Anna's Travelling Antics

Destinations #1 : Munich, Germany

Hello fellow travellers!

So…

I haven’t posted in FOREVER.

I’m not gonna lie. It’s been a really weird, and rough, few months. With COVID, it’s obviously been impossible to really go anywhere, so naturally, I’ve been itching to go somewhere more than ever.

And it’s been driving me insane.

If anyone read my post on budgeting for a trip, you’ll know that I was planning to go to Germany with my brother.

Since those plans got sufficiently tanked, I’ve been contemplating how much I wish I would have explored more while I was away.

Now that I’ve had a moping period and I’ve finally gotten over myself, I’ve decided to just look forward to all the travelling I’ll be able to do once this is all over!

In the meantime… I will continue blogging, and today, in honour of my cancelled Germany trip, I’ll be starting a series of ‘Destination’ posts detailing where I’ve been, what I did, and what I recommend you do while you’re there!

Without further adieu, welcome to

MUNICH, GERMANY

Munich is perhaps one of my favourite cities that I’ve been to. I’ve wanted to go ever since I was a kid, and being able to go on my own was a really fun experience. As a young solo traveller, I always felt safe and didn’t have much trouble navigating the city. The people are friendly, and despite the ‘Grumpy German’ stereotype, all of the ones I met were cheery and quite happy to help me out.

During my stay in Munich, I was at the Wombat’s Hostel in the city center. If you are new to travelling, and are unsure about what kind of hostel you want to stay in, I highly recommend the Wombat’s hostel chain. They have hostels all over Europe, it’s easy to get used to the environment, and everyone is super friendly.
I know it made my life easier.
At any rate, while I was there, I met a bunch of really cool people, and did some pretty cool stuff.
For any soccer fans, Munich is home to German Champions FC Bayern Munchen (my favourite soccer team (Jetzt geht’s los!)), and going to one of their games was FREAKING AWESOME.
The atmosphere was mind-blowing, the fans were insane, and I had one of the best bratwurst ever. (Beer and bratwurst make the experience so much better. No joke.)
When I was buying tickets for the game, I got some that were, like, four rows away from the field, so that was a happy accident. So cool.
Anyway, while I could go on about the game, it’s probably best to move on.

I spent a lot of time wandering around Munich, so I got to see a lot of the local attractions (Parliament, the Hofbrauhaus, the Residence Museum, et cetera).
The most notable of the attractions I visited was definitely Neuschwanstein Castle. For those who do not know, Neuschwanstein was the castle Disney castle was based off of. It was jaw dropping to see in person. It was built for the sole purpose of aesthetically resembling a fantastical medieval castle.
The Wombat’s hostel have organized tours to different attractions around Munich. (I would also recommend checking out their other tours. They go to Dachau, Salzburg, and do city tours as well. It’s great.)

All in all, I had a really great time in Munich. I met a lot of awesome people, drank a lot of great beer, and saw a lot of really cool places. If you get the chance to go to Munich, I highly recommend it, and here’s a quick list of tips I’d recommend before you go:

Carry some cash with you
Explore! The train system is super efficient and easy to use!
Try the food (and the beer)
Most Germans speak English, but it never hurts to learn some basic phrases! It’s a fun language–maybe give it a shot : )
Look at what the city has to offer! There’s a lot to see and do! for example:
- Neuschwanstein Castle (I mean… who doesn’t want to see a really cool castle?)
- The Hofbrauhaus! (Beer! Bratwurst! Music! There are 6 main beer houses in Munich. Why not try them all? It’s a tourist trap, of course, but it’s totally worth it!)

As sad as it is that I will not be travelling to Germany for a while now, I look back on my trip fondly, and can’t wait to go back once COVID is all over.

Until that time, however, blogging will have to do.

Keep sane, stay safe, and don’t forget your masks!

Make sure to care for those around you, and keep in mind how much travelling there is to be done once this is over.

Peace! : )

Travel and COVID-19

I think it’s fair to say that, due to COVID-19, all travel plans have come to an abrupt and screeching halt.

