Cheap Hostel Beds - Not Perfect,
But Among the Best Budget Accommodations

If you don't mind roughing it, sharing dorm rooms with strangers and a bit of noise at night, cheap hostel beds will stretch your budget quite far.

Hostels are full of friendly backpackers, a good source of dinner partners or someone to travel with for a while. And don't think for a moment that cheap hostels are only for the young. I've shared a dorm room with a man over 80 who was up and out by sunrise while the 20-year-olds were barely stirring.

Whether London hostels or Prague hostels, they all tend to share some similar characteristics:

• a common kitchen so you can do some basic cooking and get to meet other hostellers

• occasionally a curfew at night (this is increasingly rare)

• a locker to put away your valuables during the day

• communications facilities like long-distance telephones or Internet connections

• laundry service - washing machines or a hand-wash service for a fee

• common bath and shower rooms (although some hostels have private rooms, which are more expensive)

• guests may be asked to undertake small chores or at least clean up after themselves - that's how prices stay low

• mixed dorms - some hostels may have same-sex dorms but it's not the norm

• tend to be near interesting sights or cities (and some are downright unusual - a jail cell in Ottawa, a mill in Ireland, a freighter in Germany)

Some of the posher hostels may have more facilities, like pools or saunas or private rooms with baths, but don't count on it. On the other hand all of them will usually make you feel at home, providing a casual and friendly atmosphere where people mix and mingle.

Hostels are great places for women who travel on their own. If you're worried about crime in a city, hostels are a good bet - they are full of other travelers and there's safety in numbers.

If you're on your own you can just stand in the foyer at dinner time and look for traveling dinner partners. For some good recommendations on female-friendly hostels, have a look at Hostelbooker's top women's hostels.

And don't forget to reserve! Hostels can be booked out during peak travel times and just showing up may force you to look for the nearest bridge. Guidebooks tend to have their phone numbers and emails, and a number of chains have websites, some with sophisticated reservations systems, so there's no excuse for at least trying to plan ahead.

The inside truth about youth hostels

As I said, hostels aren't for everyone, and you should keep this in mind when trying to decide how and where to sleep on the road.

Here are some reasons why cheap hostel beds might NOT be for you:

• dislike sharing a room
• sleep lightly and wake up at the first sound of a snore
• are uncomfortable half-dressed around members of the opposite sex
• love peace and quiet
• are radical about cleanliness (don't get me wrong - most hostels are clean but with all the coming and going, it's hard to keep them spotless)
• hate having someone barge in on you when you're brushing your teeth

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