Backpacking the UK: A Guide to Hostels

So you're going to the United Kingdom and you're planning on roughing it. A hostel is the cheapest place you can stay, and can be a great idea if you're on a budget. The problem is you've never been to the UK before and you've never stayed in a hostel before either. Not a problem. That's what this guide is for!

Many people in the United States do not know what a hostel is, or perhaps only have a vague idea of what a hostel entails. Some may mistakenly think that it's like a hotel. It's absolutely not like a hotel at all. The best way to describe it to someone who has never been to one is that it's like a dorm at a college or boarding school. The biggest difference is that instead of two or three people per room, there can be anywhere between four and twenty people in one room. This all depends on how big the hostel is and varies from place to place. Some of them have varying room sizes and some even have private rooms that one or two people can rent for an extra fee.

Hostels are very cheap and generally run between £8-20 ($15-38USD) per night per person. The cheaper rooms are usually the least private, having more beds than their more expensive counterparts. Rooms at the same hostel may vary by price. For example, a room with only two bunks will generally be more expensive than a room with eight bunks. Also, some hostels are owned by the same people or have a reciprocal agreement, so keep your eyes open for coupons that might be in their lounge or foyer that would be useful on another stop of your trip. I found that most of the hostels charged an average of £12 a night.

What do you get for such a low price? Hostels generally provide you with a bed, clean sheets, and the use of a toilet and shower. Some hostels have TV rooms or lounges. Others may have a computer or two with an internet connection that accepts coins as payment, although it is often cheaper to go to an internet café at an off-peak hour if you need to use the internet. Some hostels, like the Belford Hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland, have a bar that serves alcohol that is open in the evening. Many hostels have kitchens and some serve cold breakfasts usually consisting of cereal and fruit. They may also have pool or ping-pong tables in their lounges. The lounge is a great place to hang out and meet fellow travelers and get tips on what to see and where to go.

You will need to bring all necessary toiletries with you, including soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. as hostels do not provide these things. Also, another thing to keep in mind that may seem unusual is that they do not provide towels or washcloths, so you will need to bring your own.

I recommend traveling as light as you possibly can. It is not necessary to bring enough clothes with you for the entire length of your stay, as many hostels, for a small fee (typically £3) will do your laundry for you while you are out enjoying the sights. You can also do your own laundry at many of them for less or free, although paying the small fee is well worth it in my opinion. Not only does it allow you to travel lighter, which in the long run will make your trip much more pleasant, but you don't spend precious trip time doing laundry.

Another thing that may seem unusual if you've never stayed in a hostel, is that most of them have un-segregated rooms, which means that you may be sleeping in the same room as someone of the opposite sex. I was a female traveling alone and I didn't find this to be a problem at all. Some hostels on the other hand, may have segregated sleeping quarters, especially youth hostels. A hostel that I stayed at in Stratford-upon-Avon had rooms divided by gender.

One draw back to youth hostels is that some of them may have a curfew and stringent rules, especially those run by the YMCA. You may want to avoid these if you are older and don't want a lot of rules. And speaking of age, you may want to call in advance if you are under eighteen or over thirty-five and planning on staying at a hostel. Some hostels will not allow minors or older people to stay at them. One example of this is the Astor Museum Hostel in London.

The showers in a hostel are typically like those at a gym, where there are multiple stalls with showers in them. No worries though, these are segregated by sex! You typically have to walk down the hall from your sleeping quarters to go to the bathroom or take a shower. Only one hostel I stayed at had a private bathroom off from my sleeping room.

Another fantastic thing about hostels is that if your budget is extremely tight and you are planning on staying in a single location for a period of time you may want to see if you can work for the hostel in exchange for a bed. Most hostels are staffed by other travelers who are short on cash or want to spend their money on other things. You may have to wait a few days for a spot to open, so this is usually not an option if you are only going to be there for a short time.

And the best part of staying at hostels is that it allows you to travel on the fly, without a set itinerary. For the most part, a reservation is not necessary. You may want to make one for the first night that you are there just to make sure that you are guaranteed a bed after a long trans-Atlantic flight. This especially true if it's summer time, which is when I traveled. I only had a reservation for the first night of my trip, which I booked online. The rest of the trip I played by ear and went where I wanted, when I wanted and had no trouble getting a bed for the night. As long as you arrive at a hostel early in the day, you will more than likely have a bed. It is usually best to arrive in a town early in the day, check into the hostel, leave your pack and go have fun.

Staying in a hostel is a priceless experience. You get to meet all sorts of people from all over the world who are doing the same thing you are. The people you meet at hostels can often serve as resources for other trips you may take in the future, or short-term traveling companions. My trip would not have been the same if I had stayed at a hotel, as I wouldn't have met all the interesting people that I did.