Hostelling: the good, the bad and the hostile

Above: Hostel dining area and bar at Jacob’s Inn, Dublin.

Hostels vary. I have found that most people are not cut-throat honest in their reviews and I don’t like to dwell on the negative, so I seldom review. I can share what I think makes a hostel more accommodating than others and what to look for in the reviews. Staying in hostels requires a willing state-of-mind to take the bad with the good. The upsides are the price and the fact that they can be fun, like camping in a bunkhouse when you were a kid. Too, the experience is wild. It’s like traveling exponentially. You hear about places you didn’t know you wanted to see. And you see through new what’s in front of you. An example is an afternoon I was palling around with others from my hostel. We were staying at this super cool lodge in the mountains above Cinqueterra. Great sunsets over the hills. Good company. Family-run so the dad brought his homemade wine. It was a van ride down the winding munition roads. The van caravaned folks twice a day, so we’d decide what we wanted to do and then meet up at an arrival point or just do things together. A handful of us hiked along the ridge through some vineyards one afternoon, then took a bus to another lovey destination I don’t remember anyone, except that it overlooked the ocean. Below us was a photographer and a couple on a rock off the shore that kept getting sprayed by water. The young woman kept changing from one gown to the next. The young man wore a blue suit and then a red suit and a black suit. They were ferried to the shore and would come back in their fresh costumes and pose for the photographer. One of our group was Chinese and explained the custom of takingpre-wedding photos in extravagant destinations. Who’d have known?   

Once you are accustomed to staying in hostels, many question why in heaven’s name they’d ever spend so much money to spend the night alone in a hotel room. I’m not necessarily the most social person on the planet and yet I can say that I cherish many of the relationships I’ve formed, however brief with others who’ve stayed in the same hostel and/or in the same room. I typically stay in a mixed dorm, just because I don’t care. Modesty isn’t all that important to me. And I haven’t found that guys are necessarily messier than girls. Or even that they snore louder, though there is a better chance their bear-like snorts and grumbles will keep you awake a little longer. Honestly, I’ve never been kept awake long by anyone snoring. And there is just as much of a chance you’ll get a big woman shaking the top bunk when you are on the bottom, or clomping down the ladder near your head as a heavy man might. The choice of a four-bed, six-bed, eight-bed or even twelve or fourteen bed room depends on availability. You won’t find hostels everywhere. The profit margin just isn’t there So they are generally only in cities.  Availability can be slim, for example on weekends in Dublin where a room you pay $42 on the weekday may cost you $68 on the weekend if you can even get it. You’ll want to search for a hostel that’s convenient. That is, near a bus or railway station and hopefully, the neighborhoods you want to visit. For some people, it’s the social life the hostel has to offer. I stayed in two over this Ireland trip that had bars and music. One of them had pub crawls. They both had games, like trivia and karaoke. The websites folks book on, like Hostelworld, and the hostel itself give you the opportunity to reach out and connect with others staying there so you can organize get-togethers. This is helpful if you want to do something where sharing expenses makes sense, or you just want some pals to hang around and explore the city with. None of that has yet called my name, but it’s a resource.

