Decent place to sleep in Inverness. It's centrally located near the train and bus stations, pubs,…read moreshops, restaurants, Inverness Castle. Home-like common rooms where you can easily meet others with free coffee and tea with milk included! Two pillows are included on each bed. Great for people like me who think regular hostel pillows are too flat. Booking the hostel involved extra legwork as Hostelworld and the hostel's website didn't show any available beds, but Hostelbookers showed an available bed. Probably best to call the hostel about availability. A £10 key deposit or photo ID is required. Best to leave an ID that is NOT your passport. There's a weird curfew where the front door is locked outside the hours of 7am to 2:30am. As for the negatives...the 10-bed mixed dorm room was too small. There was no underbed storage space. When everyone has their backpacks down and their crap spread out, it left very little floor space. Only one power strip in the room which was always filled with phones needing charging. No lockers in the room. You can store your valuables with the reception desk. However when I tried to retrieve something after midnight, the person on duty didn't have the key so I had to wait in the morning to get it back. Only two toilets on the floor. And one of them wasn't in service due to no one removing the painting equipment inside. The kitchen was crowded around dinner times. When the hostel is fully booked, as it was when I was there, the kitchen is just too small to handle the capacity. Overall, I would've enjoyed the hostel more if it weren't fully booked.

Popped in here because my travel companions told me staying at a hostel was "part of the travel…read moreexperience." I'm an adult with a job, why not find a hotel? Nope. Part of the experience. Okay, here we go. The hostel is quite clean, and endeavors to keep it that way. There is a modest kitchen with most of the amenities, free WiFi, an available breakfast, a helpful staff, and options for longer lodging if you need it. There is also a laundry service available for a modest fee. In addition to a knowledgable staff, there are also several maps, booklets for tourism, and pamphlets for attractions available in several languages. One note: There is limited parking. If you are driving in to see Inverness, you may want to call ahead.

There are many different factors in what makes a great hostel. There is no clean cut answer nor an…read moreeasy way to measure. They are all so different! City Hostel in Inverness is a very unique establishment. From the outside it looks very shady and is incredibly difficult to locate. Not a promising start. It is a little hole in the wall nook dead center of downtown Inverness. Upon entering we were greeted by a wafting scent of illicit drugs but the scent seemed to die off by the time we rounded the staircase upwards. As all Scotland hostels seem to have, we pushed our way through countless doors until finally we reached reception. The reception desk was incredibly kind and helpful. They were young and full of energy. I think it may be a volunteer job in exchange for lodging but I may be wrong. The room was packed with bunk beds just as one would expect. That being said, it was clean and tidy. The entire hostel was very well maintained. The people in our room were from all over. Sadly, many were loud late into the night. The common room is big and welcoming. It offers plenty of window seating and charging ports. There are pool tables and board games for the guests. The kitchen was poorly organized but well stocked and decently clean as far as hostels go. Overall I would say that this was a very pleasant experience. The inside of the hostel is much nicer than one would expect from the outside. The staff was kind, the kitchen stocked, and the rooms clean. Showers are available in abundance. It is in walking distance to everything in downtown Inverness. Definitely recommend to anyone passing through that doesn't mind a bit of craziness! Sometimes it can be fun!

Absolutely amazing. Stayed for over 10 days, absolutely great staff, laundry facilities on site,…read moregreat kitchen set up (even with lots of guests using it at the same time.) So much fun! Great prices, great location, facilities are kept really clean (even the showers, you can shower without shower shoes, a huge plus in the hostel world.) Absolutely stunning!!

A first rate place if you're looking to house a group for a trip to the Scottish Highlands…read more Complete with full kitchen, dining room and even its own little pub, this is absolutely the best place to stay! Both Catered and Self-Catered options available.

The facilities are basic, kept clean. Communal kitchen closes way to early, opens at 8 closes at…read more23:30. Baggage storage available

This is one of the better hostels I've stayed in - friendly helpful staff, clean rooms and…read morefacilities, nice lounge (complete with piano, guitar, and "bar") - this place had a mellow vibe and seemed to attract friendly and interesting travellers. It was also reasonably priced - as low as £10/night, and I know they offer decent weekly rates as well. Very close to the bus & train stations and right off of Academy St. downsides: above a VERY noisy nightclub (only open on weekends, so not TOO bad), kitchen is closed 11pm-8am and the staff are not always there at exactly 8am (lost our food because we made plans after 11pm to catch an early bus - nobody was there to open the kitchen by the time we had to leave at 8:10) Overall a great place to stay :)

I really loved this hostel!…read more I paid about 19 quid a night, which included breakfast (2 pounds). And it was delicious. They also serve dinner there, but it's like 6 pounds. I was in a five-person room with my friends. The room was clean and smelled nice. The staff was friendly. The walls weren't paper-thin, so I wasn't hearing every noise my neighbors made. I wasn't scared for my life when I went in the showers (quite the opposite). Guys, this is not normal of some of the hostels I've been in at this price. It was in a good spot in Ft. Augustus, although there's not a whole lot to do in that town (that closes at 5 pm :) ). I was with a tour, so we just stayed there at night and I got driven around in the morning, fun times. The place serves free hot chocolate, tea, and coffee (!!), and has a great little kitchen with a bunch of dining supplied. They also make an attempt to be environment-friendly. I can't remember if they have a place to store your luggage, but since their doors locked and all the people in the room were friends of mine I didn't mind either way. The only thing was its location was a little out of the way, and unmarked from the main road (no signs leading to it). So I had to wander around alone in the rain. Loved it. It is the hostel to which all others are failing to compare. Edit: Forgot to mention the bar on-site, with a roaring fireplace. And the free internet (there's also free WiFi but I didn't bring my laptop).

