The Adventure Ethos
Adventure Hostels’ core aim, is to simply look after our guests, invest in staff and provide as much as possible for free.
There’s only one thing that we charge for after check-in: laundry, which we will do for you.
We are powered by word of mouth and great guest reviews…
The original Adventure Hostel, Adventure Queenstown, started as a thought in Dubrovnik, formed as an idea in Sarajevo, turned into a dream in Goa, became a concept in London, evolved into a plan in Toronto and has been a reality in Queenstown since 2011. Adventure Hostels really was an idea born out of travelling.
Imagine you’re backpacking through Eastern Europe and thinking about a new challenge and decide that setting up a hostel would be a fun idea.
So grab yourself a notebook from the little store once you reach Istanbul, and start to write every good idea and every bad idea you find in every hostel you stay in. You throw around thoughts over many beers with other travellers, you take on all the feedback, starting to realise once you have comfortable beds, great bathrooms and a fantastic kitchen, it’s all the small things that matter.
Being owner-run, we use our pride and passion to provide a comfortable home-away-from-home experience. Drawn from the best ideas and discarding the worst from hostels in dozens of different countries from Cuba to Canada, Germany to Bosnia, Turkey to India, and of course New Zealand.
Adventure Hostels just aren’t about those expansive colour schemes, industrial vibes, neon lights, impractical furniture, murals and fake plants. We think hostels are all about being comfortable, meeting new people and making the most of your time at each destination.
Adventure Hostels aim to offer our guests the true meaning of ‘home away from home’. Whether it’s whipping up a feast in our highly functional yet homey domestic style kitchens, making use of proper toilet rolls (not those giant 12km-long, yet thin as anything rolls), or chilling out in an actual living room – one that doesn’t have the atmosphere of an airport waiting room.
Every detail has been thought through by Brett and team. And when you combine our fab facilities with the passion and knowledge of our team of well-travelled professionals. Guys and girls who know what makes for a good (and bad) guest experience and you’re onto a winning hostel experience. An experience that we are proud to say, has bagged our hostels many awards over the years.
If your curious, you can find all of our awards HERE.
Here’s what we found makes for the best hostels...
No micro-transactions or addons…
Simply include as much as possible in the room price.
Lots of hooks for every guest, a bath towel included, hairdryers, lots of hooks, dimmer switches on bedroom lighting, free tea and coffee, lots of hooks, small reading lights on every bed, USB and charging ports in every bunk, free spice rack, lots of hooks, ample underbed lockable-storage, not just a laundry room but a full laundry service, and two pillows for everyone! We also have free sport equipment hire, free disc-golf hire, free go-pro hire. Oh, yeah… and lots of hooks!
The only thing after check-in that we charge for is our laundry service – where our crew will wash, dry and return your laundry to your bunk, once clean and dry.
Our Hostels, so far...
AQ, The original Adventure Hostel.
The New Zealand hostel experience before 2010 was about as basic as it got. Hostels across the country sported squeeky aluminium beds. You were lucky if there was more than 2 charging outlets between 6 guests. Bathrooms and kitchens were very basic and social activities ran by the hostel? unheard of!
Brett jotted all of the positives from his travel and hostel experiences into his little notepad, and set about with the intention to shake things up, to offer a premium hostelling experience where non existed. Our new ‘niche in the market’ opened on February 10, 2011.
The average age of our guests is about 29, with plenty of young’uns and 30-somethings rounding it out nicely. We’ve created not just a nice hostel, but taken care of all the small things people hope for but don’t always get when travelling.
We’re always looking for ways to improve, so if you have your own little notebook, come and find Brett in the office and let him and our Management team know what you’d add to our little hostels.
Adventure Q2, we need you!
After 6 years of being consistently sold out, we decided it was high time to expand. The conundrum was where?
Adventure Q2 was opened in 2016, less than 100 meters away from our original hostel! A massive undertaking, this bespoke designed hostel – built from literally the ground up, was eventually managed by one of our guests! Lisa spent 9 years with Adventure Hostels, and worked her way up from work-for-accommodation housekeeping to Crew Member, Duty Manager and finally Hostel Manager.
Lisa has since moved on, but Adventure Hostels continues to invest in our crew members, mostly as a means of enriching our guest experience – happy crew makes for happy guests!
Welcome... Adventure Wānaka
Just over another 6-years later, after the madness of covid, we set off in search of Hostel number 3. And luckily for us, a fabulous opportunity arose in nearby Wanaka, located an hours drive from Queenstown.
The Covid-19 pandemic devastated our tourism and hostel industry. New Zealand spent over two years with closed international borders, which effectively shut out any international backpackers or travellers. As a result, New Zealand’s hostel industry was decimated, and 14,000 beds across the country (or over 200 hostels) were lost to hostel closures. Many hostel’s owners (usually small, owner operated businesses, like ourselves) simply weren’t able to balance their books without international travellers and had to close.
We picked up this fantastic location, right on the doorstep of Wanaka’s township. After more than 16 months and more than a million dollars of extensive refit and refurbishment, we finally opened our doors to short-stay guests on November 3, 2023. AW is headed by our very capable captain – Jeanne, who joined our Queenstown team in late 2022. She progressed from Team Member, to Leader, to finally heading our biggest project to date.
Up and coming at Urbanz
Speeding things along, we added Hostel number four only 6-months after opening Adventure Wanaka. Adventure Hostels acquired the still-operating Urbanz Backpackers in Christchurch in May 2024.
We have set Urbanz on an 18-month journey, and by the end of this journey we hope to have given this property much more than just a facelift.
We’ll be revamping every area, and every space. Installing a brand new luxurious kitchen and replacing the tired plastic-heavy bathrooms with lush tiles, and glass fixtures. In our dormitories and rooms, we’ll be replacing the aluminimum free-standing beds with our standard Adventure Hostels wooden, hand-crafted bunks and in our privates introducing ultra-comfort Queens to replace the smaller Doubles.
Over time, we’ll be instilling a team culture, that has the true Adventure Hostels’ spirit – to warmly welcome, and to offer services and guest-activities that our guests have come to love and value at our other South Island properties.
Stay tuned for more updates on Adventure Christchurch, through 2024-2025
what are you waiting for?
