Hayden, Jared, and I are featured in this New Year's video featured on Backpacker's web site (video by Charles Jackoton)
Last year for New Year's I traveled to Punta Del Este, Uruguay with my friends Hayden and Jared. Before we left the States for South America we decided to book a place to stay, because we heard that in Punta Del Este it is hard to find a place if you just show up this time of year. We searched web sites for apartments to rent, hotels, hostels, and we finally came upon the web site for Backpacker de la Barra.
Their web site mentioned that there is a minimum nights stay for the New Years week. It is 7 days with the option of either sharing a 12 person room or a private room of 4 people. The prices for the week of New Years basically sky rocketed, and we were quoted in US Dollars instead of pesos. Generally speaking, South America is cheaper than the States and Hayden, Jared, and I didn't know if we should book this hostel or keep looking for another place to stay because of the price. We decided to book this hostel, because of its location. I would recommend to anybody looking for a place to stay in Punta Del Este to stay in La Barra!
We arrived in Punta Del Este after a two hour bus ride from Montevideo. The bus stopped at the main terminal, and it was still quite a distance to our hostel. For those of you that don't know, Punta Del Este is very spread out. If you don't have a car it is too far to walk so you either need to take the "micro" (bus) or get a taxi. The first option was to take the "micro" that goes into La Barra, and get off at Parada (stop) 40 and walk the rest of the way. Or option two was to take a taxi.
We decided it was worth the extra money to get directly to the hostel! After arriving in La Barra, we exited off the main road and the road changed from a paved road to dirt road. We traveled about 4 blocks on this dirt road and then took two turns and arrived at our hostel. Hayden, Jared, and I all had the same idea in our head: where are we?! I have never stayed at any place on vacation that is located off a dirt road.
When we checked in at the front desk we wanted to hear some reassurance that this place was going to be legit during the New Year's week. The staff assured us that we are in the right place. After walking through the hostel, and putting our stuff away in our private room (3 of us stayed in this 4 bedroom the whole week...worked out perfect) we saw that there were 6 other people in the whole hostel. I remember actually having a conversation about changing hostels or even looking to get a hotel room so that way we'd be in the middle of more action. We were afraid that nobody else was going to stay at this hostel, because it was located a couple of blocks off the main strip. We decided to give this hostel a try for 24 hours...
I can't tell you what Backpacker de La Barra is like 51 weeks out of the year. What I can tell you is that during the next week we so much fun staying there! I would highly recommend anybody to stay here during New Years! The next day Backpacker was completely full, and about 35 people checked in from all of the world. There were Argentine's, Brazilian's, Australians's, Columbian's, English, and Swedish just to name a few. This hostel made it really easy to meet people, and it seemed like everybody that stayed there was fun and really friendly! During the week we stayed there everybody would meet up out back around 7 pm and hang out until about 1 am. Then at 1 am we'd head out in a big group to go to a club or to a bar until the sun came up! We did this 6 days in a row!
I think the best part of the week was New Year's Eve. Everybody that stayed at the hostel for the week met up around 8pm that night. The Brazilians were cooking a huge feast, the Argentines brought the music, and everybody else brought the drinks! Everybody shared what they had brought to the party, and we had a blast until way after midnight when we all headed to Crobar! (check out the YouTube video above)
There are a couple of negatives to this hostel. Even though this is located in the best part of Punta Del Este, La Barra, it is hard to find it you have never been there. If we did not hire a taxi I can guarantee that we would have been walking around lost for a long time. It also does take some time to walk from the hostel into the main part of La Barra to eat/go to the beach/or party (20 minutes). Lastly, even though they do have free internet they only have two computers. With over 30 people a day staying here during peak season it is hard to get any time to use the computer. I still would recommend people to stay here!
Backpacker includes:
- Free Internet
- free breakfast
- a kitchen (which we never used, but other travelers did)
- pool
- close to one of the best clubs in Punta - Crobar!
- bike and car rental
- 4 bed private room or 12 bed room
- a really chill environment
Here is a map and contact information to Backpacker:
Calle 9 2306 - La Barra De Maldonado Punta Del Este, Uruguay
(598-42) 77 22 72 [email protected]