We were 2 cyclists going through the Great Glen and arrived here looking for a place to rest for a…read morenight. There were covered areas for locking up our bikes, and reception was smooth and friendly. The only slight problem was that their credit card processing machine was out of order, and we had to pay cash. The rooms were great! Ours had 2 bunk beds for 4 people and did NOT smell like a petting zoo. Actually clean and fresh. The sheets were clean and comfortable, and our room had its own dedicated bathroom and shower, so we only had to share it with a maximum of 4 total. The daily cleaning was on time and diligent. Only downside for us was that our room was a bit far from the router, so WIFI didn't exist in our room. The hostel itself had a great vibe. Lots of people of all different backgrounds, although it seemed to be heavy on the American and Scottish side. The shared kitchen was not spotlessly clean, but pretty damn clean for a hostel and well equipped. The fact that they have a constantly ready hot water boiler for tea and coffee was a special plus! The common areas were clean and tidy, although the raucous-ness from the bar area tended to spill over quite loudly in the evenings. The bar area seemed great fun if you are under 25 and into toga parties and horrible karaoke. Not our thing but it definitely seemed like people were having a blast screaming "I'M ON A BOAT MOTHA F****ERS!!! YEAH I'M ON A BOAT" into the mic.

As much as I like to think I'm a really cool traveller, I don't really think that I'm a youth…read morehostel kind of girl. I mean I've stayed in them in Europe, London and on Skye before- but only twice on my own. Cheap and cheerful, the lady at the reception-cum-tuck shop was lovely. The place is basic, but with some crafty touches, well geared up with kitchen and utility facilities which well suits people who are really travelling on a shoe string budget. Showers and loos smelled a little, and with Ullapool being quiet, and a lot of families staying- people do seem to turn in early, here. Up before sunrise, I thought 10pm was early, I was very wrong. One amusing bonus tip- and not pink bit shaming in any way- I was taken aback when unlocking my dorm door and being immediately confronted by quite a, shall we say, "biology book spread", full frontal view. I'm no prude, but I would like to politely and gently suggest a veiling of genitalia in shared spaces...

A friendly relaxed hostel with excellent facilities, this place was far too quiet for how good it…read moreis. Myself and a friend stopped here on Sunday night on the way back from Skye and we were the only guests. The owners Gregor and Helen, who bought the hostel in May this year, were extremely friendly and welcoming. Gregor gave us a tour of the hostel and chatted about his travels and experiences. We'd booked into a dorm as they don't have any double or twin rooms, only triple and above. It was very clean, spacious and had a lot of little things that made it good and if there had been more people would have mattered more. There was a sink in the room, individual reading lights for each bed, hooks for coats and towels, lockers as well as shelves for bags. The hostel in general was well equipped with a large kitchen with space (and equipment) for three groups to cook at once, with two ovens including a huge range one, a large dining room, a living room with fire, books, board games, and lots of sofas. The other thing that was a little unusual but very welcome was that as well as lots of showers the hostel has a bathroom with a proper bath. After a long day walking and driving this was very welcome and I'm sure if you'd been climbing or cycling it'd be even more welcome. There is a hotel about 10 minutes' walk away that has a bar and restaurant if you don't want to cook but you'll need to take a torch to get back along the road as there aren't any street lights. There are so many little details that make this place good, like the bird identification chart in the kitchen of birds that have been spotted in the garden, the drying room, the bike storage shed. I'll certainly be back and look forward to seeing what other improvements Gregor and Helen make.

Decent place to stay while exploring Loch Ness. Also a good place to stay if the hostels in…read moreInverness are all booked up or if you're looking for a quiet getaway from the bigger cities. The hostel is located close to the Stagecoach and CityLink bus stop, nearby a supermarket, and is about a 30 minute walk to Urquhart Castle, which arguably has the best views of Loch Ness. There's a board with information on all the nearby hikes. Free coffee and tea. Large common area with a bar and a nice outdoor area. The rooms themselves are on the small side. When everyone sets down their backpacks, it's quite crowded.I usually don't spend much time in hostel bedrooms opting instead to hang out in common rooms so this wasn't a problem for me. Other problems with the rooms were no lockers and only one electrical outlet in the room. The more reason to hang out in the common areas instead. I met some cool people there and ended up playing an international version of Scrabble with the French and Germans :D

I took a group of 14, 12 students and 2 chaperones to Loch Ness Backpackers. We absolutely LOVED…read moreit. The owners, Patrick and Nikki, are fantastic....God bless them they even loaded all our luggage into their car and drove it to the bus stop when we making our way to Portree. We felt at home right away and my students were sad to leave. The pub and the house are very warm and inviting and the rooms charming. The showers had excellent water pressure and were very hot. For the price, you really cannot beat this. Thank you for hosting us so graciously!