Inter-Railing Hostel recommendations?

AndreaM95

So 8 of us are going interrailing in June/ July. Our route is Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Lake Bled, and Pag. Now we're trying to choose hostels!
In Amsterdam is it better to stay near leidseplein, or nearer to the red light district? We want to be walking distance of the nightlife to avoid having to get taxis!
Wheres the best area to stay in in Berlin/Prague/Krakow/Budapest (near the nightlife)??
Any hostel recommendations for anywhere?? Any hostels we should avoid?? We want to be somewhere very central, cheap and with security!
And if anyone could recommend places to go within the cities it'd be great!

Thanks in advance!

AndreaM95

Interrailing..not interralling..Nice wan Andrea..

shanered

Hostel Celiac in Lubjuana, it is a co.verted prison, really cool place check it on the interweb

bazkennedy

The flying pig hostels in Amsterdam are pretty good. I stayed in the FP Uptown (beside the vondlepark) which is only a 5-10 minute walk from Dam Square or the Red Light District (2 mins on the tram)

Berlin is big so no matter where you stay expect to walk or take public transport at some point (i ended up on a 2 hour journey to get a night club at one point). I stayed in Mitte which is central enough. There's 3 good hostels on the one block (Meininger, heart of gold and the Generator Mitte). Its on the S-Bahn/U-Bahn and there's a few bars, restaurants in the area. Its a 15 minute walk to the reichstag building.

In Prague I stayed in the PLUS hostel (on the recommendation of the hostelworld twitter a/c) which is a 10 minute tram ride but its a good hostel with its own bar and probably one of the coolest bars i've ever been in (cross club) down the road. The tram is regular enough so it didn't bother me that much and its close to the train station.

cson

Places I've stayed that I'd highly recommend;

Amsterdam: Van Gogh
Berlin: Generator
Prague: Fusion or Miss Sophies
Budapest: Wombats
Krakow: Gregg & Toms

They're all what I'd term 5 star hostels; really, really good quality accommodation. Wombats in Budapest especially; place was essentially a hotel in all but name. Those places are pricier than standard hostels (might be ~€5 more per night) but tbh they're worth it. Great party bases too.

Pag doesn't really have hostels; more so apartments. I can give you the email address for the guy who we stayed with there; old Croatian lad called Simé. Arrived down 10mins after we landed into the place with a 6 pack of Becks lager for us

As an aside; Pag was a bit of let down. Zrce is awkward enough to reach; its literally a beach with 5/6 nightclubs that's off hidden behind a forest. the nightclub vids don't tell the whole story either; its jammed with German/Italian poser lads and pretty expensive to drink in relative to the rest of the country (think Spanish resort prices). Wasn't worth going out of our way for considering the effort it takes to actually get there (and we were driving!).

AshM23

Has anybody ant advice on what the best inter rail ticket would be to purchase?

P_1

AshM23 wrote: »

Has anybody ant advice on what the best inter rail ticket would be to purchase?

Well it depends on how long you'll be travelling and how many cities you'd like to visit. Personally I've found the 10 days in 22 ticket to be decent value but everyone's trip will be different and require different tickets.

AshM23

The plan is Amsterdam - Prague - Vienna - Croatia - Italy... I was just hoping anyone with previous experience could fill me in on how they done it.

P_1

AshM23 wrote: »

The plan is Amsterdam - Prague - Vienna - Croatia - Italy... I was just hoping anyone with previous experience could fill me in on how they done it.

Ok so, your first port of call should be www.bahn.de they have the timetables for pretty much every train in Europe. Then you figure out when you want to make the train trips, how long you want to spend in each city, how you'll get there and back etc. Once you've figured that out you can then work out which ticket will give you the most value and then you buy your ticket. www.seat61.com is another useful site for researching train travel in Europe.

shanered

AshM23 wrote: »

Has anybody ant advice on what the best inter rail ticket would be to purchase?

I got a package from http://www.interrailingpackages.com/
7 countries over 3 weeks for around €1000 including hostels, thought it was a great price and had a great time. Very helpful staff too.
Hope this helps!

grimm2005

I highly recommend Mosquito hostel in Krakow. Recently back from a 3 night stay there. Very modern and clean looking, quite small so you it's easy to make friends. Free breakfast (huge buffet!) and dinner and there are social events in the common room every evening until 11pm and then one of the girls who works there will take everybody out on a pub crawl every night which is also free (keeping the place quiet after 11pm if you want a quiet night). Also about a 5 minute walk to the main square, and they provide tours to salt mines/auschwitz/zakopane right from the hostel.

I'll definitely be staying there again next time I'm in Krakow. Have heard great things about the two Greg and Tom hostels although other guests I was chatting with who did a night there said Mosquito was just that bit better.

Folie a deux

The Mad House in Prague is amazing. Best hostel I've stayed in!

Slunk

I stayed in sofias house in Budapest. Secure and close to the city centre. Staff are very helpful and we tried a few of their recommendations and were not dissapointed.

I think we stayed in a b&b called Margaret's house in bled, its a little outside the main village but they really looked after us. More personal touch, done our washing etc. It's also a restaurant and one of the best in bled if I'm not mistaken. Really nice food.

Lubjanna we stayed in tresor hostel. It's right in the center of town and to be honest feels more like a hotel. Really nice place.

Krakow we stayed in 70s hostel. We arrived and were brought around the corner to an old apartment building o the edge of the old Jewish quarter. Got an 'apartment ' to ourselves for two nights, double bed,kitchen, bathroom for about 50 euro for two people for two nights. Just leave the keys in postbox when leaving.

corkleo

For Prague I'd recommend the Fusion. Near to the train station, very cool place, plenty of life inside and nea to the city center.

In Berlin I would recommend a place near to Alexanderplatz, so that you'll have plenty of nightlife there without having to move (the city is huge though, so you'll be walking anyway ).

Croatia I was in Hvar and Split: Split is enchanting, be sure to see it if you go to Croatia: I have no recommendations for this city 'cos I was staying in an apartment.

For the lad saying he's planning to reach Italy... what part of Italy would you like to see? Or at least what kind of experience do you expect? Like seeside, hiking, museums, nightlife etc...

cson

+1 on the Fusion in Prague. Very very cool.