lilysafia
Google
This is a decent hostel and I had a good stay there. However, it is unfortunately not worthy of its 9/10 rating on most sites.||The best thing about the hostel is the location, as it is a few minutes from Copacabana beach and about 10 minutes from Ipanema beach/Arpoador, as well as being very close to cafés, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc., which is very helpful. I also have no complaints about the accommodation itself - I stayed in a private room, which was good and clean (unfortunately don’t know about the shared rooms ).||However, on the social/activity front the hostel did not live up to expectations. I appreciate that I visited Rio in the off-season, which obviously affects the social side of things, but the hostel still did not do enough in my opinion. For example, the organisation of the free tours was completely inadequate, with most tours starting half an hour or an hour later than the official time, and little effort made by the tour guide to speak to guests and encourage them to come, other than the occasional message in the WhatsApp group. As a result, on multiple occasions the free tour attendees consisted only of hostel staff, since it was so difficult for guests to figure out how to join. As for the paid activities, information about these was often provided extremely last-minute, with a WhatsApp message being sent only half an hour before the activity began, making it very difficult to plan in advance and join these excursions. Finally, evening events at the hostel bar were often equally disorganised, e.g. dance classes starting an hour after they were meant to, and no effort made by the hostel to encourage guests to meet each other (e.g. I know of other hostels with a ‘welcome drinks’ every evening for guests to get to know each other). This makes it especially difficult for solo travellers like myself. From a hostel that brands itself as the best party hostel in Rio, I expected far more - especially considering that Pura Vida is one of the more expensive hostels in the city. Moreover, I am not the only one with this opinion - multiple guests whom I met there decided to move to other hostels after a couple of days since they also found the social scene very limited and the hostel to not be worth the money. ||Overall, my stay in Rio was still positive, and Pura Vida was not a bad place to stay, but I believe travellers (especially solo ones) should be aware of these issues, and I sincerely hope that the hostel takes my feedback regarding the free tours, paid activities and general social scene on board.