Mine included.

I won’t say this is good, in fact, I think it’s far from ideal, but it’s given me A LOT of time to think, and I believe I’ve come to a sense of understanding.

I didn’t realize, until recently, how huge a part of my life travelling really is. Not only do I usually have to go from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’ every day of my life, but now that I’m not able to do that, even for the most mundane of normal social aspects of my life, it really puts everything into perspective.

Now that I can’t travel, I miss it more than ever.

The last time I made a post was… 3 months ago? Almost? Needless to say, I apologize for the inconsistency. I’ve been having a minor existential crisis, but am happy to say that I’ve mostly figured it all out.

To everyone and anyone who reads my blog posts, who misses travelling and, well, can’t wait for this to all be over so we can all get back out and go places…

I hate to say that that might not happen for a while. As long as people don’t follow guidelines, or beaches are sprung open, (nudge nudge, wink wink, AMERICA (they’re not the only ones to blame here, but COVID is going through their population like wildfire. But, that’s besides the point.)) borders will remain closed, and the ability of even in-country travel will be limited.

The fact of the matter is, that I don’t see Canada opening the borders until at least 2021, maybe 2022. Vaccines take a long time to make and perfect, and until we have that or herd immunity.

All of this to be said, it’s been a really weird and stressful time for everyone. I hope that this is all over soon, and that everyone’s doing okay, and that if you’re not, that you have someone to turn to.

I feel like a big problem, especially now, is that the media tends to focus on the worst of society. Everything bad hits the news, and everything good–if it hits the news at all, is kept in the backwaters, never making it to the front page.

But there is good to come out of all of this. The air hasn’t been cleaner in decades, maybe even in a century. Wildlife is prospering, and every day more and more people turn to local sources, and to bikes instead of cars. There’s a bike path where I live, and in response to isolation and social distancing, it has never been busier. Cyclists, pedestrians, and runners take to the path while maintaining safe distances from each other.

Everyone has time to think, and I don’t believe for a moment that everyone’s glad about isolation. Some are thriving, but others are not. Jobs layoffs have been brutal for some, and many are struggling to get by. Change is coming, and I hope it is for the better.

So while we can’t travel, or go anywhere, really… There is something to be taken from all of this. I think it’s making everyone realize how incredibly strange life is, and that when opportunity presents itself, we should live it to the fullest.

Good luck all! Stay safe. Watch out for each other, and stay in touch with your loved ones.

See you on the other side!

Peace.

The Nightmares of Budgeting

Greetings fellow travellers!

Budgeting, pleasant or not, is a key aspect to going anywhere. If you have no budget, things can go out of hand really, really fast. Nothing is easier than spending too much money in a foreign country.
Trust me.
Which is why being able to come up with a budget (even a rough one) before you go somewhere is a good idea.

Today, I’ll be walking through my ‘step-by-step’ budgeting process for my next trip.
I’m going to Germany with my brother and his girlfriend in May for a ten day excursion.
Now just a heads up, if I were going by myself, I might budget a little differently, but it’s pretty much the same process.

I always like to do my budgeting on a white board, but I’ve done a lot of trips just on the back of a scrap piece of paper. For the sake of illustration, here’s an image of my whiteboard with my budget with little numbers next to each of my steps. I’ll go into more detail below.

Step 1: So, first thing’s first. Make sure you know where you’re going. I know it sounds stupid, but depending on where you’re going, you will need to budget differently. Some countries are more expensive to go than others, and that’s all there is to it. Don’t just pick a country, pick a city. It makes life a lot easier.

Step 2: Pick your dates. The longer you’re away, the more loosey-goosey you can be about your return, but because I’m going on a shorter trip with two other people, I need to make sure I keep everything organized. Keep in mind that dates can change, but it’s easier to plan when you’ve

got an idea of when you’re going and how long you’ll be staying.

Step 3: Come up with a number. I always try to overshoot when I first come up with a number for a budget just because I find it easier to work when you have more wiggle room. But ALWAYS MAKE SURE THAT YOU CAN AFFORD YOUR MAXIMUM BUDGET. If something happens–an emergency, injury, theft, whatever–you want to be able to afford an emergency train ticket, bed for the night, or something to eat.

