Us outside the Treks YHA - Our daughter's first hostel!
We chose Rotorua Treks YHA, based on the good reviews we had read. Treks is very centrally located, about a 5 minute walk from the main downtown area. There is parking across the street in a fenced in area, although it was never locked. The area seemed very safe. There is a mix of rooms, from shared rooms with bunkbeds, to where we stayed, a private room with a double bed and bathroom. There is similarly a wide range of ages of people staying there – and we were certainly very welcomed as a family.
Basic room at the Treks YHA (yes we were hiding our junk under the bed for the photo!)
There is a large common room with a kitchen, TV, and there is facilities for doing laundry, but we didn’t really take advantage of any of these.
The hostel staff helped us to book tickets to Wai o Tapu geothermal reserve (by booking the tickets through them, we got a small discount), and also booked a trip to a Maori Hangi (cultural evening) at the Tamaki Village, again, for a small discount over the normal price.
Bathroom at Treks YHA (sorry - hard to get a better photo! It's very small).
Note that if you’re looking for a private room, and won’t be taking advantage of the facilities that a hostel offers, it might be worth checking out the different discount travel websites (kayak.com, expedia.com, etc.) to see if you can get a price that is close to the price that the hostels offer. Off-season, there are often steep discounts at the big hotel chains, and if you don’t need the common kitchen area or other facilities that a hostel provides, they might provide a more comfortable room – with just as good a location – for the same price.
