Hostels

By popular demand, I'm writing a post dedicated to my hostel experiences. The first thing people tend to say about hostels is "That was a creepy movie!". I've never actually watched it, so I have no idea, but I DO know that they are a great place to stay cheaply in a city.

The way [most] hostels work, is they're part of a network of hostels. If you're a member you get to stay at a given rate, if you're not you get to stay at a slightly higher rate. I'm a member of Hostels International, which has hostels in most major cities around the world.

Toronto hostel

Admittedly, they are very hippy/hipster places to hang out. Everybody I've met in them just give off that vibe... I can't really place it, so just trust me on this. That being said, they are very relaxed environments, and if I didn't usually show up and go right to bed, I would take the time to get to know some of the people: I'm sure they have great stories to tell.

The setup of most hostels is you have a common room with a TV, couches, tables, occasionally kitchen facilities, public computers and the like. In Toronto they have a pool table too. The default sleeping arrangement is in rooms of 10 to 15 beds, in bunk-bed format. The mattresses are lumpy and don't have much in the way of lumbar support, but the sheets are clean and the lodging is cheap. If you want to pay extra you can get a room with only 4 beds, or even a private room. Bathrooms and showers are also shared, but in all the hostels I've been at so far, they have been exceptionally clean, cleaner even than your bathroom at home sometimes.

Hostel in Regina

The other upside to hostels is that they tend to be right downtown in cities. In Ottawa, the hostel is in an old jail, right on King street, in Toronto its a 10 minute walk to the CN tower on Church street, in Minneapolis I really don't know how close to downtown it is because I just passed through - but it looked like it was in a good location, Regina doesn't have a big downtown, but the hostel is right there! I suppose that this isn't always necessarily a good thing... I paid more for parking overnight in Toronto than I did on lodging, but I'm sure you could park elsewhere in the city and cab over if you were staying longer.

And that's all I have to say about that.