Hostels in Amsterdam

With Brel's song in mind (Amsterdam), I started looking for a hostel in Amsterdam. Just in case. Because I usually travel in the low season. But not this time. And it appears the city of vice might get crowded in June.

Conclusion : when hostels get full without any effort from the owners, there is no need to offer a good service. When you look at this, the average rate on hostelworld, for any of these hostels, is pretty low. Cleanliness, staff, apparently, everything is "not so good".

So I gathered my informations from friends living in Amsterdam. They confirmed : the hostel world in that city is a jungle.

A jungle because you might end up with smoking, drinking, noisy roomates. With the Red Light nearby, you know... That's where you might want a hostel with a no-smoking, no-drinking policy.

A jungle too because when you read previous customer's comments, you understand it's gonna be pricey for average service. When your description states the showers don't work that well... and you don't plan on fixing them, it means you probably still make a lot of money out of your crappy hostel.

Other downer : unless you want to go far away from the city, the fares double for a bed on Saturday. Yes! You won't find a bed under 60 $... in a dorm.

Anyway, I booked to ensure I would sleep somewhere. Took a cancellation insurance. If I find some people to share a room, it might be cheaper in a hotel...

That said, I won't hold back from commetning once I get there. Stay tuned.

La Nouvelle

On another subject, I now write a column called Le Bourlingueur in the weekly newspaper La Nouvelle. French readers will find me there once a week.

The interest of the unforeseen

Wilderness

I've already said it, the unforeseen brings the best surprises. Whether you panic trying to fit everything in the schedule like it was planned from the start, or you do with what you have and you have fun no matter what.

When we woke up in Knysna, before visiting the township, we wanted to leave as soon as possible towards Cape Town so we could spend at least one more full day in the big city. But knowing it would be impossible to visit Robben Island, we knew we could take it slower.

In the end, after the township and a more than welcome meal, it was already late. So we opted for a one or two hours drive before stopping in Wilderness, a city that wasn't on the radar at first.

Wilderness, it is the calmness in the outdoor. It is also one of the most interesting hostels we found, the
Fairy Knowe Backpackers, with its volleyball field, its meals served on a big common table, and a bar outside, under a roof.

We met interesting people and chose, the next morning, to go horseback riding in south african nature. Our guide was going slow, knowing we were not used to that activity, which didn't stop my horse scaring me by tripping... After, we stayed, rented a kayak to go up the river and walked to a waterfall.

Back in the hostel, we decided to drive to Swellendam. But to make sure everything would go well, we tried booking a room. Surprise! No bed left.

And South Africa isn't France. No way to find another city around there to spend the night. After some useless maths, we had no choice but to book the last two beds in the dorm, in Wilderness. The next morning, we would have to drive for five hours to reach Cape Town.

We had fun anyway in that calm city and we forgot we had less than 24 hours before we would leave Mandela's country.

WiFi, good or bad?

A Huffington Post article (What WiFi is doing to Backpacker Culture) made me think. Was asking myself some questions. Does wifi in hostels, or everywhere, in fact, change the travelers habits? Worst : is it a threat to backpaker culture?

I started going in hostels before wifi was everywhere. You would pay for a 15 minutes internet connexion and move on to do something else. We would play cards with stangers to kill some time. We would socialize because we had nothing else to do.

With time, it became almost impossible to travel without a compter or an iPad. So what?

In Valentina Jovanovski's article, it is written that hostels are more and more full of people doing nothing but looking at their computer screen. True. I am one of those, sometimes. Because it is a simple way to book a flight, a train ticket or a hostel. Because I want to keep in touch with friends and family. Or simply because I don't feel like talking to strangers. So!

If it's true that it doesn't help with human relationships, wifi is definitely an asset. A hostel without wifi is a hostel that is stuck in the past. And nobody wants to stay in the past.

