Hostels and Youth Travel Pt. 1 : Why Hostels?

Hey!
So on my travels I spent my time staying in Hostels and in this post and the next few to follow I will be going into detail about :

1. Why I recommend staying in hostels,
2. The perks and drawbacks of hostels,
3. The different types of hostels,
4. and, how to pick a hostel

For this post, I’m just going to go into why I recommend staying in hostels in the first place. Enjoy!

WHY I WOULD RECOMMEND HOSTELS
Just to start off, I love staying in hostels. I think it’s a fantastic way to meet people from all over the world in a really cool environment. Everyone’s there for the same reason, so it’s really easy to go and talk to people.

(For all of the introverted people whose hearts just crumpled, don’t worry. If you don’t want to talk to start conversation, someone else eventually will.)

Hostels are marketed towards people between the ages of 18 and 30. There will be someone your age (or close to it), and I gotta say, nothing makes a new place feel like home than meeting people your age with similar interests. It’s also amazing meeting people from all over the world and hearing their stories, learning about where they’re from and finding out where they’ve been and what kind of awesome things they’ve done.
I had a blast in the hostels I stayed at and, especially when you’re travelling solo, it’s a really great opportunity to figure out who you are and what you’re looking for when you travel.

As an introvert, I was really nervous at my first hostel. I’ve never been one to initiate conversation–especially with people I don’t know. But once I figured out what kind of people I clicked with better, and began making some friends, it was a lot more fun.
I ended up trying and enjoying a lot of stuff that I never would have done if I had been with family or friends from home.

On your own, there’s nothing holding you back from being completely authentic. No one knows you, and I can guarantee that the friends you’ll meet while you travel will be just as awesome and weird as you are.

In hostels you can book private rooms, but getting a dorm room is a lot less expensive and makes it easier to meet people. You can get male, female, or mixed dorms, so whichever you’re most comfortable with, they are available.
But if you’re looking for an inexpensive place to stay where you can meet new people from all over the world, Hostels are definitely the place to do so.

Hostels have a great atmosphere and there’s a lot of cool people to meet and awesome places to see. So go forth and explore! The world is your oyster 🙂