YHA South Downs

"Lovely YHA with a warm and busy vibe, and very friendly staff. And great location for East Sussex Having read reviews before coming, I came with trepidation about traffic noise from the neighbouring A-Road. However in spite of being a moderately light sleeper plus with the window open during the night, I wasn't disturbed by traffic noise. This might not be the case for all rooms, but since there isn't much traffic at night anyway, I don't understand the number of reviews complaining about traffic noise"

"Stopped for coffee during a walk. Very quiet today (January) but gets busy in warm weather. Beautiful setting and conveniently on the SDW trail."

"A Big disappointment, the best part was the warm welcome upon arrival. The room I was allocated to was no. 6 the noisy entrance door creaked upon opening and I fixed that myself by putting some bike lubricant spray otherwise I wasn’t going to get much sleep, the room had a loose door handle and the bed sheet barely covered the rubber mattress, what I had to swap with the upper bunk as the lower one was worn out, the room was dirty, had not been cleaned properly had cobwebs around the ceiling and windows, and the drain for the sink was partially blocked, as I lay down to take a rest I was greeted by a huge green light in the room. I visited the on-site cafe who previously said they did evening food I had two ham and pineapple pizzas, clearly they were pre made and likely frozen too, I was informed breakfast was from 07,30 hrs. Overnight sleep was dreadful being next door to the A26 that leads to Newhaven Car ferry, the road is filled with heavy trucks at certain times of the day mostly during the night, the free supplied by YHA ear plugs are of little use here. I slept very little and woke tired for a long day ahead back to my home in France. I had ordered a full English breakfast at 07,30 , it said it was a buffet breakfast, another disappointment it was at least 08,15 before it was ready, there was no fried eggs, I asked about this and the young man said he didn’t like to fry eggs , hence as a result no egg yolk to dunk my buttered toast in. I’m not normally a morning tea drinker but nothing else was offered so I had to like it or lump it. This hostel has many problems, many quite easily fixed if only people would be willing to listen. I have visited many hostels of the course of the last 40 years this is unfortunately probably one of the worst. Hopefully a YHA agent will be in touch soon to rectify this."

"Really beautiful area and great location for lots of things, walking, seaside, visiting local towns. We had a private room with ensuite, but the shared bathroom was directly opposite our door in a very narrow corridor with old creaky floorboards, so every time someone woke up in the night to use the bathroom I could feel the bed shaking and it woke me up. But lots of character to the place because its such an old building. Had the continental breakfast in the morning and the pastries were incredible, you have to try them!"

"Rooms are spacious. Shower area could've been larger. Bunk beds are comfortable. Very good view from window. You get to see beautiful countryside if you hike for 5 mins."