BLOG

After a fourteen hour flight from Heathrow, a six hour stop over in Taiwan, another nine hour flight and some of the most questionable airline food China Airlines had to offer- we had landed. Sydney, Australia. After graduating university in Cardiff, my girlfriend and I felt we weren’t really ready for the `real world` so thought a little travel might delay the inevitable. And with its golden beaches, spectacular countryside and huge backpacker community Australia seemed the only option.

We had scoured the internet and all the travel books for a hostel near the beach, near the City and one with a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere and had hit the jackpot! Sydney Beach House was the perfect start to our Australian adventure. We spent our first week relaxing by the beautiful roof top pool, sun bathing on the magnificent Collaroy beach and getting to know our house-mates!

We had planned to only stay a week before moving on to other areas of Sydney. However, a year is a long time and we had barely scratched the surface of making new friends and exploring the Northern Beaches of Sydney. So before we knew it a week had turned into six and we had made lifelong friends while making the most of the hostel`s bike hire, surfboard hire, their day activities oh.. and their night ones!

After a few weeks I was looking for work and the staff at The Beachouse were of invaluable help. Before we knew it, my girlfriend and I had saved enough to buy a beautiful little campervan, Tia the Toyota Townace and were ready to hit the road on our adventures. In 3 months we drove from Sydney to Cairns, stopping off at the beautiful Blue Mountains, the Hunter Valley, Port Stevens, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, the town of 1770, Hervey Bay, Noosa, Airlie Beach and Cairns. All with their unique charms, stunning scenery and amazing adventures we had the time of our lives.

Suddenly we found ourselves with no money in Cairn`s wet season and with no work options so we hit the road back to Sydney and after two days of hard driving and ham sandwiches we were back, checking into our home from home- Sydney Beach House. We were greeted by huge smiles and hundreds of questions about our trip. Before long we had sadly sold Tia our beloved campervan and our good friends at the Beachouse had helped us find work again and we were back on our feet. Ready to start another adventure… Thailand? India? … Who knows?

Joe, Cardiff, South Wales.

I’ve spent the majority of my eight and a half months of travels in Collaroy and really can’t find a bad thing to say. Collaroy has been the best part of my stay in Australia, between the hostel’s “one big family” feel to the availability of work always coming in. Me and my mate I was originally tavelling with found ourselves in Surfers Paradise with only a few dollars left to our names, the only reasonable solution was to head back to Collaroy. The hostel staff do a great job finding work for everyone and will even call your mobile when work comes in. Within a day of being back in Collaroy I picked up a day of work which led to 2 more months of full time employment. The hostel offer tons of equipment to use such as snorkels, body boards, and surf boards. With the beautiful beaches surrounding this area and great surf Collaroy is an ideal hostel. To top it all off your only a 45 minute bus ride away from the city, making it easy for a great night out. I highly recommend staying here and know I will be back to Australia and straight to Collaroy very soon! – Cole Mercer, Canada

I came to Australia to visit my boyfriend who had been living in Collaroy for 6 months prior to my arrival. He had raved and praised Collaroy so much but I still didn’t know what to expect. I was a little unsure as to whether or not it would meet all my expectations after he had talked it up. The moment I walked into the hostel I was greeted by the friendly staff members and other guests which instantly made me feel at home. The hostel is very spacious and has a nice cozy feel to it. There always seems to be different events going on ranging from BBQ’s to themed parties. They’re a lot of fun plus it is a great way to meet everyone you are living with. The best part about YHA is that it is located right near the beach and they offer surfboards, snorkels, and body boards for guests to use. In the end my stay in Collaroy turned out to be one of the best parts of my holiday and I most definitely plan on coming back. I will never forget all the good times I had and the wonderful friends I made. I highly recommend staying at YHA beach house and guarantee you will love it! – Karissa Bailey, Canada

My adventure began in September 2011, when I had finished university and worked consistently to save up money so I could go traveling for the next year with my boyfriend Steffan. We had been to Thailand previously and loved it so headed there first, then through to Malaysia and Singapore before finally heading over to Australia.

We had always planned on visiting Australia and got our visas through STA travel. We didn’t have an exact date when we would be heading there and ended up booking flights whilst in Malaysia. Money was pretty low at this point so our main priority was to get work in Australia straight away. We flew into Queensland at the beginning of November and rented a car from Avis to drive from there to Sydney. It was a great journey and we saw just a glimpse of how beautiful Australia is.

As newbies to Australia we were told to stay in Bondi or Darling Harbour, this turned out to be a nightmare: accommodation was either fully booked or very expensive, and we were quite worried as to where to stay. We took the car back to a depot in Dee Why (near Manly), and this is where everything started to fall into place. We were recommended to stay at Sydney Beachouse YHA in Collaroy, we headed there and fell in love with the area. The youth hostel is fantastic there, the staff are unbelievably helpful and welcoming.

