Where to stay in London?

Hello World!
If you have been following our Instagram, you know we visited London, UK. If you have Instagram account, you can follow our adventures here -> @dianomaya. Look for the London stories in “Highlights“!
This blog is loooong overdue, so let’s not procrastinate any more and go strait to it.

In London, we were hosted by the “St Christopher’s At The Village Hostel in London Bridge“, a very chic, in the center of the city, party hostel. I think that description says it all. Let’s start with what we think is their best quality -> location!

LOCATION

London is huge, so it is very hard to define center, but if you are here for London’s top tourist locations, St Christopher’s Hostel is situated literally in the center of the city! It is an easy walk to the Shard, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower Castle, Shakespeare’s Globe and Tate Museum. If you plan to go anywhere else in the city, hostel is just 2 minutes walk from TWO tube stations (JUBILEE, NORTHERN).
Right in front of the hotel you also have a bus stop with couple of lines going around the city. There is a “London TUBE Map app” you can install to easily navigate around the city, or just use Google Maps, like we did. Find the location you want to go to and Google Maps will show you all transportation options to get there, with approximate time of arrival too.

CHECK IN / OUT

Hotstel has 24/7 reception desk, which is always a plus. Staff spoken several languages, was polite and very helpful, however they’ve put us in the room on the third floor, next to the “chill out room”, which we didn’t appreciate. Let me elaborate. We knew we were coming to a party hostel, no problem there, let’s party! People are using chill out room” as a “hangout” at night, no problem there either, let’s meet new people. But the doors of that room were broken. So every time, night or day, someone would enter or leave “chill out room” the doors would do BANG! BANG! BANG! on our brain 🙂
To conclude, if they say 3rd floor room, make sure it is not close to the “chill out room”, try to switch rooms right there on the reception desk. If I remember right, we got the room no. 311. which we advise to avoid.

ROOM 1

Now, let’s get back to the good stuff. The room itself was tiny, but pretty great. We got a private double bunk room, with our own bathroom. We had all amenities we needed in the bathroom: shower gel, towels and hair dryer; and in bedroom: coffee and tea bags, with cups. Right next to our beds we had several electricity plug ins, which is always needed, if you are travel blogger and Instagramer, like us. Keep in mind to bring UK outlet adapter.
On the third floor, we also found an terrace with the most wonderful Shard view.

CAPSULE ROOM

Last night of our stay we moved to Japanese-style capsule beds. YES! Firstly, a capsule bed!! We saw those on several YouTube videos and always wondered what would be like to sleep in one. Secondly, even though we shared the room with other 20-ish people, it was so quiet, in compare to our first “next to chill out room” room.
So, when you check in into “capsule bed” you get the room key, because it is a room. In that room there are maybe 20-30 capsule beds, lockers and toilets with showers. You get your bed number aka. your capsule equipped with UK outlets, USB ports, mood lights and curtains for privacy. You will also be assigned to a locker (same number as your bed), where you can put your luggage and valuable items. Padlocks are available for the lockers.
Inside the capsule, combination of the lights and comfortable beds rocked us to sleep immediately.
This was totally unique accommodation experience, perfect for 1 or 2 nights in the city. Only if you are claustrophobic you should skip it 🙂

BREAKFAST

It is always good to have something to eat at your accommodation to start your day on a full stomach. St Christopher’s Hostel has a breakfast included in their prices and it is located in the building basement. There you will find simple breakfast buffet with toast, ham & cheese, cereals, fruit, coffee, tea and juices to get you started. If that is not enough for you, there is a supermarket minute walk from the Hostel.

BAR

Since St Christopher’s Hostel is a “party hostel” they have a bar on the premises, called Belushi’s bar. Being a hostel guest will get you 25% discount on your food & drinks. Just show your key card before they issue the bill.
We were out in the city most of our days during our stay, so we didn’t get to try their food and apparently very tasty burgers, but we did enjoyed a beer during a hilarious karaoke night and coffee in the morning (which is much better than breakfast coffee). Bar has a “sport vibe” with “cage tables” where each table has it’s own TV. How cool is that?

All in all, if you are young (or feel that way) and want to have fun, St Christopher’s Hostel is a hostel for you. There is a party every night at the bar, you can save money on a transport (being that close to several city attractions) and meet so much cool people all around the world.
Besides London, St Christopher’s also has hostels around the Europe, like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Prague, Edinburgh and Bruges.

You can find them here:
Facebook: St Christopher’s London at the Village London Bridge
Instagram: St Christopher’s London

And for Shereen, from sales team, if you are reading this, thank you for everything, you are really the best!

I almost forgot! After a long time Diano found inspiration and made a short London video. Wohoooo! You can find it here: