WHAT MAKES A GOOD HOSTEL?

THE FRIENDLIEST HOSTELS ARE:

• Those where the guests are mainly single or small groups of travellers who want to meet other people; these tend to be mainly Independent hostels.
• Those with good places to meet informally, such as a kitchen/dining area, a common room with a layout that encourages mixing and without a TV, or a bar.
• Small hostels, especially in rural areas, where there is one kitchen/dining/common room area in which everyone mingles.
• Those where the warden or manager takes an interest in visitors and is always around the place chatting.

THE LEAST FRIENDLY HOSTELS TEND TO HAVE:

• No self-catering kitchen.
• A TV dominating the only common room.
• Staff who are surly. Or, just as bad, a manager who comes beaming at you when you check in, then firmly closes his door and is never seen again until you check out.
• Long-stay guests who fill all the kitchen fridges and storage boxes, always have the TV on quite loud and sit in front of it all evening.

KITCHENS

An essence of budget travel is to be able to prepare your own food: you can save a lot of money by preparing your own. You may like to cook a slap-up meal, or you may just want the facilities to spread sandwiches, boil a can of soup or make a pot of tea. So a major plus of a hostel, indeed in our opinion an essential, is a good kitchen. This information is not readily available in the usual publicity, so we mention it wherever possible.

COMMON ROOMS

Hostels can give you a valuable opportunity to meet and chat with other travellers. So the common room or lounge is an important feature. Yet some hostels don't have a common room at all! True, you may meet people in your dorm, indeed dorms can be very sociable places. Sometimes you get on great with your dorm-mates, and that's fine. But if the dorms are single-sex, then the guys meet up in one room and the girls gather in other rooms, and you lose opportunities for meeting. Or you might find that the other occupants of your dorm are a close-knit group, or are not into talking (perhaps they are working on their laptops), or are simply out until midnight. So the common room is the place. Particularly if it is combined with a dining room. However, it often has a TV. Sometimes the TV occupies pride of place, and all the chairs are turned towards it. In this case the first person in the room always turns it on, and everybody has to watch it. Well, you don't HAVE TO, but it will be on at room volume and it will not be easy to read or write, and as for conversation, forget it! For some reason it is perfectly acceptable to go into a room and switch a TV on, but it is never acceptable to switch it off.

Of course, you may like watching TV or want to watch a specific programme, but the chances are that the person with the remote is watching something else at the time. People may come in, see that the TV is on and not want to disturb the viewers, so they go elsewhere, and you dont get the chance to talk to them. Of course, if the TV is at the end of the room and kept on at a low level, so that people can chat or play board games without disturbance, OK. But this is rather rare.

The best arrangement, of course, is to have 2 common rooms, one of which has a TV, the other doesn't. This is ideal if there are long-stay guests, who are settled in the city and already have a circle of friends. They people are often working during the day, and naturally like to relax in front of the TV as soon as they return to the hostel. So it will always be on and they will always be glued to it.

Privacy

Some people object to mixed-sex dorms. I must say I have found these positive places in some respects -- they are often good places to meet and chat to people; also, for some reason, they are less subject to the 'Come in late at night -- switch lights on -- talk and swear' atmosphere. If you cannot bear to be seen undressing, you can always find adequate privacy; otherwise, enjoy it! If you are offended by seeing others in stages of undress, then avoid staying at hostels!

As for bathrooms, about 80% of hostel bathrooms nowadays are for single use and lockable. Some hostels have communal facilities: a row of washbasins, locable toilets, and showers which may be lockable, may be separated by a curtain, or may have glass doors. Any of these can be either single or mixed sex. There are occasional hostels which have a shower cubicle within the dorm, which will upset you only if you feel it is a crying sin to allow anyone else to see you in a state of undress!