Atlantic City House

BACK IN THE DAY MOST HOSTELS WERE IN CONVERTED APARTMENTS….. ….and ranged from awful to awesome (with the majority falling short of what we would class as AVERAGE these days (today the AVERAGE hostel is pretty darn good – spacious, clean, comfortable, well run – it takes some special qualities to rate ABOVE AVERAGE). The thing about A.C.H. is it falls on the awesome side of the old standard with several pluses raising it above today’s AVERAGE standard. Notably: - great location, withing 5 minutes of the famous BOARDWALK/BEACH**, several key CASINOS**, the BUS STATION and a range of shops and eats joints. Oh yeah, and a largish hospital if anything should go wrong. There is a small upstairs balcony overlooking the surrounding streets – a great place to survey the scene and interact with other guests. - a fantastic host: SUSAN is outgoing, caring, hard working and well organised - prepared to go out of her way to make guest stays more comfortable. - nicely presented. SUSAN must have an artistic background because the place is nicely painted and decorated to give a sense of spaciousness and vibrancy. You do not think you are in an old apartment. - not too big: with only 3 “dorms” ACH avoids the large impersonal vibe of many of today’s hostels. I noticed guest interaction was much better here than at my two big modern NYC hostels. ARE THERE ANY DOWNSIDES? Of course there are - I’ve yet to stay in a perfect place after 40 years of budget travel: there can be some pressure on the 3 bathrooms at peak times, no air drying of washed clothes (almost universal in converted apartments) and the surrounding streets gave some burn-out and passing siren noise (but not excessively so – I’m a sensitive petal noise-wise and slept well). My weak tablet had some difficulty with the wifi but that is more a problem of the device. Although pretty good value by US EAST COAST standards, I thought it a bit exxy by international standards. Some reviews say the area is a bit sketchy, but I was comforted by the constant presence of beat cops and prowl cars plus ACH’s double key-pad door security and never felt unsafe. TIPS – if you come in by bus note NEW JERSEY TRANSIT** tend to offer a very similar intercity service to GREYHOUND** but at near half the price. - SUSAN makes some good suggestions re day activities. One I particularly enjoyed was a visit to trendy picturesque CAPE MAY** 40 miles south, accessed by an inexpensive NJ TRANSIT local bus out of the bus station. **TRIPADVISOR has separate review pages.