Tag Archives: hostels

What Makes a Good Hostel?

When I first left to move abroad for university in 2007, a friend of mine let me in on a little secret for weekend getaways in Europe: Hostelworld.

Okay, so it isn’t so secret, and it isn’t so little, but I hadn’t yet heard of it and it quickly became one of my most important travel tools because hostels became essential to my travels. At the time, iPhones weren’t as prominent as they are now (and anyway, my friends and I all had those crappy little Nokia phones with about $20 US of credit per month on them), so there wasn’t necessarily an app for traveling and hostels and everything like there is today.

Continue reading

Category: Backpacking, Travel Tips | Tags:

Why I like Staying in Hostels

IMG_8309

I’ve slept in a lot of weird, weird situations throughout the past eight years of traveling: on the side of a road in Cambodia, on a mattress in a maid’s closet in Malaysia, in a homeless shelter (I thought it was a really crappy hostel until old men started showing up and unfolding lounge chairs all around this big room) also in Malaysia. I’ve also stayed in some of the world’s best and swankiest hotels in Indonesia and Mexico, but I find that hostels have always been my favorite places to stay.

Continue reading