Actually I agree completely with the previous opinion of RinziRinzi, although I didnt care to much about the noise of the pray. It is an Islamic country and thats normal - I guess...

Anyhow, I really dislike the hostel because the staff was so unfriendly except a few people. The girl selling sweets and the guy who cleaned the room were alright! But people at the front desk and at the breakfast let me feel quite unwanted.
Let me start with the good things:

- The swimming pool is quite nice (unfortunately only open till 8 o'clock! Whats the point in that if you do sightseeing during the hot day and wants to refresh at night; also it closes in the afternoon?!). One time I came back at 8:05 and wanted to jumb in for five minutes - no way!
- Cheaper than hotels but of course very simple dormitaries
- Parking spaces in front
- Cleaness was alright.

What I dislike:

- The staff at the front desk had nothing to do - 3 guys sitting around but if you asked them something, they tried to get rid of you as fast as possible. Quick answer in very bad English! No maps and tourist information at all Not welcoming at all! Let you feel, that you have to be thankful to stay there!
- The hostel is quite far outside from the main sightseeing. Rental car or taxis is necessary, bus connection difficult. Also there is nothing to do in walking distance. Only a small fast food court.
- The "breakfast" is very very simple. I wouldnt call it a breakfast! The waitress let you feel like beeing in a prison restaurant. You feel bad if you ask them fo another orange juce!
- There was a buffet, but "normal" vistors were not allowed to use it. It gave you the feeling of beeing a Second class guest!
- The room service came to my room at 8 o'clock and wanted to do my bed!?
- No lockers!
- They want to keep your passport for the whole stay but not even keep it save!


As a consequence, I can not recommend the hostel although I have stayed in many hostels before and are not a very fussy guest! The price is to high for a five bed dormitary so far outside. I hope some new hostels will open soon because I hate when the service is so bad and the price is high but you have to use it because of a monopoly!

This hostel for a solo traveller, seems to be the real cheapest option: it's better to bring the international hostel to save approx €3.30 a night, which is not bad if you are staying few days. But the staff will not mention it, not even that there's a breakfast included in the price. Overall, they really don't care about their clients, they are quite unfriendly and it seems they are doing us a favour to let us stay in a such expensive city like Dubai at such a low price (but over €20 for a bed in a dorm I wouldn't consider it that cheap anyway). First of all, when I arrived in the morning i couldn't check in: that would be understandable if there room were still occupied; instead they told me I could check in if I paid half day! So I decided to pay (more than €4) only for keeping the luggage in the store room for the remaining time. They demand to pay them all the 3 night in advance, in cash (no credit card); not accepting that, I had to fill a check in form for each night I stayed! This thing created also misunderstanding regarding my number of days (they also tried to tell me that there were no bed for the next night ,after they made me checked out on the second day). They insisted to keep my passport, and they were very careless with it, after attaching a note with the staple on top of the cover, making 2 holes on the photo id. They were unpolite expecially all with the same bad habit to suddenly deal with the person (local or arab speaker) queueing at the desk behind me, instead of finishing to deal with my quaery. For the use of internet (very slow) which I paid for 1 hour, I was told by a Philipino staff to leave the seat after 55minutes. Anyway for me the worst was not the staff, but that bloody muezzin that at 5AM every morning started calling (let's say shouting) for the prayer from the mosque attached to the hostel, with the speakers of the mosque only few metres from the hostel's windows; that made it impossible to have a proper sleep. Why did they build a hostel attached to a mosque?? What else to say: this hostel it's not even a good place to meet other travellers, because most of the guests are part of sports team, which, by the way, receive a different treatment at breakfast time, with a fantastic choice of hot and cold food, while, for other guest like me, it was not even allowed to go near that part of the lounge, 'cause our breakfast was already at our seat (they tell us where to seat!): 2 eggs, pitta bread, spread cheese and one glass of orange....As a solo traveller if you want a better choice, stay in some of the small hotel in Deira area, where a single room it's around €45, better located and probably not on top of a mosque!

Very friendly, made many longterm friends there, mostly among Arabic and Iranian people. The hostel includes a 3-star hotel. It is very clean and of a high standard. The swimming pool is very nice, but of course due to the heat and direct sunlight it can't be used except late at night. There are nice lounge and outside areas for watching TV and hanging out. The location is also relatively convenient, near a bus route. I stayed at it many times over a period of more than a year when I lived in the Middle East.

I stayed in YHA Shargah first and then decided go to YHA Dubai for another 2 nights. In general the YHA Dubai has good facilities and is clean.

I contacted the property directly, but it took me many attempts during several days before somebody answered the phone. The rooms and bathrooms in YHA Dubai were excellent and clean and the room was serviced every morning. Strangely enough you could not operate the airconditioning from inside your room, but the switch was in the corridor, so one night I woke up and found myself completely frozen because somebody had touched the temperature control.

The only thing I didn't like was the reception staff. They were Egyptian and neither quick nor customer-oriented. Only on check-out I discovered that I could have had breakfast and that it was actually included in the price. Also nobody from reception seemed to know the exact price of the rooms and the guests I met were paying different prices, so apparently you have to bargain??

They have internet in reception, but the computers are a little bit slow.

3 buses can take you into town and a taxi ride to town costs about 10 to 15 Dirham. Most taxi drivers don't know the YHA, but they do know the "el-Ahly club" next door. Supermarket is within walking distance.

I prefered the YHA in Sharjah. Very basic, but with good facilities and very nice staff. The Iraqi man at reception even prepared 2 omelets for me when I arrived late and was hungry.