So what is it we can do to encourage people to talk to each other? Nothing! Almost! Because it belongs to everyone to choose how they want to travel. With or without a computer, if one wishes to socialize, he needs to want to do it. Still, in some places, common rooms are so nice that people will start chatting anyway. Huge rooms with a small amount of seats are too common. Choosing a small hostel is usually a better bet.

I don't feel guilty to be connected 15 minutes a day when I travel. I prefer meeting strangers than sending e-mails to those I'm trying to take a distance from. And if I don't find any good mate in the hostel, I'll find them somewhere else.

The challenge will be to socialize those who watch movies in streaming mode or play games online all day long when they travel. There is alway an exception.

So go read that article and share what you think with me.

The good things hostels do

Orie in front of her hostel, the 1166 Backpackers, in Nagano.

The quality of a hostel, of the people we meet there, of the services we get, will influence how we see a city or even a country.

If I've already given tips to choose the right hostel, I thought of giving examples of what made the difference sometimes. I went with the hostels I liked enough to recommend them on my links page.

• Pella Inn - Athens
  The strength of Pella Inn was not in its rooms, small, or in the price of the laundry, very high. In this case, the location was key. It was easy to reach the main sites, like the Acropole. But the main thing was the rooftop bar with a view on the Parthenon. Hard to go to bed when you can admire the ruins all night long. Extra points for the employees, some of the nicest I met.
• Ngoc Thao Guesthouse - Ho Chi Minh City
  In Vietnam, this hostel has a family vibe. That is because it is family owned. You can often meet the owners in their pyjama, in the morning or in the evening, because they live there. Their children play with the clients. And because there is no other employees, if they want to remain open, they'd better offer good services. They make the breakfast and have pertnership with trustable companies for tours. There is enough people to make sure someone is always ready to help at the reception.
• Kyoto Hana Hostel - Kyoto
  Two fantastical ideas, other than the possibilty to rent bikes : curtains around the beds to avoid light from disturbing guests and to give intimacy, and on the inside door of the bathroom, posters with the translation of some keywords in Japanese... It's obvious they are read.
• Goodnight Hostel - Lisbon
  If the mattresses are old, Goodnight Hostel differenciate itself because of the staff who can recognize most of the guests and call them by their name all the time. If they don't remember you, you have with you a card they have given upon arrival to confirm you were a guest. The living room, without a television, has a L shaped couch, ideal for meetings and discussions with strangers.
• 1166 Backpackers - Nagano
  In the house of the only owner, Orie, this hostel feels like you're staying at a local's place. On the first floor, there is a huge table where all the guest sit inevitably. On the wall, a map with pins telling where the previous guest were from. And there is Orie, sometimes offering food or sake...
• St-Christophers - Prague
  Almost a hotel, the St-Christophers has huge bathrooms with toilets recuperating rain water. The lights turn themselves off when there is nobody inside the room. Same for the temperature, which adjusts according to the number of guests. The beds are huge, like the pillows, and lockers on wheels, also huge, are placed under the beds. The large windows can be completely covered by opaque curtains. Rare in hostels
• Adventure Queenstown Hostel and Chalet - Queenstown
  This hostel is owned by an experienced traveler. Decoration is made with pictures he took around the world, with bank notes he gathered traveling. Good idea : the quiz at night. Teams are randomly formed with guests from everywhere. They need to answer general knowledge questions. No choice to talk to each other. Reward for the winners : free beer.
  Congrats for the wooden structures for the beds. No noise. For the bean bags we can sit on in the rooms. For the power supply in the lockers, so you can charge your phone or computer while sleeping. For those velcro tag you put on the beds for 1) claiming them 2) introducing yourself to the other travelers. For the individual reading lights. For the power supply for each bed. One often need to search for them in hostels.
• Hey Hostel - Sao Paulo
  When the owner has traveled around the world for seven months, he knows what he's talking about. 24 h reception, security cameras, a computer linked with a big flat screen on the wall, to help with communications sometimes, a wall completely made of a blackboard, to draw, to leave a message, to inform...  plastic bottles in which spices grow, outside, and of course power supply in the lockers.

