Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with hostels

Best American hostels?

smackfu — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:58:49 -0800

What are the best hostels in the U.S. and Canada? The various hostel finder sites are aimed at people who know where they are traveling and want to find a place to stay. This works well in Europe where they are usually a dozen choices so you can travel anywhere, but not so well in the US where some major cities have zero good hostels. And I don't really care where I go, I just want to go away for a long weekend and not spend much money.

You can define "best" however you wish, but not requiring a car would be a big plus.

I am (not yet) a Taiwanese School Teacher

Scattercat — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:10:09 -0800

Travelfilter: Help me, oh well-traveled ones! (Taiwan, language schools, etc.) My wife and I would like to do something interesting before we pass our thirties, and as we were recently informed that our presumed-safe-for-perpetuity jobs are, in fact, being sold out from under us, we've decided to take that as a kick in the pants.

We want to go to Taiwan and teach English. (We both have BAs in English and I have a Masters of Education and three years' teaching experience.) We've done research on the various language school programs (and are leaning towards Hess, just for the size and apparent reliability of it) and my wife has done a lot of browsing on various ex-pat sites to pick up tips. My question for the hive-mind is:

What's a good way to find apartments to sub-let and/or roommates in Taiwan? We've looked at hotels, hostels, and getting our own place, but we really think living with someone who knows the area (and the language) would really help get past some of the hurdles of moving to a completely foreign country. However, neither of us has any idea what the local version of Craigslist is, nor do we necessarily want to trust our lives and well-being solely to our Internet Crazy Filters. More specifically, we'd like to arrange this sort of thing for a short term stay, as well; we'll be going out on a fact-finding mission in October. Is there a way to find extremely temporary lodgings that aren't hotels/hostels? (If there are any Taiwanese Mefites who don't mind playing host/tour guide for two or three weeks, MeMail me!)

Any other tips for living cheaply and/or cost-effectively would be appreciated, as would tips on interesting places to try and see. We're debating between Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Taichung as home cities, so any compare/contrast anecdotes for those would be nice. (For instance, I have chronic asthma and we've heard Taipei has an air-pollution problem, so...)

Help me choose an itinerary for a last-minute 8 or 9 day trip to Europe

gsteff — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:41:06 -0800

Help me choose an itinerary for a last-minute 8 or 9 day trip to Europe. I'm going to be switching jobs in early July, and have timed things to give myself roughly 9 days (including travel) to do a quickie European backpacking trip (I've already found great fares from Lufthansa). I'm a 26-year-old guy, will be traveling alone, and for all intents and purposes don't speak anything other than English. I'd like to cram in as much as I can, which requires balancing a desire to see as many cities and cultures as possible with a desire to not spend the whole trip on a train. I'd like to keep it cheap (I'll be staying in hostels whenever possible) but don't have a specific budget.

What sequence of countries/cities should I hit? Feel free to define "Europe" as loosely as you'd like. The only restriction is that I'd rather skip France, since I've been there already. Right now I'm investigating Italy/Greece/Turkey, but am open to anything.

Other relevant advice is welcome too, of course. Thanks!

I know where to go ... but how to get there?

the luke parker fiasco — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:15:26 -0800

Seeking advice on Eastern European travel over the holidays. So, I started planning late. I'm a US citizen currently residing in Romania, and would like to travel about Eastern Europe over the holidays. The potential itinerary I'm currently looking at is going from Romania to Budapest, then up to Bratislava, to either Vienna or Krakow, and back.

Ideally I'd like to purchase a multi-destination ticket (or tickets for each hop) in advance. I'm looking for advice on transport (either bus or train), functioning websites for booking travel, advice on how booked travel options will be between 18 December and 4 January, and suggestions for hostels.

Cheap Seoul lodgings for a week

nerdpita — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:33:42 -0800

Seoul readers! Super cheap places to stay in Seoul? Hostels? Love motels? Your place for a few bucks? Hi, I need to go to Seoul for a week or so in Dec. to visit my dad who is having surgery. Plane fare is expensive enough so I'm hoping to find a really cheap place to stay. I don't really care how nice it is as long as it's in Seoul. Thanks in advance for your help. Oh, and for people wondering, I can't stay with my parents because they live about four hours away from Seoul. I really want to be able to stay in close reach of the hospital while I'm there. Or, at the most, an hour away by train if it's cheaper.

Lend your Euroknowledge.

gracious floor — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:15:51 -0800

Please give me advice in planning a European adventure. A good friend and I are looking into taking a trip to Europe next May. We are both females in our early 20s. She speaks Spanish fluently, I know a small amount of French. We are hoping to visit a few countries including Spain, France, Italy, and possibly Greece.
I would really appreciate any and all advice/input on this matter. My trip-planning experience has been pretty limited (USA road trips and such) and I don't want us to be put in a bad way over there!

