Traveling is an experience all of itself. There is aplenty of sights to see, food to taste, and people to meet. However, what you cannot bank on without open arms and an open mind is experience. Experience comes from the nitty-gritty, unexpected moments and lessons that one can get from traveling. One of my favorite ways to garner a bit of experience is to stay in a hostel. For those of you who are unaware, a hostel is a cheap place (similar to a hotel) that allows you to stay and share a room with other [same-gendered] people for a night or however long you plan to stay. It is a pretty cool way to meet people from all over the world.
One of my favorite hostels that I have ever stayed in was in Frankfurt, Germany. Of course, I am a bit biased because of the people that I spent time with there, and it was also the last place I stayed at in Germany; however, it was great! They had an enlarged map with pins in each place that someone came from. It was cool to see where past or present guests of the hostel came from. The common area stayed open until about 2 AM. The architecture was pretty awesome! And they had free WiFi and computers (!), which was important for me to contact people because I had no data plan in Germany at that time. Aside from those things, I cannot really speak as to how sleeping overnight went because I never went to sleep that one night we stayed there; a couple of new friends and I stayed up, drank, and talked the whole night until we had to go to the airport. Great memories, guys.
Anyways, considering the fact that I may not have already convinced you to stay in a hostel by now, here are just a couple of reasons why you should:
1. All of the Peeps
Once again, this is the most important part for me. You never know who you may meet when you stay at a hostel. You may meet someone from Bulgaria or Zimbabwe or Paraguay. The opportunities are endless. Don't forget to actually connect with these people when you meet, if you can. Listen to one another's stories; prost over a glass of wine; possibly plan to continue traveling the country together, or make future plans to meet up. Anything is great!
2. You Save Loot
Hotels can become extremely expensive to stay at, especially in the well-traveled to places. Hostels are a great way to get around that. While it will still cost (nothing in life is free, after all), it is no where as costly as the former would be. Now you can use that additional money that would normally be spent on lodging to do an extracurricular.
3. Live More Like a Native
Although you are not staying in an airbnb, which would allow you to completely board like a local, a hostel is the next best choice. You are not put away and pampered like you would be in a hotel; you are instead put in the middle of the daily schedule of locals (normally).
4. Best Way to Stay Connected & Unconnected
A lot of hostels (if not all) provide free WiFi for guests! However, there are usually stipulations. For instance, the last hostel that I stayed at had WiFi in both bedrooms and the main lounge area; however, you had to pay for WiFi in the bedrooms. This encouraged people to stay in the main lounge. This will not prevent people from sticking their earbuds in their ears, but you will have a better chance to meet people while in a common area.
5. Food
Food is the most important part of traveling for me. Okay, okay, who am I kidding? It's the most important part of life for me. Hostels have a nice way to incorporate that into your stay. A lot offer breakfast, and some offer dinner. I know that the last hostel that I stayed in offered us dinner, but we decided to step out for our *last* Döner of Deutschland.
