Good Bye Lenin Hostel

Amazing place

Like my home

Miss it soso much.

Absolutely amazing place! :-)

This Hostel is literally the worst Hostel I have ever been to. I’ve been to many hostels in my experience, some have been good, some have been great, some have been bad, and some have been terrible. But this experience was positively traumatic. First of all I got lost because of poor directions. The receptionist was unsympathetic. The first night was O.K. although it was rather hot. The second day, it was revealed what a horrible place it really was. I got food poisoning and diarrhoea that day, which I am certain was from the cream cheese I had for breakfast. It tasted horrible and I later found it had been left on the side in the kitchen overnight. It was the only perishable food I had that day too. But even the food poisoning was nothing compared to what happened later. In the evening one guy who later turned out to be the owner of the place came up to me when I was having tea, and offered me cannabis. I said “no thanks”, and he said “are you sure”, and I said “really, no thanks”. He got quite angry, saying I was “being rude, and ruining the atmosphere here” and that “going to a hostel is all about socialising and making friends, not sitting there being miserable”. I just walked away.

Later that night I was trying to sleep, when another drunken guest came in to the room, and shouted at the top of his voice for ages. I told him to be quiet, but he shouted even more, and started swearing at me. We had a loud argument, and eventually, I walked out of the room to complain to the staff, but found the members gathered near the door. Before I could say anything, one of them started pushing me, and two others jumped on me and wrestled me to the ground. I was punched 4 times in the face, throttled, and kicked. When they let me get back up they screamed at me to get out of the hostel. I asked why they were doing this, and why they attacked me. They said, after hurling abuse at me, that it was because “I was attacking a guest”. When I pointed out I was walking away from him at the time, hadn’t touched him, and was only shouting at him to make myself heard above his shouting, they swore at me and called a private security firm. They also conveniently forgot about the drug incident earlier in the day calling me “mentally ill”, and “a liar that makes things up for no reason” They did refund the remaining nights stay, called another hostel, and paid for my taxi to it, but then they told me that “because we have been so good to you, you should not take this further”. I went straight to the police once I got settled in my new Hostel.

The police drove up to the Hostel and questioned the three men, who told them a pack of lies about how I was “attacking a guest”, and I was on drugs. Then the police let the attackes come up to the police van and try to bully me into dropping the charges. Because the attackers spoke Polish and English, and I didn’t speak Polish, and the police spoke very limited English, the police asked for the men who beat me up to translate what they said to me and what I said to them. I refused to let them do it, which angered the police officers, who were rude and sarcastic. Eventually they said I should go to the police station at 11am the next day. I didn’t feel safe in Zakopane, so I dropped the charges and left.

The Hostel is clean, and well located, and the guests at least, are quite friendly with each other. What shocked me about all this was that the Hostel had good ratings and seemed to be a good and legitimate business with lots of happy customers. I later talked with another guest who left there the next day. She said that they go on these travel websites, pose as customers, and write good reviews for the hostel. This is the reason why a lot of the “positive comments” sound so similar to their promotional blurb. I call on everyone to tell anyone they know about this hostel. There are half a dozen other hostels in Zakopane. Hopefully if the guest beating, drug dealing staff are exposed for what they are, we can get them sacked and run the hostel out of business.

Good Bye Lenin was a true high point in my two week trip to Poland this spring. Such hospitality, such natural beauty and such an international mix of people.

really worth the distance from zakopane centre for both the quality of the accommodation, and the friendly and social atmosphere maintained there. Also has the distinct advantage of being on the doorstep of some of the beautiful walks into the Tatras. Brilliant

the map is on their website http://www.goodbyelenin.pl/zakopane/mainPL.html?ver=16

Had an amazing stay here and went on some truly incredible hikes by accident right around the hostel. If you want to be in the center of Zakopane, it's not for you, but if you're more interested in outdoor activities and being in a comfortable natural environment, then this is it. The staff is very friendly and goes out of their way to help you out. Let them pick you up when you arrive (it's easier).

chodzilek chodzilek i nie znalazlek.....gdzie to je ? sie pytam