Some stats:
We are both on a cheap-as-possible budget.
We don't mind staying in hostels or hotel alternatives, as long as they are fairly clean and safe.
We are looking into Eurorail passes for students. Any input?
We are planning on going for about one month.

Sorry to leave this so open-ended, but I know that many people are more traveled than I am, and I'm sure we have some friendly Me-Fites in those parts! Like I said, any and all info will most likely be helpful! Thanks in advance!

Please help me overcome my aversion to staying in hostels.

jason's_planet — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:02:29 -0800

Please help me overcome my aversion to staying in hostels. I want to travel more. Unfortunately, funds are a bit tight, so staying in expensive hotels is out of the question. I understand that there are hostels serving the lodging needs of people like me, people whose horizons exceed their incomes but I'm not sure if those would be appropriate for me. I'm older than the usual age profile for hostel travelers. For that reason, I'm not sure if I would be welcome. I also have a fairly negative attitude toward hostels; I tend to view them as grubby, shady establishments filled with odoriferous, America-bashing hippies and iPod-snatching thieves.

But I recognize that my prejudices are not based on any real experiences, good or bad. I would like to open my mind a little bit and consider hostels as a possible travel option. I'd like to hear what your experiences have been and whether you would recommend them as places to stay for someone who isn't going to be making partner or winning the lottery anytime soon.

So what is it like to stay in hostels? Do they welcome people over the age of 35? Are they clean and safe? Is it possible to use them just as places to sleep? (I'm not really into the idea of hostel-as-party or hostel as a place to hangout.) I need a bed, access to a bathroom, and a place where I can lock up my stuff. Anything beyond that is gravy.

And in the event that you tried hostels and found them lacking, what sorts of budget alternatives would you propose?

Thank you very much for your time; I look forward to your answers.

Staying classy as a homeless in San Diego

hobbes — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:20:05 -0800

Staying ~~classy~~ cheap in San Diego.. where should I stay overnight? And any neighborhoods to avoid? Flying from SF down to San Diego to listen to a Robert Irwin lecture in La Jolla. Don't have any hotels/hostels booked, and I wanna minimize how much I spend.. what are some parks I can stay in overnight without being bothered by authorities? If this is actually too sketch, I'm open to staying in a hostel, but it seems like most of them only accept out-of-state, or international residents.

Thanks.

PS Anyone wanna climb on Friday, or Saturday? I'll bring my harness and shoes in that case.

Favorite Barcelona hostel?

smackfu — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:23:55 -0800

What is your favorite hostel in Barcelona?

Hotel or Hostel recommendations for London and Bath (both in England)

jb — Sun, 06 May 2007 04:50:07 -0800

Recommendation for a cheap self-catering hotels/hostels/b&bs/short-let apartments in London, UK and Bath? I have been looking for cheap but still kind of nice places for myself, my husband and my mother to stay in when she comes to visit us in July. We plan to spend about 4-7 nights in London and about 3 nights in Bath. (The rest of the trip will be in Cambridge, where we live).

Our price range is £45-75 a night for 3 people - so about £15 to £25/ person/ night. (Obviously, cheaper is fine, but I didn't think too likely.)

I have been looking at both hostels (private rooms) and cheap hotels and short-stay apartments. We really like the self-catering aspect of most hostels, but we also prefer smaller places and family run establishments which tend to be quieter and nicer. We would definitely prefer a quiet and clean hotel to a large one, and we don't care about tv or games or laundry - the only amenity we are looking for is access to a kitchen or at the very least coffee and tea making. My mother's taste definitely runs more to lacy doilies and old fashioned buildings than to glass and modernism.

We're not afraid of taking the tube into the centre of town in London (since we will be tubing everywhere anyways), though in Bath we would like to be central.

I have a short-list developed for London (I have to start on Bath), but I would really like to hear about places where other people have stayed and can give personal recommendations about. And if there is anywhere you have stayed that was truely awful, I wouldn't mind hearing about that either.

Looking for a Hostel in Hong Kong

gc — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:23:08 -0800

Looking for a cheap, secure hostel in Hong Kong for an overnight stay next week. I'll be teaching in Shenzhen for a year with ACES (previously). However, China's taking forever to issue me a Z Visa, and living in St. Louis, I don't have access to a Chinese Consulate or Embassy, unless I want to travel 300 miles. That being said, a work around is in progress, and it involves me staying in Hong Kong for a night. I should be landing in the city around 7:45pm on the 24th.

