay in a 6-shared which is lovely and is only about £12 a night which i don't mind paying compared to the £40+ a night you'd be looking at paying for a hotel in the same location.

Wifi can be a bit sketchy, but if your only using it for somewhere to sleep then its not much of a problem, as most places out of the hostel have wifi anyway. We didnt even think about it, and if you HAVE to use the internet, theres computers in the lobby that can be used for something like £1 for 30mins.

My advice: Stay here, its lovely :) I would highly reccomend it to anyone.

Cheap Central Cowgate. This is probably the best hostel in Edinburgh and the staff is awesome. There are lockers in the room that you can use to store your stuff and the bar/kitchen serves excellent food at very reasonable prices.

I've recommended many a travelling friend to stay here on numerous occasions and overall, I've heard nothing but positive comments. The fresh licks of paint and general clean aura all get the thumbs up, alongside some helpful and chilled staff.

One minor problem, so I've been told, is the lack of Wifi and painfully slow on site internet slightly hamper any chance of labelling this hostel as amazing.

Nonetheless, there's so many additional features such as cheap breakfasts, free storage lockers, hot showers and a swanky 'chill' lounge. These easily make up for the above niggle.

Oh, and it's location is a massive bonus, only a stones throw from the train station, the castle and Princes St.

Booked quite last minute and during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (plus the television festival, which I was there for), and for a female-only, 4-bed room the price was very reasonable. The beds were comfy, each person had a locker (which you could buy a padlock for at reception for £5, or bring your own) and there was a little lamp and power socket by each bed. They ask people to be considerate of noise after 10pm, which seemed to work and I slept well both nights I was there. There are both mixed and female only bathrooms with toilets in cubicles and shower cubicles - the shower was surprisingly powerful!
Check in and out was fuss-free, with mostly friendly staff on the desk, and there was a nice (fairly small) bar/ cafe/ restaurant downstairs that had great prices and deals each day. - I had a delicious burger with sweet potato chips and a Sex on the Beach cocktail - all for under a tenner which is amazing for a Londoner like me!! You also get discount vouchers with your check-in paperwork, which I stupidly forgot to use.
They have a sister hostel down the road that has a different activity each night (from pub quizzes to karaoke nights), and they also run tours which unfortunately I didn't get to experience.
Although it looked a bit shabby, Budget Backpackers really had everything you could want, especially for the prices, and it was very conveniently located for me too.