Viajero Hostel Tayrona & Ecohabs — Hotel in Magdalena

Really nice hostel. One of the best on our 3 month South America trip. It’s like a resort! Nice decent size pool, it’s right on the beach and the bar was good too.

Stayed in an 8 bed dorm. Was a bit strange that there was no lights in there. Only foot lights and little lamps on your bed so when it’s dark outside it obviously gets very dark inside. If you book a room with aircon just be aware that they only turn it on between 9pm- 9am at 25 degrees (the same temperature as outside at night) Had to go to reception (5-7 min walk) many times to ask for it to be turned on and for the aircon not to be on 27 degrees.

Once you’re at this hostel, there is nothing around for a good 10/15 min drive. So they have a restaurant and bar on site. (It’s expensive) For the portion sizes you get for the money you’re paying is bad. We saw most guests staying they would either get 2 dinners each or 1 and a half because just 1 dinner isn’t enough. Dinner for one person, for one plate would be around £7/8.

WiFi.. I read so many bad reviews about how bad the WiFi was, it’s fine. Yes it could be better and to be able to use it throughout the grounds of the hostel but if you go to the restaurant/ bar when it’s quiet it’s strong and fast.

Security was pretty bad in the hostel room, no locker to put your bag in to. Yes you have a safe to use but no instructions in English how to use it. There’s no key so anyone can walk in to anyone’s room. We even spoke to people that wasn’t even staying in viajero and they came to use the pool as they didn’t have anywhere to stay. They ended up sleeping within the grounds of the hostel overnight. There rule here is that once you check out at 12 you can continue to use that room until you decide to leave, leaving your bag in there and able to use the shower etc. At one point we had over 10 people on our room.. Someone in our room had a few things go missing (basic body wash that was on his bed and his charger) nothing important but still..

If you do decide to stay here bring as much drinking water as you can and maybe some snacks as water was 4000 for a 1L bottle here.

Overall I’d stay here again as it was very nice but theres a few things that need to be improved.

Cleanliness 10/10 Security 3/10 Value...

Firstly, this is a beautiful hostel in a beautiful location, literally on a beach and with lots of space, a pool, a volleyball net and an outside bar for partying. The rooms are nice and spacious.

Unfortunately, I had a few issues while staying here.

Firstly, upper bunks have nothing to stop you from rolling out of bed in the night (no bars etc). As someone who used to manage a hostel you need this - especially in an environment where people are likely to get drunk. During my stay here someone did roll out of their bed, onto the floor, causing themselves injury. This was only noticed when someone slipped on their blood in the night, and they had to be taken to hospital.

Also, I got very sick here from possible food poisoning. It was either from a cerviche, or from ice cubes given to me with a drink. My German friend also got sick after eating a chicken curry and allegedly two French guests became ill as well. I reported this to reception but they did not do anything about it. I then contacted Viajero on Instagram and they said the restaurant manager would contact me but they did not.

I also bought one of the more expensive craft beers and it was warm.

The Wi-Fi here is terrible and more routers need to be put near the rooms and bar area - the only place you can get it properly is near reception.

Check-in and out is chaotic - there are usually two people on reception but no queue or order - people just crowd around the reception and they don't really know what to do.

Laundry is also very expensive (I paid £8 for one bag of washing).

Finally, I paid 80,000 pesos for a shuttle bus to Cartagena, choosing this option over a cheaper bus to Santa Marta first (and then another bus). The shuttle bus was one hour late, did not have working seatbelts, was delayed by another 45 minutes and then when we got to Cartagena did not drop anyone off where they were staying, despite the hostel reception telling me this would happen. It would have made sense to take down our destinations first and this list given to the driver (who did not seem to know his way around Cartagena at all). This was not a very pleasurable journey when you are recovering from...

Low rating because private rooms do not live up to expectations for a 4 star hotel with coworking facilities, as advertised and priced. This property has a great location on a beautiful, wild beach. I loved laying in a hammock and reading. Would recommend for backpackers who do not need access to email.

There is no Wifi in the hotel rooms, only in the central social spaces - but these spaces do not have outlets by seating and get quite noisy. The one time I went to the dedicated coworking space, it smelled and the Internet did not work.

Hotel room was extremely charming. Loved waking up to the sounds of the birds. Loved having an outdoor shower. But the furniture in the outdoor patio space was dirty. A little dust is to be expected because it’s outside, but I don’t think it had been cleaned in some time. The outdoor furniture at the beach was clean and well maintained.

Food in the restaurant was excellent, but service was slow. Repeatedly took 30+ minutes to place an order. Normally had to flag someone down. Staff always looked like they were working hard. Might benefit from a zone system for covering tables. Service was also pretty inflexible, in spite of high prices. The breakfasts come with one of two types of toast. I asked if I could get the other type of toast with my meal and received a hard no.

Intentionally did not stay on the weekend because I knew they throw big parties. Even during the week, they have a DJ until midnight and you can hear the bass in the private rooms in the jungle.

Might be best to stay at a hotel nearby, then pop over to experience the ambience. Lots to love here! Just might not have everything you need.

Would recommend staying in dorms here to backpackers who do not need to connect to the Internet very much. Hotel organizes a lot of social moments throughout the day....