THERE’S A YURT IN THE HOSTEL COMPOUND, WE REPEAT A YURT IN THE HOSTEL COMPOUND! What a welcome to the hostel to walk through the gates and look to your left to see a fucking yurt, absolute belter! There may not be an abundance of apples situated around Apple Hostel but there’s a yurt!
Apple Hostel, situated west of the Western Bus Station in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan is in such a quality location. You come off a long bus ride from Tashkent, walk west for 2 mins and hiya pal you’re being welcomed by the yurt. Take the Matrushka from Almaty, Kazakhstan and hiya gal pals you’re in the Apple hostel compound. The Western Bus Station may not be located in downtown Bishkek (aye no shit loser travels it’s called western for a reason), but it’s not far from quite a few attractions. From Apple Hostel to the notable Osh Bazaar it’s only a 25-minute walk and after buying yourself a cute Kalpak to show off to the girlies back home, you can walk the same amount of time to downtown Bishkek.
Apple Hostel Bishkek is a fabulous stay. There are plenty of spaces to relax and chill whilst also meeting many new travel friends, from the comfy lounge inside to the co-working space room and to the outside common area next to the yurt, Apple Hostel Bishkek has a great backpacking traveller atmosphere to it. Supporting this even more the hostel organised multi-day tours and day trips to many locations around Kyrgyzstan and the gorgeous surrounding scenery of Bishkek. Buying beers from the hostel is allowed for you to have a wee sesh with your new besties but Vodka is banned from the hostel compound. Every other spirit and form of alcohol is allowed, just not vodka which doesn’t make sense to us. The reason for the vodka ban is that people can’t handle it and can get aggressive when drunk off it but every form of alcohol can cause that, you don’t suddenly become a violent maniac wanting to break everyone and every giant watermelon in your sights purely from a little bit of vodka. Doesn’t make much sense but hey, slyly pour some into a bottle of coke or Fanta and they won’t know the difference.
The room space is fantastic. There’s enough space to practice a gymnastic routine in the middle of the room. There’s a little drawer under each bed to store some stuff and you can put larger bags by your bed without causing a hazard. There are plugs by each bed as well. Multiple bathrooms on each floor and a couple of showers as well. Overall it’s a very clean hostel from top to bottom, you can drop a bit of kebab on the floor and you can lick it up without feeling like a weird bastard who licks floors. The kitchen is a good size and has Generally speaking Apple Hostel Bishkek is a prototype of a great hostel. However, there is one big flaw that stops it from being the top grade.
Apple Hostel Bishkek allows children to stay in the hostel. Unlike Artanor in Tashkent, Artanor in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, they’re in private rooms and not in the dorms but children do not belong in hostels. We shall repeat in bold capitals to be more dramatic CHILDREN DO NOT BELONG IN HOSTELS. Allowing children in the hostel instantly stops hostels from being eligible for sexiest of the sexy which is a shame and a spoiler for the rest of this article, sorry friends. It’s baffling that such a backpacker hostel would think allowing children into a hostel is acceptable. A massive shame.
Apple Hostel is a fantastic hostel with genuinely not much to complain about. The rooms are fantastic (there’s even air conditioning) the location is great, it’s cheap, it’s very social and is just a great backpackers hostel. It’s just the fact it allows kids into the hostel that seriously lets it down and stops it from becoming the sexiest of the sexy. With that, it’s unfortunately graded as Very Nice.
OVERALL SCORE: Very Nice
PROS:
. Room space is fabulous
. Great WiFi
. Location is spectacular
. Plug sockets by bed
. Air conditioning
. A fucking yurt in the compound
. Decent kitchen
. Multiple social areas
. Hostel organises trips and tours to multiple destinations in and out of Bishkek
. Staff are fantastic
CONS:
. They allow children in the hostel. Hostels are 18+ environments, shit move to allow them in when especially when it is a backpackers hostel
Loser Travels 