I find myself with less money than I’d hoped, enough to go on my planned vacation to Washington DC but definitely not enough to pay for my hotel room.
Apparently, I could choose to stay in a hostel rather than cancel my trip. I’m an old lady of 30 but not adverse to roughing it a bit.
Can anyone tell me what to expect from a hostel experience? I’m trying to figure out if I’d be better off trying this or just putting off my trip until I can afford a hotel.
Well my experience may not carry over completely, since I stayed in hostels in Europe not America, but the amenities vary wildly. The places we went to had the high point of a two-person well furnished room, a club, and an indoor pool down to a low point of long room with barracks-style bunkbeds with concrete floors. Don’t even hope for a private, personal shower. On the flipside, the places were generally clean, well-ventilated, and no one ever really creeped me out.
Basically I would say if you don’t expect anything more than a clean bed to sleep in and a place to clean up, you’ll be fine. You probably will end up rooming with at least one other person, so be prepared for that.
I love hostels. I’ll pick hostels over hotels, actually.
I know there are some pretty nasty hostels, and I’ve known people who’ve warned me off of some of them. But your chances of meeting interesting people are much, much higher in a hostel than they are in a hotel. And, yeah, you probably won’t get much more than a bed to sleep in, and maybe a locker for your stuff. But some hostels also have limited kitchen facilities, which will save you some of the money you would have spent on restaurants.
If you want people to be able to contact you by phone, and you’re planning on staying at a hostel, make sure you have a cell with you. There won’t be a direct line to where you’re staying, and you might not be able to count on anyone else passing along a message to you.
Oh, right–I forgot to add that I’ve never seen a really nasty hostel. I’ve only heard about them from other travellers who came across them. My experiences with hostels have been more or less like Priam’s. Some hostels I’ve seen have had lots of amenities, and some have really offered no more than a bed, public showers, and a cement floor. But I haven’t seen anyplace I would have been afraid to stay in or too grossed out to stay in.
BTW–When I went to DC several years ago, I stayed in the India House Too. It wasn’t bad at all, and the guy running the place, Angus, was pretty fun to talk with.
As Priam pointed out, hostels come in all shapes and flavors. I’ve stayed in old high schools (Budapest), people’s basements (Budapest), YMCAs (England), a gymnasium (Copenhagen) and a castle (England). My brother recently stayed in a treehouse at hostel outside of Savannah.
Most of the hostels I’ve stayed in have between 6 and 10 beds in a room. You can usually request to be in a single-sex room if that’s an issue for you. (I prefer to stay in women-only rooms when traveling alone.) Some have single rooms that you’ll pay extra for. Most have lockers that you can rent for stowing your stuff in–you probably don’t want to leave all of your stuff out for anyone to rifle through while you’re not there. Many have kitchen facilities that you can use. If you don’t have privacy issues, hostels are a great way to travel on the cheap. With some preliminary research, you should probably find something that meets your needs.
A few things you might want to bring if you’re planning on staying in hostels:
a combination lock (for the afore-mentioned locker)
flip-flops (Communal shower floors, yay!)
Ear plugs and an eye mask (make sleeping much easier, IME)
Have fun!
I found this thread on the Lonely Planet message board, which is from somebody looking for similar accomadation to you. Might be of use, or you could always try asking there yourself.
I’m about your age, I just did a 2 week trip to NZ, and all but 2 nights I stayed in hostels.
1 of those 12 hostels was truly questionable (the neighborhood bothered me, and there were a few too many funny smells inside the hostel.) 1 was about what I’d expect for the price. The other 10 were excellent… I would happily stay at any of those places again, and would recommend those to anyone.
They were nice, comfortable, clean, as good as (if not better than) any hotel room I could have rented for 4 times the price - the only difference being that I had to share a room. Which was not really a big deal at all.
Some were amazingly comfortable and cozy - some were on beautiful places with excellent scenery - plus a place to cook, eat, do laundry, etc. And I got to meet other people travelling from all over the world (which was great when you’re on the road alone - so you can talk to someone to keep from going crazy, or not, whichever the case may be). The others I’ve been to on other trips in Canada have been like that as well. But admittedly, I’ve never tried on in DC.
There’s a couple of hostel review websites (http://hostels.com/, http://hostelworld.com/) - check those to see about the ones in DC.
I’ve stayed in some pretty grubby hostels, including one which was so bad we opted to stay dirty for a second day straight (we’d spent the previous night travelling) rather than use the showers. And the next night we splurged for a hotel. Most aren’t that bad, though. I’d recommend you stick to the IYHF-affiliated hostels; generally I’ve found their standard of cleanliness to be a bit above the average independent hostel’s.
If you plan to be out late, be sure to find out if there’s a curfew.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m going to give it a try, I think. Seems like a good way to take my vacation with the money I have.
As others have already said, hostels can vary. They really are good for helping a lone traveler meet a wide variety of people from all over the place. I am pushing 50 and I still occasionally stay in hostels. In addition to the curfew at night, some hostels will have a lockout period during the daytime hours.
Two hostel questions I have: