The hostel guide: review

If you thought hostels weren’t for you, this might inspire and change your mind and I can think of no better reason for reading it.

Hostels are all over the world. They’ve been around for more than 100 years and follow a trend that’s even older than that. But for some they’re still a mystery.

So applause and cheers for this great little book which covers everything you wanted to know about hostels and some of those things you were afraid to ask.

A few years ago, Katie Dawes was heading by train for a stay at a youth hostel. As she travelled she worried that the hostel might turn out to be terrible. She might make no friends and or all her stuff might get stolen. She was terrified of bed bugs.

Like anyone who had never spent a night in a hostel she worried about sharing rooms with strangers. She had no idea how much a hostel should cost.

But over the years, and hundreds of nights spend in hostels, she learned that the fun, the friendships and experience of staying in hostels far outweighed her concerns.

She wrote The Hostel Guide to help separate the myths of hostel life from the reality. The guide will help you understand exactly what’s on offer from the huge range of hostels across Europe today, from the small independents, to the chains and official associations.

She writes about what makes hostels special and covers the fears many might have. She writes from personal experience as someone who had fears, asked questions and found answers that she can pass on to others.

She writes about hostels for backpackers, for the new young audience that has taken to youth hostels and made ideas, that once were old fashioned and out of date, relevant and freshly their own again.

Young people may no longer travel on foot or bicycle. They may visit cities more than the countryside and other countries more than their own. But many travel more than ever before, by jet, by train, by bus, by car, and by bicycle and on foot.

Katie’s advice is unflinching, as it ought to be, to convince the uninitiated and the unconvinced She covers those bedbugs and offers advice such as how to have sex in a hostel: get a private room.

You might want to use this book to refresh your ideas about youth hostels but I can think of no better use than to give it to someone contemplating heading off on their travels. It might change minds and will certainly leave its readers better informed. There’s no better reason for reading a book than those.

The book is available on Katie’s website in downloadable formats, price £14.99. When you buy the book you get lifetime access for all future editions.