Globetrotter Hostel OdysseeEditor's Pick

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With its hippie-chic flair and raw industrial setting, the Odyssee Globetrotter Hostel is as pleasant as it is inexpensive. Welcoming and well-run, this private hostel offers both dorms and private rooms. Its low-key comforts, laidback staff, and close proximity to Friedrichshain's lively, up-all-night Boxhagener Kiez make the hostel particularly appealing to the low-maintenance backpacker crowd.

No two rooms look alike. The most recently refurbished dorms, which accommodate three to eight guests, sport metal bunks with large wooden drawers, walls painted intense shades of red, brown or green, and a smattering of artwork. The shared bathrooms are lined with unfinished concrete. Older dorms have seen better days, but their wooden bunks with drawers, colorful sponge-painted walls, and tiled utilitarian bathrooms are clean.

If you upgrade to a private double or single, go for one of the artist-designed rooms. The blue room reflects the hostel’s graffiti-covered hood; the feminine, flower-bedecked room looks like a little garden of Eden. Our favorite room is covered in a swirling black and white design. Older, less interesting rooms have candy-colorful walls and printed tapestry curtains.

The uncommon common areas exhibit an offbeat sense of humor. With their faux medieval walls and oversized statues, the lobby and adjoining library-lounge-computer room reminded us of a kitschy haunted house. The group kitchen isn’t as funny, but—like the rest of the hostel--it’s big, well-equipped, and clean.

» Susan Buzzelli

Note: This hotel was visited by a EuroCheapo editor and is recommended based on cleanliness, location, price and overall quality. EuroCheapo did not charge this hotel to be listed.