El Zoo Hostel, Bar & Pool

Our stay here was terrible and completely misrepresented by the photos. The pictures made it look nice, but the reality was far from it. Upon arrival, we found dirty and broken furniture near the pool, and our private room wasn’t even clean. There was a wrapper on the floor near the bed and hair in the shower—absolutely unacceptable. It didn’t end there. The toilet constantly clogged and took forever to be fixed, and the fan in our room broke, leaving us even more uncomfortable. The property was filthy and neglected, nothing like what was advertised. On top of that, the noise at night was unbearable. Every single night, people were up chatting loudly until 5 AM, and one night, there was even a group playing volleyball until 1 AM. There was no peace or quiet, making it impossible to rest. To top it all off, the Wi-Fi was practically nonexistent. Overall, this place was a complete disappointment. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

Honestly one of the best hostels I have been in so far. It is beautifully small in a way, that it has the perfect size. It is big enough, so you can meet new people everyday (if you want of course), but at the same time small enough, so you don't get lost in the crowd completely. Spent 2 weeks there, because I loved it so much and traveled solo. The location is very good. You are right in between the main street and the beach, so everything is close. Breakfast is included and always an option between 3 things, but it is very good. After 2 weeks, I went out sometimes to get something different from time to time, but it is plenty. The beach volleyball court is a big plus as well. We played most evenings around 4 p.m. a couple of games. The Coworking space is amazing. I have looked around quite a bit in Palomino and this is by far the best one. Great internet, very quiet, well spaced and with AC (and boy did we need it). Even when the power was down in the whole town, we still had internet thanks to the generator! El Zoo is just a really amazing place with an amazing crowd. You can just tell, that it draws a very cool type of people. You don't really a lot of "wanna influencers" like in Selinas. Just a lot of interested and interesting people, mostly on longer travels and just looking for a few days to relax and having a good time. It was the most social and welcoming hostel I have been to. A very very big reason for that is also the staff. I basically fell in love with EVERYBODY there. From the lovely ladies at the reception, the amazing breakfast ladies, the maintenance and cleaning team up to the guys in the restaurant and even the owners! The owners are something I would really like to mention, because this is not just yet another hostel run by big corporate or european/american owners, but by 2 brothers from Colombia, who pour their heart and soul into it! And you can really tell! This is something definitely worth supporting! Thank you all so much for this amazing time with you! I will definitely come back!

One of our favourite hostels on our South America trip. It has good beds, a great pool and bar and pool table which we used a lot. Free drinkable tap water. Nice staff and good location on Main Street and near beach. All in all great hostel and very social.