Hostel Selina Oaxaca: Review from Digital Nomads

What is Selina Oaxaca like? Where do we see its biggest pros and cons, what did we like and what did we miss? We lived and worked for a couple of weeks in this Selina and we’d like to share our observations. Enjoy our first Selina review! With a video as well!

Where is Selina Oaxaca Located?

The location in Oaxaca is Selina’s greatest benefit. It’s located right in the city center. You’ll be just a couple of minutes walking from the main square and main avenue. A great restaurant or bar can be found in every direction and you get to the market in fifteen minutes. At the same time, the street itself is very calm, so you can work and enjoy nice sleep. When Selina itself isn’t disturbing you, I’ll get back to that one.

If you by any chance need to get somewhere further, the city buses and colectivos are passing through the parallel streets. Also, the ADO is just about twenty minutes walking. And whenever you need to catch a cab, you need to wait only a moment before one comes.

Btw. this was the fourth Selina we visited. And the first one we filmed a review about! If you don’t feel like reading or you want to have a video tour around the place, check out the video on our YouTube channel!

What is Selina Oaxaca like?

When you visit a Selina hostel, you probably have some expectations about the facilities. There should be fully equipped coworking space, good WiFi, nice yoga classes and other workouts, a cool bar, stylish rooms, and more. What was Selina in Oaxaca city like?

The Accomodation: Micro Room

As always, we stayed in a Micro Room. It’s the cheapest version of a private room with a shared bathroom. There is a small bathroom where you can have some privacy in this Selina (sometimes there are just camp-type showers.) The problem is, in Oaxaca the Micro Room is micro indeed. There is only space for the bed, hanger, and nightstands. And no window. Or at least no window you could actually use.

We had a chance to try two different rooms. The first one had two windows. One was facing the hall, the other a staircase and it was possible to open it only a few centimeters. The second room didn’t have windows at all. There was only a small vista next to the door.

Don’t get too excited about the AC in the rooms: It doesn’t work well. We had it on half a day and still weren’t able to cool down the room and get some fresh air in. It seemed like it’s lacking maintenance for some time and it was pretty loud as well.

The room with the windows was “noise cursed”. Not only the AC but also people walking up and down the staircase to the rooftop bar. Especially during the weekend, when many people outside of Selina came and the bar stayed open late. Even worse was the bathroom next to the room. We heard some long loud noise every time someone turned on the water or used a toilet. Might be repaired by now, but they didn’t manage to do it in a month…

The Bar and Restaurant

There are two bars in Selina Oaxaca. The first one is next to the entrance and is open in the morning and during the day. You can have breakfast there, ice cream or an early drink. It’s hard to review since we only order coffee while working in the coworking space.

The second bar is the rooftop bar, which is its main asset. When the weather collaborates, the views and vibe are stunning. That is also the reason why many people who are not staying in Selina are coming just for a drink. Which can get annoying, when you run to the bathroom in a towel or just want to sleep.

The main con is the high prices Especially for Oaxaca, which is one of the cheaper places in Mexico. We paid for a shot of house mezcal about 80 pesos, which is almost three times more than the usual price. The drinks weren’t cheap either, nor that big of a difference though.

The Coworking space

The coworking space in Selina Oaxaca is tiny but nice to work in. Unfortunately, we don’t have the exact numbers (if you might get it for me while staying there, I’ll be very grateful) but the WiFi was very fast. Not just in the coworking area, but in general in the whole hostel.

There is a phone booth and a meeting room, but it’s often rented out for the whole day. Especially with the phone booth, you should have included in the price for the space, it’s not totally fair. It happened regularly that three people were on the phone. You can imagine how annoying it is in that tiny room.

The design is nice, but there is a lack of proper chairs. Which is a big deal for me ?. If I don’t mind sitting on a shitty chair, I could stay in an Airbnb. It would be nicer, bigger and cheaper. There is also no coffee, but you can get it for free at the bar. Unfortunately, no one told us when we first came and we found out during our second visit.

The Kitchen

Is there a kitchen in Selina Oaxaca? Before we came, we got two different answers. The thing is, there used to be no kitchen. But after complaints of our Canadian friends who stayed there a few weeks before, the manager built a new one.

There is a kitchen in Selina Oaxaca now. It’s tiny but new and well equipped with two big refrigerators. Which is quite something for such a small Selina. You’ll find everything you might need for basing cooking, such as a stove, microwave oven, pots and pans, grater… As a bonus, there is a blender, coffee machine, and from time to time toaster as well. That one was randomly disappearing and reappearing again.

Events and Activities

Selina is popular for its events and activities. They are very limited in Selina Oaxaca. Instead of yoga every day, there is yoga scheduled three times a week. And it was canceled every single time, while we stayed there. Since it’s on the rooftop, you have almost no chance to participate during the rainy season.

There was also a salsa class once a week (which we had to skip because of my injury). Other than that, it’s just the rooftop bar during the weekend and a couple of days before and from time to time some market.

The comunity in Selina Oaxaca

What kind of people is coming to Selina Oaxaca? Well, it’s a smaller Selina without an overwhelming events schedule. The majority of people are coming only for a couple of days. Therefore it’s not the perfect place to connect with people. I don’t want to claim it’s not possible to meet people here. It doesn’t feel like it’s made for it though.

Other Facilities in Selina Oaxaca

You can use a couple of hammocks and other hangout spaces. The movie room is smaller, but enough for a small group of people, with huge TV, Netflix, HDMI cable, and USB port. There are no movie nights, but you can reserve the room for yourself any time. When we stayed there, it was available all the time.

Selina Oaxaca: Pros

• Nice and mostly empty coworking space with a fast internet
• Great location with many restaurants
• Your room gets cleaned every day
• The rooftop bar and the views
• The manager is responsive

Selina Oaxaca: Cons

• It’s not possible to use the phone booth quite often
• The Micro room is extra micro without windows
• Expensive bar which tends to get pretty lound
• The AC in the room doesn’t work properly
• Few / no yoga classes

Summary

Selina in Oaxaca city is one of the prettiest with no doubt. The problem is, there is not much to do in the hostel. The cowork is nice but get’s crowded quickly. Often without the possibility to use the phone booths. And when you enter the room, you feel like the owner of Selina is laughing at your face. Add the lack of competent staff (if not for the manager, this Selina would fall apart in two days), expensive bar, and almost no CoLive benefits. This Selina was condemned for not so good evaluation.

If you stay in one of the better rooms (Standard and above) and only short-term, the experience might be different. During the shorter stay, you probably won’t need to deal with any problems. The location is perfect for exploring the town. Each one of our favorite spots was fifteen minutes walking at most. Restaurants and sights alike.

Has something changed since we stayed in Selina Oaxaca? Let us know in the comments! We are interested as well as other travelers who are considering their stay in Selina. Feel free to ask s anything in the comment section or directly on Instagram. We’ll do our best to answer and help!

Enjoy the travels,

Lea