Hostel First-Timer

fitzgese

i am looking for some advice and a little bit of reassurance. i plan to do a bit of travelling mostly, around europe. up until now i have used hotels, nothing fancy usual two or three star hotels whenever i went away. however, i plan to do a good bit of travelling and i am on a tight budget so i know that hostels are the way forward. the only problem is that i have this picture of a hostel as a place where i am likey to be mugged, raped, mudered or all three. i know that this is not the real story but this is the picture i have in my head. basically, i am looking for some reassurance that hostels are safe. also any advise about staying in hostels would be great, such as what to avoid etc. thanks in advance

Random

I've been in about 10 hostels and never had any trouble. Use websites like hostelworld.com and hostelmania.com to get other peoples opinions on the places you plan to go and also try popping the name of it into google.

griffdaddy

A) Don't follow beautiful women to big suspicious torture warehouses from your hostel.
Hostelworld.com is essential, I've travelled all around Northern and Eastern Europe the last 2 summers, you can tell pretty much exactly how good a hostel is going to be by its ratings and particularly by its written reviews. Every city (well in Europe anyway) seems to have kinda 'flagship' hostels where everyone travelling on a budget would gravitate towards, i.e. the Bulldog and Meeting Point in Amsterdam, The Golden Sycle in Prague, the Stranger in Krakow etc. I'm sure you'll be grand, don't forego a much higher rated, nicer looking place for the sake of a few euro though, that's the main thing. If you ahve any other questions feel free to ask

Spud83

I dont have any experience of Europe, but I did travel Australia and stayed in hostels most of the time. Never had a problem and found it is a must if ya want to meet new people. Just be smart about it, try check it out before had, listen to people you meet along the way and where they have stayed, and dont bring many valuables. Leave the laptop/ipod/and get a cheap phone it just gives you less to worry about.

Vorsprung

Hostelworld is great for getting reviews and reports, but DON'T use it to book hostels. You'll save a bit on a long trip by just googling the hostel and booking through their own site directly, as Hostelworld add a commission per person/night.

maceocc2

I've travelled in nearly every country in eastern and western Europe on the aul inter-rail jobby and the hostels are alright, never had any real trouble with them and i've stayed in some real crappy hostels as well, the usual rules apply dont leave anything valuable in the room when your not there, hide stuff in the room when you are there. If a place looks dodgy (Which a lot of them will) dont worry about it go in and asses the place, if your not happy leave, but dont expect a palace at the same time.

If your heading to eastern Europe you'll have it handy finding hostels, at all major stations there will be hostel employees asking if you need a room, they all were there respective t-shirts and they'll probably have a little kiosk setup so you'll now there legitimate.

Where are you looking to travel anyway?
Oh yea and if you can get your hands on one before you go get a Lonely planet book, they really are life savers for finding anytype of accomodation and are handy when you dont have internet access. There extremely accurate with there information as well

unreggd

Well Hostel 1 & 2 have to be true, cos they're on the telly


So yes, iminent death for all!




Not really though, Hostels are the shiznit

fitzgese

thanks for the advise so far, keep it coming