Ocean Island

I am writing this after two separate stays attending Royal Victoria Marathon 2014 and 2015.
the place is centrally located in Victoria. I have stayed in private room with a window and a fridge. Washrooms are located in common areas. They dont turn one heating in October so, if you get a room with a window that does not fully close, you are in trouble.
Beds and sheets are fresh and comfortable.
You can cook your own meals in the community kitchen. Free internet in the lobby.
Live band is playing on Saturday night if you like to chill out in the lobby.

Great staff, eccentric and diverse hostel geared towards youth, it’s a hot spot hub for finding out about anything happening in the city. Great rooms and pub

My first time staying at a hostel and was not impressed. This place is the definition of ‘you get what you pay for’. First impression was the parking which is tough to find. Also when asking about their private lot it was full. Their lot is very small fitting a couple vehicles only.
When I first went in I felt a little disoriented. A lot of movement and trying to figure out what to do as a tourist. Person at the front was okay just doing their job. I paid with credit card and had to also give a $ 10 deposit for the key, which I had no idea about when I booked online. And when you return the key they give you a $ 10[Canadian] bill and can not credit it back to the card. I’m from the U.S. so the Canadian currency was useless as I was leaving Canada that day. It was cool when I checked in they have me two vouchers for free appetizers at the bar for later that night but i never used them.
Now, to the real reason why you come here. Room 25K. When I went in and looked, I had to laugh. The room was so small it was like a closet. Bed was okay. It was really hot as you can see there are no windows with only a fan and a little ventilation. They said it might be noisy until 1am since I was directly above the bar but not sure if I was too tired I did sleep well.
The bathrooms were actually nicely kept and I can tell they keep it clean. You have to bring your own towels and toiletries or they may charge you for some.
This place is mostly for travelers and those who want to meet people. So if thats you then this is the place. Go to the bar area and experience the culture. It just depends what you are looking for.
Overall its a cheap place to stay but for a few extra bucks can probably get a better place.

The experience to be had at Ocean Island Inn is dependent on the person (s) staying there. For us, a twenty something couple not well experienced with hostels, we found it a fairly pleasant stay. The first night in our private room was rough. Sweltering hot and the noise from the street had me waking up every 20 minutes. This is not the fault of the hostel by any means; upon booking I knew the room would have a window facing the street and that it would likely be disruptive to my slumber. My boyfriend slept like a baby as usual. Despite the small Honeywell fan in the room it was still very hot. The weather is also not the fault of the hostel. If I had advice for people looking to stay here I would say bring flip flops to use in the shower. The bathroom floor is wet most of the time and if you’re sharing foot space with several others it’s better to be safe than sorry. Also there were no towels (paper or otherwise) in the bathroom to dry your hands, towels are $ 8 at the front desk (you get $ 7 back at the end of your stay) so bring your own or be prepared to request them. I didn’t check out the café downstairs but it seemed to be popular with other guests and was usually busy. There are some lovely places nearby for food and drink, our favourites being Habit Coffee, Shine Café, Brickyard Pizza (we literally went every night for a late snack) and John’s Place. Bottom line I would definitely stay here again.

Ocean island is a great low cost option. We had a private room. Even in summer, windows open was cool enough to sleep. Just be aware bathrooms are down the hall, our floor had five on the same floor. There is convenient bike and bag storage on the first floor. The café and bar in the lobby was good for a quick bite. Trivia night was also fun.

Ocean islander inn is cheap but you get what you pay for. Very nice staff, clean rooms and great location. Room was super loud by the street and beds squeak like crazy. Bummed the café/​bar never opened due to lack of staff.

The hostel met my expectations and I had a nice two night stay.

The rooms are about half the price of the fancy hotels downtown. The bed in our room was so uncomfortable we were sore all weekend. The shared bathroom had a broken toilet paper dispenser — I had to hold it up while I used the toilet. The only climate control was a tiny plastic fan. The hallway lights don’t dim at night so if you need to go to the bathroom, get ready for some shockingly bright lights. Oh and if you want to shower, you have to pay extra for towels.
I like the idea of a more accessible place to stay downtown, but do people with less money not deserve to shower or sleep comfortably? $ 75 a night is cheaper but certainly not cheap, lets be real. the room is tiny, the paint colors are horrid, the staff were yelling outside our door at 8:30 am Saturday morning.
Maybe worth it if you are staying in a dormitory room and have lower expectations — my opinion of the private rooms is that they are a RIP-​OFF

I recently had a great time staying at Ocean Island. The staff is super nice, the rates are reasonable, and the lounge right off the lobby is great.
My only complaint, and this is probably a major drawback for a lot of people, is that the sheets in my private room had either not been changed or were poorly laundered. My first night at the hostel I crawled into bed after I had already turned out the lights. The next morning, I woke up to discover a significant amount of long hair on the sheets. I keep my hair buzzed extremely short, so they were not mine. This was not a small amount of hair, either, so I am not sure how someone could miss it. The strange thing about the hair is that I didn’t see any on the pillow cases or comforter.
Having said that, I would guess the hair was an anomaly. The place seemed very clean in every other facet and I am sure the accommodating staff would have corrected the situation had I discovered it sooner. I would not let it deter me from staying at Ocean Island again.
Finally, the lounge just off of the lobby is the best thing about this hostel. It is really fascinating to sit down and have a few brews with travelers from all over the globe. I even got to chat with a nice local named Drew that gave me a few tips on local color to take in while visiting Victoria. Jess, the bartender, had a great personality and provided quick and efficient service.

