Jodanga Backpackers Hostel

Barrio Los Choferes, Calle El Fuerte # 1380 | Map and Directions

About Jodanga Backpackers Hostel

Welcome to Jodanga on HostelWorld!

"Jodanga" is a beautiful brand new backpackers´ hostel completely run by young people like you! It's the only 'real' backpacker hostel in Santa Cruz, and one of the few in Bolivia - if you don't want to stay in a dingy old saggy mattress residential, Jodanga is the place for you - everything's new!

It's the only hostel in Santa Cruz that has a refreshing swimming pool (and even Jacuzzi) which are free for your use. Enjoy a beer or a cocktail in our poolside bar or taste the best fruit frappes and coffee in Bolivia with our barista and eggs chef at breakfast.

Besides that we offer big spacious air-conditioned dorms with new comfortable beds, private bathrooms with hot water 24hrs a day, cable TV in the lounge and the bar plus access to over 100 DVDs. We have a billiard table, Free internet access, laundry service, the best tourist information in Santa Cruz, and free use of the kitchen. We organize day trips to hard to reach places like Las Lomas de Arena and Espejillos on guest request and a buffet breakfast is included in the price (until 10am including Bolivian specials like arroz con leche plus something yummy and hot like eggs or Pancakes or Empanadas - breakfast changes every day so you will never get bored!)

Monday to Saturday between 10am and 1pm our Spanish teacher is available and conducting Spanish classes in our school 'La Lengua Jodanga' - the best value Spanish classes available in Santa Cruz. Private lessons are also available at your convenience.

The hostel is within easy walking distance from the centre of the city and is the best place in town to relax and meet other travelers.

Our hostel is the ultimate starting point to explore the city of Santa Cruz, its amazing surroundings and great nightlife. So come, feel at home and have a ¨jodanga¨ (great) time with us!

A Note on Our Location and Rating:

The city of Santa Cruz is bigger than La Paz. Santa Cruz is made up of 10 "rings" that form main roads of the city - (yes that's right - rings like you put on your finger) you can see the southeast corner of just the first 2 rings in the map shown in the picture given on this site. At the very centre point of the 10 rings is the plaza "24 de Septiembre" and the oldest Church on the city. In this part of town there is plenty of modern shopping and offices. The main square and the church is very pretty and definitely worth a visit BUT

The REAL interesting sites and culture of Santa Cruz are outside the 1st ring - Rio Pirai for instance (4/5th ring), La Lomas de Arena (10th ring), Plan 3000 (the poorest area, popular for volunteer projects), Barrio Equipatrol (3rd and 4th ring, the clubs district), The cine centre entertainment centre (largest cinema and shopping complex in Bolivia, 2nd ring), Biocentro Guembe (worlds largest butterfly dome, 10th ring) plus all the newest restaurants who settle in the growing districts of Santa Cruz - the 3rd ring outwards. If you limit yourself to the town square - you limit your travels and severely limit your experience in Santa Cruz. You know the old saying….

In the HUGE city of Santa Cruz, Jodanga has a Prime Location in one of the key entertainment areas of the city, at the southeastern edge of the 2nd ring. We are just 800m from the main bus and train station, 800m from the local airport and less than 1km from the main plaza (about 15 mins walk) if you draw a triangle between these 3 very important locations we are right in the middle!

Close to the hostel you will find a great mix of some of the best restaurants, fast food, and markets to some of the cheapest. We are just across the park from a supermarket, pharmacy, laundry, more internet and phone points (but we have FREE internet AND a public phone) PLUS Parque Urbano, the cities largest green area within the first 5 rings (great for those who want to stay fit or just watch the whole city congregate on weekends) plays host to some great concerts and activities on weekends not to mention the "fun fair", "circus" or "carnival" (whatever you call it in your country) permanently situated in the middle of the park.

We are within easy walk of Bolivia's largest entertainment complex (cine centre, timezone, bars, cafes and shopping and of course cinemas!). We have written a complete online guide to Santa Cruz to cover all the things your guidebook couldn't be bothered researching - we can't list it here because we are not allowed to link out! But it might be something like backpackingbolivia with the usual dot coms and www´s. You will have to visit to find out more and grab one of our maps - there is not enough space here for more!

PLUS Taxis are cheap! The cost within the first 1 or 2 rings is just 8 Bolivianos, that's US$1, 0.50 pounds or 80 euro cents. The hostel will call your taxi for FREE - while all the hostels in the centre won`t call you a radio taxi, they will just let you jump into any dodgy taxi out the front - don't take that risk!

So please, we ask you - we take a lot of pride in our hostel and the young owners give it and all the guests a lot of attention and advice that is just not possible for other hostels in Santa Cruz, because they don't travel around Bolivia like backpackers - We Do! Come and visit us - if you still don't like it and want to leave, if our car is available we will give you a free lift back to the main plaza. If you have booked accommodation on this booking engine - please think before you rate our location as crap just because we are not on the main plaza - it pulls all our rating down and makes us really sad and will eventually send us out of business but we LOVE working with backpackers and we cant move our hostel!

Thanks VERY much for reading this and we hope to be able to convince you in person when you visit us soon.

Your young and eager hosts

Andres and Lauren