Hostels: yay or nay?

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Anyone ever do hostels in Europe? any good / bad stories?

going to Spain in August, might save a ton by doing hostels instead of hotels....thoughts? have 3 people going...might be able to get our own room.

also looking at renting private apartments or something.

 

[porkchopexpress]

Did a 10 week trip back in 2005 and didn't have an issue anywhere. Where in Spain are you going? In Barcelona, the big one is Kabul. I lived in an apartment there, so I never stayed at that hostel, but people seemed to like it. Plus they sell tickets, which you then redeem for either a 1/2 liter or 1 liter of beer. It's their way of getting around not having a liquor license. In Granada there was a great one called...Oasis I think. We went to Valencia, Sevilla, Madrid and San Sebastian too, but I don't remember any of those hostel's names. I do remember that the one we stayed in San Sebastian was open for 3 days before we got there.

If you're going to one of those cities I'll try and see if I can find where we stayed.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Madrid-Barcelona-Ibiza

any tips would be great. Its the busiest part of the year so everything is way jacked up. trying to finalize all plans and have everything booked by April or May at the latest.

 

[porkchopexpress]

Good idea on booking early. For Barcelona, Kabul is a good bet, but the rooms might be bigger than 3 so you'll be sharing. It's right off of Las Ramblas in placa reial. In general, Las Ramblas sucks, but it is near a lot of bars. Not sure about clubs though. Makes ure to figure out the Ibiza part early. If I remember correctly the boat only goes there 3 days a week. I could be wrong though.

I actually just booked a trip to Barcelona for late April. I think we're going to go the apartment route though. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Yeah. Probably flying to Ibiza, don't want an 8 hour boat ride. Probably going to try to stay in Las Ramblas in Barcelona. I'll check out Kabul. would rather share with more people not so nothing gets jacked....taking some expensive electronics.

What are you using for apartments? TripAdvisor?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

can you bring chicks back to your room at hostels?

checked Kabul....can't book until 120 days to the date.

 

[agoo]

Kabul looks incredible.

My brother and I stayed at a hostel in Barcelona and two in Stockholm. Good experiences in both.

 

[mook]

I met a hot chick in a youth hostel in Copenhagen. I moved her back to Idaho, married her, knocked her up twice and started a pretty killer little home business with her and her parents, who also moved here. Been together 11 years.

I also once bought a can of Coors out of an RC Cola vending machine in a hostel in New Orleans.

Both true stories. Man, those crazy cajuns....

 

[maxiep]

I love low budget travel. It's the best way to have interesting experiences.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

oh, it won't be low budget. going to be spending the saved lodging money on booze and good food and partying.

 

[OSUBlazerfan]

Cause we BALLIN out here...

 

[Bob Dobalina]

I met a hot chick in a youth hostel in Copenhagen. I moved her back to Idaho, married her, knocked her up twice and started a pretty killer little home business with her and her parents, who also moved here. Been together 11 years.

I also once bought a can of Coors out of an RC Cola vending machine in a hostel in New Orleans.

Both true stories. Man, those crazy cajuns....

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

[Colonel Ronan]

Pics or it didn't happen!

I agree.

 

[PapaG]

My cousins's friend's sister went to a hostel in eastern Europe once with some friends and they ended up being forced into being a murder victim for hire y frustrated Americans. Luckily, the guy that paid to kill her was a completely incompetent fool, so she was able to chainsaw him in the head and then was allowed to escape after she killed him by chopping off his nuts.

Or maybe that was the plot of Hostel 2. My memory is not so good...

 

[Colonel Ronan]

My cousins's friend's sister went to a hostel in eastern Europe once with some friends and they ended up being forced into being a murder victim for hire y frustrated Americans. Luckily, the guy that paid to kill her was a completely incompetent fool, so she was able to chainsaw him in the head and then was allowed to escape after she killed him by chopping off his nuts.

Or maybe that was the plot of Hostel 2. My memory is not so good...

You should of kept the last sentence out of that post. Rep revoked.

 

[porkchopexpress]

Yeah. Probably flying to Ibiza, don't want an 8 hour boat ride. Probably going to try to stay in Las Ramblas in Barcelona. I'll check out Kabul. would rather share with more people not so nothing gets jacked....taking some expensive electronics.

What are you using for apartments? TripAdvisor?

A friend of my uncle is going to email me the company he uses. If I ever get it from him I'll pass it along.

About the pickpockets in Barcelona, they are def a problem, but just be smart about your surroundings and you should be fine. Las Ramblas is the worst for this too because of all the tourists, but it is a great location for going out/sight seeing. In general, it's a fairly safe city though. I don't think I had any issues the whole time I was there, which was about 4 months.

If you're trying to take some day trips, check out Spanish Trails Adventures. The owner is from Portland and helped out with the day to day logistics of my school, which a program out of PSU. We went on a couple of their trips and had a good time. Wine tasting, which consisted of eating cured meats and cheese and drinking in a wine cellar and getting to bottle your own cava (Spanish sparkling wine) was fun. I know they had some sea kayaking trips up the coast north of Barcelona and a bunch more that are offered.