All of them offered free wi-fi. Note the inner courtyard, with no roof, used as a common room at Backpackers HQ in Sydney, the restaurant in the hostel at Phoenix Hostel in Shanghai, the warm feeling in Purple Gobelin in Tallin, giving the impression you are couchsurfing, where you can play poker with owners like they were travelers too. Good points for Che Lagarto in Brazil, where they have 110 and 220 volts plugs.

We like the sinks outside the bathrooms too and the typical free dinner some hostels offer sometimes.

How to choose a hostel?

USA Hostels in Los Angeles

Even if you want to save money, you need to be careful when comes the time to choose your hostel. To sleep well, it might be necessary to pay a little more.

If it happened that I wasn't satisfied by some of the hostels I chose, I usually ended up in good places. Why?

- Booking early allows to choose in a large number of hostels. But... being last minute might help you take advantage of a cancellation. No place to sleep? Ask at the reception how long they do keep the bed for a no-show. And wait. Sometimes, it works. Otherwise, the fuller the hostel is, the more popular it might be... Could be a good sign.

- Know that websites like hostelbookers and hostelworld only show a part of the beds available. If you call the hostel directly, it happens they might have beds left even if the internet tells you the opposite.

- Look at the average rating. Cross that information with the number of clients who left a comment. The place may have a perfect score of 100 %, if that result is based only on one comment, it might only be the opinion of the owner. I was told some hostels with bad comments erase their account to start fresh. But it's not the majority. A hostel with a few comments only may also be a very new one. It's up to you to see if you take the risk. But if the owners want to keep their business open, they will never offer as many services as when they just opened.

- The comments. If the ratings are important, the comments are at least as crucial. They explain the ratings. Sometimes, people complain because the soap is not included in the hostel. Because somebody snored in their room. Because they didn't like the color on the walls. Because they found dirt on a shelf... You take some... You leave some. But it's a good way to know if the place is a bed bugs nest. If you can see the age of the person who commented, you can also find out what kind of people stays in that hostel.

- Know what you need. Want to sleep? The smaller dorms offers the best chance not to share a room with a snorer. Want to meet people? Big dorms might be for you. Know that younger people travel more on a budget and usually choose bigger dorms to save money. The more expensive a hostel is, the more chances you have to meet young professionnals, in their mid-20's, and older backpackers. I usually choose those.

- The services. In 2012, if you don't have wi-fi in the hostel, you're kind of late. But be careful, in some places, you'll need to pay to use the internet. Search for the word "free" in front of the wi-fi word. On the same subject, most places give free breakfast. Do they have a common room, a curfew, DVD's, a restaurant, parking, lockers, private bathrooms, bicycles to rent, a tour desk?

- The description on the website. Reading the property information helps find out a lot of information. If it is fun, easy to read and complete, you can guess the services will be great. Same for the amount of pictures that show the rooms where you may sleep. Same for the directions to help you get to the hostel.

- Private hostel or a chain? Yes, there are chains of hostels like USA Hostels in United States, Wombats, Saint-Christophers Inn, in Europe, Nomads in Oceania, Che Lagarto in South America or Hi-International, everywhere in the world, like in Canada. These hostels look more like hotels. They have a lot of rooms. The employees are usually very professionnal. The buildings are huge. Impersonal. You are almost sure to find some quality. On the other hand, private hostels, where owners are younger and often live there, are more authentic. There are only a few rooms and it's often easier to meet other travelers there. Cleanliness and services depend on the quality of the owners.

- Location. Some hostel say it "only" takes 30 minutes to get downtown with the metro. Tranquillity might be what you're searching for. If not, the further away you go, the harder it is, usually, to move around.

So, as far as I'm concerned, I mix prices, location, ratings, the number of beds in the dorm and the pictures to make a decision. The result is good most of the time.

And please, if you sleep in a hostel, leave a comment to help other travelers to make a choice.

Why stay in hostels?