This number is not set in stone, but it can help give you a rough idea of how expensive everything is going to be vs how expensive you may have thought it was going to be.

Step 4: This is the fun bit–or the nightmare, depending on your perspective. Here is a chart of immediate expenses. It will be tailored to your own individual trip, there are other expenses, but they can be added in later. This list is what you know for certain you will need or be doing. So, because I’m creating a budget for 3 people, I made the budget according to the individual. As a suggestion, I would recommend first

making sure you have the prices for your plane ticket, where you’re staying, and how much you’d like to spend on food. Without these three aspects, you’re not going to be able to do too much.

Part 5: This is what I call the ‘To Do, To Go, To See’ section. It’s where I make a list of other things I’d like to do while I’m away. This is where I add prices (if necessary) and get a final sense of how much extra money I will be spending. I only add a few extra things on the list so I can keep my options open. Then, when I arrive in Munich, I’ll be able to keep my

options open and include other things in my schedule.

Part 6: Your final price. I overshot at the beginning, my max being $3000, but seeing as it will be just over $2000, it gives me a lot more wiggle-room. This price is made of the prices of everything in my lists, and if there’s any range in prices, I go with the middle price and add it to my final price (ex: if something could be $80-100 CAD, I would add $90 to my final price. Now, I always like to add at

least an extra $500 to my final price, so my final budget per person would be approximately $2500 CAD.

Budgeting isn’t all that bad. Sometimes it feels like a nightmare, but if you leave yourself some time to plan, it’s not so bad. Also, the earlier you book plane tickets, for example, the less expensive they are, and sometimes it depends on what day you book them, too.

Just keep in mind your own expense limits, consider where you’re going, and always make sure you have a bit of extra cash in case you need it.

Peace! : )

Packing for Trips Pt 1

Greetings!

Today I’m going to go over the essential of packing for a trip. For the purpose of simplicity, I’ll have this divided into two posts: Part 1, short trips, and Part 2, long trips.

Ta da! Simplicity.

So, to begin, I’ll be categorising ‘short trips’ as ranging from around 3 to 14 days. For reference, I’ll be using my current trip to Florida (7 days).

The funny thing about packing, I have found, is that the shorter the trip, the more you’re able to pack.

Why this is, I do not know, but I will explain in a moment. For this week, I brought with me:

My Passport
My Phone
Camera
Laptop
Wallet (with I.D (Driver’s license), Credit Card, etc)
Toiletries (Toothpaste, toothbrush)
5 pairs of socks
7 pairs of underwear
1 bathing suit
2 dresses
1 pair of pants
1 sweater
1 jacket
3 pairs of shorts
1 pair of hiking boots (I had to wear them on the plane. It was snowing when I left)
1 pair of sneakers
1 hat
1 book

Looking at it now, it seems a lot, especially because I fit it all in a tiny back pack.

At any rate, there’s a lot more freedom in choosing what to bring when it’s a short trip.

My general recommendations of what to bring on a short trip would be :

3-5 outfits (3 pairs of bottoms (shorts/pants, depends on where you’re going), 3-4 tops, a sweater, and a nice dress or shirt just for funsies)
3-7 pairs of underwear and socks (depending on how often you want to do laundry)
1-2 pairs of shoes (ex : sneakers and sandals)
1 Jacket (depending on where you go. Rain jacket, wind breaker, winter jacket, etc)
Passport (if you go out of country, obviously)
Wallet (hard to go anywhere without that … You know, I.D, cards, et cetera. Good stuff, good stuff)
A book (Cause why not?)
Your phone/camera/laptop… necessary electronics.
Toiletries

All in all, it’s a pretty short list. It’s a lot easier to get away with forgetting something on a short trip than it is on a long one, and depending on where you stay, it doesn’t really matter too much if you forget some things. (For example, I forgot my towel, but I’m staying with my grandma, so it’s fine.