Let me know if you have more questions. I'm less help for Madrid. I only spent a couple nights there and I didn't make it Ibiza, so I'm no help with that one.

 

[maxiep]

If you're looking for a day trip outside of Barcelona, check out the Museo Dali in Figueras. It's like walking into a Dali painting. Very cool. Ibiza is kind of over, but it's still fun.

 

[GriLtCheeZ]

About the pickpockets in Barcelona, they are def a problem, but just be smart about your surroundings and you should be fine.

Some guys tried to pickpocket me in the subway just below Las Ramblas This was '99.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

If you're looking for a day trip outside of Barcelona, check out the Museo Dali in Figueras. It's like walking into a Dali painting. Very cool. Ibiza is kind of over, but it's still fun.

Yeah. Kind of just want to do Ibiza to check it off my "list". Not that pumped about it, most of the world class DJs come to Las Vegas now anyways.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

A friend of my uncle is going to email me the company he uses. If I ever get it from him I'll pass it along.

About the pickpockets in Barcelona, they are def a problem, but just be smart about your surroundings and you should be fine. Las Ramblas is the worst for this too because of all the tourists, but it is a great location for going out/sight seeing. In general, it's a fairly safe city though. I don't think I had any issues the whole time I was there, which was about 4 months.

If you're trying to take some day trips, check out Spanish Trails Adventures. The owner is from Portland and helped out with the day to day logistics of my school, which a program out of PSU. We went on a couple of their trips and had a good time. Wine tasting, which consisted of eating cured meats and cheese and drinking in a wine cellar and getting to bottle your own cava (Spanish sparkling wine) was fun. I know they had some sea kayaking trips up the coast north of Barcelona and a bunch more that are offered.

Let me know if you have more questions. I'm less help for Madrid. I only spent a couple nights there and I didn't make it Ibiza, so I'm no help with that one.

Yeah. I'll check it out. Don't plan on doing anything remotely touristy really. Mainly just drink and eat tapas kind of vibe, walk around the city and pop into museums if they look interesting.

 

[mook]

Pics or it didn't happen!

I'm telling you they had Coors, and you could buy a can for $.75 without being carded. It was insane.

I would've photographed it, but after I'd wedged my Olympus camera into this Swedish girl's anus in the hostel's kitchen, it just stopped working.

 

[Ed O]

I met a hot chick in a youth hostel in Copenhagen. I moved her back to Idaho, married her, knocked her up twice and started a pretty killer little home business with her and her parents, who also moved here. Been together 11 years.

I also once bought a can of Coors out of an RC Cola vending machine in a hostel in New Orleans.

Both true stories. Man, those crazy cajuns....

I met a gorgeous Australian woman in a hostel in Vancouver, BC... my buddy was ironing my shirts (hah!) which left me free to talk to her as she started to do her laundry. She's visited Seattle and I've visited Canberra since then.

That's the only hostel I've ever stayed at, but I'd say it was a great experience

Ed O.

 

[mook]

Yeah, all kidding aside hostels are great places to hook up. I've, uh, gotten intimate to some degree or another with around half a dozen girls I've met in hostels. The girls are looking for a "wild foreigner experience" to brag about to their friends when they get back as much as you are. Some are traveling alone and just want to hang out with somebody for the day (as my future wife was when I met her.) So it's a really natural way to pick up on someone without really seeming to pick up on someone.

You sometimes can't find a damned room there to actually screw thanks to single-sex dorms, though. I bribed my future wife by offering to cover the hotel room in the next city if she came along with me.

 

[Ed O]

You sometimes can't find a damned room there to actually screw thanks to single-sex dorms, though. I bribed my future wife by offering to cover the hotel room in the next city if she came along with me.

I had trouble getting "alone time", too... I was sharing a room with two buddies and a stranger. Not ideal, that.

Ed O.

 

[porkchopexpress]

If you're still looking at apartments as an option, here is a site I think we're going to use for our trip next month. Some of the places look really nice. There is one on Plaza Rieal (might be too small, I forget how many are going with you) that would be in the perfect spot. It's the same Plaza as Kabul.

http://www.airbnb.com/

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

dude that looks perfect. I might check it. i wonder about these apartments, are they safe to give credit cards to? can you just pay cash?

 

[OSUBlazerfan]

Damn that looks sick, looks like you can use it per night basis too

 

[porkchopexpress]

dude that looks perfect. I might check it. i wonder about these apartments, are they safe to give credit cards to? can you just pay cash?

Not sure about credit cards. Someone sent me the website just yesterday so I've mostly been looking at some of the properties in our price range. Haven't thought about payment yet. I'm sure there is a way to wire them money rather than use a CC.

 

[porkchopexpress]

Damn that looks sick, looks like you can use it per night basis too

Some places seem to have a minimum stay requirement, but yeah, the fact that a lot of per night, per week and even per month prices is great.

 

[OSUBlazerfan]

Is it really the price that it advertises?

For example. this is 300$

http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/31484


Thats pretty unbelievable