After traveling for three days solid we arrived at a hostel literally meters away from a gorgeous beach, a bakery next door and most importantly a file full of job vacancies. The staff offered advice and reassured us that we would find work…and the accommodation was reasonably priced, unlike some of the tourist traps. The hostel helped me get my tax file number and bank account set up on my first day. Steffan arranged to get his white card as well, and picked up laboring work immediately. I got straight onto the job hunt and on my second day at the hostel I was offered a full time waitressing job at a restaurant on Dee Why beach. The restaurant was great to work in and the hours were great, and I started earning straight away. I earned enough money to pay my rent, buy food, party and still have money to treat myself.

I really couldn’t believe just how easy finding a job was, I’d heard stories but doubted it really could be that easy. Six days later I got my first pay. I absolutely love the Northern Beaches, Id never been recommended about this area and I am so glad I found there are a lot of restaurants and shops that are forever recruiting. Me and my boyfriend are definitely living the good life down under, we surf in our spare time and enjoy the luxury of being so close to such nice beaches. We came to Australia with such a small amount of money and so working here is paying for us to travel around Oz, which is great. It’s a reassuring feeling that work is so easy to find in comparison with back home.

I’m still working at the restaurant now and have managed to save up a fair bit of money. I plan to travel around the rest of Australia in March visiting Tasmania, Queensland and the Northern Territory where I will see lots of amazing places including the Great Barrier Reef and Uluru with some of the great new friends I’ve met from the hostel and work. Australians are so friendly; the people I work with have shown me the coolest hangouts and the best shops! The hostel has been a great place to meet people like myself and it feels like home. I’m going to do some fruit picking as well before I leave, to earn some more money before heading home. Australia really is awesome and I will be sad when I leave but it will be great to take some well-earned Aussie dollars back home! It’s benefited me in so many ways, it’s a great quality of life out here and I would recommend that it be visited!
　
Melissa Alam Taylor, 21, from Bury, Manchester, UK

September 22nd 2011, my boyfriend and I were leaving our friends and family and heading off to the other side of the world to start our travels in Australia. It was a very scary and exciting time for us both and with our lives packed into our rucksacks we head to London Heathrow. Anxious about the long flight ahead and what was to come we boarded our flight to Sydney with a stopover in Taiwan we arrived on the 24th September, bleary eyed, scared and confused we headed to our hostel Sydney Beachouse in Collaroy that we had booked back in the UK for a week in a private room.

The hostel was further from the city than we had originally thought but later we realised this was not an issue at all as the buses regularly go to the city. First impressions were very good, the staff were all friendly and very welcoming, and the hostel looked clean and to be honest a lot better than I had expected. I had this image in my head of Hostels being dirty and crammed packed with people, and it was one of the things I thought I was going to struggle with whilst travelling. But we had landed on our feet and booked an excellent hostel.

We planned to stay here for just a week by which point we would start to travel and see more of Sydney before heading up the East coast. But after two weeks we were still at the Beachouse, we had made so many friends and were having an amazing time. We decided we would go to Bondi for a week and then move onto somewhere else.

A month and half later of taking advantage of everything the Beachouse had to offer like the planned events in the evening volleyball games and body boarding on the beach, we started to save our money to begin our trip up the east coast. The hostel staff were amazing and helped us find work, which soon meant we were able to buy ourselves a van that was to be our home for the next few months!!

Over the next three months we travelled from Sydney to Cairns and then back to Sydney again. We saw some amazing, and beautiful places including Whitsundays, snorkelling the great Barrier Reef, visiting hippie markets in Byron Bay, pub crawls and sunbathing at Surfers Paradise and many more stops, which in total made our trip amazing and now a beautiful memory. Once arriving in Cairns our final stop we tried to find work and sell the van which didn’t go to plan, after two weeks with no luck on the job front or selling the van and running out of money fast, we decided to head back to the place we knew best!

Two days later and a very long drive we arrived back in Collaroy and were welcomed with smiles and questions about our trip. It was like being back at home and
although the original group of friends we had made had left it was still nice to be back. The guys on the desk again helped us to find work and also sell our van which we sold two days later and now we are planning our next adventure to Thailand!! Our trip in Australia has been unforgettable and amazing and the Beachouse have definitely played a big part in making us feel welcome and at home.

Joanna Young, England

Oi!! Meu nome é Zani e sou a recepcionista esse albergue. Eu queria lhe contar um pouqinho sobre mim, nosso albergue e como é aqui.

Eu passei alguns meses no Brasil aprendendo a lingua portuguesa, visitando lugares e fazendo novas amizades. Eu me diverti muito e quis continuar passeando pelo país por mais tempo… mas chegou a hora que eu precisava voltar.

