Secret Garden Hostel, Quito

The Secret garden is one of the most popular hostels in Quito and can be found in the San Blas area of the city just beside the old town and a half hour walk from the mariscal tourist area.

The hostel is in a beautiful old style colonial house and on entering the hostel it is bright and airy with a small pond and garden. The reception is on the 4th floor so a long walk up at Quito's altitude (2850m). The hostel has a small computer room ...
...the rooms but in the Secret Garden it is extra. Costs in US$ are as follows:
Dorms $8+ tax
Doubles and Twins $20+tax

Everything in the hostel (rooms, food, drinks, internet) is subject to a 12% tax that is not included in the original price that is quoted to customers. The owners say that this is common practice in Ecuador but I never found it anywhere else and know that most people get a bit of a nasty shock at the end of ... more

The Secret garden is one of the most popular hostels in Quito and can be found in the San Blas area of the city just beside the old town and a half hour walk from the mariscal tourist area.

The hostel is in a beautiful old style colonial house and on entering the hostel it is bright and airy with a small pond and garden. The reception is on the 4th floor so a long walk up at Quito's altitude (2850m). The hostel has a small computer room and common area and a roof terrace with reception, a bar and tables for breakfast and dinner.

The rooms themselves are fairly mediocre and can vary in quality. The dorms have between 4 and 7 beds and there are 2 twin rooms and about 6 doubles, one of which is en suite. The front half of the house was the original hostel and the rooms are far more welcoming, often painted bright colours and the bathrooms have real showers. The rooms at the back can be very dull and the showers have the water heated through a fitted electric showerhead. Some of the doubles are very small. All the rooms are clean and tidy as are the bathrooms. Hot water is very unreliable though.

I found that when I stayed in rooms near to the common room or the terrace it could be very noisy but those further away were fine. The bar shuts at 11pm so usually the noise would shut down after that which isn't too late.

My main problem with the hostel is that it is expensive compared to other backpacker hostels and relies on it's strong but somewhat unjustified reputation to keep people paying over the odds. I don't think that you get a better experience from being in the hostel or have a more comfortable stay to justify the high prices. Also the hostel gives nothing for free-in many hostels I stayed in breakfast and internet were included in the cost of the rooms but in the Secret Garden it is extra. Costs in US$ are as follows:
Dorms $8+ tax
Doubles and Twins $20+tax

Everything in the hostel (rooms, food, drinks, internet) is subject to a 12% tax that is not included in the original price that is quoted to customers. The owners say that this is common practice in Ecuador but I never found it anywhere else and know that most people get a bit of a nasty shock at the end of the stay when their bill is 12% more than they were expecting.

The second big complaint is the absolute and complete lack of organisation in running the place. Most of the face to face contact is with volunteers who work in the hostel in return for food/board/drinks and they themselves often complain that they are just thrown into it with no training or even pointers on how to run things or where things are. They also, of course, frequently change so there is often new people who are uncertain about everything. The booking system needs a complete revamp as almost every second person who had booked in advance had had their reservation changed, deleted or had a complaint in some way. It was also fairly frequent that people were told they had to leave the hostel because someone else had been booked into their room by mistake for that night. Occasionally the dinner was also a little confused with the number of servings cooked too few. Essentially it was utter chaos and the manager seemed to take the attitude that backpackers just had to deal with these type of 'small' problems-even when I pointed out that it doesn't happen at other hostels and not all the guests were backpackers but families and people on holiday too.

Food is served up on the roof terrace twice a day at breakfast and dinner time. Breakfast cost $3.50, between 8am and 10.30am and is an all you can eat affair with fresh fruits, granola, eggs cooked in different styles and often a special of pancakes or french toast. The food is excellent and when you arrive for breakfast whatever you want is freshly prepared for you and so hasn't been sitting around for the whole breakfast. It was a little pricey but one of the best breakfasts I had whilst in Ecuador. Dinner is normally around 7pm and has to be signed up for. It is 3 courses, always with a vegetarian option and is frshly cooked each evening by trained chefs. Again the food was fantastic, always extremely fresh using a huge variety of ingredients that can be hard to find in Ecuador. The meals are served at a long table on the roof terrace which is a great way to get chatting with other people in the hostel.

The biggest draw of the hostel is undoubtedly it's impressive roof terrace that offers the best views over Quito of any hotel, hostel or tourist sight. This is a great place to relax during the day or to chat and have a drink in the evening. Each evening a bonfire is lit and it is magical to sit around a fire with a beer watching the city sights and lights. For me this was the definite pinacle of this otherwise mediocre hostel.

Stay somewhere else nearby (there are many options) and come here for food, a beer and great views in the evening. 

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