Hostel in Xi'an

What is a hostel? Why would you sleep there? It must be impossible to get a good night of sleep in there... You are courageous to go in these kind of places.

When I first heard about hostels, I was 21 years old. I was told it was cheaper and less comfortable than a hotel, that you needed to bring your sleeping bag or to pay for the sheets, that the dorms had 10 beds, that I could get bed bugs, that the showers were dirty and that hot water was often just an option.

Hostel in Beijing.

That is crap! Well, it wasn't really eight years ago. But hostels got better. Backpackers ask for more. The places which can't adapt won't get good comments on hostelworld or hostelbookers or tripadvisor. That is not good for business.

I know what I'm talking about. I visited 58 hostels in six months. At least 75 in my traveling life. I tried several things. And I still book in hostels when I go on the road.

What is true is that hostels are cheaper than hotels. You will find guests between the age of 18 and 80 years old, with more young ones than the ones with wisdom.

The concept : yes, there are dorms. Of 3 to 26 beds. The more beds they have, the cheaper it is. The cost usually includes the sheets, more and more, a reading light for each bed, a locker for your valuables, a wifi connexion and a breakfast. The time where you would get dry bread and a sip of bad coffee is behind you, Most meals are good enough.

If some mattresses make noise or can be uncomfortable, most of the time, it is possible to have a good night of sleep... even if it happens that the roomates are not disciplined enough.

Advantages, other than the cost, the internet connexion and the meal? The employees know trendy places, off the beaten track, or tips to help you save money in the city. They know the public transportation system, know exactly what you should see, speak good english and can teach you some words in the local language. They will write a note for you for the taxi driver or the train station cashier.


Hostels are often really well located or in places you need to explore. If they thought about everything, there is a common room where people gather to chat at every hour of the day or the night. You sit with a group of strangers, you say hi, and there you go, discussion is underway. And the solo traveler finds something to do.

That's the best part of it : meeting other travelers, from everywhere, with stories all more interesting than the others, who travel for different reasons. They also can share their knowledge, tips, life experience.

About cleanliness, again, most of the places are great. Same for the bathrooms, that are more and more private. I once slept in a hostel where the toilet used rain water to preserve the environnement. Efforts are made despite the low prices.

Yes, you'll find a snorer once in a while. Or a sleeping beast who never leaves the bed, event to shower. But for each bad experience, there is a lot of good ones.

Hostels are everywhere... Why not stay there?

Traveling at home

Quebec parliament

Who said you can't be a tourist in your home country? It's true we usually feel ridiculous to get lost in Québec or Montréal, while we wouldn't care in Paris or Rio. It's also true that we'll wait to retire to explore the land around our house. And it's also true that we travel more around our country to visit friends than to pay interest to the particularities of some of its cities. Most of the time, I mean.

It's while welcoming an austrian friend that I started to wonder what there was to do in Québec City. Of course, there is the parliament, the Plains of Abrahams, the Old Town, but what more?

I then consulted tourist guides, and to make sure I would get the total experience, I booked a bed in the Hi-International hostel in Québec, on Ste-Ursule street, in the old town. It's also because that is where my friend would sleep.

In two days, walking through the old town, going down in Petit Champlain and the lower part of town, going around Orléans Island and climbing the steps to the top of Montmorency Falls, I found the outside of time freedom of the tourist in me. The same relationship with strangers in the hostel, same relationship with the waitresses in the restaurants, the employees of the shops or the museums.

Which proves there is no need to go far to feel you're away, free.

And there is a little something about feeling the usual atmosphere of a hostel... with something totally québécois. Felt like the average hostel... with nothing to be too impressed about.

In other countries, I was told it's hard to communicate in english in Québec City. It seems like it's getting easier. At least, most of the people tried politely to communicate and to be understood with the non-francophones.

Finally, there is something really interesting about getting the opinions of the other travelers about our cities and our culture.

