A hostel is a one 
hotel. They are great because for the most part you can find them for under $25. It is dorm style living in many. Breakfast is often provided. In some you bring your own towel, in others they are provided. Most have a common area with a microwave and a fridge so you can cook you own meals and some even have a stove. Most even have wireless internet. It’s pretty awesome. You meet great people from around the world and travel without spend a lot of money on places to stay.
I have not stayed in several hostels between trips with the class, and now spring break. The two I have stayed with on class trips were great. I really enjoyed our stay and I enjoyed the people I met at the Kangaroo Stop immensely.
Since traveling without the advise and knowledge of Frau Merchant and Dr. McClain, I have now had several experiences and I want to share them with you.
Hostel one on our trip was the Hotel Panizza in Milan. We got a private room with a sink for 21 EU per night each. I really enjoyed this hostel. Breakfast was included as was free wireless. We had to share a double bed, but this was no problem as they provided several blankets so we could use separate ones. The staff was VERY helpful. They gave us a map and even recommended a great little pizza place nearby. As with most hostels, they also allowed us to leave our luggage there after checking out so we could spend the day sightseeing and not have to drag around our luggage. We liked this hostel so much we stayed there on our return trip also.
Hostel two on our trip was in Mestre in Venice. What oh what can I say. When we arrived, the receptionist was amazingly helpful. He gave us a map, told us about bus routes to the city, he also helped us find bus tickets at a discounted rate in a nearby store. This hostel cost 22 EU per night each. Sadly, the rooms were incredibly small, and there were beds for 5. Luckily we only had four in there however; our roommates were guys. This is pretty standard as far as hostels go, but it was very awkward for us. The shower was strange. There was no stall, just a shower head above the toilet and about a foot of space. In order to shower you had to get everything in the bathroom wet. There was no place to put your clean garments that was safe from them getting damp and, as it was literally right over the toilet, the toilet paper was invariably soaked and very infrequently replenished. As far as showering, it sucked. The wireless was only available in the common area, which was cool because we met awesome girls whom we ended up spending the rest of our time in Venice with.
Eurostudent Hostel in Florence was probably the friendliest hostel we stayed at. We arrived very late at night with no reservations. When we arrived, we were told they had no vacancies and we headed dejectedly down the stairs tired bodies aching from exhaustion. When we got out of the building, it started to rain and we began to regroup to discuss our options. Five minutes later, the door opened and the owner of the hostel popped his head out the door and welcomed us back in explaining that he had beds but nothing ready for new guests so we would have to be prepared to make our beds (which we didn’t end up having to do.) He said that he couldn’t turn us away in the rain. This hostel was also the cheapest. It cost us 13,50 EU each for the night.
After paying and locating our beds, which were in a very tiny room with 8 other beds (bunks mostly) I went into the common area to use the internet and the others went to bed. When it came time for the owner to want to sleep, he resituated me in the kitchen, going so far as to carrying my laptop and all the cords and rearranging the plugs in various outlets until he found one that would power up my laptop. His bed was in the common area. After helping me get resituated, he gave me a box of sangria and wished me a goodnight. Evidently on one night of the week, they have free sangria parties as a way to socialize and meet new people. This, in my opinion, is one of the best things hostels have to offer. You can meet all sorts of people from all over.
Just a few more words on Eurostudent, they have a full kitchen so cooking your own meals to save money is entirely possible. This is also a bonus at some hostels. Breakfast wasn’t offered, but you could make your own. It works out well. The biggest seller for me was that the following day (even though we had checked out and left our luggage at 10 AM, when I started getting really sick, they let me come back into the hostel, gave me a bed and let me sleep for three hours, after which I had to clear the room so they could ready it for reservations. They also allowed us to hang out and cook our dinner around 8PM so we could eat before our train to Rome. I would recommend and I would stay again at Eurostudent.
The next hostel experience I truly believe will never be beaten as the hands down worst hostel I have ever stayed at. It is called Two Ducks Hostel and it is owned by the Hotel Magnifico in Rome. We only stayed there one night. When we arrived after a scary walk down a long narrow poorly lit alley, a very unfriendly man buzzed us in and checked us in. He charged us a Roman hotel tax of 2 EU per person on top of the 16 EU each. The statute for this tax specifically stated that hostels were exempt. When I pointed this out, he stated it wasn’t a hostel even though there were signs all over the space with the name Two Ducks all over it.
Two Ducks boasts free WiFi, breakfast, cleanliness, a safe location, and a usable kitchen. The hostel itself is two separate floors in the same building. The first floor is the floor with the most rooms. The fifth floor is the other rooms, and also the only place you can use WiFi. This is also the floor the “full kitchen” is on. We didn’t use the WiFi because you had to be in the kitchen/common room to do so and the entire 10x10 foot space was monopolized by bagged trash, cords from the managers electronics, and a huge picnic table (also coated in things.) The whole place smelled musty and as if someone had at one time poured pine-sol on the floor and swished it around a bit trying to make it smell clean. The one restroom for an entire floor was dirty and cramped. Breakfast consisted of packages of two slices of dried toast, tea bags, and ovaltine powder.
Our room was the defining factor. Flor’s bedspread had a bloodstain. The door didn’t lock, the beds were pretty uncomfortable, and there were very strange noises. Flor was so creeped out that she was checking for bugs under her covers by the light of her cell phone. It was just bad. Needless to say, we checked out the next morning.
By far the worst thing about Two Ducks, we had made reservations and decided upon staying one night that it wasn’t for us. We let the rude man at the desk know and he told it was fine and sent us on our merry way. Two days later they took two day’s stay for all three of us out of my bank account stating that it was a contractual thing for not giving 72 hours notice of cancelation. We weren’t even given notice. They just took it. When I went to speak with them about it, I was yelled at and then physically kicked (and I do mean actually kicked in the ass) out the door.
By the time I had to deal with that debacle, we had located and spent two nights at the next hostel I need to review; the Ostello Marello. This hostel is run by nuns and is one of the most comforting places I have ever been. For the most part only older people stayed there, but we were incredibly pleased with everything about it. None of us had a single complaint. The rooms were clean, the bedding immaculate and plentiful. The heat was controlled from our room, the bathrooms were very clean and laid out in a convenient way. The doors triple locked and there was a large common room/kitchen with WiFi and television. The kitchen also had a fridge and two drink machines so we could have our juice or coffee in the morning. Finding this hostel saved our trip to Rome. Two of the residents (not nuns, but women who lived there)made me tea and nursed me a little when I was too sick to head out into the city with Flor and Zach. I can honestly say it was like coming home to return to tis hostel at night.
Hostels are a great thing. The intent is to give backpackers a place to stay that allows them to meet others and to travel more freely without large expensive unnecessary hotel rooms. I do have some pointers that I want to put out there. Always always always read reviews on hostels. If I had read the reviews on Two Ducks, I wouldn’t have had the experience I had with them. Try to spend time in common areas. You meet some really cool people there. Sometimes those people can have such a positive effect that you will be more forgiving of the negatives you may have with the hostel. Don’t expect a five star hotel. This is a hostel. Sometimes you have to bring your own towel, sometimes it won’t have WiFi, sometimes you have to rent your linens, and sometimes you have to leave an ID for your key. Yes, these are businesses, but believe me these aren’t people who are in it to make a ton of money. They are people who actually believe in helping travelers and in meeting new people. It might not hurt to take a page from their book and let it light a fire to learn about people.
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