A long, winding tribute to youth hostels, common rooms, bulletin boards, saunas, strangers who became friends, and all the adventures that never would have happened otherwise.
The First Hostel
Something that has been a huge influence in my life, believe it or not, has been youth hostels.
I’ve stayed at dozens of them, easily a hundred over the years, and met so many incredible people while traveling far and wide. Some of them became my best friends.
A rustic mountain hostel in deep winter.
The very first hostel I stayed at was up in Canada. I was camping at a place called Mosquito Creek in the Canadian Rockies, and right next to it was a hostel. I had been camping on my own for four or five months, but that night I heard people on the other side of the stream giggling, laughing, and swimming in the creek.
As I walked toward the creek, and it was nighttime, by the way, I could see what looked like a sauna, with about ten people outside cooling off in the stream. I decided to go check it out the next day.
Sure enough, it looked pretty cool, and it cost $1 less than the campground I was staying at. So that day I moved, took down my tent, and decided I would try out the hostel that night.
When I showed up, everyone in a rather large group seemed like they already knew each other and were chatting away in a big kitchen and common room. I felt a little uneasy at first, like an outsider, until somebody came up to me and said, “Are you looking for the hostel warden? He’s out right now, but he’ll be back soon. Just pick a bed in any dorm, leave your stuff there, and come on out and have a beer or make some dinner.”
I immediately felt right at home with that group. I had a great time that night out in the sauna with everyone, and after that, I began looking for hostels everywhere I went.
The Canadian Rockies has about eight or ten hostels, and all of them were around $6 a night, so I stayed at every one of them. They were scattered everywhere from Banff to Jasper, including all kinds of small cabins and rustic hostels, and every one of them was incredibly fun.
Many have wood-burning saunas, and there was even a bus that ran up and down the highway and would take you from one hostel to the next for about $3. I got totally hooked on how much fun they were.
One night, three or four people I had been chatting with decided they wanted to hike on the Athabasca Glacier the next day. I moved some stuff around in my little Honda, took a few things out, and somehow five of us piled in and headed up to the glacier. We spent the day exploring the ice, had an absolute blast, and then stopped for lunch and beers on the way back.
It was exactly the kind of spontaneous adventure that seemed to happen all the time at hostels. One minute you were meeting complete strangers, and the next minute you were off doing something memorable together.
While I was in Canada, I stayed at hostels all over the place and met people from all over the world. By then, I was definitely completely hooked on hostels.
While staying at a hostel in Victoria on Vancouver Island, I put a note on the bulletin board saying that I was planning to hike the five-day West Coast Trail and was looking for companions. Unfortunately, I got no responses.
The next morning, I checked out and left. About a half hour later, I realized I had forgotten something and returned to the hostel to ask about it. When I walked in, the person at the front desk told me they had just paged me because someone had responded to my note looking for a hiking companion.
That person turned out to be a woman from Germany named Anna.
The simple, rustic kind of hostel setting that always made it easy to meet people.
We decided to hike the trail together and ended up spending probably the next two weeks having a ridiculous amount of fun. Not only did we hike the West Coast Trail, but we also traveled around Vancouver Island together and eventually made our way to Tofino.
Surprisingly enough, another woman I had met earlier at a hostel in Nanaimo, named Kathy, wanted to do the same thing. We had met while using the hostel's free kayaks and had hit it off as friends. The three of us ended up camping around Tofino for several days.
On the last day, we took the mail boat out to Hot Springs Cove, which was my very first experience with natural hot springs. We spent hours soaking in the pools beside the ocean and had an incredible time.
It was another example of something I would discover over and over again while staying at hostels: complete strangers could become travel partners, adventure companions, and friends in a matter of hours.
The Truro Hostel on Cape Cod is one of the best hostels ever, at any location. It is an old Coast Guard lifesaving station, complete with barracks, a big living room with tons of couches, a huge kitchen, a big front porch, a huge property, and a fire pit — all within walking distance of one of Cape Cod's finest beaches.
I've stayed there dozens of times, nearly every summer for about 20 years. I met so many fun people there and ended up sharing all kinds of adventures with them, usually paddling or spending the day at the beach.
The Truro Hostel on the coast of Cape Cod — one of my favorite hostels anywhere.
It's also within walking distance of a really cool clothing-optional beach, something Cape Cod has long been famous for. This hostel should be a destination for anyone who wants to check out the hostel experience.
The men's dorm in the basement is pretty rough, but you'll only spend about eight hours in there. The rest of the time you'll be upstairs, hanging out and chatting with everyone. The women's dorms are upstairs, with big picture windows overlooking the ocean, much nicer beds, and are incredibly nice.
Definitely make sure you check this hostel out. For me, the Truro Hostel is one of those special places where the hostel itself became part of the adventure.
While staying at a hostel in Flagstaff, I put a note on the bulletin board saying that I wanted to backpack down into the bottom of the Grand Canyon and either camp or stay in a cabin there.