What’s important to me is a stable internet connection in the room, which I cannot say, despite how it may be advertised, is the norm. It is not. Generally, you can get internet in a common room. Common rooms can be fun, artsy, cozy… it all depends on the building layout and the hostel keeper’s willingness to contribute to the vibe by starting a fire in the fireplace or providing an acoustic guitar. You can usually find books to read. The staff can often help you with the most frequently asked questions. Some will post current events as well as schedules you might need, like ferry or bus schedules. In Dingle, Ireland the Grapevine folks posted the current trad music sessions in the pubs and would give you the lowdown on the atmosphere. The kitchens also matter. Many people cook and the size of the kitchen vs the number of people using it and how well the cleanliness is regulated, matter. As does the chance your groceries will get stolen from the fridge or the shelves. I stayed in a hostel in Mooncoin where the utensils felt like a personal insult, too few and as flimsy-cheap as they could come. I liked the hostel well enough while I was there. Maybe because I had a room to myself the first night and I was tired and sick, so I especially appreciated it. But honestly, the water for showering was always cold. And even the water for washing dishes was cold. There was only one functioning bathroom for ten of us; it smelled like sewer gas and there was a sign telling is to put our toilet paper in a bin rather than in the toilet. The sunroom was nice, but you just started feeling gross. And though it was cold and rainy, you just knew they weren’t going to turn the heat on.The hostelkeeper’s family lived in the other part of the house and you got the feeling they had heat and hot water. Plus once you were there, there was nowhere to go. It was a dangerous walk into the nearest village. Not a road you’d walk home from the pub at night. And the buses into the nearest town were few, and the last one returned too early to enjoy the more happening town. Location is key and the ad will downplay a bad one. Not a bad deal for someone with a car, but if you are relying on public transportation, you can just be stuck. Security is important to me too. This particular place I’ve been ranting about had none. No locks on the doors. No lockers or cages for your luggage. But it was so intimate it didn’t feel like someone was going to slip in and steal your laptop, which can definitely happen in a place with a more transient and less identifiable clientele. And these places are many. Your roommates can entirely switch out by the day, and they are from all over the world, with no way to trace them. I stayed in a place in Belfast with lockers so small you couldn’t fit more than your toiletries in them. I carry a lock for built-in lockers. And I use it and recommend that you do too without fail. That being said, for the most part I have enjoyed meeting my roommates and sharing stories, learning about places I’ve never been and might want to visit. Some of the rooms have large cages that roll out from under the bottom bunk and if it’s a snug fit, they shake the beds to kingdom come when someone opens theirs. They are often squeaky and noisy to open and close, but they are easy to fit your stuff in. Most hostel bathrooms don’t have towels, even for drying your hands. I never leave my towel ion the bathroom as the temptation would be too great for others to dry their hands on it. Some times bathrooms are en-suite, sometimes not. I always check out where all of the available bathrooms are when I arrive. It’s good to get a count in advance if you can - how many people per bathroom. I stayed in a hostel in Galway, the Woodquay, when there was a water main break that couldn’t be repaired for fourteen hours or so and it wasn’t pretty. It was a cool hostel in that the staff really went out of their way to provide artsy spaces and keep things clean, so everyone rolled with it. But these things can happen and hostels are often run on a tight budget. The staff is often comprised of people who want to stay in the city for free for awhile. They are people who have stayed in hostels and know what makes them hum. Don’t hesitate to ask the staff for the best grocery stores nearby. They are on a budget and will have sleuthed out the best.

This is the second hostel I stayed in in Belfast, Vagabonds. It was ten to one a better atmosphere than the pricier one where I spent the previous night. It was kind of funny because the first one held itself out as boutique, and a girl staying at my hostel in Dublin told me I would absolutely love it. I did not. It was another one of those frugally-run ones, but they acted like it wasn’t. The two bathrooms were the size of airplane bathrooms and that included the shower. Many hostels not only do not provide handtowels (they will rent you bath towels), but they also do not put down any kind of mat for stepping out of the shower so the bathroom floor is just a soppy mess. I mean really, they could invest in even a simple cross-grid rubber mat. There was this “superior to other hostels” vibe. You shouldn’t come in late. My roommate was in bed at 6:30 reading How to Get away with Murder or something like that. Jesus, it was creepy. This was the beginning of my trip when I was only just realizing that when the staff told you they provided coffee they didn’t mean coffee. They meant freeze-dried shit. So I wasn’t feeling it. Also, they held out that they offered  a free breakfast and as often happens, then there’s little to nibble on, even if you got there early. This particular hostel had one tray with a loaf of decent bread and delicious looking jams with a sign that said Do Not Touch unless you require a gluten-free diet. I suddenly found that I did. The fruit was two soft, bruised old apples. The tea was just generic bags of black tea. I would have thought they’d have herbal tea there. I mean it was a female-only hostel. I was relieved to get to the welcoming chaos of a real hostel, with genuine travelers and a great receptionist like Vagabonds. The room I had was super spacious and I got a bottom bunk, which I’ve learned to prefer for ease of throwing your stuff on your bed while you’re trying to reorganize. Which is always.

