Today, I am happy to introduce The Global Wanderess’s guest blogger, Jess from Tripelio. Jess has spent 3 1/2 years traveling and continues to travel, sharing her tips and trips. Jess was kind enough to share with us the five signs you’ve outgrown staying in hostels. So without further ado, here are the five signs.
There comes a time in every traveler’s life journey when they realize that they’ve grown too old to stay in hostels. Although some hostels have age limits and the usual age range tends to be people in their 20s and 30s, different people tend to outgrow hostels at different ages, with some giving up on them before they’ve hardly begun and others finding that the luster wears a bit thinner the more they mature. The thing is, staying in hostels does not, in fact, make you more of a real traveler than staying in hotels. And while we all love the camaraderie and laugh in the face of bedbugs, there comes a time in all our lives when we’re ready to say goodbye to the hostel for the last time. Here are some ways you know it’s time:
- You’re opting to stay in and watch Netflix rather than go out drinking with your new buddies.
You’re no longer the confused first-time traveler who can’t understand why Netflix would show you an error message and refuse you access to your favorite shows while you’re in a foreign country. Now, you’re a seasoned traveler, and you know the best VPN that will hide your real IP address and allow you to stream your favorite shows wherever you are. And there’s just some nights you’d rather sit around and watch TV in the hostel rather than go out to another boring club with too-loud music and awkward mating rituals. When you start to realize those nights are becoming more and more frequent, it’s probably a sign that you’ve outgrown staying in hostels.
- You’re able and willing to shell out more money per night for a place to stay.
One of the things we love about hostels is that they’re cheap, but if you no longer need to travel on as tight a budget as you did when you were nineteen, well…why would you? It may be a gradual slide: first, you’ll start staying in less-crowded dorms, then you’ll start paying for single rooms in hostels, and then you’ll move to hotels, but if you find that you’re relishing your privacy more and more and can actually afford to stay in a place with nice pillows and smooth sheets, it’s probably a sign that you’ve outgrown staying in hostels.
- You’re traveling with children or your significant other.
When you travel with other people, you’ll do things a bit differently than you did when you were traveling on your own. On your own, maybe staying in a 20-bed dorm was fine. On your own, maybe staying in a party hostel where people are drinking all day, every day was fine. But when you’re traveling with your significant other, things can get awkward (and let’s be real here: dorm bunks were probably not made for two people to fit into). When you’re traveling with kids, you probably want to provide them with a better example than the one you’d find in hostels. So really, if you’re traveling with anyone other than your high school or college friends, it’s probably a sign that you’ve outgrown staying in hostels.
- Someone getting it on in the bunk below you wakes you up, rather than gently rocking you to sleep.
Sex in dorm rooms is, unfortunately, a fact of life; the real question is how you respond to it. If you come prepared with a facemask and earplugs and can roll over and fall back asleep in five minutes, you’re still doing pretty okay for yourself. If you can’t get back to sleep, want to chastise the perpetrators, or are otherwise frustrated by what’s occurring, it may be a sign that you’ve outgrown staying in hostels.
- Your stuff can’t be contained in one bag and your bunk’s area.
Hostel dorms are often limited on space, and if you’re the kind of person who likes to spread their things across the length of it, you’re likely going to have a problem. You don’t have to be the neatest person ever, and it’s not about all those toiletries you’ve left on the bathroom sink there are people whose stuff will somehow magically spread across the entirety of the room. If this is you, it’s probably a sign that you’ve outgrown hostels…or maybe hostels were never the right place for you to start with.
Readers, are there any other behaviors that you’ve seen in hostels that drive you nuts? What other signs do you know of when it’s time for you to move on from staying in hostels? Tell us about them below!
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