I stayed here on a pal’s recommendation and I’m glad I did! 2 friends and I booked a private room here last month and I would definitely stay here again.
The only downside is that we were on the top floor and if there is an elevator then I never saw it. This was fine for me, but one of our trio is recovering from surgery and the climb became pretty difficult for him after a few trips up and down.
Bathrooms were great, a few full private ones and I never had to wait once despite the hostel being fully booked the night we were there. Everything was pretty clean. The room we stayed in had a bunk bed, desk, chair, mini fridge, and closet. The bunk bed was a twin on top and double on the bottom bunk so it works out well if two of you are a couple.

Stayed for two nights, everything was good, staff very friendly and helpful. Had my plans spoiled by rain one day, but they offered a good discount on whale watching, helped to book it the last minute, and I ended up having a great adventure!
Bathrooms are very good — completely private cabins with shower, and there’s like six if them on every floor, so I never had to wait in line.
Rooms are ok, the only drawback is that the windows open right into a busy street, and I often got awoken because of loud cars.
The bar/​lounge is great too, they have deals for beer everry day, and low prices for great food. Only drawback that it’s open only from 5 till 11 pm.

I didn’t expect to be in Victoria last summer, but when I decided to go there for a few days Ocean Island Inn looked like the place to stay. It’s close to downtown and within a short walk, 10 to 20 minutes, you can get to several different attractions around Victoria including the inner harbour. The neighbourhood felt very safe, as did the hostel. I loved the bright colors in the hostel and the fact the rooms have a mini fridge (for a dorm room, that’s not common). There was free wifi that worked pretty well, and a café and bar on site. The only thing was they didn’t have an included breakfast, but the price for the café wasn’t too bad, and they have food available 24 hrs, which is handy if you’re arriving late and haven’t eaten. The location is also close to several other restaurants and dining options. I’m not sure when I’ll be back in Victoria, but Ocean Island will definitely be in the running for where I should stay.

I don’t have much experience backpacking and staying at hostels, but after checking out Oceans I learned A LOT.
Their staff is SUPER friendly and accommodating. I had several last minute requests that they were happy to change and were available ²⁴⁄₇. They were very clear in the rules of the hostel and broke down everything I needed to know for my stay.
The price is amazing, my stay for two nights came to about 50 – 60 which beats most hotel experiences. The look of the hostel is welcoming, at least for the 20-​something or young-​at-​heart travellers. The rooms are neatly kept and decorated with charming student/​local art work. They also have a lounge downstairs that serves great food and has entertainment at night.
The location is amazing, it’s a few hundred steps form the shops, restaurants, and pubs of Victoria. Its also close to the stop where the bus can take you directly to the Ferries.
However as I noted, this place is for those with the will to travel. And wow two days alone in Victoria in a cold November, it was enough for me to have doubts whether I’m too old for this stuff. You can’t deny certain people a stay at Oceans, let alone you can’t deny any shmuck of the street from going into their lounge. That said the one night I said to myself «Angelo! Let’s go socialize» the first guy I happened to meet ended up being the sketchiest man to ever trigger my instinct to use my Jiu-​Jitsu in the streets. Still there were the usual friendly backpackers there and the staff were also cool to chat with.
There were a lot of rooms within each floor. Walls are painted and decorated and the place reminded me of the art student halls of my old college. It wasn’t bad at all.
BUT.
The walls are paper thin. Any fornicating can be heard. And just a warning. If you happen to make eye contact with the guy whose sleep you disturbed for the whole night, expect to get a blank, judging, and disappointed stare.

Two years ago, we used OI as our mutli-​day base for exploring Victoria, and this winter we’ll stay there again for one night as a jumping-​off point to northern Vancouver Island.
We’re going back because it’s easy and cheap! Private rooms with a shared bath are barely more than the dorm rooms, which is nice for me as an almost-​too-​old-​for-​hostels lady. Fun bar, not too noisy, and easy walking distance of everything we wanted to do in Victoria.

