9 Tips to Make Your Hostel Stay More Enjoyable

Staying in a hostel, especially for the first time, can be a very intimidating experience.  Here are some tips that many hostel veterans commonly employ to make their stay as enjoyable as possible.

1. Bring your own towel.  Many hostels charge a small fee to use a towel that they provide.  Bring your own to not only save a few dollars but to ensure it is clean.
   

   my favorite microfiber travel towel

http://www.amazon.com/MICRONET-Microfiber-Towel-Blue-Large/dp/B001GXRXXC/ref=sr_1_5?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1350959997&sr=1-5&keywords=travel+towel

2. Bring an extra sheet.  There is one way to ensure you are sleeping on clean sheets, bring your own.  Travel Sheets are small when rolled but provide huge peace of mind for their price.  No matter how clean or sketchy the hostel, you know where the fabric touching your body has been.

Awesome travel sheet, like a really thin sleeping bag.

Here is a link to my favorite Cocoon Brand Travel Sheet: http://www.amazon.com/Cocoon-Flannel-TravelSheet-Twilight-86-Inch/dp/B001DXC664/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1350959699&sr=8-10&keywords=cocoon+travel+sheet

3. Choose room style wisely.  All male? All female? Mixed? Big or Small? There are a variety of choices to be made when choose a room in your hostel.  If you are a female traveling alone, it is usually wise to bunk in an all girls room. Large rooms with lots of beds can be fun, but you are also more likely to encounter people coming in really late, rising really early, snoring, etc.

4. Bring an Ipod, earplugs, or noise cancelling headphones. You never know what type of roommates you will get. Bring some sort of device to hide or mask noise if you are not a hard sleeper.

5. Bring shower shoes.  Since most hostels have shared bathrooms, you are never quite sure what you are going to encounter.  Bring a pair of sandals to wear in the shower to be cautious.

6. Prepare for all conditions.  No matter what climate your hostel is located in, bring something to sleep and lounge in for very hot and cold conditions.  Sometimes places overcompensate for the outside conditions, so it is nice to have options.

7. Leave valuables behind.  When possible leave anything you would miss if it got stolen at home. Most of the time, if you don’t touch other people’s belongings they won’t touch yours, but why take the risk.

8. Bring a lock.  Better safe than sorry, lock up your valuables when you are out of your room.  Some hostels offer lockers, but make sure to pack a padlock and/or computer lock if you bring expensive items.

9. Make friends.  One of the best parts of hostels is the social aspect.  Get out in the common room and get to know your bunk mates! They usually have great advice.

My Buddy Abroad

Globetrotters,

To travel or not to travel, that is the question.  Whether tis’ nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of global isolation, or take arms against a sea of losers, and by opposing, travel.

Shakespeare’s version might have varied slightly, but who really knows? One thing is certain though, Shakespeare’s influence spanned an entire planet, something he could not do personally in the 1500’s.  How many international tour dates do you think Shakespeare would have in 2012? My best guess is however many there were, they’d be sold out in every city across the globe.

Do you ever wonder why so many American artists do international tours? We’re the epicenter of culture and entertainment for the world.  We set standards for other countries in terms of music, movies, television, etc.  But that doesn’t mean we’re all the world has to offer. Up until four years ago, mainstream culture was 90% originating for the good ole U S of A.  Today, we have been ambushed by a sea of English pop-Gods; Adele, One Direction, the Wanted.  And as it turns out, America is welcoming the ambush with open arms.

The point I’m trying to make is the world is getting smaller and it’s happening fast.  For so long we’ve had this idea that the rest of the globe is one big greenhouse experiment; we send over American culture and news in droves while most anything that tries to escape the bubble is caught in a thick 12-mile layer of indifference and who can blame us? We barely have to time to swallow everything here in the states.  It’s time to start opening our eyes to different regions, languages, cultures, food.  The world as we know it is shrinking and believe it or not, that’s a good thing.  At My Buddy Abroad, we want to show what it’s like to ride four wheelers in the Moroccan dessert, to fall in love in Paris, to teach English in China, and to watch the sun rise after a long night in Ibiza, with hundreds of other people JUST like you.

And at the end of it all, maybe we can honor our beloved but not forgotten American culture with a few updated sequels, starting with, “Honey, I shrunk the kids world.”

Travel smart, my friends.