G’day all. Time for another one of my patented ‘Accommodation Reviews’. Today I am reviewing where I stayed in Varanasi earlier this year, the Kedesawar B&B.

This was one of the cheapest places I stayed in my entire 3 month trip earlier this year. It worked out to be a little over 1600 Indian Rupees per night which was just under $30AUD or $20USD. So on that account it ticked the right boxes, but all in all what did I get for my 30 bucks?

Let’s start with the best thing about the B&B – the location, right on the ghats of the Ganges at Varanasi. How can you go wrong? Breakfast was included in the price and it was served on the balcony overlooking the Ganges which is pretty hard to beat as a location. There were a few things on offer but toast, jam and eggs is what I ordered.

The only knock on the location really is finding the place. I did get somewhat lost in the alleys of Varanasi as that part of the city is a no vehicle (bikes are the exception) area so I was dropped off in the dark at 8 or 9pm and had to navigate my way through to the place. Google Maps didn’t prove helpful really so there was a lot of trial and error and asking people before I finally got to the B&B.

There was reception on the ground floor. Not sure how many rooms they have but it’s only a handful, perhaps 6 or 8, and I found myself on the top floor. So lugging my luggage up the stairs wasn’t easy – not for me, there was someone to do that and felt terribly guilty about that!

The room looks nice enough in the photos and it wasn’t too bad all said, but the bed was huge and there wasn’t a lot of room around it. It was clean though and colourful if simple. There was a small TV but I don’t remember if I even checked the channels. I travel with an HDMI cable to connect my computer and USBs with things to watch and that’s what I do so it was good for that. I didn’t use the air conditioning but I did use the fan, more for air flow at times than to keep the room cool.

The bathroom was small I guess and typical of Indian hotels where there are no barriers from the shower so the whole bathroom floods when you have a shower, and you use a special rubber broom/squeegee to push the water towards the drain. Small sink, the shower itself wasn’t the best with water pressure or super hot water but it did do the job.

The staff were friendly enough and I was able to ask at the front desk for a sunrise boat tour of the Ganges which they organised for me. Although it did involve 430am phones when I was ready to go lol! Noise though was a minus – there’s a lot of chatter around the area through not very thick windows until midnight or so, and again as the place wakes up in the morning (although I don’t mind that so much as it’s part of the atmosphere of Varanasi).

All in all, it’s a budget place that gives you what you need. Except for decent WiFi, the worst WiFi I had in India, it was slow and had drop outs and the evening was especially poor for drop outs. I think for what is on offer in Varanasi it’s actually good value because I looked at a number online and this was the one that didn’t have any in the way of clearly fake reviews. A more consistent score is a good indicator that it’s accurate rather than 50 reviews saying the place is perfect and praising the manager supplemented by 5 0/5 scores that say it’s the worst place on earth. Which was common in Varanasi.

Andy’s Ratings:

Value for Money: 4

Location: 4.5/5

Cleanliness: 3.5/5

Noise: 2/5

Service: 4/5

Total: 18/25 (72/100)

Thanks for popping by! May the Journey Never End!