Hostels

[Belm]

DH, my sister, hr BF & I are going to England in November. We want to stay in London for a few days and then take a Ryan Air flight to Barcelona.

I’m pondering the idea of staying in hostels. Anybody have any stories? Recommendations?

Thanks!

~ Brenna

[emmjay]

I have stayed in several hostels. For me, the dorms are dirt cheap but terrible - full of loud, drunk people coming in at 4 am. But lots of hostels have also private rooms with enough room for two or four people only - those are more expensive but much quieter and nicer than the dorms. And 99% of the time the hostels are cheaper than staying in a B&B or a normal hotel. The other plus to hostels is that you will meet tons of other people who are traveling around, and the hostel will often organize activities for the guests (or at least know what to do in the area).

You can join Hosteling International (http://www.hihostels.com/openHome.do) by paying a membership fee, then you get a discounted rate if you stay at their hostels (they have the most hostels in the world). You can make reservations through the website, and you can book the smaller or private rooms that way too. If you don't want to pay the membership fee up front you can just go to the hostel and pay the non-member fee. Once you do that enough times to cover the fee, you will become a member.

I think they are great for Europe, especially if you can get the private rooms.

[msnicolea]

We do hostels sometimes but only if we can get a private room. When I was younger the dorm-type rooms were totally fine--but I like a little more privacy now days!

Hostels are a great way to get affordable loding, but they vary WIDELY in terms of quality. I suggest researching some travel blogs/books and hearing from people who actually stayed at particular ones!

[elladee]

This info is a few years old, but I have stayed in two different hostels in London with a couple friends. One was great and one was just ok. Both had "private rooms" with 4 beds each and common bathrooms down the hall. We went in March and didn't make reservations ahead of time, so we had to deal with what was open. The reason I put private in quotes is that we did in fact get our own room for most of the time, but had to share with a a random girl for a couple nights.

We had to pay per person, but I think it did end up being cheaper than a decent hotel room for the 3 of us to share.

I did like the experience. We met some really interesting people in the hostels.

I'll see if I can figure out which ones we stayed in.

[thompso2]

I didn't have a great experience with hostels in London, but I didn't stay at a HI hostel, which would probably have been better (based on my experiences elsewhere).

I really like B&Bs, though. They're not much more than hostels, the breakfasts are typically huge (keeping food costs down for the rest of the day), and I've often gotten great help and advice from the proprietors.

[tlew12778]

When I first visited London in '98, a B&B in Bayswater actually ended up being cheaper than the hostels. You should look some up and compare the prices.

Last time I stayed in a B&B in Bayswater it was like 60 GBP for the night... but there were definitely cheaper options on the same road and they all offered the same quality room.

[Belm]

Thanks for all of the good advice! I think I will do some more checking into B&B's.

[pride&prejudice]

I stayed in hostels and in some B&Bs/B&B style hotels. The hostels weren't bad, they usually had private rooms where 2-4 people (I was in a group) could stay. The B&Bs had great a breakfast setup. I usually ate good there so I didn't have to spend too much money on meals.

I did this in throughout Germany and Prague. One of the girls in my group had done it in England, and said it was pretty much the same, except a lot cheaper.

[MrsSmith]

I stayed in a hostel in Germany. I had a private room, so it was cozier than what some of the other people on here have said. I only stayed there one day. There was a problem with my reservation and I needed to stay somewhere for one more night.