[NN5] How To Find The Right Hostel For You

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Hey, Wanderers!

One thing I always recommend people to try is staying at a hostel.

Hostels are great because they’re very affordable (25-50% cheaper than hotels), they’re usually centrally located, the staff always have good tips about where to go and what to see, and it’s a fantastic way to meet other travelers. If you’re turned off by sharing a dorm room with strangers, many hostels have private rooms available– some even with ensuites!

Yes, there are some downsides to hostel life. Obviously with any place with lots of guests going through each day, you’re going to eventually run into people you don’t get along with. Some people snore, some don’t clean the hair out of the drain, some decide that getting lucky in the top bunk is high priority.

Other hostels are run by miserly owners who don’t want to spend money on anything, or are staffed by under-paid locals who don’t care about making a good impression.

But there’s ways to make sure you’ve booked a good hostel, one that fits your personality and your travel style!

Post Contents

How to find the right hostel for you

Read the reviews!

Reviews are how you find out if you’re going to be kept up ’til 2am every night because there’s a bar right next door.

Reviews are how you decide if a hostel is clean enough for your standards, or if it’s better to go somewhere else. And reviews are how you figure out how far away the hostel is from restaurants, tourist sites, or metro stations.

Be sure to also check reviews on multiple websites, if you have the time. Google Maps reviews will have photos from guests, and Booking.com reviews will be longer than Hostelworld ones.

If you’re looking for a quiet hostel with friendly people, then look for the following:

No bars below or very near to the hostel
The hostel doesn’t do pub crawls or give out free drinks
Positive reviews specifically mention the common spaces, plus photos show good seating/big spaces to hang out
Hostel staff does group events or free walking tours
Dorms are small, 12 beds or less

If you’re looking for a lively hostel with party people, then look for the following:

Hostel is above a bar, or mentions being in partnership with a bar
Hostel gives out free drinks and/or does pub crawls, the more the better
Dorms are fairly huge, 12+ beds
There’s an age restriction where guests have to be 30 or younger

So you can see it’s easy to find a place where you’ll have fun! Whichever way you count that.

(What if there’s no reviews? Honestly, I just avoid those places. Sorry to those newly-opened hostels, but you don’t have social proof that you’re worth a stay, yet.)

Some of my favorite hostels

Betel Box Backpackers (Singapore): Very basic beds and slightly far away from main tourist areas, but it’s such a good price and the Joo Chiat neighborhood is wonderful! Free breakfast, great staff, excellent common area and they do fantastic walking tours, too.

Freedom Club Hostel KL (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia): A newer hostel just down the street from a metro station, run by a very nice fellow. Good beds (with curtains), a decent kitchenette for guests, and FANTASTIC showers. Met some very good friends here!

Toco Tokyo Heritage Hostel (Tokyo, Japan): A hostel in an Edo era building in the (relatively) quiet neighborhood of Taito City. Very cozy bunks, and they have heated blankets in the winter!

Holy Sheet Hostel (Bangkok, Thailand): Honestly one of the best-value hostels I’ve ever stayed in. 5 minutes from a MRT station, very near to my favorite mall (Terminal 21), free breakfast with EGGS(!) and super friendly staff. Showers are just okay, but they do have cheap laundry so it evens out.

Da Lat Sky Hostel (Da Lat, Vietnam): Stayed in a wonderful private room with an amazingly comfortable bed. A little bit annoying to get to because it’s up a hill but there’s plenty of restaurants and minimarts surrounding it. Friendly staff who can book day tours for you– if you book through them you get a free breakfast included!

Have you ever stayed in a hostel before? If you haven’t, would you try it?

Happy Wandering,

Anastasia Finch

JustGoneWandering.com

P.S. I made a travel planner spreadsheet and it’s available NOW. (Woohoo!) This is for people who do tons of research but keep losing bits whenever they’re ready to actually book something. It’s also good for planning out an itinerary, deciding on destinations and building a packing list! Check it out~

New Adventures on the Blog

Here’s what’s new and updated on Just Gone Wandering this week!

What is Slow Travel? – It’s a trending topic in the travel world lately, so here’s how I personally define slow travel (and why you might want to try it yourself).
Free Movies & TV Shows to Watch on Youtube (When You’re Abroad) – Self-explanatory really, but basically this is a list of broadcast TV/movies I found on Youtube that you can access even without a VPN.
The Resources Page has been updated with a few more links to things I recommend. If you’re looking to build your own blog/website, I have some hosting, domain registration and theme recommendations. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find them.

Wanderlust Finds from Around the Web

Looking for more wanderlust inspiration? Check out these awesome reads from fellow travelers:

Going on an Onsen Crawl at Kinosaki Onsen in Japan by Living the Dream – A very interesting post about a town 2.5 hours from Kyoto that has 7 public onsens!
Liechtenstein – The European Country Everyone Has Heard of But Nobody Visits by Roaming About – A thorough overview of a 2 day trip to this tiny country.
5 Best Cafes to Work From In Ubud by Way of the Founder – I actually can’t work in cafes because of the noise/smell/bad chair combo but I do like collecting lists of nice cafes to add to my Google Maps list.

Business Finds for Business Folks

For those who are digital nomads/entrepreneurs, or who want to be, some links and resources relating to running a business.

Lots more summits coming up this month, check the schedule of speakers to see if there’s any topics that interest you:

Rule Breaking Entrepreneur Summit (Oct. 23-28) – I like this one in particular because of the emphasis on doing things YOUR way and not just the “standard” way.
Fall Into Success Summit (Oct. 24-25)
The Business Manifesting Summit (Oct. 28-Nov. 3)

Tip: It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with all the free stuff and summit videos, so I recommend just going through the schedule and making a list of the topics that interest you the MOST. Same with the freebies in the grab bags: only download what you think you’ll actually use in the next few months.

Podcast of the Week

You may not be surprised to learn that I’ve been binge-listening to the Not Another D&D podcast after having listened to the short Twilight Sanctum side-story the other week. I decided to backtrack and start the campaign from the beginning, so I’m all the way back in season 1 (which is hefty!). I’m currently on episode 36 and really enjoying the story.

Real-play DnD podcasts are fun because there’s always the possibility of getting a bad roll and then the plot doesn’t move forward the way they expected. It really increases the tension during fights when the characters get nearly-dead, or when they’re trying to sneak somewhere or steal something. And sometimes it leads to very funny moments, as well!

Listen to the episodes here.

Something to Watch This Week

This is an interesting genre of videos: city walks, where the camera is strapped to someone’s chest and you get shown different parts of a city or neighborhood (usually without commentary). You can see what it’s really like walking around, with the real sounds and everything!

Here’s one of Seoul at night, on a specific street in the Hongdae neighborhood: