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Budget Travel - is Hostelling Right for You?

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The following article covers a topic that has recently moved tocenter stage--at least it seems that way. If you've beenthinking you need to know more about it, here's youropportunity. Hostelling was once thought of as the exclusive province ofcollege kids traveling through Europe for the first time.However, hostelling has grow to include all ages, and all typesof people. When traveling on a budget, staying at a hostel canbe a great experience for the traveler with a sense of adventure. Of course, hostel travel is not for everyone, and some travelerswould rather spend extra money for solo accommodations. Ingeneral, hostel traveling is best suited to solo travelers, orto groups of young people traveling together. Hostel stays aregenerally not recommended for families traveling with youngchildren, and many hostels do not accept children under acertain age. Most hostels are set up as dormitory style rooms, with a numberof bunk beds arranged throughout the room. The number of bunkbeds in a single room varies, with the average from four to tenbunks per room. Each traveler is assigned a specific bunk uponcheck-in. Almost all hostels in the United States divide theiraccommodations according to gender, with the female guests inone block of rooms and the male guests in another. Inmulti-floor hostels, each gender is often assigned a specificfloor or group of floors. In many European locations and elsewhere around the world,however, many hostel rooms have mixed genders sharing a room. Ifthis is a concern, be sure to ask about it. I, as a womantraveling alone, have personally never encountered a problemwith these arrangements, and I have stayed in hostels throughoutEurope, including Rome, London and Amsterdam. Some visitors,however, are surprised at these arrangements. The best time to learn about hostelling is before you're in thethick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn somevaluable hostelling experience while it's still free. The bathroom accommodations at hostels vary as well, with somerooms containing a shared bathroom and shower, while otherhostels will have shower and bathroom facilities located in


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thehallway. If this is an important consideration, you should makesure to ask about bathroom facilities when making thereservation. And reservations are becoming increasingly important at hostels,especially during the summer months in popular locations. Whereonce it was common for travelers simply to drop by the hosteland get a bed, it is now not at all unusual for hostels inpopular tourist destinations to be booked solid for months. The main appeal of staying at hostels, of course, is the price.The nightly rate for a hostel rarely rises above $25 or $30 pernight, with most hostel accommodations costing far less. Withthe average hotel room hovering around $100 to $150 in manylocations, it is easy to see why hostels are becoming so popular. In addition, the staff at most hostels are extremelyaccommodating and knowledgeable about the local area. Unlikemany staff members of some luxury hotels, who travel in from thesuburbs and rarely see the city in which the live, hostel stafftend to live in their city, and they have an intimate knowledgeof the local attractions, including which attractions are can'tmiss and which ones are a waste of money. In addition, hostels often have access to discounts and couponsfor local area attractions and restaurants, and they can providevaluable information on the best, lowest priced restaurants inthe area. While staying at a hostel is not for everyone, and the localhostel will never be mistaken for a Ritz Carlton, hostels can bewonderful budget accommodations for the budget minded traveler.After all, the goal of travel is to get out and see the world,and hostel travel lets you spend your limited travel dollarsdoing just that. Now you can be a confident expert on hostelling. OK, maybe notan expert. But you should have something to bring to the tablenext time you join a discussion on hostelling. CaribbeanCruise Vacations Travel Information Articles forWebsite Content About the author: James Mahony is the founder of Caribbean CruiseVacations , A site dedicated to Cruise VacationsInformation CaribbeanCruise Vacations Travel Information Articles forWebsite Content

Written by: James Mahony

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