Staying in Hostels

Chlorine7

I am thinking about staying in hostels so that I can meet people and not spend so much when I travel alone. I have only ever stayed in a hostel when I have booked my own room so I'd like to know a few things from people who have stayed.

Do you claim a bed or is it assigned? In either case is it yours for the duration of your stay?

Are the lockers usually big enough to store a backpack/small luggage case or do you just get a small one to store important items?

Have you mostly had good experiences with hostels? Obviously there will be horror stories as people can be d***s but in general.

pogofish

Mostly good and indeed excellent IME. I've stayed in Hostels all over Europe and its a great way to travel cheaply. It was only the onset of Arthritis that pretty much stopped me using them regularly.

IME beds are generally assigned when you arrive and are mostly yours for the duration of your stay but on occasion they may ask you to shift if the place is busy or they are accommodating different groups etc. If you are travelling yourself, it often works in your favour and you can find yourself given a better/private room if you are helpful. Some places will just point you at a room/dorm and let you take your pick.

Lockers - I rarely used them as I tend to travel with minimal valuables and carried them on my person, which is wise when using a hostel. Kitchen lockers are maybe the exception and are usually a shared experience, similarly fridges. Mostly people respect your grub but on a handful of occasions someone has had a feed at my expense. Other than that there has never been more than a handful of instances of thieving over the near thirty years I hosteled regularly so keep it in perspective that most people are in the same boat as you and be good-natured about it.

Hostel quality varies greatly across Europe - Ranging from very basic places almost like bothies which are to just lay your head and cook a meal (mostly in rural/mountain/remote) areas, to places that are busy and more like hotels/B&Bs in operation, with full-on catering, well appointed private rooms, cafes, bars etc - The independent sector has brought a lot more by way of competition variety to those of us who grew-up with the basic, bit dreary but consistent YHA/SYHA hostels but I still have a leaning towards association places as they tend to have an ethos of doing good stuff. The German "Naturefreundhaus" hostels were superb value/quality if that scheme is still running - sort of an up-market/adult selection of hostels in areas of natural beauty and regions where there was an age-limit on conventional hostels.

Very few horror stories over the years - Once had a pleasant chat with a lad who turned out to be an air force deserter - and that got me a fairly nasty interrogation from the military police who were on his tail the next day and on another occasion some drunk campers broke-in to the hostel and trashed the kitchen/social block and all our food. The warden pointed us at the local pub who put-on a superb breakfast and dinner for us and wouldn't take a penny for it by way of apology.

The main issue you are likely to encounter in hostels is SNORERS and you have to accept that occasionally you will bunk-up with someone whose snoring registers on the Richter Scale. If its a dry/mild night, I have ended-up tiptoeing over the people sleeping in the corridor, common room lobby etc, taking my blankets/bag outside and slept on a bench in the garden! Smelly feet are pretty common to and just go-with the territory.

What is a must for using hostels has changed a lot over the years and IME they became much more flexible about sleeping bag types and alcohol/curfews etc - but I'd still take a spare pillowcase and check if you plan to go out on the lash or have a drink with your dinner - some places may still be dry or ask you to be very quiet about slipping-in to the dorm if people are already sleeping. The only thing that remained constant the whole time I used hostels was that you needed a clean soft pair of shoes to wear in the hostel. They did not appreciate people clomping around in big muddy boots! So a pair of lightweight trainers or similar should go in your pack.

agrinnall

An excellent summary from pogofish, and I feel I should issue an apology for being one of the snorers ; as my snoring has worsened in recent years I have opted not to inflict it on fellow hostellers and now only use hostels if I'm able to book a private room, despite being a life member of the SYHA.

I might suggest in addition to a pillowcase you might also want to invest in a lightweight (silk is good) sleeping bag liner that you can slip into if there's some doubt about the cleanliness of provided bedding.

[Deleted User]

I can only speak for UK hostels, I've never used them abroad.

The tradition always used to be that you pick any bed you like and claim it by making it, but that was in the days when you made your own beds. Nowadays it can get quite confusing, some hostels have beds already made and some don't, some hostels allocate you a bed and some don't. Just look for beds that are already made, or have belongings on them, or ask. If you're staying more than one night they'll usually let you leave your bed made, but sometimes the room cleaners won't realise and you come back to find that someone else has claimed your bed after the staff stripped it. Leaving a few belongings on the bed during the day can help, but not necessarily.

