I stayed at Sydney Central YHA for one night as my first choice hostel was unfortunately fully booked. The location is great if you are arriving by train or greyhound as the hostel is a stone's throw from Central Station. There are also free hop on hop off buses that pass through the shopping and financial areas up to Circular Quay and the Opera House if you don't want to walk.

The hostel itself was fine. I stayed in a six bed female dorm, which was fairly nice, apart from the fact that I had to wake up early-ish to catch a 7am coach to Canberra, which although I tried to be as quiet as possible obviously upset one of the older residents of the room who decided to complain very loudly! I think this is the issue with a lot of the YHA's in Australia, in that fellow dorm buddies can be a bit hit and miss. I am 30 years old, so whilst I don't want to be disturbed by partying youngsters returning home every night, I also don't want to be told off by an older person for just packing my bags! This put me off staying at YHA's a bit to be honest.

Downstairs, the kitchen and dining areas were spacious and quite nice. There is a cheap-ish restaurant adjacent to the hostel serving good value backpacker meals.

Overall, a safe bet for the city, but there are better options (see my review of another Sydney hostel!).

When my sister arrived in Sydney with 4 children, I was scrambling looking for an affordable accommodation for them. I found this hostel smack bang in Sydney Central, very close to the train station and china town, which meant lots of shops and restaurant and halal places to eat.

The staff was lovely and very very helpful, the cost for a family room for five is probably the cheapest in Sydney at $145 or less if you become a member. The room is big enough and has a big floor to ceiling window and very clean. It is just infront of the bathroom, which is clean and spacious and has enough facilities- wet shower cubicle and dry cubicle which allows privacy, which was much appreciated.

The cost of internet is also very good, around $5 an hour and printing cost 20 cent a page, which goes to charity of their choice- which was Oxfam sponsor a child, which was lovely.

Given that it is right in the middle of a big city, it is reasonably quiet, but our room is infront of the bathroom and every time someone entered the bathroon, the banging of the door is a bit noisy. It is also a hostel, so young people do get very excited and got into really loud voices- but happy excited voices, not fighting voices. So you will need to tolerate that.

They have a big TV room, dining hall and shared kitchen, all well furnished and equipped, again on shared basis, so a degree of tolerance is needed when one goes into hostel living.

I recommend this hostel to anyone who wants to experience Sydney on a budget.

Our check in time was 12:00, to which we arrived promptly. Having booked on line from Ireland we had all the necessary documentation to hand. We filled forms, asked would we like membership, which we declined, and were then told room was not ready, come back in 1hr for key. Our credit card was charged for room plus membership for 1 person! We had lunch in the restaurant adjacent to the hostel while we waited. At 1pm we went to the desk to collect our key & were told to get in the queue like everyone else! At 3pm we accessed our room, having queued outside the hostel for 2 hrs! Staff on the check in desk were less than helpful and some had issues understanding English! Check in policy needs reviewing!!!