View a picture gallery of the top 10 European boutique hostels

Boutique hostels, flashpacking hostels – call them what you will, but the standard of hostels in Europe has gone through the roof in recent years.

So transformed are they, in fact, that if you hadn’t set foot in a hostel since a summer of interrailing in 1983, you’d hardly recognize them.

Dripping with lavish design features, flat screen TVs, rainfall showers and unbeatable central locations as standard, some of these hostels would make a five-star hotelier green with envy.

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So without any further ado, here are ten of the boutique hostels in Europe that are best rated by regular hostel guests and users of the hostel booking website, HostelBookers.com:

1. Lisbon Lounge, Lisbon (Guests’ Rating: 99%)

No matter what field you’re talking about, over a sustained period of time, a 99% feedback rating isn’t exactly ‘normal’. Given that you can’t please everyone all of the time, it’s almost a statistical impossibility, in fact.

There’s something almost otherworldly about just how good a hostel is Lisbon Lounge. All the usual facilities are present and correct, but they’re embellished with some achingly chic designery touches.

And the result? Possibly the most stunning hostel in the world.

2. Red Nest Hostel, Valencia (Rating: 94%)

Valencia is a seriously cool city. So it’s only fitting that it’s got a couple of seriously cool hostels.

Best of the bunch, though, is Red Nest Hostel, a vibrant burst of colour and pop art touches laid on top of the high ceilings and elegant tiles of a grand 19th century premises.

3. Miss Sophie’s Hostel, Prague (Rating: 94%)

When it comes to hostels in Prague, Miss Sophie’s is very much the executive lounge.

It’s a stylish mixture of sharp-as-a-knife rooms, an on-site cellar bar of exposed brick and mood lighting, and a kitchen that would be more at home in a New York loft apartment.

4. Mandragora Hostel, Budapest (Rating: 94%)

Mandragora Hostel in Budapest isn’t quite what springs to mind when snazzy hostels are being bandied about.

At first glance it appears to be an old school, drapes ‘n joss sticks sort of place, but the décor’s far more new age hipster hangout than hippy trail flophouse.

5. Mleczarnia Hostel, Wroclaw (Rating: 93%)

‘Snazzy’ perhaps isn’t the word for Mleczarnia Hostel in Wroclaw. The whole place is stuffed with period furniture, glittering chandeliers and sepia-tinted photographs.

All of which makes it feel like you’ve checked into a hostel in, say, a Chekhov play.

6. Greg Tom Hostel, Krakow (Rating: 93%)

Krakow is one of those places (a little like Lisbon – of which more later) that for some reason is overflowing with great budget accommodation. And from futuristic showers to a vast home cinema system, Greg Tom Hostel has got more flash features than you can shake a stick at.

7. La Controra Flashpackers Hostel, Naples (Rating: 92%)

Housed in an old monastery and wrapped around a palm-filled courtyard, La Controra Flashpackers has a detached and tranquil air. Which, of course, makes it the perfect antidote to the maelstrom of Naples outside!

8. Langholmen Hostel, Stockholm (Rating: 92%)

A night in Langholmen Hostel, Stockholm, has got to be the swankiest prison sentence anyone’s ever had to ‘endure’.

Its glass and chrome surfaces glisten and shimmer with cleanliness and its bright rooms – while on the snug side – are remarkably un-institutional.

9. St Christopher’s, Berlin (Rating: 91%)

St Christopher’s is a big, bold and brilliantly efficient, Berlin backpackers’ complex. There’s a café/bar area with pool tables, luxurious dorms and fantastic apartments that are tailor-made for longer stays – all lifted by plenty of classy features.

10. Centric Point Hostel, Barcelona (Rating: 90%)

Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia is hardly traditional backpacking territory. Nevertheless, Centric Point sits proudly alongside all the modernist masterpieces, swanky hotels and chi-chi boutiques, like a cuckoo that’s muscled into the very plushest of nests.

Need to know

HostelBookers.com was launched in March 2004 and is a leading UK-based website offering hostels and budget accommodation including hotels, guesthouses and apartments in over 2,500 destinations.

HostelBookers properties are reviewed and rated by customers and the site charges no booking fees. It also provides free travel guides, travel news and worldwide events information.

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