Hostel Survival Guide
Staying in a hostel for the first time can be a scary adventure.
- Bring a lock
If you would like to cut costs for your trip, then you can opt for living in a "bunk room" or "dorm style" room instead of a private room. Often times, The hostel will have storage containers for your bags. I suggest you lock your belongings up if you plan on exploring your destination for the day. Locks are easy to carry around and do not take up much space. Some hostels will even allow you to rent locks for a small deposit that you can retrieve upon returning your lock. I feel much better leaving my personal belongings at the hostel when they are locked up.
- Soap,
soap, soap
I have noticed on my wanderings that many hostels
do not provide soap for their guests. I would suggest bringing either a
small bar of soap or liquid hand sanitizing gel depending on your
preference. Before eating dinner, I like being able to wash my hands
after a long day of exploring. More importantly, having soap is necessary
to be sanitary after using the bathroom.
- Invest in ear plugs
I do not mean to say hostels will up until all hours of the night. With guests going in different directions with different priorities,
this can help prevent any conflict between you and your roommates.
-
Most importantly, read reviews!
This is your
best resource to determining the quality of the hostel. Often the
hostel reviews will include percentage rankings if you are going through
a third party booker such as hostelbookers.com or hostelworld.com. I
have found that this gives a traveler a great idea of what you will be
paying for and if the price is an accurate representation of the hostel
services.
Traveling can be overwhelming and maybe
even frustrating, but it is important to keep in mind that you are on a VACATION and sometimes you just have to go with the flow. Hopefully, these tips
will make you travel experiences a bit more enjoyable. Remember if you
end up in an odd hostel or even a strange situation, try to make the
best of it and then laugh about it later with friends. Happy hosteling!
Article contributed by Anne Kerchberger begin_of_the_skype_highlightingend_of_the_skype_highlighting. Anne is a university student living Italy, experiencing the trials and tribulations of truly living as a Roman as well traveling Italy to explore Italian regional differences of Il Bel Paese. Stay tuned for more of Anne's blog contributions to follow!
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