Parla Hostel — Hotel in Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

My husband and I started our travels in Buenos Aires at this hostel and it was one of the best choices we made on our several months of travel so far!

We booked a private room with a small balcony and loved the old dark wood trim and exposed beam ceilings, plus, being able to open our door to the outside was really cool.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a receptionist Natalia who made us feel right at home. She gave us the option to speak in Spanish or English, and since we’re trying to practice Spanish, we opted to go with Spanish and she was so patient with us and kept practicing with us the rest of our stay. She also gave us several recommendations for places to go, including my new favorite coffee shop (Punto Cafe - go there!!!!).

The vibe in the hostel is really what sets it apart. I don’t know if there’s something in the water, but everyone was so nice, open, and genuinely interested in getting to know other guests. There was a really good mix of people who wanted to explore cultural activities by day, share a group dinner in the evening, or go to a live concert/party at night. Whatever you’re into, you can surely find a few new friends here who will be excited to join you.

Also! The location of this hostel is awesome. It’s in the heart of a vibrant neighborhood with beautiful old architecture just blocks from Plaza de Mayo. It’s a short walk to San Telmo, which is another cool historical neighborhood with great bars, restaurants, and the Sunday Market. It’s also very easy to take public transportation (which is CRAZY cheap) to other neighborhoods so we explored Palermo and Recoleta a lot since the bus/train is just around the corner.

We are spending 3 months in Argentina and will absolutely stay here again every time we pass through Buenos Aires. We met a lot of other travelers who had already come back several times and now we know why. :) such...

Tldr : lush hostel my fav in South America due to super friendly and fun but chill vibe, good for both people who want to party but also people who up for chilling and restaurants etc, 10/10 recommend. Met multiple people who kept coming back here or stayed longer term as it’s so easy to make great friends and made lots of friends here myself. Loved staying here and I came back 3 times, due to the above. Staff and volunteers all super friendly and happy to speak in English or Spanish ( perfect for me as I’m trying to practice my broken Spanish ). If you want to go out and find parties there’s always stuff like that going on but also lots of availability to find people who just wanna wonder the city and eat out or go musesums etc. contrasts with some of those big chain extreme party hostels where they have all this forced you must party now vibe, which tend to attract immature / annoying people sometimes. Nice mix of people from all over the world including South Americans which was nice. The owners are 2 guys really chill and friendly - I actually thought for ages they were volunteers or staff as they’re always chilling and chatting in the hostel which i think is reflected in how the whole place has a great vibe and staff n volunteers are very chill - again contrasts with some of the big chain hostels. Nice central location, good Wi-Fi and AC in all rooms. Dorms are 4 beds so not too loud but enough to meet people...

Bedbugs

I stayed at Parla Hostel from May 27th until May 31st where I had the utmost pleasure to find a bedbug on my pillowcase. I had a bite two days before but I was not 100% it was from that. What frustrates me is that they refused to reimburse my previous nights and only gave me compensation for the nights that got canceled, without even any compensation for all the laundry I now have to do… that’s a very unfair treatment. I was left with two choices: leave the hostel or stay in the same bed because they couldn’t change me rooms. I had to leave the hostel on a Friday night and find a new place to stay at 8pm in the middle of Buenos Aires with all my stuff in plastic bags.

Other than that, the hostel is alright but the showers aren’t always hot and the water pressure sucks. It’s as clean as a hostel can be but nothing crazy either. The staff is nice, the problem comes from management. The terrasse is cool and there are activities almost every night.

Beware also that if you pay in pesos they use the western union blue rate, meaning that your night ends up costing the ridiculous price of 14 000 pesos, although it’s not worth that price. So it’s better to pay in...