Stayed here for just one night in a private four person room. The rooms were clean and spacious and the beds were comfy.

Although we didn't make use of them, the hostel appeared to have good communal facilities such as a kitchen and laundry room.

The one annoyance was that the hostel 'closes' between 11am and 5pm - not great if you arrive in the middle of the afternoon! And when I say the hostel closes I mean people are not allowed into their rooms - although this is not much of an issue as long as you want to go out and explore the many sights of Santa Cruz during the day!

Parking is not on the hostel site itself, but is plentiful on the surrounding streets. A day long parking pass is a bargain at $2 - just ask at reception.

Despite the potential for this well situated, well maintained hostel to be amazing, it is hampered by some rules and policies. I arrived on a day where it was raining heavily only to find that guests are locked out of the hostel during the day between 11am and 5pm. On a sunny day, this might not seem such a hassle, but when you are soaked through and have to kill 4 hours in a small town as it lashes down with rain you feel slightly negative towards the place. There is no valid reason given for the lock out.

Whilst the room itself was nice and spacious and the bed fairly comfortable, I felt a little lonely as a solo traveller, as unlike other California hostels guests weren't offered activities and it seemed a little cold. Perhaps if staying as a family it would be the perfect location - 2 blocks from the beach with a curfew of 11pm - but on my own it just made me miserable.

Family and back packer friendly.
Nice rooms.
The lock out is slightly annoying but not too bad - keep the noise down and u can come home late :)

This hostel has some great points and some bad ones. The best things about the hostel are it's location, in a nice part of town just up from the beach. The cottages are also very nice and the whole place is well kept, facilities are also very good with internet, kitchens, DVD players, computers and cheap laundry. However, you are only able to Check in between 5 and 10pm which is a major problem for anyone arriving by bus or anyone arriving late. Me and my friend arrived just after 10 and could not check in, no phone numbers to call or staff to help out. Also another major thing with this hostel is that it is closed for "cleaning" between 11am and 5pm and yes they do kick you out and no they don't let you in. How cleaning can take 6 hours is beyond me. We found this very annoying as did other guests. However the supposed 11pm curfew is not strict and you can still get back in, how can they expect to police the curfew when there is no staff on duty ??
Oh and we were still charged for the first night that we didn't officially get. Overall then this hostel is pretty good and good value for money but if you are someone who likes to sleep in late or come back during the day, you might want to consider your options