The first question that comes into mind while traveling to any place is - "Where I'm gonna stay?". The first option comes into anybody's mind is a hotel. But if you are looking for fun, meeting new people, parties, know the local culture & people better blah blah things than hotels are not the right place for you.
Here I am sharing few experiences a person can have while staying in a backpackers hostel.
1. Meeting New People from Around the World
Most of the backpack travelers opt for the backpacker hostels, because living in a hostel is always fun. You can meet new people, can talk about your journeys, share your travel stories, travel experiences, make new friends etc.
2. Party All Night
Yes, parties. Many hostels arrange theme parties & celebrate festivals with the travelers. Giving you a chance to go out and enjoy with people from different cultures & countries. These parties are actually so much fun & you get to know people and their culture better.
3. Travel in a Group
If you are traveling solo and looking for a company, hostels are the best place to find one. Like you, there are many solo travelers so make a group, go out and have fun.
4. Know the Place Better
Hostel managers are the best persons to tell you more about the city and nearby attractions. They are very well aware of the all good places and can make a low cost arrangements for you.
5. Enjoy Amazing Facilities
Play games - carrom, fooseball, table tennis, badminton, basketball & many other games
Read books - access library and read books
Access free Wi-Fi
Bar & Canteen - many hostels provide bar & canteen facilities, so enjoy drinks & food anytime.
Swimming pool - stay in pool with a drink in your hand. Life couldn't be better than this.
Enjoy you stay in dorms - dorms are really cool place to stay. Imagine, you have 5 people from 5 different countries sharing dorm with you.
No Curfew - Go out anytime, come anytime nobody will stop you.
Lockers to keep your stuff safe.
6. Cook you food
I loved this idea of cooking breakfast & food in the hostel. It saves a lot of money and makes you feel like home. If you are lucky, you may get a chance to eat some amazing food & dishes from a different country cooked by some other traveler.
7. Make new friends
One very cool thing about hostels is that people staying there are very easy to talk. During my stay in Jaipur, pink turban hostel. I met a couple from UK, and a girl from Ukraine, guy from Germany & many other people. Their stories were awesome. They shared their experiences, we shared ours & It was fun.
8. Cheap & easily affordable
Hostel stay is very cheap as compared to stay in a hotel.
I stayed for 195 rupees (~$3 USD) per day stay. My flat rent is ~$5 USD per day. LOL.
I suggest you should use various aggregator sites (in India) like makemytrip.com, goibibo.com or any other and use the heavy discounts they provide on their bookings.
My Hostel Experience -
On my Jaipur -Amritsar trip, I stayed at Pink Turban hostel in Jaipur. It was my first ever stay in a backpacker hostel and it was amazing. Me and my friend really enjoyed this. We met many travelers from U.K., Ukraine, Vietnam, Germany, South Korea etc. We stayed there for only 1 day but it was worth.
While doing bookings my friend was not interested in staying in hostel. He was not aware of how cool these hostels are these days so he asked me to book a hotel in Jaipur but somehow I convinced him to stay in a hostel in Jaipur.
At the end of trip, he was totally changed. I still remember his words, "we would have booked a hostel in Amritsar also". Because our stay in a hotel in Amritsar was really boring and it made me feel sick.
Check this video of The Mad Monkey Hostel in Cambodia. This is really cool. Watch this and get the feel of a backpacker hostel.
In this article, I have mentioned whatever I know & have experienced about the hostels and why I love staying there. Rest is your choice. You wanna stay in a boring hotel room alone or wanna chill all the time and make your holiday memorable.
Comment down below about your hostel stays and tell us more about your journeys.