An annoying thing about hostels is something I hadn’t noticed in the past. It seems sometimes that no matter what time of day it is, someone is always sleeping. It is really hard to unzip and zip and pull things out and do everything you need to do silently. Sometimes you juts want to scream, “Get up!”

You need an eye mask and earplugs if you are going to stay in hostels. And rubber sandals for the shower.

Some hostels offer a laundry service, but I haven’t come across very many or haven’t been staying long enough to avail myself of it. I stayed in a beautiful hostel in Northern Ireland for a number of days and they offered to slip my clothes in with their laundry for free, which was super thoughtful. I didn’t have many dirty clothes as I’d washed mine in the sink the day before and dried it in the ocean breeze, holding my pants and shirts out like sails while I did yoga.

Whitepark Bay above. I had initially booked one night and stayed all week.  Ardara below. No hostels there, so I stayed in a bed and breakfast where I had my first full Irish breakfast. It is a ridiculous amount of heavy food. Several types of meat, beans, brown bread, eggs, potatoes, jams, coffee or tea. Probably even more stuff that I’m not remembering. Much of the world makes fun of Americans for eating more than a stomach was designed to hold. The Irish breakfast also stretches the limits.

This photo is from a hostel in Westport. There is no way wi-if was going to reach the room through these stone walls. The staff maintained that it was a temporary outage. No hot water there at all. It had those water-saving showers that squirt out cold water for 15 seconds at a time and no place to hang your clothes so they’d stay dry. Breakfast was offered, but stocked randomly as you might or might jot get the last piece of white bread. it seemed to depend on the state of mind of the hostel worker on duty that day. Nice people; it’s just that not all of them had a minimum requisite business acumen. That particular dorm was also quite shy on electrical outlets. I was fortunate in that my bed (sometimes they are assigned; sometimes it’s first come first serve) was near the outlet. It did mean though that for anyone else to use it they had to crawl over my stuff as that was the only place to keep it.

This dorm was in Galway. Comparatively tiny to the one in Belfast.

Exterior of the hostel in Lisdoonvarna.

Interior shots of Lisdoonvarna hostel, above.  It was closed for a couple years hosting Ukrainian refugees. It is set up well for living full-time. The kitchens and dining room were well-appointed, and the game room room and lobby were welcoming spaces. I paid to have my laundry done. Reasonable and efficient.

My top bunk in Killarney.  Small creative touches can make all the difference in your happiness level. Curtains are wonderful! If you are in a lower bunk, sometimes you can hang your bath towel and create a private space. It has the added advantage of blocking light from your electronic devices or headlamp. My favorite spaces are the pods like in LaTroupe Jacob’s Inn in Dublin. There are walls between you and the next person and a curtain at your feet. You have your own lights, a shelf for your water bottle, phone and whatever and your own outlets for charging your electronic gear. Sometimes they work!

This is the common space in the Killarney hostel, The Black Sheep. Centrally located. Well-run. They even have a garden and small yard with chickens who lay eggs for the guests. And a resident dog.

The Grapevine in Dingle, above. Tiny kitchen, decent size dining area, small common room, but great vibe.

The hostel in Cork, above, was also a pub.

Above: the hostel in Mooncoin. I do give thanks for the opportunity to take the bus from the village as challenging as it was to get there as I met a very interesting person there, a theater director. We also sat in an an excellent trad music session at the local pub. Even when you’re stranded some place remote, there are adventures to be had.

The hostel is behind this place of business in the same building in Bun Mahon on the Copper Coast. Very pleasant and well-run. A lovely walk to the beach and UNESCO geopark visitor center as well as the local pub. 

Below is The Forum, a repurposed church in Montmellick, in many respects more like a proper hotel but with hostel amenities.

