When booking my first solo trip, I didn’t really know what a hostel was. I arrived at my first ever hostel in Prague that was located a floor above a ‘sauna club’ (exactly what you think it is). It took me over an hour to find and was the worst hostel I’ve stayed in to date. They can seem daunting, sharing a space, sleeping in a room with strangers, but there really is nothing like it. With most hostels also offering private rooms, I think there’s a hostel for every kind of traveller, party hostels, professional spaces, local guesthouses, or something that feels cool and artsy, boasting stages, and makeshift tattoo studios. Regardless of the vibes, there’s some things that make a hostel good. Of course, clean toilets and sheets, a charger next to the bed and a curtain will make a stay comfortable but the qualities of a good hostel are in more than its furnishings. It lives within culture. Since my experience above the sauna club I’ve stayed in twenty five hostels, living and working in one, and through that, fostered such an adoration of hostels, I fear I may never get tired of them. In this post I want to go through my non-exhaustive list of what makes a good hostel, talk about booking hostels and give some tips for when I inevitably convince you to stay in (another) hostel.
What makes a good hostel?
Staff
Arriving at a hostel and finding out they have volunteers will always be a green flag to me. Hostels that are run, created and influenced by groups of passionate travellers, automatically create connections with guests. Even at check-in, I notice myself more relaxed knowing I’m in safe in a fellow travellers hands. Perhaps because I can put myself in their shoes now, but even previous to my hostel experience it felt more peer-level. I feel so much more comfortable to ask for directions, recommendations, even towels, but maybe that’s just me. It also shows that the hostel is generally a nice place to be, volunteers want to be at this hostel, usually working without pay, and granted travellers will do almost anything to travel, it does say a lot about a hostel when they can retain volunteers that want to stay to create something with guests. It doesn’t necessarily have to be volunteers, but just staffing that feels comfortable. On my recent travels I got to my hostel from the airport, really late at night and was immediately persuaded into tea and an long, almost hour long talk about all the excursions that the hostel was offering, at 1:30am. Although welcoming, it wasn’t comfortable after continuous flight delays. The staff at times were just slightly odd, and upon talking to other guests realised we shared similar experiences. Before we left I was pretty much forced to give a five star review, (hence the great scores on hostelworld). Although the hostel did have nice facilities, great social areas, two balconies and breakfast included, these strange staffing altercations completely change opinions of the place. It’s within friendly staff that are knowledgable about the area, and excited to share their insights, that truly a hostel can begin to have a comfortable and comforting atmosphere.
Services and facilities
Hostels should aim to provide a suitable base for the more day to day activities of a backpacker: exploring, planning, eating but also laundry and safety. The more functional a hostel is in this sense, the more homely it then begins to feel. The first partly comes down to staffing as above how accessible and knowledgeable they are for providing or recommending tours, day trips and events. Again biased towards my hostel, but the Bearded Dad had a QR code that led to recommendations for museums, restaurants, bars, transport, and key tourist sites on google maps. Absolutely beautiful idea and I need to see it in more hostels. It just makes all these things more accessible to guests. Things such as laundry services means that a traveller carrying what is essentially a backpack of dirty clothes doesn’t need to locate a laundromat and can have this taken care of by someone else, and from a business point of view could make money for the hostel.
A lot of hostels offer free breakfasts and it’s something I will always try to book. It means I can have coffee before leaving the building, I don’t have to think about finding somewhere to eat and of course, it’s great for a budget. I’ll admit, often hostel breakfast aren’t brilliant, but for the hassle free hot drink and morning conversations make it a staple service for me.
Social Areas
As a solo traveller, hostels often act as a social hub for me. In hostels you meet people everywhere, often in bedrooms or living areas. I always look for a hostel that facilitates connections between travellers, not only because obviously it makes it easier to socialise, but more than likely the other people in the hostel will be there to socialise too, and having space to do this outside of dorms makes this so much easier. There have been times where I’ve been sat in an empty hostel room just hoping someone would come in because there’s no common areas to be in. It depends what sort of traveller you are, but for me, a lot of the joy is in the connection and I find some of my most treasured memories are those spent on nights at a hostel. The hostels I worked in in Tirana, The Bearded Dad and Blue Door hostel exemplify this principle perfectly, where evenings would be spent in their gardens or cosy living areas – not even just by their guests but other friends and travellers, sharing songs, drinks, stories and laughter and it is this that had guests continually extending trips. These backpacking rituals are so influenced by a hostels culture. Brix hostel in Prague also managed this beautifully having a huge bar and various open mic nights that attracted a crowd of locals and travellers to its events weekly.