Pra mim, viajar é a melhor coisa que você se pode fazer. Você vive uma vida lindíssima e aprende sobre si mesmo. Ficar sem pais, sem parents e as vezes sem seus melhores amigos, é uma experiêcia que te diexa com a mente aberta e com as perspectivas novas! As amizades que você faz são para sempre e as memórias insubstituíveis.

Então, quando eu voltei do Brasil em fevereiro eu estava peocurando um emprego novo na minha área (tourismo) Daí assim eu poderia ajudar os touristas que querem conhecer o meu país (assim como muitas pessoas me ajudaram quando eu estava no Brasil) Eu pensei “por que não trabalhar num hostel?” Daí eu começei meu trabalho aqui, eu nunca parei de gostar dele

Nosso albergue está sob nova diração. O James e o Mike tiveream a tarefa de transformar esse lugar em um albergue lindo, comfortável e aberto para você se divertir. Temos uma sala de estar, cozinha bem grande, televisores e uma piscina acima do hostel para você usar também. Nós queremos que você aproveite seu tempo aqui e gostaríamos de recomendar que você experimente nossa comida tipica, pegue uma prancha e tente surfar, ande bicicleta, passe tempo sentado na praia desfrutando o sol… e sorria.

A vida é boa quando você está na Austrália, e melhor ainda em Collaroy!!

- Zani Jackman, Sydney.

“Staying at the Sydney Beachouse has been an incredible experience. I recently arrived in Sydney for a two month internship after graduating from Washington State University. Initially I had planned to stay in the hostel for only a short period while looking for alternative housing for the remainder of my stay. However, I found that I was more impressed with the location, accommodations, and affordable rates offered at the Beachouse than any other options. Not only has the Beachouse been a great location for my stay it has also been an easy way to meet tons of wonderful new people.

When I first accepted my internship here I was unsure how it would be travelling to a new country on my own. After arriving, I discovered that the social atmosphere found at the Beachouse was perfect for someone like me travelling alone. Everyone I have met has been extremely welcoming and friendly. Within the first week I met so many incredible new friends which have helped to make my experience here better than I could have expected. Just a few of the highlights from my first few weeks include going mountain biking, kayaking, surfing, and out to the bars for drinks and dancing with friends. Similarly, it’s been incredibly fun just hanging out at the hostel around the pool, making dinner, listening to music, and getting to know the other residents. Hearing others’ stories about travelling Australia has also made me excited to start planning my own trip along the east coast.

The Beachouse offers tons of resources on working and travelling in Australia; this has been extremely helpful for planning my own adventures. Originally when I arrived I thought that two months would be a long stay, but after being here for only three short weeks I am already planning to extend my stay to continue working and living here while travelling. I am looking forward to many more amazing experiences at the Beachouse as well as the chance to travel and explore Australia.”

- Sarah Pistorese

We set out on our round the world adventure in January 2011, travelling through North America, Canada, Mexico & New Zealand before arriving in Sydney.  Our plan was to find a nice area, a decent hostel, get work, save money & enjoy living & travelling Australia for 6 months before travelling on to Asia.

Before we arrived in Sydney we booked a hostel in Balmain for 3 nights.  We arrive outside the hostel and immediately new we had made a big mistake!!  Inside was worse than we could ever imagine, run down, dirty, smelly and not a beach in sight to escape to.  Unfortunately we had to stay 0ne night before we made a quick exit to Kings Cross.

The hostel in Kings Cross was decent but still not the image of Sydney we had in our heads, where was the beach?  Where was the ocean?

After a week in Kings cross we needed a holiday, we travelled to Brisbane where we staying in YHA Hostel and loved it.  We’d stayed in YHA hostels before in America; although they varied quite a bit from place to place we were always pretty happy with what they offered.

Matt had work lined up in Sydney, so we checked YHA website to see what they offered in Sydney.  We came across Sydney Beachouse YHA.  It read “High quality backpacker situated 50 metres from one of Sydney’s best surf beaches. Modern accommodation with swimming pool, BBQ area, common area  arcade games, pool table, ping pong, internet cafe, TV/video room and lounge with log fireplace. 24-hour security access and on-site backpacker’s cafe serving breakfast and lunch. Lots of work for backpackers in local area – hostel has information and advice”
 
We thought perfect, just what we are looking for plus the price suited us too. So we booked a week here to see what we though.
 
We’ve been here 3 months now and this hostel lives up to all our expectations and requirements.  We both have full time work; we spend weekends down the beach.  It has all the facilities mention in its advert and they all work!!!  Matt’s a bit of a cook so would like to see an Oven in the kitchen but you don’t need an Oven to russell up our cheap backpacker’s favourite meal …..Tomato pasta!  The staff and fellow travelers are friendly helpful and fun so we feel quite at home here and happy not to move on until our time in Australia comes to end and our travels begin again.