Never been a backpacker myself. Never liked hostels either.
Having said that, we’d rented a room for a week here and couldn’t be happier. We didn’t go for a shared dormitory but an individual room with sink and cabinets.
Rooms are tiny but very clean. A Queen size bed and a small fridge are standard equipment. In some there is also a sink and cabinets, as well as a small table and a chair.
Rooms are clustered in bunches of 3 or 4, all sharing a common bathroom. You can go to any other bathroom anytime though.
They keep everything very clean and nice. And one of the keys is that you may work for your stay. That means that everyday you can see some of the patrons working under the supervision of a member of the staff doing the housekeeping.
In all four floors there are vending machines and public phones. Safety is taken care of via an extra door that guards the access to the rooms and which is closed at all times.
There is a huge kitchen quite well equipped behind the Café Lounge. It helps a lot in cutting costs, specially because there are plenty of cheap supermarkets not far away (the best being The Market @ Yates in my opinion). The hotel is very well situated in downtown, within walking distance of the main focal points of the city.
The aforementioned Lounge Café provides you with free live music every evening while you dine on your own food.
There is also a lot of table games and a very well assorted Bookcrossing cabinet.
You can choose to mingle with the international and well assorted variety of patrons or go on your own, in any case you’ll be all right. Don’t expect simply a bunch of twenty-​something though, the clientele there goes from the very young to the older gentlemen or families, all across the board.
The best of all though is the staff. Sincerely friendly and always willing to help, they will make your stay a truly enjoyable experience.
Given the not-​so-​cheap hotel rates current in the city, I won’t doubt in recommend this place to anybody that prefers to spend their money in more enjoyable things.

One of few hostel options in Victoria, BC. From what I hear, this is the best option out of handful they got. However, the location isn’t really the prime-​time, but Victoria is small enough to walk around almost anywhere you want to, so if you complain about the location of this hostel, you’re just a lazy fat-​ass.
The staff is nice but not super welcomed. When I checked in, they had some sort of drinking/​rock music night and was very crowded. And just my luck, my dorm room happened to be near the rock band stage and couldn’t get any sleep done before 1AM. Not very good for me.
If you forge to bring toiletories, they will either sell/​rent to you for small fees.
At the time of visit, I was 27 and most were younger than me, so I do understand young people wanting to socialize and party with random people from all over the world, but thought the management could do better job of restricting some rules. I could smell booze in the kitchen area and bathrooms. It wasn’t pleasure and I felt like I was sleeping in a backroom of a bar.
With that said, the rooms were clean and I didn’t have any problems with anyone or anything. If I’m visiting Victoria again (which everybody should since it’s gorgeous) I’ll be sure to stay here again.

OI is great! I was planning a solo adventure to Victoria and opted to go with Ocean Island for its social atmosphere and affordability.
The Pros:
Cheap! Clean. Friendly. And a great resource!
I stayed in one of their cheaper dorms that is directly above their café. They offer a lower price due to the likelihood of noise coming from their café and lounge, but I had absolutely no problems getting a little shut-​eye during my stay.
The staff is very friendly and helpful. They’re lounge is cool with a pretty good selection of beers (I’m a beer snob, and I wasn’t disappointed). They’ve also got a bunch of printouts that they’ve put together themselves on places to eat, parks to visit, hikes to do, directions to Victoria staples, where to look for work, pubs to check out, etc. Being that this was my first visit to Victoria, and a solo one at that, I relied on these printout guides for most of the activities I joined in on. I wasn’t disappointed. A great time was had!
The So-So’s:
I can’t say that this place has any real Cons. I have two small complaints. The first is that not every bathroom has an outlet (they’re in the process of updating their bathrooms). On one occasion I had to go on the hunt for a bathroom with an outlet, but because of the multiple bathrooms on multiple floors, the hunt didn’t take long. Second, I ordered their green curry at the lounge and it was the worst curry I’ve ever had. But even bad curry is good curry.
All in all, if I ever head back to Victoria, I’m definitely staying at the OI again. Good times!

It was the first time in a long time I’d stayed in a hostel and my impression was that Ocean Island was pretty good for a hostel. Most importantly, nothing crawled on me. Yay!
I stayed in a 6-​person/​3-​bunk-​bed room and my only real objections were how cramped it was and the lack of bed-​specific reading lights. Oh well.
There’s a pretty big kitchen and a happening bar/​resto on the main floor.
Biggest tips? Bring a headlamp, a towel, a padlock, shower flip-​flops, and a travel mug.

Ocean Island is everything a hostel should be — cheap but clean, intimate but large enough to have options, young but with reasonable rules of behavior, and with a 24 hour desk but not 24 hour parties in the room next door. The location is central, closer to Downtown than to the touristy harbour and Empress.
I had a single room with a shared bathroom, and it was tiny — about ten square feet larger than the bed — but it had a huge window, and I didn’t spend much time in it anyway. I paid CDN 54 including tax on a Saturday night of a long weekend, and I couldn’t have got a hotel for double that much.
I would thoroughly recommend Ocean Island if you don’t mind the hostel-​style experience.

My girls and I stayed here when we visited Victoria.
It’s a really cute hostel that is surprisingly clean and nice. The bottom floor is filled with computers (that you have to pay for) for internet access, a mini-​pub, and a communal kitchen stocked with everything you need to make a delicious meal.
The rooms are a bit tiny and cramped, we fit 6 of us in there on 3 bunk beds. Plenty of restrooms on every floor, each with a toilet, sink, and shower and bath tub.
There is a security code that unlocks the door to the rooms, which helps make you feel safe. Parking is available in the small lot behind the hostel, however, it fills up pretty quickly.