Review: All Stars Inn on Bealey

For the last public holiday I ventured down to Christchurch to enjoy a long weekend in a place I’d never been to before.

When booking this trip I decided to treat myself to a private room at the All Stars Inn on Bealey. It’s a spot that caters for everyone. There are dorm rooms and privates with and without shared bathrooms. So if you’re a backpacker wanting somewhere reasonable but nice it’s a great spot, likewise if you’re a business person popping down for a few nights, I can see it being suitable for you too!

Location-wise, it’s on the city fringe, about a 20min walk into central Christchurch. Plenty of parking, which suited me fine with my crappy hire car.

My room was clean and tidy and felt like a hotel. I was treated to a hairdryer, small fridge, tea/coffee and kettle. Not to mention a TV which I realised on the last day had Netflix!

Okay, doesn’t quite sound like me right? This is the backpacker who’s camped throughout Africa and dragged her backpack solo through South America… nowadays though when I’m away for just a few days it’s kinda nice to treat myself to peace and quiet after travelling around all day. I didn’t spend the days in the rooms, but each night I cooked dinner and breakfast the next morning and had a great peaceful sleep.

The All Stars Inn is next to the Speight’s Ale House and there are some pretty good deals on if you can’t be bothered cooking. For those of us that do like to cook though, the kitchen here was great! I’d put it up there with my top kitchens in hotels. It would compete pretty well with the Penthouse Hostel in Bariloche in Argentina that I stayed in over Christmas a few years ago. Why? Well, this one was huge, lots of stove tops, cutlery, pots, pans , etc., and a fridge for leftovers that you could always steal a bit of butter from. You could tell that they’d really thought of the backpackers when creating this kitchen. It’s a dream for hostel-goers!

My room itself was lovely as I’ve mentioned. Reasonably sized and perfect for me. The bathroom had lots of accessibility aspects to it, which always makes me happy to see that people with disabilities aren’t forgotten about.

It will be great when the trees outside the room grow up (or a fence is put up) for a bit more privacy, but that didn’t matter too much to me as I had the curtains shut most of the time as it was evening when I was in there.

While the All Stars Inn did provide me a discount, I’d still highly recommend any travellers stay here. It was a quality spot for comfort while travelling. If you’re in or around the Christchurch region of New Zealand, check them out here: http://allstarsinn.com/