Why is it the best way to travel?
 
The experience of "hostelling" is a very special one, as the melting pot atmosphere that's created from sharing the hostels utilities gives an opportunity for warm family-like encounters, and so many interesting relationships are created, such that wouldn't have been possible in the somewhat alienated atmosphere regular hotels has to offer.

In a hostel, travelers find themselves in the common kitchen, sharing recepies from back home, and sitting in the lounge discussing philosophy and travel memories until late at night. You make friends from all over the world, and get to taste a little-bit of every country, while catching up a few phrases from all languages out there.
Many people find travel partners over the breakfast table, and embark  in  new and exciting adventures with  people like them, who share the same beautiful "Bug", the travel bug.
 
Who will you meet in a hostel?
 
In the past, most hostel dwellers were young travelers looking to save money by sleeping in the cheapest bed they can find. Today, A new generation of travelers is booting up, packing up, and is getting on the road.
These past few years, you can find A 45 year old doctor who is sharing an over-night bus with a retired couple, who discuss their travel destinations with 21 year old couples, fresh out of college. Together, they are the travel students of the roads, and create a wonderful crowd, with a mixture of all ages, colors and races.

These past few years, the budget hostels dwellers are a completely new crowd, not because the hostels are turning their backs on low-budget backpackers, but because backpacking is turning a smiling face to the world, calling a new crowd to hit the road, and look for the "scratch" for that traveling-itch.
All of these people create a beautiful colorful  tapestry that you can see laying comfortably in the hostel lounge, and so the hostelling experience is pretty much open to all crowds, as long as this crowd is open for it.

 How to find the best hostel for you?

Hostels comes in many types and flavours, and it’s important to know your options. When a student travel abroad, and has 2 months to go back to school, he might look for a hostel that is party oriented, to party as much as he can before having to go back to school. When a retired couple plan on going on a long inexpensive vacation, they might look for the exect opposite type of a hostel, and as mentioned before, they are all out there.

Many guide books are out there, and Many web sites as well, which offer allot of information regarding the hostel style and the crowd it’s oriented for. All you need to do is search, and read a little bit. I recomand focusing on the reviews web sites, rather then the more informative ones, for the reason that in the end of the day, just because a hostel says it’s a nice quiet hostel in the safest neighbourhood, doesn’t allways mean they actually remember to hush the louder ones at night time, or that the crime rates of their area is really lower then anywhere else.
Look for expiriences of others over the net, spend some time reading reviews, and use travel forums to ask arround and get specific answers to your questions.

One thing is certin, after finding the first hostel, and slowly getting used to the fact that your traveling and on the road, you will start meeting more and more people, exchange your thoughts and information, and find your next hostel by word of mouth. 

How to use the common kitchen in a hostel?

The common kitchen area is usually crowded in the evenings and late afternoons, as all travellers returns home after a long day of discovering, and are hungry to share thoughts, and have dinner. If you don’t mind cooking in a crowd, you can easily find yourself, atleast in some of the hostels, cooking with 3 other different people at the same time, and ending up sharing the different foods on a common table.

Most hostels have a common fridge, and you can store your goods rather safely in it. The rules of the fridge are very simple, and as long as you clearly mark your name and room number on the product, no one will touch it. Some hostels actcually provide stickers on top of the fridge for you to use, and most of them provide a marker on a leash connected to the fridges door.

Usually, you can find a common grocery area in the hostel kitchen, with things people left behind, some times with different tags on, such as “please use this”, or “eat me, I’m free”. Some times they have no writings at all, but never the less, feel free to use the things in the common box, and mind you, if you forget anything there, it will be eaten.

Same idea works for the fridge, as people often leaves things behind. Some write “eat me” and others forget, but as long as it dose not have a name, it’s free for all, with a few exceptions. A bottle, for example, is sometimes hard to write on, since, If you lack a sticker, you write on where ever you can. I recommand to allways remember and double chack for “hidden-text”, and as allways, use your common sense, to avoid uncomfortable situacions.

How to Book a Hostel?

 
The best way to book a hostel, is to contect the hostel directly and make sure the bed you need is available. Allot of online book engines today, are very uncomfortable for the hostel to use, and although they are painted nice and offerd to the traveler as a simple form to fill, on the other side of the deal, sits a frustrated hostel owner that not allways likes the rules and regulations the booking company puts on him. Allot of the hostel owners are not computer oriented, as they are specialists in hosting travelelrs, not internet web sites. They are so busy making the guests enjoy their time, they cannot find the time to deal with the book-system on a daily base.
Because of that, double-booking might happen, and the traveler might find himself in a situation where he booked a room and the room is occupied.

Another issue a traveler should consider while booking a hostel, is the fact that the hostel owner, like any other business man, needs to constently sell his merchandise, in this case beds, so, in allot of hostels, if you pay only for 2 nights, and plan on staying 4, you will be asked to pay in advance, when you arrive. Do that, because while you are there and woundering if you should stay anohter night or leave today, the hostel owner needs to know if anyone is paying for that bed, which, if you for example decide to leave, will stay empty, which means he will not earn his living.

The best way to make a reservation then, is to pay for the first night, decide in advance how long you are going to stay, and pay for those nights upon arriving. You can allways say you need a room for a specific ammount of days, but make sure you actually confirm the book for those days by paying.

Another must is to contact the hostel directly after the booking is done, and double confirm it by emailing.

If you did all of that and still double-booked, chack out with the hostel why and what happen. Be patient, as allot of times it’s not the hostels fault and something might have happen along the booking procedure that created the situation that might had nothing to do with the hostels intentions and good-will.
When double booking happened, usually the hostel you arrived at will be able to find you an alternative place to lodge, and will be happy to do it as well.

Happy travel
Feel free to contact me regarding this article.

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