How to survive while hostelling: personal tips

When you get down, if you can afford it, spoil yourself by getting a room of your own – with your own bathroom – at a budget hotel. Amenities like television and air conditioning jack up the price, but it might be just worth it – you decide. Solitude and privacy are two things you will value at the end of your trip. A slightly cheaper alternative would be to get a private room in a hostel.

Twenty people sharing one toilet can be dirty and annoying. In some cities, two people can easily afford a budget hotel room – often for less than the price of a hostel for two people would be. Opt out of the larger dorms for the smaller rooms of four or six people with an en – suite bathroom – smaller rooms are usually more quiet and cleaner.

Hostels are noisy, even at night. Snoring, disrespectful roommates, and drunken shouting can wake you. Earplugs and headphones are extremely helpful when drowning out noise. Eyeshades are good for those roommates who decide to turn on the lights at 3am. You’ll be sleeping in the same room with many different people from different places on different schedules. Earplugs and eyeshades also provide a sense of privacy.

Take advantage of everything your hostel has to offer. Cook in the hostel kitchen, hang around the bar and lounge chatting people up, ask staff for recommendations, watch free movies, go on walking tours, borrow a bike – whatever the hostel offers, go for it.

If you get sick of all of the English – speaking people at your hostel, and feel as if you aren’t getting a flavor for local life, ditch the hostel. Hang around town – find out where the locals go and befriend them. Remember: friendships can be accomplished, regardless of language barriers that might exist.

Act like the hostel is your home (within reason, of course). Do the things you would do back home like paint your nails, pluck your eyebrows, pray, or sleep with your teddy bear. Your routines will make you feel more comfortable.

When times get hard, spoil yourself. Eat at a nice restaurant where there are no backpackers, ordering several courses. Talk on a phone card to someone back home until it runs out. Go to a department store and spray yourself with perfume.

Hostelling isn’t always easy, but I’ve really come to love it. I’ve ended up discarding much of my clothes and toiletries upon my return home, as I find that like being lower maintenance now.

Halfway through my trip, I met an American about to go home. He was depressed. He told me, “Most of all, I’ll miss meeting new people every night. I’m going to go home and it will just be me in my apartment.” Hostelling is a brilliant way to make new friends – friends who live around the world. So remember, next time you’re in their neck of the woods, you can stay with your new friends and skip the hostels!

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11