When I started backpacking in my early 20s, friends/family would have a look of horror when I mentioned staying at backpacking hostels. “Did you see the movie? It’s sooo crazy!”. I’ve been to so many hostels, and at almost every one, they have the DVD “Hostel”.
And it just happened again. But today I noticed… No one has ever asked me a question about hostels. They just came to the judgement that they would never ever stay in one, but never asked about my experiences, or anything.
So if you have ANY questions, please ask and I will answer them.
Well, I haven’t seen it, but, decades ago, I stayed in a youth hostel or two (including three weeks in the then East Germany) with no problems at all. But they were all run by organisations with some sort of broader social ambition in mind.
I’d never heard of it, but at first glance, it’s sooo crazy!
So … some real questions for the OP:
Where in the world have you stayed in hostels? Did that tend to be one night & move on, or did you stay in one place for awhile? Did you make any lasting friendships with fellow hostel-stayers?
I’ve stayed in hostels when in London and Rome. It was simply a cheap(er) place to stay than a hotel. The first time I was in a shared room with bunk beds, since it was just for one night and I had to leave the next morning to catch a bus anyway, but after that I always spent a bit more to get a private room.
I haven’t, and after dozens of faces of horror (after telling them I stayed in one) I don’t think I ever will. I’d say there’s a better chance I stay at a hostel than watch the movie
I stayed in plenty of hostels, and never heard anyone say they might be worried about staying in one. Until this thread, yet none of the actual posters say they ever had a problem.
I stayed in a few hostels when I was younger. They were cheap but adequate. Worrying about their safety because of a movie seems really weird to me. Are people afraid to stay in motels because of Psycho?
I haven’t stayed in hostels but I have friends who did the traditional backpacking trip around Europe the summer after we graduated from undergraduate school (carrying the Let’s Go travel guides and using Eurail passes) and they stayed in a variety of hostels along the way. This was several decades ago, so well before that film series was released and they obviously survived without incident. I regret not having taken the trip. I may still get to Europe, though at my age I’m more likely to stay in hotels.
I might be reluctant to make the descent to stay at the Eden Lake Hotel next to the black lagoon on Elm Street on Friday the 13th (or 28 days later). Unless they offered free breakfast.
I’ve had some of the most awesome experiences of my life hostelling, in South Africa, Morocco, Peru, etc. in my twenties. Though I wouldn’t now, but that’s because I’m a middle aged dude who is not cut out for that (not to mention having kids), not for any safety issue. The last time I did, my brother and I had fun 10 years ago travelling round the Balkans and we stayed at hostels but.genrally in a private apartment rented out by the hostel not the hostel itself.(again for comfort reasons as we had the funds, and being too old even then for dorm rooms, not for safety reasons)
While I’ve generally not had as awesome an experience in US hostels, I’ve never had the reaction the OP described when I’ve talked about staying at hostels with people in the states (unlike taking about hitchhiking, or picking up hitchhikers, which is apparently the equivalent of BASE jumping while injecting heroin safety wise )
The only hostel I have personal semi-experience with was one located in Las Vegas a block from the business I operated in my late 20s/early 30s = early-mid 1990s.
It was a dive. The people coming in and out where scruffy in the extreme. The neighborhood had plenty of druggies and the hostel customers didn’t look much different.
Were hostels far nicer in e.g. Germany in e.g. 20 years prior? Heck if I know. I would not have been fearful of staying in the one near my business there then, but I sure would have preferred to sleep with no more than $10 in cash & valuables on my person.
I stayed in Hostels for months in Hong Kong in the 1980’s. Definitely low rent and occasionally dramatic but usually it was live and let live. Everyone just trying to get by
I haven’t seen the film since it originally came out but I don’t recall any of the really horrific stuff actually happening in the hostel.
One of the most picturesque towns I’ve ever spent the night in was Český Krumlov where the exteriors for that movie were filmed, but we stayed in a (torture-free) Airbnb.
I wish I’d been able to the backpacking/hostel life when I was younger.
I have met some younger people during my travels who stayed at hostels. For what I’ve heard, they seem perfect and I’ve have no problems with anyone staying in one.
As I implied above, my experience is with Youth Hostels run by good-cause organisations rather than commercial “pack 'em in” enterprises, which (for all I know) don’t (yet?) dominate that sector of the market over here.
As for films that may mislead over the experience of travel accommodation, let’s just say that home exchanges, like an English Christmas, are in my experience nothing like The Holiday (for one thing, don’t expect Jude Law to tell you “my package perhaps in the light of day isn’t all that wonderful”).
When my daughter lived in Germany she stayed in hostels all the time when she rode trains around Europe with her friends. So, when we visited Berlin (long after the wall came down) we stayed in one a few blocks from Checkpoint Charley. My wife and I had a room to ourselves, our daughter stayed in a room with others.
It was next door to the North Korean embassy. I learned later that it was owned by them and was a way of laundering hard currency. Oops. But it was very nice.
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