Have you heard of The Pink Palace?
It’s quite infamous in the European hostel scene. Also in the world. CNN named it the number one party hostel on the planet.
It’s located on the island of Corfu which is the closest island to mainland Greece.
It is a great place to have fun and party, if that’s what you’re looking for. They have organized events every day including an ATV tour of the island, a kayak tour and the worldwide famous booze cruise.
It’s also huge. There are over 400 beds at this hostel. Fortunately, we had a room with just four beds for Chels, Katie, Brooke and I.
The Pink Palace also has free breakfast and dinner which is an amazing perk! Breakfast was pretty light including bread, cheese, meats and eggs but dinner was different every night. Pasta or some sort of meat or goulash. It was well worth the 25 Euro we were paying each night!
I also really liked dinner there because they would put you at a table with strangers each night. Each night we would sit with a different mix of Aussies, Germans, South Africans, Russians, Italians and more while we ate. This is another great way to meet more people.
Our room was literally a two minute walk from the beach. We walked across a very small parking lot, past the hot tub (if you go to the Pink Palace, don’t go in the hot tub, just trust me), through the breakfast bar and we were on the beach. It was a large sand beach which has been a nice change to the rock beaches we saw in Croatia and other parts of Greece.
Our first night there, the theme of the party at the beach bar was Half Moon Party. We all got face paint and wore bright clothing. When we arrived at the bar, we just sat back and waited for the craziness that we had heard about to begin.
It was quite tame. There were not many people there. There was one girl who was quite…eccentric. I saw more of her body than anyone should see in a public place. But other than that, we were in bed by 2 a.m. wishing we had seen more craziness.
We spent the next day exploring the island on ATVs and getting Mexican food! Katie and Brooke love Mexican as much as Chels and I so we had to get it together.
That night we were literally in bed at 10 p.m. I think I was asleep by 10:30. So much for the “crazy” Pink Palace! The sun takes so much out of me.
The next day we joined the ATV safari at the Palace. Because we had driven ATVs the day before, the group leaders put us in the front of the pack. They took us to a few lookout points where we had great views of the island.
The Pink Palace does a good job of trying to get people to know each other and hang out but I’m not sure I really agreed with the way they did it. We did an Ice Breaker where you would have to say your name, where you were from, your relationship status and answer a bunch of personal questions about your sexuality. I understand the topic of sex is funny and can get people laughing but for a lot of people it is very uncomfortable to talk about your sexuality. I just found it kind of juvenile.
But driving ATVs is really fun and it was exciting to go off roading and see more of the island.
That night was the famous pink toga party. Everyone gets a toga and does traditional Greek dances in the night club. They also smash plates on top of your head!
Katie and Brooke are in the sorority Chi Omega and that’s their “sorority sign” or whatever so we crashed their photo and became honorary Chi Os.
Chelsea was chosen by the owner of the Pink Palace, Dr. George, to demonstrate the plate smashing. They gave her four shots of Ouzo, basically Greek moonshine that tastes like black licorice. I am NOT a fan! Then Dr. George smashed several plates over her head! It looked incredibly painful. The next day Chels asked if she had fallen the night before because her head hurt. “Um you had a ton of plates smashed over your head last night!” we exclaimed.
After Chels demonstrated, Dr. George went around the nightclub smashing plates over everyone’s heads. I want his job! It’d be so fun to smash plates twice a week.
We desperately wanted to do a kayak safari while we were at The Pink Palace because we wanted to do some snorkeling and cliff jumping. But unfortunately our next full day, it was too rough so they couldn’t run the trip. So we just spent the day on the beach. An incredibly nice couple from Britain gave us their two floats and a beach umbrella to keep because they were going back home. I love nice people!
Finally the next day a kayak safari was going to go. We were told we would go snorkeling, cliff jumping and check out a secluded island. The staff told us to partner up with someone of the opposite sex so I found an Aussie named Ben who was partner-less and we teamed up. He ended up being a great partner because he did most of the paddling while I entertained everyone else on the safari! I don’t think he thought I was the best kayak partner though…
We climbed a secluded island which had good views of Corfu and where we had lunch and answered more questions about our sexuality.
We spent the next hour on the famous booze cruise boat where people were jumping off and laying in the sun.
This is when The Conversation happened.
I started talking to one of the Aussie staff members about how he ended up working at the Pink Palace. He had only been working there for about a week. He had been backpacking around Europe just like us when he decided The Pink Palace would be a fun place to stay for free and party non-stop. I have to admit, I had a had a few drinks so this sounded like an awesome idea to me.
The staff told us they were in incredible need of more staffers and started pitching the job to us. They don’t get paid but they do get free food and board and 1 Euro drinks. How they pay for said drinks when they aren’t getting paid, I’m not really sure…
They ended up convincing Chels and I to talk to the owner about staying to work. We’re running low on funds and the staff seemed pretty cool so hey, why not stay there and chill out for our last two and a half weeks in Europe?
After The Conversation, we went to a nearby cliff to do some cliff jumping. I’m terrified of heights but still really wanted to go. I’m not entirely sure how high it was, I honestly forget. But I watched everyone else go before me and I only hesitated about a minute before actually jumping!
When we got back from kayaking, the staff told us to go talk to the owner about working there. We started heading toward his office when we decided we needed to think about it a little longer.
At dinner that night, I learned that I cannot withstand peer pressure. All of the staffers kept telling us to go talk to the owner. They were almost begging us. They told us to get up and start helping so he could see we were serious. I started to see that they didn’t want us to work there because they thought we were nice girls, they just wanted less work for them. I couldn’t stand the peer pressure anymore so finally we went and talked to the owner about a job. He said yes, he could use our help over the next two weeks, shook our hand and walked away. Um…now what?
The staffers told us to get up and start helping since we were officially hired. I started freaking out. I didn’t speak the rest of dinner. What did I just get myself into? I was going to be working at the number one party hostel in the world when I don’t even like to party that much. How was I going to survive?
I told Chels I needed a test run. So we went back to our rooms, changed into The Pink Palace shirts we had bought and went back to the dining room to help clear tables.
As we were clearing, I started thinking about the next two weeks in my mind. We had already paid for a flight to Barcelona, hostel in Barcelona and a flight from Paris to Dublin before we head home. We would be throwing away all that money to stay and work at The Palace. Sure we wouldn’t be paying for rooms or food but if we had to spend money on alcohol as much as the rest of the staff, would it really be worth it? As we were working, I realized I didn’t want to work there. It was not worth it to me.
After about two hours of clearing tables and polishing silverware, Chels and I went back to our room and hid for the rest of the night. The staff had told us to go to the beach bar that night but I was just not ready to tell them that we had decided to not work there after all.
The next day was our last day at the Palace. When we checked out in the morning, the owner asked if we were going to stay. He seemed to really like us and when we told him about all the flights and accommodations we had already booked, he understood and told us to stay in touch so we could work the entire summer next year.
While it would of course be really fun to work in Greece for the summer and meet new people every day, I’m just not sure The Palace is the place for me. I’m not sure the people that I like to surround myself with come to the Pink Palace. We had gorgeous weather and a really fun, enjoyable stay but I think six nights was enough. I was ready to get out of there and get to Barcelona.
The Pink Palace is definitely a fun place and if you’re looking to party for cheap and meet people, this is the place to do it! And we survived! To each his own on what they decide to do there.
Manhattan to Roam 