Value rating: ****

With few tourists making their way through Zimbabwe these days, we nearly had the entire Small World Backpackers in Harare to ourselves. At $45.00 a night, it was a really good value. It's in a very secure area, with clean rooms, a private bathroom, lots of outdoor places to sit, shoot pool, or read a book, and has a self-catering kitchen. It is also in walking distance (safe to go by foot) from the Avondale shopping area with a supermarket, movie theater (although they are still showing Dance Flick), and a cute little cafe that also serves some vegetarian food. The only downside of the hostel is that the main staff (the manager, I think) went out of her way to be unfriendly and unhelpful -- although the rest of the team, from the security guards to the cleaning safe, made up for it with good service. Like everywhere in Harare, the power can go out for hours and hours at a time and our stay was no exception (the place does not have a generator). Other things you should know: the showers really suck (water barely trickles out), it's not worth it to pay extra for a TV in your room because all you'll get is the State-controlled news, and you'll want to pack some tuna for the little kitty that lives at the hostel and looked starved when we arrived.