Pura Vida Sky Hostel

Amazing hidden away rooftop bar. Was perfect to enjoy the clear sunny skies to lookouts on the great architecture of the city. After the stair climb, because there is no lift, you really feel like you deserve that beer! In combination with the music it's a great way to spend and afternoon.

The location and sky bar are quite nice, but the sky bar only opens in the afternoon and you don’t need to stay here to take advantage. The staff is friendly and helpful, but the room was hot and muggy, with some bugs (at least on the first night.) I would recommend staying at their sister Hostel (little Bucharest) across the street. They have a nice common area and street level couches to chill. You can always check out the sky bar at night.

While the place has great views and very cool crowd, I had to wait very long in line only to see the bartender chatting up with others (I understand it is a nice thing to do, but not when there's a waiting line in front). When I got to order I saw him only pouring water over a dirty glass to clean it and then served me my cocktail in it. Big no-no.

Best old town view. Worth climbing each step (the sky bar has only a staircase, no elevator). Plus friendly staff, excellent music and good chat with travelers that are visiting Bucharest. My summer escape

Generally, why you should book this hostel is mainly for its location which is great. It's also not too close to the loud bars at night so sleeping should be not a problem in theory, and the price is very good (it was about 9€ for us for an 8-bed room). The downside was that the rooms were not particularly clean. I know that for this good price, lower standards must be accepted. But someone could have really just wiped the tables like every second day which never happened so there was a big layer of dust on every piece of furniture. The beds were generally clean and the rooms in general for this price more or less okay. It was not okay though that the bed room had a carpet that smelled a bit badly. That's not very good. The bathrooms were okay, not clean but I'd say for this price okay. When we arrived, there were works and the whole of the hostel was filled in dust and ashes. It was not something we expected and we had some difficult time breathing. The staff looked a bit helpless but tried to help, even though they could have just opened all windows in the stairs area, we had to do it in our rooms as well. The sky bar is okay, not much more. The view is okay too, not extraordinary. Some reviews described the bar staff's behaviour which can sometimes seem arrogant which I can verify. But it was not bad, just seemed a bit unfriendly for a hostel that has the name "Pura Vida". We went there during a season with few tourists but it would have been better if they indicated exactly when the sky bar is open and when not. What we can read is only "every Saturday this" "every Sunday that" which can be disappointing when you see that nothing is going on. All in all, I rate this hostel 2/5, it could have been much better but because of the perfect location and acceptable beds for a very cheap price, it doesn't go to 1/5.

I was here in a lounge for a meeting. The location was quite hard to find, but the inside was cozy and the people in the other lobby were playing the guitar and it actually made a nice environment for our meeting, it was a great joke opportunity (we were starting to discuss some love stuff and the guitar was just perfectly syncronized). Interesting location overall, central and with a nice view but hard to point out and the way up is exhausting for unfit people.

We only went to the sky bar, so I won't speak about the hostel. Even though it's a charming bar with a nice view, the personnel was very rude. I wanted to order drinks and the waiters/bartenders kept ignoring me. They finally spoke to me as though I was bothering them by just being there. The cocktails I got were average and made with a haste. We drank them and left because the personnel spoiled a lovely evening for us. Such a pity

The bartender who served me was really friendly. As someone who works behind the bar I enjoy chatty bartenders. We had a fun chat about cocktails and he served me a delicious Cosmopolitan. If anyone's ever around the area - definitely stop by! The view from this sky bar is amazing!