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Phone: 215-922-4082

Street Address: 32 South Bank Street

Rates: $18 to $21, tax included, sleep sack is extra

Location Rating: Very Good. It is a quick stroll to the historic heart of the city.

Lobby Appearance: Better than I expected.

Room Appearance: Lots of bunk beds. Lots of close neighbors.

* A good resource for the budget traveller *

Comments: From 10:30am till 4:30pm they are closed and the door is locked. I had walked by here numerous times. The entrance is in an alley that seems like a good place to get mugged. The door gives the impression that it's a dump inside. So I was very surprised when I saw it was actually not so bad inside. To the right there is a small pool table that is free for guests. There is attractive lighting by the pool table. Art is on the walls. To the left are two lounge areas with a large TV, numerous places to sit and relax; they even have board games available, like Monopoly. The lighting in these two lounge areas is a bit dreary, but its clean. Calm music plays through a stereo on this floor. Downstairs is another fairly large hang-out area, plus a large kitchen. I noticed a slight smell near the kitchen, but it was minor. There are also two washers and dryers. For $3 you can do a load of wash. That includes soap and the dryer.

There is a floor for men and a floor for women. I only saw the men's floor. Toilet and shower facilities were clean. If the hostel is full, you might need to wait in a line to use a shower. Showers are semi-private. The sleeping quarters are bunk beds. Lots of bunk beds. For those unfamiliar with what a hostel is, you will be sharing sleeping space. And here it appears to be 35 beds in one large room that has a wall in the middle of it.

Even though they have just 70 beds, they say they never turn away a traveller. They will let you sleep on a couch if beds are not available (they have sofa beds). And if there are no places to sleep on the couches, they'll even let you sleep on the floor! (For a discounted price.)

However they will turn away locals. Local people are not welcomed here. Neither are crazy people or street bums. The hostel management realized that too many problem people were locals, so now no local people can stay there. They have found that foreigners are much more respectful, of which they have a lot of, in addition to Americans from other regions of the country.

I read through part of their guest book and saw entries from people from various countries. It appeared everybody was mostly happy with their visit to Philadelphia and with the hostel. One entry from October 18th said: "I am fine. I am not being beaten, starved or unnecessarily frightened." I guess that was somebody's sense of humor.

Internet access is available here, but it is pricey at $1 for 4 minutes. There are other places nearby where you can check email, like the library where the first 30 minutes is free.

The hostel does have a curfew. It is either 12:30am or 1am depending upon if it is a weekend night or not.

The hostel does have a few lockers. You need to be a paying guest to use them.

If you can handle bunking with strangers, this is a good, cheap place to stay. It looks clean.