BLUE PLANET HOSTEL IN PARIS

We had originally booked Blue Planet Hostel in Paris for six nights, but by the fourth night we opted out to stay in a private room at another hotel.

Blue Planet Hostel had some inconveniences like only one key per room, which meant being woken up to open the door for roommates coming in late.

It also charged €3/hour for internet access, which is the highest price we’ve seen at a hostel.

Blue Planet Hostel provided the cheapest rates for staying in Paris, but we’re not sure if it was worth the cheap price.

Dorm Room:

The dorm rooms are separated by male and female only rooms. So I stayed in a 4-bed female dorm room while Mark was in a 3-bed male room. The rooms had bunk beds that were the kind that would make a lot of noise and shake whenever one of the bunkmates moved around. There was also only one power outlet per room. So with four of us to a room, it was a long wait for a turn to use the outlet.

As I said earlier, there’s only one key per room that we’re suppose to leave at the front desk if we left the building. This meant that we had to let roommates in late at night, and in turn it also meant that if no one answered the door for us, we had to walk five flights of stairs to talk to the staff to have them let us in and then climb back up the stairs again. It was a strange system. Mark’s room also happened to be right next to their flashing red light “HOSTEL” sign outside. This meant at night he had a continual blinking of red light coming through the window.

Amenities:

There is one toilet and one shower room on each floor. The shower was odd as we had to keep pushing a button to keep the water running. It would take a few minutes for the hot water to come out of it. There is no kitchen, but there is free breakfast. This was where they’d give us three coins and we put them into a vending machine to get a pre-packaged pastry and orange juice in a box. There was also free coffee. We didn’t know about the free breakfast until the morning we were checking out. There are computers in the lobby area and this is where one could buy internet or WiFi access. From 11 am to 3:30 pm there is a lockout of the hostel for cleaning. They are pretty serious about this as they have a staff member going through all the rooms at 11 am kicking people out.

Pricing:

At €16.70/night per person, it was the cheapest place we found to stay in Paris that was close to major attractions. It’s worth the price if you’re willing to put up with the low-quality accomodation. We ended up checking out after the fourth night, and were unfortuately not given a refund for the last two nights we had reserved there.

Location:

Blue Planet Hostel is located right next to Gare de Lyon train and metro station giving it quick access to anywhere in Paris. There are also great boulangeries and restaurants just around the block.

Next hostel on our route was an upgrade: the HOTEL VIATOR IN PARIS, FRANCE.