Glendalough International Youth Hostel in the Wicklow Mountains, below. They most hikers trekking the Wicklow Way and groups as well as individuals. Spacious kitchen and dining area, as well as a pleasant lobby and staff. Very well-run, near the National Park and opportunities for food and drink, yet still in a pristine environment. Can take a Bus Eireann, though the number of daily runs is limited.

Above: Aille River Hostel, Doolin

Doolin may be one of the fairest villages you perchance to visit. It is a short walk from the village to the Cliffs of Moher and sits amidst the stunning surreal landscape of the Burren. The pubs are renowned for their traditional Irish music sessions and rightfully so. All of the musicians I heard have been playing together a long time. They are talented and tight and the ones I heard stuck to authentic Irish ballads - no Billy Joel “Piano Man.” The other song played frequently in pubs for tourists is John Denver’s “Country Roads.” I feel a bit more forgiving for that pandering as it is about West Virginia, which is in the Appalachian Mountains, once part of a continuous mountain range that included the Scottish Highlands and the northwest mountains of Ireland before the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart and the Atlantic Ocean filled in. Just like with the bluegrass music in the Appalachian mountains of my home in Virginia near the West Virginia border (although my cabin has been sold and technically the world is my home now, in my heart there is a space that will always consider it home), it is impossible not to dance to the faster “trad” melodies. The slower, more melancholy ones likewise pull at your heart strings. My hostelkeeper at Aille River, Adva sang a beautiful, haunting song at a trad session one night. In fact, it was one of the most moving performances I’ve ever witnessed. The song was Charlie Murphy’s “Burning Times.” My stay in Doolin was nothing shy of epic. The hostel hosted interesting travelers and was well-versed in how to host. It was well-run, clean and cozy.

Another super cool hostel is The Hosteller in Udaipur, Rajahstan, India. The decor is designed to delight. I stayed in a single room with an en-suite bathroom, so it was more like a hotel room.  Lodging in India is relatively inexpensive, so why not upgrade? Especially if you are uncertain how your digestive system is going to react to the food and your rigorous attempts not to drink the water or touch anything dicey. This was my second hostel in India. In Delhi, I stayed at what is advertised as a hotel. The first hostel was in Jaipur and the owner who was absolutely wonderful said that he billed it as a one-star hostel so that guests would not have unreasonable expectations. Oddly, I must not have noticed when I was booking it! Booking lodging and trains became a bit overwhelming at times as I was in Ireland at the time; I often had three hour windows to book trains between the time tickets went on sale and they sold out and my credit cards kept flagging my purchases as fraud and declining my bookings. I couldn’t get my OTOs to clear up the matter or reach my credit card companies, so some rigorous vetting fell through the cracks from sheer frustration and exhaustion. Nonetheless, the hostel, The Chillout, was fine enough. The sheets were rough, but I slept within my silk cocoon.  The bathroom could definitely have been cleaver, but I dint think the owner realized how disinterested his cleaning guy was, though he did note his apathy about showing up and mentioned it’s a general problem in the area. I though the layout of the bathroom there was just a quirk,  it now I see that it’s an India thing. There is no separate shower with glass walls or a raised ledge and curtain. It’s just a shower head and spigot in the same small space as the toilet and the sink, so the shower water simply floods the bathroom floor and empties into one or two drains over the next couple hours. 

If you have found this post because you are considering Jaipur as a destination, I’ve been trying my best to find food prepared with some modicum of hygiene practiced  the street food smells divine, but closer inspection reveals absolute horrors like this guy cleaning the plates with muddy water from a bucket while he squats on the filthy sidewalk in Delhi.

An excellent restaurant near The Chillout in the Pink City is the Curry Restaurant. It is worth going out of your way for.

I will update this post as I travel. For now, you can see that accommodations vary significantly. Read the reviews and don’t compromise what is most important to you. Going three days without a shower in a dusty city because the place doesn’t reliably have hot water or you are stranded without wi-fi because even though the booking platform held it out as reliable high speed internet isn’t worth it unless you have no other choices.