The solution with snoring is don't let it wind you up, it's your own anger that keeps you awake.

If you want to meet people small hostels are best, the bigger the hostel the fewer people who speak (a bit like Crocodile Dundee walking through NY saying hello to everyone). Better still, one without a pub nearby, otherwise there's a tendency for people to walk in, dump the rucsac on the bed, and then disappear until closing time. The member's kitchen is a good place to meet people, and self catering saves a fortune.

The 11pm curfew is a thing of the past, so if you stay at one in a big city be prepared for people coming in late.

melanzana

Would a more "mature" person fit in ok in a hostel do you think?

I travel on my own a couple of times a year, and it can work out VERY expensive with the single supplement. I see a lot of hostels have single rooms which appeals to me as a lady of mature years! But I like the idea of mingling. But if they are all twenty something size 8s I might be a bit intimidated!

Just wondered if anyone slightly older has stayed in hostels. Thank you.

worried_jim

I've used them in Israel loads and had the time off my life and met some proper weird people- in a good way. I remember playing chess with a chap who was carrying a desert eagle 5.0 on his hip, I let him win. Great days.

PompeyPete

It depends...

- time of year.

- peak or off-peak.

- % occupancy.

- party pad?

- what sort of person you are.

- the location.

- Smoking, non smoking?

- how old you are.

- your expectations and tolerences.

- all sorts of other stuff.

Probably best to start off with where are you thinking of going? What's your daily accommodation budget, as the standard of hostels can be poles apart in standards, amenities, and whether party places or not.

Me and the Mrs have just stayed in 7 hostels in Nicaragua, and they were all different. But how those differences might affect you might be a whole lot different to how they affect me.

Homework, as in any venture abroad, is important.:)

knightstyle

Regarding mature users, we used UK hostels several times in our 60s. No problems except once when a young group decided to party in the hallway late. We were staying several days and the manager apologised and moved us to a small private room which was designed for disabled guests.
We were always treated with respect and often had great evenings with the youngsters.

pogofish

melanzana wrote: »

Would a more "mature" person fit in ok in a hostel do you think?

I travel on my own a couple of times a year, and it can work out VERY expensive with the single supplement. I see a lot of hostels have single rooms which appeals to me as a lady of mature years! But I like the idea of mingling. But if they are all twenty something size 8s I might be a bit intimidated!

Just wondered if anyone slightly older has stayed in hostels. Thank you.

In many places yes.

There are a few regions where the Association hostels give priority to younger people - Mainly South Germany and Austria but the independents/Naturefreundhaus scheme took people regardless of age - and you often found three generation family groups all over and groups of older people in many places.


In the UK and Ireland and most other countries I've visited, age is no problem at all and you find people of all ages using hostels. Most generally, stay away from the party/trendy destinations if you don't want to be surrounded by youngsters or use an independent that offers you single/small rooms away from the groups - That still leaves plenty of choice and TBH, if you take the open-minded/tolerant/fit-in approach, you will do just fine whatever.

In fact there was a time in the late 90s/early 00s when the Associations were worried about the lack of younger people using hostels - and that was where the approach to rules/curfews etc started to change and the hostels themselves were improved to more modern standards and facilities.

Kernow666

have stayed in hostels all over Europe as I find it more sociable over a hotel which I can easily afford
I tend to stay at the ones offering the smallest room capacity as you are less likely to have an idiot in the room making noise and always if I can sleep on the bottom bunk
eye mask is essential and earplugs as I find they don't do curtain properly in Europe


check out


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Hostelworld

[Deleted User]

melanzana wrote: »

Would a more "mature" person fit in ok in a hostel do you think?

I travel on my own a couple of times a year, and it can work out VERY expensive with the single supplement. I see a lot of hostels have single rooms which appeals to me as a lady of mature years! But I like the idea of mingling. But if they are all twenty something size 8s I might be a bit intimidated!

Just wondered if anyone slightly older has stayed in hostels. Thank you.

I'm 57, and don't find age to be any problem, the term "Youth Hostel" is a bit of a misnomer, there are plenty of all ages, particularly in YHA hostels. I can only recall two hostels out a total of about 200 where I've felt uncomfortably old, and they were both independents.

Bear in mind that where you really save money is on food, hotels and B&Bs don't have kitchens for you to self cater like hostels do. The last time I compared (2010) a set of three meals at YHA prices was about £20, compared with an average of £4.76 that I was spending to self cater.