Bars
When I travel in Europe, one of the filters I use when booking is that there’s a bar. Alcohol is a social lubricant and in a lot European hostels I’ve stayed in, and has been a huge part of the culture. This can manifest itself into big party hostels, such as the Hive in Budapest. I loved this hostel when I visited in 2023, having gone through a break-up in Poland the week before, this really found me when it needed to. I slept in a room of 12, made friends with everyone in there and spent my evenings on hostel bar crawls – it’s perfect if you want an experience you know you loved, but can quite remember. I don’t stay in party hostels much anymore as I do value my sleep and being hangover free at least some days, but finding smaller hostels that have bars and quiet hours are perfect. Hostellicious in Faro, Portugal was brilliant with this, hosting homemade pizza nights in a hot oven fire and all you can drink beer that ended in a bar crawl. Not only is it a great event, but it rounds up all the people that want to drink and takes them from the hostel where people are sleeping. In complete contrast to this, I’ve stayed in beautiful hostels that foster this connection through shared meals. Hostel360 in Barcelona held family dinners that costed 5 euros that all guests made together. The night I joined we all made and ate pasta together, sharing wine and gentle cooking ‘advice’.
I’ve been lucky to stay in a handful of hostels that just get it right. It feels impactful, you meet people you know you were supposed to cross paths with, you get advice to visit a place that is truly spectacular. All my memories of travelling have in some way been influenced by the hostels I stayed in, and they really do make such a difference. There are very successful hostels, ones that are famous when you talk to other travellers about being in that city, rather than asking if you liked it, they ask if you stayed at this hostel. And some of them feel like a vortex, once you go to them, you never feel like you can leave, you meet people who have been there for weeks. I swear I visited Sunbakers in Himarë and a girl told me she was supposed to travel Albania but had been extending there for three weeks. In Pirates in Ulcinj a boy in my dorm told me he had been there all summer last summer, and came back this year with no plan on how long he was going to be there. Everywhere I turned it felt like somebody was extending just ‘one more night’. Granted the vortex within these hostels was in alcohol infused parties and boat trips yet others do it through an environment that encourages connection and conversation to be easy. Ive been in a few like this, of course the Bearded Dad, Tirana being my primary example, ones that frequently turn guests into volunteers, and its because they manage the above so brilliantly that it feels a privilege to stay or work there.
Booking hostels
When booking hostels online there’s two websites: booking.com or hostelworld, both have their benefits. I was a die hard booking.com girl for the first two years of travelling, I wracked up a great genius discount and used it for everything. Generally hostels are a few euros cheaper here as compared to hostelworld, and I was all about saving money. For some reason my booking.com has been glitching and showing hostels at hundreds of pounds a night, which is obviously not right so I have switched to hostelworld. With the slight extra you pay on hostelworld, as a convert, it does feel slightly worth it. You enter a group chat for all the hostels and areas you’re visiting and it really is an app built for travellers. You can fill it out with your travel interests, a little like a dating profile, and you can see travellers in the chat before you get there, however, I don’t know many people who actually use this. It’s often used for sharing airport transfers and for initial meet ups. This said, the group chats are very hit and miss, but it’s not always reflective of sociability in the hostels themselves. Oftentimes though, it can be cheaper to book directly through the hostels, usually they will have their own website, instagram or email which means that both you and the hostel aren’t paying a third party to verify the booking it can be cheaper. If you have a lot of time and preparation then this could be a nice way to save some money, but I tend not to be organised enough to be able to wait for a response and like the instant confirmation of an online booking.
Hostel advice
If I’ve managed to convince you to stay in your first hostel, heres some advice in no particular order, to pick a good one and have the best time there.
- Bring an eye mask and ear plugs if you’re a light sleeper.
- Check the reviews.
- Only book one or two nights at a time – you can extend if you like it.
- Be open to people.
- Bring a towel.
- Keep your morning and evening needs (toothbrush, facewash etc) accessible.
- Don’t set a million alarms.
- Talk to people.
- Go down for breakfast, you can go back to bed after.
- Check if the hostel has an Instagram – usually a good sign.
Hostels aren’t just a place to sleep, but something that shapes the experience of every traveller that stays in them. Whether you want something lively, cultural or restorative finding the right hostel is so important. This post has formed as sort of a love letter to hostels and I hope has assured someone towards their first hostel stay. You might not love every one, but the good ones, where strangers become friends and everything feels familiar, are truly special.
Catch you soon, Lil