A Guide to Hostels Part 1
There are a lot of horror stories with hostels. There’s even a movie franchise dedicated to depicting them as horrendous places, just waiting for naïve travelers. However, they’re also one of the best ways to travel cheaply abroad. I’m sure it’s not just me that has heard of how expensive it can be to study abroad AND travel at the same time. This article will delve into the bare essentials for hostel stays and their significance. But, it will be most useful for those who have already researched and want more niche suggestions.
Topics Reviewed in this article:
- How to Choose a Hostel?
- Showers in Hostels
- What if You are a Light Sleeper?
- Padlocks Will Keep You Safe
- Why Sticky Notes Matter
- Should You Wear More Layers at a Hostels?
- Do I need a water bottle?
- Policy on Shower Shoes
At the bottom of this article will be a bare necessities list of what to bring to a hostel.
How to Choose a Hostel?:
Unless there’s an enormous concern with how much it’ll cost you–always make sure that your hostel is within walking distance of a bus stop or train station that is relevant towards your projected travels for the following days. Okay, so I know this might sound like I am trying to get you to go to whatever hostel is closest to the train station, but I’m not. Especially if said hostel has bad reviews.
My point is: why stay at a hostel that’s ten miles away from your bus stop if it’s only going to save you five dollars? You don’t want to travel for two hours by bus, on a route that you don’t know, especially if the money you save by going there won’t even cover your bus ticket.
So, if it’s hard to choose which hostel, make a pros and cons list. Well, no one likes making those. So maybe just do what I did and open every tab and have a list of priorities, which automatically disqualify a hostel for you.
- How do you make that priority list?
I wish I could tell you everything that you should care about. But not everyone cares about the same things. It’s annoying.
So, let’s say that you find six different hostels that each have different prices but all of them fall into a good $10-$30 range. How do you pick the best one? This happened to me more often than I would’ve liked. I was on a trip to Norway and this was the situation for Oslo and I wanted to ask ChatGPT to just tell me what to do. Don’t do that. Just consider these things:
- What is next on your list? Does one of your plans have you waking up at 6am in order to get to a train at a specific station? Look at how far away each of your hostel options are and cross off any that have too many transfers between buses, trams, and trains (these transfers can be delayed and you don’t want to walk an hour because of a train system shutting down when you only have thirty minutes to get there)
- What are the reviews? Do you care about what people are complaining about? Honestly, I didn’t really mind when people complained about cleanliness because I knew that my other priorities would probably knock any super unclean hostels off the list. However, you might care about whether there’s always toilet paper and if they clean the couches regularly.
- What are people saying about management? If people complain about long response times, then that means if you have a situation where you’re stuck in a train and can’t get to the hostel before your allotted time, it’ll be difficult to get into contact with someone at the front desk to let them know of your late arrival.
- Are people able to get refunds if they had an awful time? Was the hostel open and honest about their policy before other people stayed there?
- Did the hostel quickly remove guests who were being disruptive?
What kinds of complaints make you uncomfortable? (I was uncomfortable if a complaint had to do with inappropriate advances from staff towards women travelers).
Read part 2 for things to consider when choosing a hostel!
– Evan Carter (Norwich, England) English Major