We stayed at the Chateau Franz Backpackers hostel for a couple of nights in Franz Josef. This hostel was by far the worst accommodation we stayed at in New Zealand. We stayed in the ‘hotel’ portion of the hostel.  There are pretty limited options in Franz Josef Village, but we should really have looked elsewhere. The room was quite dirty, the furniture was beyond old, the floors were stained, and the knick-knacks that were supposed to be the “theme” of the room looked like they had never been cleaned. The kitchen area was very limited, with a microwave up on the wall that looked like it might fall down at any second on our daughter’s head. It really seemed like the cleaning and maintenance staff had just given up. There was an LCD TV in the room, attached to a VCR – no joke! I don’t even know how they got that connection to work.

I stopped by the common area with the TV, and it was a dark, messy and very busy area, and not very inviting.

There is parking, but it was pretty crowded.  On the second day, a Motorbike club had taken over half the hotel, as well as most of the parking spots (one bike per spot).  They all left in the morning at the same time, after a thorough comparison of how each loud each bike could be when rev’ed up.  Our daughter was not impressed.

The location was good, right in “town”, and close to the restaurants. Although it is possible to walk to the glacier from the town, it would be quite a hike. The road in takes about 15 minutes to the parking area.