How to Pick a Great Hostel

For people just starting out on an international journey, picking a hostel or hostels can be one of the most daunting aspects of the trip. It can even scare someone away from going in the first place. Done right though, it can have the most influence over your experience in a city. So, a simple guide to getting the kind of hostel experience you want.

First: Know what kind of experience you are looking for!

Hostels range from quiet, tame and guest-house like to fraternity style ragers complete with zoo-animals, ice-luges, fireworks demonstrations and disco balls. Also, are you just popping in for a few days or are you having an extended stay in the city? The longer you stay, the more important the hostel environment will be. Hostels in the city-centre will tend to be more raucous than the ones in more outlying districts.

Second: Know Your Geography

Google Maps has accurate city maps of pretty much every city on the planet. Argentina was a hold-out until quite recently, but they too are on there now. This is your primary resource when picking a good hostel. Find out where the big attractions, metro stations, and main streets are. For example, staying outside the city centre is not a problem in Berlin, because of the frequent and inexpensive S-Bahn, but staying far from down-town is going to hinder you in a city like Rome, where the metro is less expansive, and the attractions are crowded together.

Third: Know your Transportation

As I mentioned before, it’s important to know how transportation works. In London, the Underground is frequent, and stations are everywhere. However, in Jerusalem, if you’re moving anywhere, its by bus or taxi. Other cities, taxis are more convenient than the metro sometimes. Urban Rail is the best resource for understanding public transportation. They have detailed maps, line explanations, fare charts, and other great info for every metro system in the world.

Lastly: Book!

There are 3 main hostel booking sites on the internet:

1. Hostelworld

2. Hostels.com

3. STA Travel

The first two seem to use the same engine, but sometimes have different availablity (If a hostel you like on one is booked up, try the other one, sometimes you can get lucky). The last one is a bit different, and STA is kind of its own animal. I’ve had very good experiences with them in the past (I booked my Eurail tickets through them), and they specialize in student bookings and will very often give you a discount if you can provide a university e-mail address. They also offer great deals on airfares. (JFK-Barcelona via Milan for $350!!)

Don’t feel that you’re committing. Most hostels will take internet bookings and ask for 10% down, and then 90% in cash when you stay there. And they usually have a fairly generous cancellation policy.

Yes, but which hostel do I choose? They are so many!

So you’ve found the ones in the spot you want, but you have no idea which to choose:

These are the most important things when choosing a hostel:

1. Common Room - This is absolutely essential. Make sure you can see pictures of it. It should be large, centrally located, and look inviting.

2. Bar – Should be near or a part of the common room. Whether you are a big drinker or not, the point is, many travellers are, and this will attract people to be social. If the hostel does not have a common room or a bar, I would classify it as “an inexpensive hotel where you have to share a bathroom.”

3. Location – Cannot be overstated. You want to be centrally located, and ideally near a metro stop that is on a convenient line to where you are staying. Try to get the address from the hostel booking site and map it yourself, rather than using their map. Not to say that it won’t be accurate, but if you do it yourself, you can map multiple hostels.

4. Lock Out – Most hostels lock out in the middle of the day. This is normal to allow for cleaning. Stay away from ones with a curfew, there are too many without one to be bothered.

5. Pictures and Ratings – The ratings on hostels are surprisingly telling. What I usually do is sort the ratings by worst first. People are much more likely to go on and post if they had a bad experience than if they had a good one. Seeing these ratings combined with pictures should give you a fairly accurate idea of what’s coming when you get to the hostel.

If the hostel you’re staying in lacks one of these, or has one that it shouldn’t (lock out), you need to consider a different place. In any sufficiently large city, even in America, where hostels aren’t as strongly ingrained in the culture, there are so many options that there’s no reason at all to be in a bad hostel.

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A Hostel Experience is not like a hotel experience; it is what you make of it.

Get out! Socialize! You will probably be in a room with 2-3 other people, unless you elect to pay for a single. Talk to these people! In almost all circumstances, people are chatty, want to talk, and are very amenable if you say you’re interested in going out and ask if they would accompany you. It’s the easiest and best place to be social because there is no judgement. In a hostel, everyone is equal, equally deserving of an invitation, and equally interesting (Every person there is going to have some great travel stories!)

Now with the advent of Facebook and other social networking sites, keeping in touch with a contact is as simple as turning on your computer. The greatest thing to be gained from hostels is a cultural interchange and the opportunity to meet and interact with someone that has a fundamentally different life experience than you.

(Photo Credits: Jo Naylor)

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