Westlake Hostel Man Juelong branch

Great staff, great atmosphere, clean Huge private room, close to the lake, zoo and tea village. the restaurant has great food and good prices, the room was huge, the bed was amazing and big bathroom. internet was super fast. everyone tried their best to answer all my questions and directed me to activities, i was in contact with the hostel on wechat before and during my stay. they helped me to make it easy to get there since it can be challenging with the traffic. (take a bus from metro stop). this is a fantastic hostel (more like a hotel), the location may seen far, but is close to the lake by bus, Didi (uber), bike or walking. close to the univeristy by Didi. and not too far from alibaba. i recommend this hostel 100% better than staying in a hiotel in the middle of the city.

Choosing this hostel depends on why you are here in Hangzhou. If you are here to relax and get away from things, then this is the place for you. If you are playing tourist, you are on the wrong side of the lake. The map on here shows the hostel on the northern end of the lake. It is actually in the southern region. This kind of ticked me off, as I wanted to be where the attractions and restaurants were. The Good: The staff is friendly and accommodating. The property has charm and personality. It is quiet and in a countryside area. They have bike rentals. The rooms are very nice and each is unique. There is a KTV party room area. Laundry and breakfast are on site. It is a non-smoking hostel. And the dog is nice. The bad: The closest transportation is a bus stop that is a 15 minute walk from the hostel. And, even then, you are outside of the tourist zone for another 15-30 minutes. Taxis are hard to get out here. There are some nice restaurants, but they are charging premium prices. The majority of the bikes need serious repairs. Their reservation system is our of a log book. As such, our first nights reservation was not the room we reserved. It is a non-smoking hostel. There is no room service, unless you ask for it. After 5 days of no fresh linens, WE ASKED. You just have to decide what you are wanting. The daily excursions to and from the Westlake area was not too bad. It is just time consuming. I would recommend this place to a person who likes adventure and has a free spirit. If you are all about schedules and planning, find another place. Oh yeah...the WI-FI really does suck a rotten egg here. Hit or miss always. No matter where you are in the hostel. Definitely needs and upgrade. We had significant issues with finding the place and with check-in. If you dial the phone number, you need to put a 0 as the first digit. Go across the street and pay half price for your beverages and bring them back to the hostel.

We loved this hostel, great vibes and very cosy. The room was very nice with a huge comfortable king size bed with super comfy pillows and a nice duvet. Rather luxurious for a hostel I would say. We did have wifi in the room there was many different wifi connections to use slow as everywhere in China. Obviously no Facebook allowed in China either so don't judge this as no wifi. The bathroom appeared very new and clean with a huge shower head and unlimited hot water which was amazing after staying in poorer hostels for a while. The room appeared very clean and had a very nice window looking over the beautiful garden, and two windows in the roof which would be great for the summer. Plenty of common room areas. The staff do not have fluent English as stated in other reviews but they have better English than what I can speak Chinese so can not be faulted for this. It is obvious that they are making the effort. They have enough to help you with general information and be pleasant. Walking distance to west lake, a small convenience store opposite and restaurants near by , the hostel also has a restaurant but we did not eat here as seemed slightly over priced in comparison to others near by. We took a taxi here from the railway station and it cost 60yuen approx £6. The info we received said 30yuen but you have to read between the lines as it is in broken English meaning it is 30 when you get off at the subway which is recommends. The hostel is like a little oasis when you walk round to the super busy area of the lake you realise how lucky you are to go back and swing in the egg chairs of the peaceful garden at the hostel. I would definitely recommend this hostel to everybody visiting this area and would stay here again if ever back in the area. Hangzhou is a beautiful scenic area worth seeing when in China. Just beware if you book this accommodation on booking.com and it states room rate includes breakfast this is false this is a fault of booking.com as the hostel do not do a free breakfast which booking.com seems to offer. Another strange thing booking.com advertise this as a standard queen room however is is actually a king size room which they offer so there is miss communication with the booking agency's. But booking.com do offer a cheap rate as the hostel charge 380yuen for the room we were in per night and we paid 920 for 4 nights on booking.com so it is worth booking in advance. Friendly and helpful staff in a very cool cosy hostel.