Hostels: You're Never Alone

Not So Hostel, Charleston, SC

When traveling alone, I love to stay in hostels since I never feel isolated there. For some glorious reason, everyone who stays at a hostel is friendly, talkative, and willing to invite those traveling alone to tag along because they are usually traveling alone too.

Many of my friends are afraid of staying in them after watching the horror movie in which a crazed killer has his way with the travelers in one unlucky hostel. Or they imagine them to be unclean. Or they don't want to share a room with other people.

I would submit that a crazy killer can find you anywhere, a hotel can be just as clean or unclean as a hostel, and that most hostels have private room options. However, you probably cannot get away from sharing the bathrooms. You've got me on that one.

By their very nature, hostels are designed to bring strangers together which might even be more valuable then their rock bottom room rate. Sharing space means bumping into people and giving you that excuse to talk to a stranger. In Charleston, SC, rooming with two other girls gave me the excuse to introduce myself then invite them along with me to my outing. Sharing computers in the living room, eating breakfast around the kitchen table, or enjoying the cool of the night on the gracious front porch were all opportunities I grabbed for good conversation.

As for eating dinner at a restaurant alone, who wants to be "that guy"? Not I. (Said the fly with the buy in his eye...random, but it all rhymes.) If I must eat alone, I prefer to sit at a bar in hopes of striking up conversation with the people on either side of me. But I find it so much nicer to walk in with my dinner companion so that there is a guarantee of company.

The hostel spared me again, this time I didn't need to chance eating my dinner alone. After my two roommates checked out of the hostel to move onto their next city, I had lost my impromptu traveling companions. But just as quickly as I had lost them, I found another. Walking out the door, I bumped into a guy who was also heading into town for dinner. Over a shared pizza, I learned he owns a hostel in Costa Rica. Yeah buddy! I plan to check that out one day!

People told me I am too old to have stayed at a hostel on this past trip, but I will continue to use hostels at any age if I'm traveling alone. I've seen families and old people staying at them, so I'll never run the risk of being too old. But really, I just love the hostels because without a great private room to hide in, people congregate in the shared spaces and conversations begin. I never have to feel alone even if I'm traveling alone.