The Guy Who Smoked

There are a lot of things you shouldn't do as a backpacker, even in a hostel : turn on the lights of the dorm at 4 AM to find your bed, play loud music even if nobody wants to listen to it, not wearing clothes to go to the shared bathroom, share a bed and make noise on the mattress even if everybody can hear you, play with a plastic bag for hours while others are sleeping, etc.

At some point, I had enough. I can stand the noise. Even if you're the only one watching a movie on your computer and even if you're beating the record for the noise at 4 AM. I can do with lights. Even if there is three of us asleep and you've decided you need lights to watch a movie without headphones. But dear mister, when you decide to smoke marijuana at 2 AM, in the bed under mine, you're facing danger. (It's already not a great idea to smoke in the bed...) I know, the window is far to blow your smoke away. Going down three sets of steps to go outside, it's hard.

Too bad. The director of the hostel wasn't too happy when she learned. Not happy at all. Because it's already forbidden to smoke in the room. So your marijuana made her angry. "I will kick him out", she said. It's sounded angry.

Sorry to learn you have been kicked out, dear flatmate. Well, not really. Tonight, I'll sleep better.

The lizard

In the "Almost" category... I thought I almost saw a snake today. On THE day I decided to wear my flip-flop for a stroll in the forest. I saw a big snake head (about 12 to 14 centimetres) about 30 centimetres from my foot. First reflex : I need to take a picture. First thought : would be better to back off.

It happens that this big snake head was a lizard head, attached to a big body with really small paws.

He ran away, the lizard. But I watched the trail until the end of my walk (with breathtaking views on the way) to ensure I wouldn't come across some other beasts.

Almost! But almost, it doesn't count.

Road Trip, take two

What day are we? Sunday? Monday? 24th? 25th? Don't know!

Time goes by at a fast pace but stays suspended at the same time. When you have fun... and you're not really ready to go back home... I don't know yet if I could go on for years, but I'm not afraid that I will need to give up before the end of the six months I planned.

The last week was very intense. And I need a little bit of time to recuperate and think. I'll make sure it happens in the next week.

Blue Mountains

After a road trip on the Great Ocean Road, the one between Melbourne and Sydney was unique too. Exactly 24 travelers in a bus for three days... you make friends. We drove through the most southern point in Australia and the longest beach of the country. From there, we walked up the highest australian mountain before stopping in Canberra parliament.

Even if all the travelers I had fun with are now in different hostels in Sydney, we stay in touch and we try to meet again for an activity. Five of us have went to the Blue Mountains together today. Those mountains were named because of the eucalyptus steam above it. It's the Grand Canyon of Autralia. There, you can find a cable car which leans to an angle of 50 degrees... That is something.

When we came back, we shared a kangaroo and cranberries pizza before spending the evening next to the Sydney Opera.

I have now booked my hostel in Hong Kong where there is not a lot of places when you search for a dorm. I still need to plan the time I'll spend in China and Japan to plan how I'll get my visas.

I'm under the impression that I'm throwing all my money by the windows, but I still hope that Asia will be cheaper. I haven't checked yet the amount I have in my bank account since I left home. And I don't want to.

Tips

- For those who wish to book a hostel online, hostelbookers and hostelworld are the most popular websites. If hostelworld is easier to use, there are booking fees of 2 $ each time you use it... unless you get a gold card, which costs 20 $ and will cancel all the booking fees for a year. For a round-the-world-trip, it's totally worth it.

- Talking of surcharge,  most hostels add 2 or 3 % to your bill if you pay by credit card. You must know that your bank would add some fees anyway if you were going to an ATM. Both end up costing the same thing most of the times.

- To get to know a new city, the best way is often to go on a free tour. You can find some in a lot of cities in the world. Most of the times, they are offered by students or young adults who only get paid by the tip you give them according to your appreciation of the tour. Don't hesitate to ask them if there are cheap ways to travel with the transportation system. They know most hints needed to save on train tickets, trams, buses or subways. They will also be able to tell you what event is going on at that moment.