Hostels are all different, but there’s one common thread between the best ones (aside from the basics like clean sheets and comfy bunks): all the best hostels in the world welcome you as you are and give you the freedom to just be you. This can cover a whole range of ways you exist in the world, from identities, to backgrounds, nationalities, personalities, and beyond. Personally, I love staying in hostels because they allow me to be an introvert.
That may seem a bit counterintuitive: as an introvert, I hate being in crowds; hanging out with more than one or two people at a time exhausts me; and I’d choose quietly writing in my journal over large-scale socializing any day of the week. Alone time and quiet reflection are how I recharge; they’re my natural states and they’re what I need to default to any time I feel drained.
None of this, on the surface, squares particularly well with the practice of sharing sleeping quarters, bathrooms, breakfast tables, and walking tours with a bunch of strangers. And yet, as an introvert and avid traveler, I find I’m happiest when staying in hostels. Seriously. Here’s why.
I can just get a private room
This one may seem obvious, but just in case you didn’t know: a lot of hostels offer private rooms. If you need solitude to maintain your personal sanity, booking a private room is the best way to make sure you get it.
Enjoying my own world doesn’t mean I have to be stuck in it
Yes, I mostly prefer to keep to myself (there’s a reason I love solo travel). But if ever I start to feel isolated or lonely, being at a hostel gives me the choice of whether and how I’d like to balance out those feelings. I can read my book in the hostel lounge surrounded by other people interacting with each other and speaking different languages. I can join a hostel walking tour and then go right back to my bunk or room to recharge. I can join a hostel movie night and have a shared experience with other people, and then I can take a long walk by myself and reflect on it while I admire the lights of anew city. Whatever balance I feel like I need, hostels allow me to get it on my terms.
Sometimes I’ll surprise myself
One of my first solo hostelling experiences was in a small beach town on New Zealand’s north island. I’d just settled in at a table on the hostel’s patio one warm evening with my laptop and my headphones, intent on a night of writing, when I noticed a group of five or so people about my age at another table. From my occasional eavesdropping, I learned they all worked at the hostel and seemed to be a mix of Germans and Kiwis.
Every so often they’d call over to me, “Hey! Whatchya writing over there? Feel free to join us if you’d like!” I’d smile and shake my head, content to stay in my happy solitude. But by the fourth or fifth time they asked, I found myself relenting, folding closed my laptop and sitting down at their table for a game of cards.
I couldn’t tell you the names of any of those hostel friends today, and I have no memory of what we talked about or what card game we played. But I do remember we all sat on the beach that night looking at the stars, and the Germans and I floated on our backs in the ocean giddily pointing out the constellations we never got to see back in our hemisphere. I spent the rest of my time in town happily hiking, kayaking, and reading on my own, recharging my battery for the next leg of my trip. But it’s still that memory of stargazing in the South Pacific with strangers that sticks with me most vividly today.
I don’t have to choose a party hostel
There are plenty of “party hostels” out there – if that’s what you’re after, just keep an eye out for reviews from happy night owls and photos of late-night shenanigans. Party hostels can be great for extroverts, but introverts like me are usually better off steering clear. Instead, I look for descriptions and photos of quiet, relaxing spaces when researching hostels, and double check that any rowdy-sounding activities, like drinking games and dance parties, take place off-site.