Two different women responded, and the three of us ended up reserving a four-person cabin and heading down into the canyon the next morning. On the hike down, we met a guy from South Africa, so the four of us spent the night together at the bottom of the canyon near the Colorado River in a pretty cool little cabin.
I had been down there once before, backpacking and sleeping in a tent the first night and then staying in one of the larger cabins the second night. Unfortunately, I shared that cabin with nine other guys, and at least half of them were world-class snorers. It was one of the most miserable nights of my life trying to get any sleep.
This trip was much better. Having just four companions instead of a room full of snoring old men made for a far more restful and enjoyable night.
Once again, it was a hostel bulletin board that made the whole adventure possible.
One of my favorite hostels ever was the Everglades Hostel. I've stayed there many times, probably well over a dozen, and have visited with many different friends over the years.
One trip that stands out was in 2003. I met three other people at the hostel, and the four of us decided to spend a couple of nights canoeing through the Everglades backcountry. We paddled out to one of the islands and camped there for two nights.
The Nantucket Sea Star Hostel - classic hostel building with generations of travelers passing through.
It was an incredibly fun trip. We spent our days exploring the maze of mangrove creeks and open bays, and our evenings relaxing around camp, swapping stories and getting to know each other better.
Like so many of my favorite travel memories, it was another adventure that started simply by staying at a hostel and being open to meeting new people.
The only real romance that ever came from my hostel experiences involved a friend named Suzanne, whom I met at the Nantucket Hostel.
At the time, I was recently divorced, and she had just ended a relationship with her boyfriend. As the story goes, he had actually left the priesthood in order to marry her, but somewhere along the way she realized it wasn't the right path for her and decided to end the relationship before they were married.
Inside the Nantucket Hostel common room — strangers reading, talking, and slowly becoming friends.
Suzanne and I became very good friends and spent a lot of time together over the years. We shared many adventures, a lot of great conversations, and developed a friendship that has lasted to this day.
Looking back, I could easily have imagined spending my life, or at least a good part of it, with her. Life took us in different directions, but I have always been grateful that our paths crossed.
Just a few months after meeting Suzanne, I met a woman named Julie from London at the hostel in North Conway, New Hampshire.
We became very close friends and ended up traveling all over New England together. We spent weeks exploring the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, backpacking and camping in the Adirondacks, and sharing all kinds of adventures along the way.
A warm, wonderfully unconventional hostel common space at Hostel in the Forest in Brunswick, GA.
After she returned home to England, we stayed in touch and even managed to meet up again later in Florida. We remained good, solid friends for a very long time and, to a degree, still are today.
Like so many of the friendships that began in hostels, it was one of those connections that might never have happened otherwise. A simple conversation in a hostel common room turned into years of friendship and countless memories.
Another memorable friendship began when I met a woman named Laurie at the hostel at Valley View Hot Springs in Colorado.
We ended up doing some really cool hikes and explorations together around Colorado and New Mexico. Laurie lived in Albuquerque, and at one point I stayed at her place for about a week with her and her boyfriend.
One of the highlights of that trip was getting up before dawn several mornings in a row to attend the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Watching hundreds of hot-air balloons launch into the morning sky was one of those experiences that is hard to describe unless you've seen it for yourself.
Laurie also introduced me to all kinds of interesting places around New Mexico. We explored hidden caves, hiked in some beautiful remote areas, and visited a number of spots that most tourists would never find on their own.
Like so many of the people I met through hostels, Laurie opened the door to experiences and places that I probably never would have discovered otherwise.
One of the most amazing adventures that came about because of hostels happened when I met a woman named Heika from Germany at a hostel in Costa Rica.
While the caretaker was showing me around, I mentioned that I was planning to head over to Corcovado National Park to do some backpacking. She told me that the only other guest at the hostel, Heika, was hoping to do the same thing.
We hit it off immediately. That evening we went to get our permits and buy food, and the next day we set off for what turned into eight days of pretty wild backpacking and camping in Corcovado National Park.
Hammocks, a view, and nowhere I needed to be in a hurry.
Just getting there was an adventure. It took seven or eight hours of hiking along remote beaches to reach the entrance to the park. We didn't quite make it the first day, so we camped on the beach for the night. After dinner, we sat around a small campfire and even went for a swim in the ocean.
One of the most memorable moments happened the next morning. It had rained during the night, and while we were still lying in the tent, we could hear movement all around us. A huge number of flowers had fallen from the rainforest trees, and monkeys were everywhere, picking them up and eating them. Watching that scene unfold from inside the tent was pretty magical.
When we finally reached the first ranger station later that day, the ranger informed us that swimming in the ocean there wasn't exactly recommended because of the number of sharks in the area. We may have already seen evidence of that, as we watched sharks feeding on a dead sea turtle floating offshore the following morning.
Getting into the park wasn't easy. Heavy rains had swollen many of the streams, and we had to wade across some of them carrying our backpacks over our heads to keep our gear dry. At one crossing, I spotted a caiman sitting quietly on the far bank, watching us. Fortunately, he seemed completely uninterested in what we were doing.