I know this wasn’t a super in depth list, but I feel like having a baseline is always a good start. And, naturally, if you absolutely need to bring something with you (meds, etc) don’t forget them.
It’s bad for your health.

Aight, happy travels! Next post will be about packing for longer trips! (3 weeks or longer)

Peace! : )

How To… #1: Prepare for a Trip

Greetings!

So today I’ll be going over how I prepare for a trip and what you’ll need before and during your travels. (This is a post assuming you’ve already budgeted your trip. I will write a post later on about budgeting for trips.)

I’ll be going to Florida for a week, so even though it’s a short trip, I think it’s a good time for an example of how to plan your trip.

First thing’s first, before I go anywhere, I always make a list of what I need, so that if I’m missing anything, I can get it well in advance.
The four big things I make sure to have before I go anywhere are as follows:

Passport
Working Sim Card/Calling
Credit Card
Cash (30-40$ local currency (Watch the exchange rate when you do this. Some countries (Denmark, for example) are more expensive to go to. You may want to take a little bit more cash out before you get there.))

If you don’t have these things before going to a foreign country, you’re scuppered. You can always figure stuff out if you have these things.

Now, once I have these things, I always start with figuring out where I’d like to stay. Then I choose my plane ticket. I usually try to find the cheapest ticket possible (flying economy is always a good bet) and I look at different airlines to check their prices. Apps/websites like Hopper, Expedia, and Kayak are pretty good, but there are others out there.

After I get a ticket, I make sure that I have a booking for where I’m staying (Hostel, hotel, with friends, et cetera). For this week I’ll be staying with my grandma, so my life is made easier. My advice for picking places to stay is to make sure it’s within your budget, but that it also looks like a safe and fun place to stay. You don’t want to stay at a crack house just to try and save money. I would always suggest a hostel (which you can see my full advice on the subject of hostels in my previous series of posts ‘Hostels and Youth Travel pt 1-4’.

I always like to try and come up with some sort of ‘plan’ or ideas of what I’d like to do while I’m away. Because this is just a quick vacay with my grandmother, I’ll be operating at her schedule. I’d still like to go swim in the ocean and stuff, but most of my ‘doing’ will be helping her out and keeping her company.

When you’re going somewhere though, look at what kinda stuff there is nearby. It’s amazing what is only a bus ride or train ride away. Try and see what kind of historical locations there are, or museums, or bakeries, or if there’s an ‘Old Town’.

Here’s a tip : If you’re into history, art, and architecture, always see if there’s an ‘Old Town’. Especially in European countries. It’s really cool.

At any rate, depending on where you stay, they might offer tours or day trips to significant locations as well. It’s always worth checking out.

Once you’ve got that figured out… packing.
I’ll have a separate post about packing for a trip.

But after your tickets are booked, hostels and things are organised, and you’re all packed, you just have to get on a plane and go.

Once you arrive you’ll have to make sure you :
a ) find your luggage
b) not get lost in the airport (my sister did this in London. It was hilarious)
c) have a mode of transportation to where you’ll be staying. (there are always busses and taxi’s at the airport if you don’t have someone to pick you up. I would recommend the bus, as they are cheap and you can pick out an easy route with Google Maps.)

Once you arrive at your destination, it’s pretty much up to you to do what you what to do. Depending on the flight and time zone differences, I usually take a few hours to just relax, have a shower, grab some food. It’s always nice to feel refreshed after a plane ride.

And that’s pretty much it. I’ll go into more details in later posts about budgeting and packing for trips, but all in all, it’s a pretty simple process.

Just a few more tips:
a) Always have the number of the embassy of your home country in the country you’re going to just in case things really go sideways.
b) Have the ‘international’ phone number for your bank just in case something goes wrong with your card.
c) Keep your parents/guardians updated on your whereabouts. It doesn’t have to be your exact location at all times, but they worry. (A lot. Do yourself a favour. Save the brain aneurysm.)

