There are four main tourist pockets to stay in Singapore: Chinatown, Little India, Riverside and Orchard Road. Out of these, I personally prefer to stay in the Chinatown area due to good quality at value prices with a colorful atmosphere. During my first part of the Singapore stay, I ended up staying at the Beary Nice Hostel on Smith street in the China town area. The below review is based on my experience of staying 6 nights here.
1) Beary Nice is a good value for money hostel. For $28, you get a bed in an air conditioned room, your private safety locker, free breakfast, hot showers, a television, free local calls and free wi-fi.
2) The hostel is pretty well recommended by all the guide books, online hotel booking sites and tripadvisor. But, for some reason, I felt the crowd to be very indifferent to others staying in the hostel. May be I am wrong, but it was my opinion or may be it was because I met the weekend party crowd.
3) The dormitories are comfortable, but can be a bit small if you are a big guy and love walking space. The bed is also about 6 foot long. So, if you are taller than 6 foot like me, you will have to sleep diagonally.
4) The free breakfast is quite nutritious with cereal, full cream milk, toast, bread, butter and jam. Everything is limitless and self-served.
5) The hostel front desk is generally short on staff. At many times, a lot of customers were waiting to get signed in.
6) Free wi-fi is good, but nowhere in line with Singapore standards. A couple of times I struggled with making skype calls.
7) The reception folks are extremely helpful and ensured that they addressed all my needs. They gave me maps, a Singapore power converter free of cost, directions, tips and many more.
8) The shower rooms are big and the water pressure is ideal.
9) The common TV room is a bit smaller than other hostels that I have been to, but considering that this is Singapore and that we are paying not much, I think it was good enough.
10) The safety lockers don’t come with a lock and one has to bring their own padlock. Most of the hostels in Singapore are like that. But, for those who don’t carry padlocks, they sell locks for $4 a piece.
11) The hostel is located on Chinatown’s food street and next to the main tourist attractions and the MRT. Hence, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing and commute is all very close by.
Even though this hostel has some minor shortcomings, I still think it is a value for money hostel in Chinatown’s heart.
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