Name: El Caminante Hostel
Address: 1780 Avenida Alvear, Esquel, Esquel, Esquel, 9200, Argentina
Rating: 7

24-hour reception

Smoke-free property

Heating

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

General

Concierge services

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Common kitchen

Packed Lunches

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Barbecue grill(s)

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Pets allowed

Pets

Location

At the hostel

Esquel Airport

El Caminante Hostel

Esquel

Pretty average, a lot of beds in a small room and they don't have breakfast. The cold water in the shower in the dorm I was in was broken and there's not much common space inside the hostel. The kitchen is outside and at least have a lot of space.

Not the best option

DO NOT STAY HERE.
We just got back from staying at this hostel and lots of our things got stolen and taken from our bags. We e-mailed the management but, no one responded to us... 

We booked a private room and had our doors locked at all times. The only person who could of got into our room would be someone with the keys (management or a maid). 

We had men shoes taken, a mens jacket and also portable speakers; all which were buried at the bottom of our bag.

Unfortunately, we can't prove this. But we are 99% sure. Bottom line. Don't stay here, locking your stuff won't do anything for you here. It won't even save your old running shoes.

We were robbed by someone with keys...

This hostel has a few positive points: very close to the bus terminal, nice and friendly owner and part of the staff (the cook David), and the two private rooms (one en-suite with own small bathroom) that are pretty decent for the price. Overall the place is clean.
Now the bad things.
The really unbearable thing, at least at the time of my visit, was the huge and disproportionate number of beds put everywhere, making up for a totally absurd situation as far as comfort is concerned. There were bunk beds everywhere, even in the common spaces, with a ridiculously low wc/people ratio. Some of the dormis did not have lockers (although advertised differently) and the breakfast was miserable.
I know well that a hostel is not a hotel, but some minimum standards and requisites should be assured to customers, and they were not in this place.

Too many  beds!

On our booking it said there was breakfast, that wasn't the case.  In our dorm (dorm 2) it was a female dorm and was relatively easy to sleep in as there was only music outside late into the night but that's not so bad.  Each bunk has a mini shelf and a light which was really useful and a nice touch.  There are lockers in the dorms but not all of them have keys.  The hostel has no where to lock your luggage once you have checked out.  The door to the hostel and the dorms are open all the time, anything left out of your locked locker is unsafe however no one stole anything from us.

The communal kitchen is large with two ovens, two fridges, lot of pans, pots, kettles, cutlery and work tops.  Also loads of large tables and large TV with cable and an outdoor seating bit for those who smoked.  It's kept quite clean, just depends how messy the guests leave it after making dinner.  The site is currently under construction but in time I think it'll look really nice and feel more together.

The wifi does not work all the time, we often left to use the great wifi connection if the YPF petrol station.  The biggest problem for me with this hostel is the bathroom situation.  Dorm 2's bathroom was outside the dorm whilst the other bathrooms were inside the other dorms.  This meant that if Dorm 1's bathroom was occupied, they would come and use our bathroom.  In a hostel share and share alike however when you are waiting up to 40 minutes for the bathroom, it's not good and completely unfeasible to have that many people sharing just two.  There was never toilet paper as it got used up in 5 minutes - it was stressful not having better access to those facilities and often contemplated about running across the road to the bus station.  It shouldn't be like this.  

Also, none of the doors shut or open easily, they are old or have been poorly mounted, something that becomes annoying after a while of staying there.  There are small things all over the hostel that just need a quick ten minutes to fix to make a difference such as the shower basket is hanging off the wall, there's no bath mat so there's always a muddy lake on the floor - just small things to make someone's stay worth the money they're paying.

The owners/managers were all very friendly and helpful when asked for advice.  There was a power cut for the whole day and it did get rectified by the time we came back from our day out.  The bed sheets are clean with optional extra blankets.  The location is great from town and the bus station.  I wouldn't recommend, I wouldn't stay here again.

Two bathrooms for 16 people

Got off the bus after almost a 9 hour ride at 6 AM. It was totally dark and nothing was open. This hostel can be seen from the bus station. I walked upstairs. Davide woke up, smiled and showed me a double room with private bathroom. There are three of these outside the main house, close to the huge kitchen. The room was big, clean, had a refrigerator and a cute kitty outside. Wifi worked well. The kitchen was big and well equipped. It was warm as well. There were two problems. Both small. The sink in the bathroom leaked and hence water was everywhere in the bathroom and the heating system which was central could not be controlled. It was really hot at night. However, for 200 Pesos a night, I can not possibly complain and if we are in Esquel again, we will stay here again.

El Caminante Hostel

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