Aight,

Peace! : )

Story Time #1: ATM’s are your friend…

The use of cash in Europe is very different compared to usage in Canada, so before I go into my story I just want to say that wherever you go, especially in any country other than you’re own, it’s best to have cash on you anyway just in case something goes wrong (ex: where you’re going doesn’t take cash, your card is declined, etc.)

Not saying that it will happen, just that it could, and that you should be prepared.

Another thing before I start this story, ladies, gents, and non-binary pals, if you’re going out to party/drink/club/socialise, whatever… Drink responsibly. I’m all for drinking with pals and having a good time, but don’t be an idiot.

And I say that first and foremost because, like so many good stories, this one starts off while I was… intoxicated.
Not blitzed, but I wouldn’t claim that I was sober.

While I was in Krakow, I was staying at Greg & Tom Hostel (fun fact: there are 3) and the first night I arrived, the hostel supplied us all with dinner and drinks afterwards. I got to know some of the people in the hostel and we decided to go out after drinks for, you guessed it, more drinks!

I was hanging out with some of my new pals, Alex and Maria, and we went to a bar that specialised in shots.

Now, I’d already had some drinks back at the hostel, and it was only after we ordered drinks at this bar that we realised that it was cash only. I remembered seeing an ATM near the bar, so I went to take some cash out.

I found the ATM without much trouble, amazingly, and went to take out some money.

Now, I don’t know if anyone else has ever taken a look at the Polish language, but I’m just going to say this:

Polish is a strange language when you’re sober, and is even more strange when you’re not.

So I’m at this Polish ATM, and for the life of me could not find the button to choose the amount of money you want to take out. The only buttons they had that I could understand were :

3000

2000

1000

These were the ‘shortcut amounts’ you could take out.

Now, my tiddly self didn’t think of the exchange rate from the Canadian dollar to the Polish złoty when I picked 1000 PLZ and just hoped for the best.
(Just a side note, 1000 PLZ is worth just over 340 CAD.)
Oops…

The only thing about having that much money in Poland is that everything’s super cheap. Which is great, save for that I still have 800 PLZ that I didn’t spend.

Moral of the story? Take your money out before you go drinking 😀

So remember, drink responsibly. Don’t drink and drive. Take money out before going to the bar.

Peace ;P

So I’ve Been Home for a While… Now What?

Greetings and hello,

So I’ve been home for 44 days and I’d be lying if I said that I’m not dying to go back out again and travel more. Fortunately, I’ve found ways to keep myself busy. I paint, write, philosophise, read, et cetera.

I’ve also picked up some other hobbies. I’m taking my German courses more seriously, I’m auditing a college course, and taking a Film Studies course at said college. I’m working on getting another job, and trying to bring in some money so I can plan my next trip 😀

But GOD, it’s weird being back home.

I love home, I really do. I’m glad to be back. I missed my family and my dog and my books and stuff, but there are so many more places I can’t wait to see.

Unfortunately, I’m home until early May… Fortunately, that leaves me loads of time to plan my next trip!

I’ll keep the updates coming on that…

In the meantime, I think I’ll be posting some stories about my travels, and go into more detail place by place of where I was and what I was doing.

So until then,

Peace : )

Hostels and Youth Travel Pt. 4 : How to Pick a Hostel

Hello and greetings,

This will be the final part of the Hostels and Youth Travel Series.
As the final step, I thought it would be appropriate to try and describe how to pick a hostel, and to make sure you don’t end up staying somewhere you won’t enjoy.

As I was saying in my previous post, there are a lot of different types of hostels; and this can be a daunting thought, especially for beginner travellers with little or no experience with hostels.
When I first started travelling, I had NO IDEA how many different types of hostels there were. To be honest, it didn’t even occur to me at the time that there were different types of hostels.

Now that I know there are options out there, I can at least try to make an effort to help out new travellers.

And honestly, it’s really easy.

Whenever I try to find a place to stay, I use a website called Hostel World ( hostelworld.com ) to at least get started.
There, you can search the city/country you’ll be going to and it’ll come up with a list of every hostel there. Then you can filter your search so it will match your price range, room style preference, on site facilities, et cetera. After that, you can pick and choose whichever hostel you want.

