Staying in a hostel for the first time? Read these 10 tips!

So you’ve heard the stories from friends about how they met new people from all over the world by staying in hostels. And now you want to give this hostel thing a try too. Or maybe you’re going on your first solo trip and you’re on a budget, so you have to resort to staying at a hostel for the first time.

Whatever your reason, traveling for the first time in a hostel is exciting. But as with all new things, it can also be a bit scary!

These 10 tips are here to help you look and feel like a hostel pro! Hopefully following them will make your first time in a hostel a great one!

[Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links. I would never recommend anything that I would not use myself, or anything that I don’t think would be beneficial to my readers.]

1. Bring a lock

Some hostels provide locks for you, but just in case, I always travel with a small lock for hostel lockers.

If hostels don’t provide locks you can almost always rent or buy one. However, they can be more pricey than buying one cheap back home.

I use this lock: it’s cheap, it’s light yet durable and it has combination lock. This is a better option because you won’t have to worry about losing your key (which happened to me all the time…lock keys are so tiny)!

2. Bring flip flops for showers

Because if you’re really on budget and are staying at the cheapest hostels, I’ve found that a lot of them may not be very clean. Like mold everywhere not clean. Trust me, you won’t regret bringing along the minor extra weight of flip-flops.

They’re also handy for just walking around the hostel. It’s nice to give your feet some rest from walking around in your gym shoes all day.

Speaking of stinky gym shoes, make sure you have a storage bag to keep them in. There’s no better way to keep people from hanging out with you than by stinking up the dorm with your shoes. These bags also come with cleaning bags so you can throw them into the hostel washing machine when the smell gets really bad!

3. Also, bring a towel!

If you’re used to staying at hotels, you’re probably used to having towels provided. Most hostels I’ve stayed at didn’t provide towels, and if they did, you had to pay to rent one out.

Save some money and bring one from home instead!

If you’re going to be traveling a lot, I’d recommend investing in a microfiber towel. They take up less space, absorb more water and dry faster than a normal towel. Perfect for traveling! Also, this one comes with a handy case so that you don’t have to worry about a wet towel stinking up your clothes in your suitcase or backpack!

Or you can get creative with using a t-shirt to dry yourself. I was once forced to do this on a short trip when I forgot a towel and there were no stores nearby that sold towels. But that wasn’t fun, so it’s not recommended.

Bring a towel.

[BONUS: Some hostels don’t provide linen either and you have to rent it out, so be aware of that. You can take your own linen in those cases if you’re on a really tight budget. But I’d recommend just paying the few extra bucks to rent it, as the bedding takes up way too much room in your luggage.]

4. Choose a hostel with a common area

Hostels with common areas, such as a dining room or bar or courtyard (or the pool and kitchen in one of my favorite hostels in SE Asia, Otu Hostel in Indonesia, pictured above), make it much easier to socialize and meet new people! Sure, you can meet people in your room, but it’s easier to socialize in a common area where you won’t wake up that one person who goes to sleep at 8 p.m.

Bonus points if the hostel organizes social activities, such as bar crawls, tours, happy hours or food tastings! Those are how I met a lot of the friends I made while traveling.

5. Socialize with other travelers!

While most people choose hostels because of financial reasons, the other great thing about hostels is that you can meet new friends from all over the world! I have met so many incredible travel companions in hostels while solo travelling, and often these people are what my trips most memorable.

So strike up a conversation with the people in your room or the person you sit next to at breakfast! I know that it can be a bit scary to talk to strangers from different cultures, especially if you’re an introvert like me, but I promise it will worth it!

6. Stay alone!

Yes, it’s much more comfortable sleeping with a room full of strangers when your friend is sharing a bunk with you. But I really recommend trying out a stay in a hostel by yourself!

I find that it’s so much easier to make new friends when you’re by yourself. That’s because then you can bond over solo traveling with other people who are also traveling alone.

It might sound scary to stay in a hostel by yourself, but my first time in a hostel I was solo traveling!

7. Don’t bring valuables you don’t need to bring

Although I have never been robbed at any of the many hostels I’ve stayed at (knock on wood), I’m sure everyone has heard horror stories of this happening. It’s not all that common, but just to be safe, I only bring my laptop and other valuables if I absolutely need them.

I can travel with more ease if my mind isn’t constantly back at the hostel, obsessively thinking about how easily a lock can be cut open with the right tools. Or about how I hadn’t backed up my laptop for over a week.

8. Pack light

Most lockers are quite small, so you won’t be able to fit a large suitcase in them. Which is fine if you’re not paranoid about getting your stuff stolen like me. But if you want to have your bags safely locked up, try to limit yourself to one small bag.

I personally recommend a large backpack, which I have exclusively been using since the first time I used one. It’s as big as a small suitcase, and sooo much easier to travel with. You have both your hands free and don’t have to worry about dragging a suitcase over cobblestone or dirt roads.

I got mine a few years ago, not expecting much from it since it was so cheap (only $35!!). But it’s still in great shape after the many trips we went on together through the years, and I love it! You can buy it here.

For such a cheap price, I don’t think you’ll find another product with such great quality that will last for how much I’ve used it. Beyond years of small trips around Europe and the U.S., it lasted the full four months of backpacking in Asia. No, it’s not a top of the line backpack, but it’s probably the best budget buy I’ve ever made.

9. Save money by booking a hostel with a kitchen

Many hostels have communal kitchens where you can cook your own meals and save money on expensive dining out.

Don’t forget to label your food if you put it in the fridge so that a fellow hungry hosteler doesn’t eat your leftovers or snacks! Some hostels also have you put the date of your checkout and will throw your food away if you don’t do this, so be aware of that.

10. Bring a portable charger

Whenever I’m looking for a hostel, one of the top priorities (after having lockers, being clean and in a good location) is that it has an outlet in each bunk. This way, I can sleep the night peacefully knowing that my phone is getting charged in bed with me. And that if someone tried to steal it, I’d most likely wake up, being alerted by someone being in my personal space.

Some hostels, especially the older (read: cheaper) ones, don’t have outlets in the bunks. Sometimes, the only outlets may be way across on the other side of the room from your bed.

So what I have done in those hostels was charge my phone in the available outlet while I was still awake and could keep an eye out. Then I’d charge a portable charger at night, and charge my  phone throughout the day with it.

Getting a cheap portable charger stolen is an inconvenience; getting my phone stolen is a trip-ruining disaster.

This may sound dramatic, but my phone is my life when I’m traveling. If I lost my phone while traveling, I’d lose my pictures from the trip (I suck at backing things up), my bookings and tickets, my means of navigation, my language translator and a way to contact my parents to let them know I’m still alive. Which would probably result in my mom calling the embassy and reporting me either missing or dead. 

Scary how much we rely on our phones, right? I don’t know how we ever traveled without the invention of a smart phone.

I’m sure many of you would also have your trip ruined with a stolen phone, so I’d suggest taking this extra precaution too!

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I hope you learned something new from these 10 tips and that they help you make the most of your first time hostel experience!

Comment below to let us know about where your first time in a hostel will be- I’d love to hear about it!!