Went to Naples with another girl - Naples has a reputation for being rough and dangerous, so stayed in Mergellina. Booked two nights originally, stayed 6. Simple rooms, simple breakfast and good service.

My friend recommended this place because of its location and I must say, the view was beautiful and the location was good so no problems there.

The rooms were comfortable and the price was very reasonable so again, no problems there.

My main concern had to do with what seemed to be a charge for the essentials that other youth hostels would include such as internet or lockers. For example, you had to pay to use the Wi-Fi internet here on your laptop or mobile device and while you'd get a card that would work for 12 hours, it was 12 hours continuously so if you used two hours and decided to go out and do something and return a few hours later, your internet card would be useless. I didn't mind paying for internet since the price was very low but I was bothered that if you used internet, it had to be used continuously. The same thing applied to the communal computers but were good for an hour and if you used only a small portion, again it would be useless.

Another freebie in other hostels but not here was the fact that you had to pay to lock your valuables like passport, phone, etc. in. I had no problems with my roommates but accidents happen only once so having to pay 1 Euro for every 24 hour period was frustrating. However, if you had stuff that wouldn't fit into the lockers like a laptop, the staff would gladly hang onto it behind the main counter without a charge so that was good.

The staff was great though and very helpful when it came to things like printing out a boarding pass or other things so no problems there.

Breakfast wasn't anything to write home about since it was very basic, but I managed to enjoy a chocolate croissant and a cup of tea. No fruits or anything like that...

The shower in the room was quite small but it was clean so no problems there.

Overall, I had a good stay in this hostel but I think that if the lockers and internet could be resolved, it would be worth staying for sure!

We spent three nights at this hostel and were very unimpressed. We had a private room for two with an ensuite. The room had double bunks that were very hard and uncomfortable. The room was so small I could not even stretch out my arms in the space between the bed and the other wall.

The weather was very warm when we were there and there is no airconditioning or fan. There is a large window but it has no flyscreen and there are houses on the opposite side so you had to shut the window (with wooden shutters, no glass) at night time for privacy and to keep out all the moths and mosquitos. We were on the side of the hostel facing a rockwall so had no breeze whatsoever and felt like we were in a real sweatbox!

Our ensuite smelled of mould and damp, and the shower curtain wasn't long enough so everytime you took a shower the floor would be awash. Also the toilet did not flush if used more than once in a 20 minute timeframe. There were tons of mosquitos everywhere.

We found the staff were a little unhelpful. They never seemed to have any towels available (despite advertising them as being there to rent), and often were out the front smoking or talking so you are left standing at the front desk for ages.

When we asked about the laundry we were told that one of the washing machines was broken but the other one cost 3 euros. When we went down both seemed to be working, so we put our money in the machine, but it just swallowed all our coins and nothing happened! So we ended up paying 6 euros to do washing and 2 euros to use their dryer (the one that wasn't broken). You can't get change as the vending machine was broken too.

The reviews about the breakfast are warranted. You get one small, slightly burnt, sickly sweet croissant and a 125ml bottle of pear juice (or you could have one small cup of coffee that was foul). We ended up walking to a bakery and buying beautiful fresh croissants for just 50 cents each - do that rather than endure the breakfast at the hostel. We had brought food from the supermarket to make our own breakfasts but there is no kitchen or fridge at the hostel and in the heat it was impossible to keep any food in the rooms.

In the rooms there is nowhere to lock valuables up.

To get into naples it is a fair train ride, as mergellina is really out in the suburbs, so if you need to get in early to catch a train you would need to factor this in.

The only positives about this hostel were that you could walk to the harbour and there were a number of good cheap pizza restaurants just 5 minutes walk away.

Generally though, this hostel is not in the nicest area and you would be better off staying in the Sorrento youth hostel which at least is in a nice town - Naples itself doesn't have much to offer.

Friendly staff, plenty of space, big screen public tv, they charge for internet, mostly clean, very affordable, the only real downside is it is very difficult to get to. As of 7/09 it was in the middle of a giant construction site up on a hill. not far from the train station, however. good value.