Or, you can simply google the type of hostel you’d like to stay in. If you search for ‘party hostels in Prague’, they’ll turn up.

If you’re not sure where to even start, I’d recommend picking a chain hostel like Wombats for your first destination to give yourself an idea about what kind of place you’d like to stay at.

If you’ve got some ideas, but aren’t sure about whether it’s right for you, talk to your fellow travellers. A few of the hostels I’ve stayed in I went to because other travellers recommended them to me. Chances are someone has either been or heard of a good place to stay where you’re going, or can help you find somewhere you’d be comfortable with.

People are friendly.

And remember, you can always look in to where you’ll be staying. Hostel World has a summary and reviews for every hostel on site, and if that’s not good enough, Google does too.

But all in all, it’s pretty easy to find a hostel. Just do your research, ask around, and you can always call the hostel if you have any questions.

That’s all for now. I think I’ll probably start posting about my personal experiences whilst travelling, tell some stories and such.

Good luck on hostel picking, and have some great adventures!

Peace : )

Hostels and Youth Travel Pt. 3 : The Different Types of Hostels

Hello and greetings.

Just to warn you, it’s a bit of a long one today.

This is part three of the four part post series of Hostels and Youth travel. Today, I’ll be going into what kinds of hostels there are, and then the final post will be dedicated on how to choose a hostel for your stay.
Now, just to be clear, there are A LOT of different categories and sub categories related to hostels. For example :

High End Hostels

Middle End Hostels

Low End Hostels

Super Social Hostels

Not-So-Social Hostels

Big Branch Hostels

Independent Hostels

Night Life Hostels

And the list goes on and on and on. I could go on for several posts about how hostels are classified so, for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to talk about the three main types of hostels I stayed in, and share my experience staying in these hostels.

Hostel Chains

Family Friendly Hostels

Party Hostels

Hopefully with a more vague category naming, it’ll be easier to go into detail about the kind of hostels I would stay in, and what I would recommend to youth travellers.

So I’ll start with Hostel Chains.

The first hostel I stayed at was the Wombats Hostel in Munich, Germany. It’s part of a chain of hostels and they have several across Europe. For a first destination it was fantastic. I had a blast, and I really enjoyed my time there. Hostel Chains, have a certain consistency to them that single standing ones don’t have. It’s a good place to find your footing in the new environment and get a sense for if you’d like to find more lively hostels, calmer hostels, or keep to that kind of easy familiarity. With Wombats in particular, I found it a really great place to start my travels and that it was really easy to get used to Munich.

(Just a side note, the Wombats Hostel in Munich has a fantastic bar. The dark wheat beer is awesome in November.)
Hostel Chains are a really good place to start. I find them almost comparable to hotels, just that hostels are much more social and fun to stay at.

As much as I enjoyed some of the chain hostels I stayed in, I found that there was a thin line that made them either lots of fun for the youth traveller or a bit of a bore. That thin line is what I like to describe the Family Friendly Line.

Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m hating on Family Friendly Hostels. I’m all for family holidays and I fully support staying in hostels.
But as a youth traveller looking for a social place to meet like-minded individuals and really experience the city, I did not get that experience staying in family friendly hostels. My most notable experience with Family Friendly Hostels was in Vienna, when I stayed at the Meininger Hostel. Also a chain hostel, it was a really nice place, but it felt more like a hotel than a hostel. Lots of people, but little to no interaction between them.

That being said, I did meet some cool people there, but the environment there wasn’t much to bring people to interact with each other because the place was crawling with children.
If you’re looking for a place to really get to meet people and see the city you’re in, I would not recommend trying to find it at a Family Friendly Hostel.

I think Family Friendly Hostels are a great place to stay if you’ve got children or young teenagers with you, but as a young traveller trying to meet and connect with others, I didn’t find it was the right place for me.

