Location’s good and the room’s are well put together. That’s about it for good points. The vibe is awful due to the regular bursts of loud terrible music sometimes going on into the early hours. The toilet and shower in the room didn’t work the whole time I was there (7 days). The food is insanely overpriced and not good, you’d struggle to find anywhere more expensive in Popoyo. The air con isn’t run off the generator so when the power goes down (daily) the rooms get really hot. Keep track of your bill as when I came to pay they added about 30% to it. When I questioned this they just shrugged, made a new bill which was about 15% more than the advertised cost and when I refused to pay that they put me onto the woman who owns the place who started ranting at me about how she runs the best hostel in Popoyo. Super unprofessional and they finally agreed to just charge me what it cost, minus a dollar a night as there’s been no facilities in the room. I feel for the staff here they’re friendly and helpful but higher management seem loco.

Well, where to start... The food is very overpriced (tacos are 10$) and not tasty. I expected way better quality for this range of prices. Also, prices are written in $, but if you pay in cordobas they apply an excessive change rate: For instance my 1$ beer has been charged 40 cordovas + a 10% service fee (that was not mentioned on the menu!), which is 44 cordobas instead of 35-36 (hence ~25% more than the original price 😡). I let two stars because the sunset view is amazing, but there is genuinely no others reasons I'd recommend it.

The burrito is a scam, a soft fajita bread filled with rice and poor chunks of chicken. Only. Nothing else! Without either a bit of salad & fries.. some basics! Worst burrito ever experienced. For 10$ its money wasted. One of the cheapest plate on the menu..Its worth 4$. Please, make a minimum of effort or by bringing more varierty, quantity, aesthetic or lower the price consequently. Wish you the best.

The barrel hostel is located right at the beach so you can enjoy beautiful views over the endless beach of Popoyo all day (especially sunsets are great). The open common area is very nice (also has a pool table). The staff do not all speak English but they all make it work somehow, they understand most of it. On our way to the hostel it started raining and our taxi couldn’t cross a river so we called the hostel and the owner personally picked us up for free with her pick up, super nice! Thanks again. If you want to save so money, book the dorm, we didn‘t have to share it so we got a cheap, theoretically private room. There is also a kitchen in the hostel you can use. If you don’t want to cook you can also order food at the bar/Restaurant. You can also order beer for 1.50$ at the bar. Talking beach atmosphere the best hostel we’ve been to in Central America. Would definitely recommend it.

Management is not decent, before I booked the place they told me its 25 dollars a night, At the end of my stay when I went to pay the wanted 30 dollars for each night I stayed, when I asked why the said “service” If you want a place with people to trust this is definitely not the place.

Well.... honestly, don't get the pizza. Honestly, I only come here cause I don't have a car and it's the farthest I can walk without passing out in the heat. I think there are better places... the server girls are very nice

Ordered a pizza which was way too oily as some other reviews have mentioned, also the tacos which were dry and tasteless and a few beers. The cost was almost $40 as we paid in cordobas and had a big service charge of 30% added. I am a blind and disabled man and this place took advantage of me. Don’t go here they take advantage of vulnerable people. We only discovered the additional service and local currency fees afterwards.

Stayed for lunch. Right at the beach, that's nice, but still doesn't justify the price for what you get. Prices in dollar and tax is added on top without being notified about it before you order.

We booked over Hostelworld! And we booked a 6 bed dorm 100% see the pictures from the booking confirmation emails Absolutely not recommendable..... The stuff is very unfriendly.... We booked 6 bed dorm and they want to giv us 12 bed dorm because they had no 6 bed available (even that we booked it!) And then they said there is no difference between 6 and 12 bed dom.... In the end we decided to go somewhere else.......

No hand soap in the dormitory bathroom. Party hostel vibe. I didn’t like the atmosphere of the place. Long walk from Beginner Bay. Wish I stayed at Cafe Con Leche instead.

The room was small but had A/C. The restaurant was right on the beach but the prices were too high so we ate at the BBQ restaurant down the road or cooked for ourselves in the grubby guest kitchen. The surf is a 15 mins walk down the beach. Watch out for stingrays. Treat stings with very very hot water for 90 mins.

Our stay at the barrel hostel was unfortunate. We were told by many traveller's that they did not have a very good experience there but we decided to give it a try. The check in process was interesting. We were told to wait till our bed was clean (totally fair) but were not given anymore information. We weren't told where the bathrooms were, the kitchen or any information on the hostel or activities to do. The food was very expensive for subpar meals. If you wanted to cook yourself - the kitchen was crawling with ants and reeked of mold. We tried to reach out to the owner and she took 18hours to reply with she was busy and she would respond later. (She did not) We ended up leaving early and found accommodations that were the same price for an amazing view, great beds and tons of activities and options around.

The Barrel Hostel is a quite nice place to stay as it’s located next to the beach. Unfortunately the kitchen is a disaster. The fridge is very packed with mouldy stuff, the pans and all the dishes are dirty and there is barely not enough space for three people to cook. I would not recommend staying there if you like to cook your own food.

What an awesome place! Friendly staff, great food, clean rooms, cool people, great place for sunsets, and an overall super chill vibe. Highly reccomend!!!

This hostel has exactly everything you need. The staff were friendly, it has a kitchen for guests, good pool table, lots of hammocks and is directly on the beach. The shared room has plenty of fans to keep you cool at night, and for 9$ a night you can’t go wrong. The only thing was I wasn’t a massive fan of the food, I got a burrito and it wasn’t very good, but otherwise definitely recommend staying here!

Just went for drinks. Beautiful spot, right on the beach. Cool place to hang out.

Very good place near the beach. The food is not very good

I love this place everytime my bestie and I go there they treat us super nice !! The staff and everybody are super good to us !! I love it !! 😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻

Awesome spot. Great beach and dollar beers

Beachside pool and drinks at sunset, I'm in. Thanks for the hospitality!

Over priced, small dishes and pizza was packed with oil. We payed 24$ for pizza, salad (which was very small) and 2 local beers.

Very poor food and poor service. We waited over an hour and a half for food and they forgot one pizza but still charged us for the more expensive pizza. Avoid eating here