I've already looked online, but I'm asking here because I want to know people's experiences with hostels in Hong Kong, not just numbers on a page. I'm looking for something reasonably priced, secure, preferably with Internet access, and easily accessible from the airport. Quiet would be nice; coming off 23 hours of travel, I don't know how social I'm going to be feeling. I've found Kowloon New Hostel, which looks great, but again, I'd love to hear experiences.

Where do I sleep?

aeighty — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:12:31 -0800

How can I do a roadtrip on the cheap? I'm planning to go on a 1 month long roadtrip sometime soon. The problem is, I dont have one of those fancy vans. All I've got is a 4 door car. Over a month of travel, accomodations turn out to be the most expensive expenditure. Even if we stay in hostels ($20/night minimum) it works out to about $600 over the course of the trip. I've though of camping, but that's kind of nasty - no showers for a couple of days and then driving for 10 hours.. Is there something obvious I'm forgetting or am I just gonna have to bite the bullet?

Traveling bedbugs

np312 — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:19:37 -0800

Can bedbugs survive an airplane flight if they hitch a ride in your (checked) luggage? I got into a conversation with my mom the other day about backpacking in Europe, and how some of the hostels I slept in had bedbugs. Now, I live in NYC, which is going through a crazy bedbug epidemic that I have so far (thankfully) avoided. But it has made me super vigilant and paranoid about the bugs infesting my apartment.

So my question is: if I stay in hostels abroad and make sure that the clothes I wear on the plane home have no bedbugs on them, what are the chances that any of the little suckers who might have snuck into my suitcase/duffle would survive the pressure/temperature changes of flying in the belly of the plane?

Just something I've always wondered. Thanks!

Where to stay in Bonn when you've been tossed out in the street?

fake — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 11:27:05 -0800

Blast! I'm in trouble. I was going to stay with a friend in Bonn, but... I had plans to stay with a friend in Bonn, but for various reasons she informed me today that I can no longer stay at her place. I also, unfortunately, cannot cancel my tickets there. I'm a bit upset but mostly worried about where I will stay, especially because I'll be there so soon.

Need a bed these nights: June 5th, 6th, 7th, and 11th.

Can anyone recommend a hostel there? I'm looking for cheapness and walkability.

Are there any MeFites that would like to meet while I'm there?

As usual with travelfilter, what should I see in Bonn? I've done my research on the touristy stuff, any personal recommendations would be really helpful.

hotels and hostels in San Francisco

KirkJobSluder — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 09:49:50 -0800

I'm traveling to San Francisco on a tight budget for a conference at the Moscone Center in early April, any experiences on area hostels or cheap hotels? As is usual with my finances, I need to trim costs to the bone on this trip. A strategy that's worked for me in previous conferences has been to find a cheap room well connected by public transit. Suggestions for where and how to look beyond the usual travelocity search are welcome, as well as suggestions for specific hotels or hostels that might be worth calling.

A hostel is definitely an option for me because I travel light, am not picky about private bathrooms, but am picky (and need to be stingy) when it comes to food. There are several that have private rooms. Experiences or recommendations would be helpful.

What should 10 fine arts students do in San Francisco for Memorial Day Weekend?

evilbeck — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 11:44:14 -0800

10 fine arts students from Oregon State University are planning a trip to San Francisco for Memorial Day Weekend (arriving Friday night, leaving Monday morning). What museums or other art-related locations are worth visiting? Bonus points for hostel and cheap food advice!

Staying in Hostels

amarynth — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 05:44:36 -0800

Advice on staying in hostels in general, and Glasgow and Edinburgh in particular. We still don’t know if we’re going to have a free place to stay in Edinburgh for our upcoming trip, and most likely won’t know for sure until a few days before we leave. We wanted to make reservations at a hostel with a good cancellation policy just in case. Neither of us has stayed in hostels before, so I’m not sure what kinds of questions I need to be asking (other than making sure there is no curfew). I’d prefer to stay in one that has private rooms, not dorm-style, but I don’t mind sharing a bathroom.

Hostels in US

cincidog — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:19:17 -0800

What do you know about hostels? I have never stayed at one and am thinking of taking an Amtrak train from Chicago to Glacier Nat'l Park for a week. Please post your experiences, good and bad. Due to graduate with my Bachelor's in May, I want to treat myself and possibly my 7 yr old son to a train trip up to Glacier National Park. Not having a lot of money, I am looking into staying in a youth hostel. Are they safe, or should I just fork out the money for a hotel?