That being said, moving on to my final point: Party Hostels

I’d be lying if I said these weren’t my favourite hostels. I’ll have to do another post simply on Party Hostels just because I had a really great time in each one I visited. I’m just going to say that I was… sceptical… about staying in party hostel because I hate partying, crowds, loud music–the works.
But I gotta say that staying at the Madhouse Hostel in Prague gave me a brand new perspective. Party Hostels are very social. The staff are super involved and always have events, games, and outings planned. Party Hostels offer a really great chance to get to know your fellow travellers and explore the city you’re staying at. It was a lot of fun to go drinking, clubbing, on pub crawls, and explore the city nightlife, and then watch the sun rise as you make your way back to the hostel

I found that Party Hostels were the best place to meet new people and really get a feel for where I was staying. Also, I met more people closer to my age at the Party Hostels than at any other hostels I stayed at.

All in all, I think each type of hostel have their own benefits. In my next post, I’ll be going into my personal process on how I choose hostels to stay in, and give you some tips on where to look and what to look for when choosing a hostel.

Until then, have a lovely day.

Peace ;P

Hostels and Youth Travel Pt. 2 : Perks and Drawbacks of Hostels

Just before I start, I hope everyone had a very happy holidays and wish everyone all the best of luck in the New Year.

Now, on to Hostels.
I love Hostels, and today I’ll be going into some of the ups and downs you could experience while staying in hostels.

Let’s start with some perks.

Hostels are really great places to meet people from all over the world.
Travelling is expensive, and hostels are used by people from all over the world to go and stay at with other like minded individuals. It’s a really fantastic experience and it’s awesome getting to know different people and hearing their stories.
They always have stuff going on, so it’s easy to see and experience the area you’re staying.
Whether it’s free walking tours or organised paid tours of local attractions, hostels always have stuff going on that can help you get more immersed in where you’re staying. Depending on the hostel, they have family dinners, pub crawls, drinking games, et cetera to make it a more social and enjoyable stay.
It’s inexpensive.
Hostels are really inexpensive compared to hotels and Air BNB’s. For example, in Munich, the average cost of a hotel room per night is approximately $100-$120 CAD. A hostel in Germany averages on approximately $20-$40 CAD.
Hostels are typically marketed to people aged 18-30.
Not only will you be surrounded by people from all over the world, you’ll be surrounded by people your age (or close to it). Some of the coolest people I’ve ever met and connected with most were the ones I met in hostels.
You can pick what kind of dorm you’d like to stay in.
Hostels have different options for the dorms you can stay in. They vary in prices, obviously, but depending on what you want, you can chose different rooms. For example, Hostels usually have private rooms, gender coded dorms, and mixed dorms. Private dorms are the most expensive and, depending on how many people are in the gender and mixed dorms, their prices change. They’re always the least expensive, although the mixed dorms are usually less expensive than the gender coded dorms.

And some drawbacks,

In dorms with other, you won’t always have privacy.
Of course, there’re separate showers and bathrooms and stuff but, obviously when you have other people staying in your room, you won’t always have time when you’re just by yourself in your dorm. It seems kind of self explanatory, but I figure it’s best to reiterate because it does still come to a surprise to some people.
You could get some really wack room mates.
While I was travelling, I had some really fantastic room mates. There are a lot of really awesome and cool people to meet while you travel, and I met a lot while I stayed in hostels. But you can also meet some really weird people, too. Just remember that if you get a room mate who’s sketching you out or making you uncomfortable, that you can request a room change. Just go to the front desk, explain, and they’ll do their best to help you out.
Some hostels are more social and lively than others.
This is a perk and a drawback, but there isn’t a standard expectation as such for hostels. There are many different different types of hostels that you can choose from. You just have to do your research before picking a hostel so you don’t end up somewhere you don’t want to be. I’ll go more into how to pick the hostel that’s best for you in another later post.

Hostels are a lot of fun, and personally I find it hard to come up with too many downsides to staying in them. No matter which hostel I stayed at, I met a lot of really cool people and I can’t wait to go out an travel more. They’re entertaining, social, and get you involved with where you’re staying more than any hotel ever would.

I hope you found this useful and interesting, and I wish you all happy travels.

Peace : )