Hostel Vs Couch Surfing: Which Budget Travel Option is Better?

As the winter comes we know spring break is not that far away. To prepare in advance and keep your housing options open I'm writing this article about the pro and cons of a youth hostel vs. couch surfing. This article is being written from my experiences using both of these cheap housing methods.

If you don't know what couch surfing this is a website for people to share their homes with fellow travelers by offering them a couch to sleep in for free. www.couchsurfing.com My friend had a great experience when we went to Austin last August. Our host was nice and had a clean couch to sleep on. Our host lived from away from the airport so he drove us back and forth to the airport and he showed us Texas Hill country which is something we could not have experienced since we did have wheels. We did give some NYC tee-shirts and money toward gas out of appreciation.

We were lucky we could get decent public transportation in Austin. This is a question you should ask your potential hosts when you find a prospective person to stay with. Not everybody has time to transport you to places. Also, be prepared to use some money for cabs especially if your surfer lives outside of town. Think of the cab money as money you would have spent on a cheap hotel or hostel.

Also ask hosts about where you will sleep. One surfer said we could sleep on his floor.

Also, couch surfing is great to meet the locales. There is a non housing option to just meet people for coffee.

This site offers a rating reference system. You can email your host and email people who stayed with them previously.

Couch surfing is also great because at host house you will access to a refrigerator to store beverages, sometimes free internet and a clean shower that you don't have to share. In one youth hostel I stayed there were unlocked bathrooms out in the public, no shampoo or soap and a refrigerator so jammed packed there was no room to store my food.Also, some hostels have limited computer acess and may charge a fee for using the computer.

Youth hostels do have living rooms where can meet many fellow travelers of all different ages. If you get there early and don't have to wait too long for the shower you will get a chance to talk to them. Also, these hostels are usually located in a central park of town that has easy access to public transportation. Some may have curfews and restrictions on men and women in the same room. Also sometimes the walls in the room are thin and the mattress is thin. You can pay extra for a private room but it still doesn't guarantee a private bathroom. Some sites will show you what the rooms look like and at www.hostels.com there is a star system that rates the hostel and some former hostel's occupant's comments.

If there is a festival for both methods plan and reserve a spot months in advance. It very stressful if you have to be emailing a lot of surfers and then your options on where you want to stay become more limited. Youth hostels also will book up quickly and you may get a hostel but not in desirable location or in a dicey location.

I prefer to surf early and then have my options open on where I want to stay. Some people will be weary of staying with strangers but I feel the reference system works and there is a user profile where you can read about your prospective host and see if you share common interests. If your hosts are strange you can always log on the and find another host. Some hosts will help you at the last minute. Also, some hosts can be flaky and not show up so it a good idea to talk to them a while before you commit to staying with them.

The only good thing about hostel I feel is there central location, access to maps on site and that you can meet other people that traveling on the cheap likes youself.

Either way my best advice to you is plan your trip early so you can have the best possible experience on your terms on which ever method you choose.