TRIP REPORT: The Tuk Tuk Hostel – Europe! Start Voting Now!

Europe: Start voting now! The Tuk Tuk Hostel

In this musical spectacular…

• Who wants to go to Eurovision?
• Where did my wallet go? Off to Birmingham Airport
• SN2038 Birmingham Airport to Brussels National Airport
• Some time at Brussels Airport
• SN3819 Brussels National Airport to Lisbon Airport with the AeroSmurf
• Into Lisbon and The Tuk Tuk Hostel
• Exploring Lisbon with a Canon 100D
• The Eurovision Song Contest
• Off to Porto with Comboios de Portugal
• Time at Porto Airport
• FR8513 Porto Airport to Birmingham Airport
• To the trains!
• Eurovision… Douze points!

With me off the plane, I wandered down to arrivals, and checking where Adam was. He arrived on an ATR72-600 by TAP, and was a few minutes behind me.

Delays sometimes work out.

Sunset at Lisbon Airport.

The way out is somewhere. Also, I’m not a fan of the font used in the wayfinding. 

Luggage claim

After a few minutes catching up with Adam, we cleared the airside zone and headed for the Metro to go downtown.

For those new to the Lisbon metro, it’s another system that could be confusing if you don’t know how to use it – but the easiest option is a tap-on/tap-off solution. If you’re spending a weekend in Lisbon, €10 is enough for a weekend. However – you need to factor in a €0.50 fee for a ticket, which is a paper IC solution.

Lisbon Metro Red line (Linha do Oriente)

From there – we caught the metro into town discussing some of the plans for the next few days to co-ordinate where we needed to be. With me reaching Alemedia, I split and changed line for the metro to Intendente. From there, it was a short wait for a connecting minibus up to Graça

Green line (Linha da Caravela)

After getting off the bus at Graça, it was a matter of working out where to go. Now I was expecting a sign with the words hostel in large big letter. But I was walking down a residential street.

Trust me – it’s down here somewhere.

Uh oh. Had booking.com scammed me? I did a few laps of the area, trying to hunt it down. And trust me, with hills and tiredness settling in – this was not a good combination in the least.

Almost like I was dancing around in circles. Like Verka Serduchka (Dancing Lasha Tumbai – Ukraine, 2007 – and such a Eurovision classic)….

By blind luck, I found someone who was going to the Tuk Tuk hostel – and I was let in.

This looks positive…

I was expecting a slightly bigger sign for this hostel.

Phew. This wasn’t a scam.

It turns out the hostel was on one floor of a residential complex. Which was fun.

Looks residential….

This way it seems

Tuk Tuk Hostel
Price paid €130.30 via Booking.com (-10% rebate at around £13.03)

I headed to the check in area, and completed the paper work, and was given a set of keys for the place – one key for the front door, one for the floor door and one for my room.

To reception

You don’t know how much I value having my own privacy – and not slumming it for in a room of 4/8/10/whatever.

Whilst I might be in a hostel – lord, I was not slumming it in a bunk of my own. Been there, done that, pondered the meaning of life afterwards.

From the room. Note the use of Ikea bath mats.

Decorations featuring Tuk Tuks. Also note the bunk room on the left, the shower room on the right for those in bunks.

So what does the hostel room look like? Those of a semi-sensitive disposition should look away now…

Gotta love the chipboard headboard.

TV.

Ok – it’s not bad. At all. There’s a bed that seems to be ok (but has that wonderful plastic rustle on it), a TV (that hardly worked)., a bathroom with my own shower and toilet.

There were also traditional power outlets too. Which meant I could charge the power banks. And by the mid-point of this trip.. I’d need it (and not for the purposes I thought I’d need it for!)

The other thing this hostel room had… was its own bathroom and shower. And when contemplating life – this is damn good thing.

And most importantly – a lock on the front door so I could be in peace.

Lockable.

And the Wifi code.

We’ll file this as “artisan painting”.

That my friends is worth… a lot.

I got plenty of rest – mainly as the bathroom also had a window to let in fresh air. With the warmth of a Portuguese night – and me mostly exhausted from playing “hunt the hostel”, my first night was spent vegging out. And pondering how the hell I cracked the screen on my tablet.

Whilst the water was never warm, it was enough to wake me up most mornings – and that was important thing.

As for the views from the hostel… residential would be the word I’d use.

Access was free throughout the stay with come and go privileges – I just had to work my way through the amount of locks in the late evening.

Check out was handled quickly, with the key handed back and the deposit of €10 returned.

Overall: Staying hostels doesn’t have to be bad. Not in the least. They can be a bit more bearable especially when you have a private room to yourself (Which for some might defeat the point of a hostel – for me, it gives me privacy and places to work in peace). I don’t expect the full suite of services, not would I.

Considering The Tuk Tuk Hostel was near £70 a night – it was pricey. However, when Eurovision is in town, forget about hotel pricing – it goes one way – through the roof.

And I consider myself lucky to find this space for me.

Whilst I would had preferred a Holiday Inn or something in that ilk, sometimes when the hotel stock dries up, you have to look elsewhere. On the plus side, I have 10% back on the hotel booking… so it isn’t that bad.

And at least it’s not that hostel in Kensel Rise in London. I still have nightmares about that place…

Next: Time for some Travel Technology. With me staying in a hostel, you can bet I’m not taking my Canon 6D with me. So how does a Canon 100D hold up?

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