Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hostels: If You're Up For Them

Hostels can be a cheap alternative to hotels. I thought I'd remind you of this since most of you are probably already aware of hostels. They work out best for people traveling without children. Some people love them, so if you haven't considered one for your travels, I'd say give it a shot!

Personally, I've only stayed in a hostel a handful of times - and never with my son. It was when I was really desperate/broke and was traveling with friends several years ago. I'm a bit of a germaphobe and don't like hostels too much, so you won't hear me recommending them strongly like a lot of people do. Most of  them (there are exceptions, of course!) I've seen or stayed in aren't up to my personal standard of cleanliness. I definitely wouldn't bring my son in one since he tends to touch dirty stuff and then put his hands in his mouth... You know how little boys are. :)

One website I like is Couchsurfing.com. This isn't a hostel website, but the concept is very similar. There are people (honest and safe) on there who offer up a couch or even a bedroom for you to stay in for free. Most of these places are cleaner than hostels, too. You get to know each other through the website and can check their references before committing to anything. Most of the time you end up making a friend, which is another advantage. If you read my other post about friends then you know how hip I am on that idea!! There are even families on there who offer housing for other families. I really do like this option much better than hostels, so check it out. 

That's it for now... 

***If I find a good website with a list of hostels, I'll post it in the resources.

How am I doing so far with the blog? Comments would be appreciated.


"When you are everywhere, you are nowhere. When you are somewhere, you are everywhere." -Rumi

4 comments:

Hostelsclub.com said...

Dear Janet, Bill and Alex;

My name is Johann and I represent HostelsClub.com a European-based website that allows users to search and book hostels worldwide. I saw you ask for feedback on your blog; I went through it and I must say I really like the content you write about; it is good and comprehensive; I liked and (since I travel for work a lot trying) to apply your tip on Exercising anywhere, anytime : ) ! I suppose that starting a Blog isn't the easiest thing despite the pleasure of writing. i.e. you would like to see user comments right away, see your traffic increase after just a few posts etc. BUT it takes time and patience; something I'd like to recommend you is try some LINK BAITING, write some outrageous unconventional, controversial, posts etc. etc. You will certainly get some attention; another way of getting attention and traffic is interact with blog writers in your same field; email them link to their posts, leave comments on their article etc.; I hope you find these tips of any help :).
Another reason why I'm writing is that we recently launched a special promotion for US citizens traveling to Europe and I'd like to get your feedback on that :) ; feel free to contact me at any time at Skype: depietrijojo; email: johann@hostelsclub.com;

Keep up with the good job!
Ciao from Italy

Johann

Marco van de Kamp said...

*** I hope that you will post my site as a good hostel site.

TFTHostels is the first hostel search engine in the world. More then 30.000 hostels from all major hostel booking sites.

Janet said...

Johann,

Thanks for the comment. I will add HostelsClub.com as a resource.
Also, thanks for the advice. I am definitely working on some of the things you mentioned as well as other implementations. I like your idea of link baiting and I hadn't though of it, so I will be sure to give it a try. I know my blog won't be an overnight success, but I also know most people aren't lucky enough for that to happen. I am a marketing student at University of Colorado at Denver, and my husband and I run an IT company based in Denver, so the blog is coming along very slowly. It will come, though.
I will check out your promotion when I get a chance and let you know what I think.

Thanks again for your comments!

Janet

Janet said...

Marco,

I will add TFTHostels to the resource list - it looks like a very helpful search engine. Thanks for your comment.


Janet