The hiking in Corcovado was absolutely incredible. The rainforest was alive with wildlife, and some of the trails were so muddy they would literally try to pull the boots off your feet, even though we were wearing tall rubber fishing boots.
It was one of the wildest and most memorable backpacking trips I've ever done, and it never would have happened if I hadn't walked into that little hostel and met Heika.
Another incredibly fun hostel that I've stayed at many times over the years is the Lazy Lizard in Moab, Utah, not far from Arches National Park.
A simple bunk room: inexpensive, practical, and often the beginning of something memorable.
Back when I first started staying there, it was only $6 a night for a bunk in a dorm room or $3 to camp on the property, so I took advantage of it dozens of nights over the years during my travels through the Southwest.
Like many of my favorite hostels, it attracted adventurous people from all over the world who had come to explore the surrounding deserts, canyons, mountains, and national parks. It was always a great place to meet hikers, climbers, mountain bikers, paddlers, and fellow travelers.
Moab has long been one of my favorite outdoor destinations, and the Lazy Lizard became one of my favorite places to stay while visiting the area.
It's still around today and remains pretty popular. If you're planning a trip to Moab, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, or the surrounding area, it's definitely worth checking out.
Another one of the most incredible hostels anywhere is the Hostel in the Forest near Brunswick, Georgia, not far from the Florida line and only about 30 minutes from the ocean. It is unlike any place I've ever stayed.
The hostel is a collection of treehouses built deep in the forest, along with geodesic domes and other wonderfully unusual structures. I first stayed there back in the 1980s and have returned many times since. I've probably stayed there eight or so times over the years, and every visit has been memorable.
One of the geodesic domes at the Hostel in the Forest in Brunswick, Georgia.
It is far enough from the road that you don't hear any traffic, and there are no roads or vehicles in the heart of the property. There are ponds, reflecting pools, gardens, and a glass meditation room overlooking the water. The hostel also hosts special workshops and gatherings centered around holistic living, sustainable living, and other ways of thinking about how we live.
If you stay there, you definitely want to try to get one of the treehouses. Simply sleeping high in the woods, surrounded by forest and quiet, is part of the experience.
One time, back in the 1980s, I was there when the owner, Tom, showed up on a Saturday to help with maintenance and projects around the property. Before college, Tom had spent several months traveling through Europe and staying in hostels. He eventually became a successful lawyer in Atlanta and later decided he wanted to give something back. He bought the land and, with the help of many volunteers, built this remarkable hostel largely by hand.
That day, a group of us worked alongside him building screen covers for the hot tub, making blinds for the glass meditation room overlooking a pond, and helping construct raised-bed gardens. It wasn't just a place to spend the night. It was a place where people worked together, shared ideas, and contributed something meaningful.
The hostel is still run almost entirely by volunteers, and that spirit of community is a huge part of what makes it so special. More often than not, people are traveling around the country or around the world, stop there planning to stay for a few days, and somehow end up staying for a few months.
Many of the best adventures of my life started with a simple conversation in a hostel kitchen, common room, sauna, or around a campfire. The Hostel in the Forest is one of those rare places where simply staying there is an adventure all by itself.
Looking back, that's probably what I loved most about hostels. Yes, they were inexpensive places to stay. Yes, they led to incredible adventures, lifelong friendships, backpacking partners, hot springs, caves, mountains, beaches, and countless stories. But more than anything, they brought together interesting people who were curious about the world and open to new experiences.
Definitely check out the Hostel in the Forest if you ever get the chance. Even if you never stay there, it is a great example of the kind of place that helped shape so much of my life and travels.
What's incredibly cool is that there are dozens — actually hundreds — of hostels in cities everywhere, including throughout the United States. They allow travelers to experience everything a city has to offer at a fraction of the usual expense, while meeting all kinds of other travelers along the way.
I've stayed in three different hostels in San Diego, two in San Francisco, two different hostels in Los Angeles, one in Portland, one in Seattle, one in Albuquerque, one in Phoenix, and several in both Miami and Fort Lauderdale. In fact, there are hostels in probably just about every major city. California alone has well over a hundred.
One of the things I find especially interesting is that even families with children stay at hostels simply because they want to meet other travelers. Instead of staying in a hotel where you can basically end up stuck with four walls and a television, hostels have kitchens, common rooms, patios, bulletin boards, and shared spaces where people naturally talk to one another.
Anyone who is seriously into traveling and enjoys meeting other people should definitely check out city hostels. They can completely change the way you experience a city.
Looking back, hostels probably influenced my life more than almost anything else related to travel. They introduced me to lifelong friends, hiking partners, backpacking companions, climbing partners, travel companions, and more adventures than I could ever fit on a single webpage.
Some people see hostels as simply a cheap place to spend the night. For me, they were often the reason the adventure happened in the first place.
If you're young, old, traveling solo, or simply curious about the world, I can't recommend hostels highly enough. Some of my best memories started with nothing more than walking into a common room full of complete strangers and saying hello.
