Just wondering if anyone has ever been turned away from hostels because there were no vacancies? What did you do? Where did you go?
...oh and another lame question because I don't want to start another dumb topic(sorry)...When you guys travel with your very large backpacks do you bring them on as a carry-on?

I know a lot of people try to bring their bag as carry on... although when backpacking there are sometimes items that have to be checked it. Plus airlines seem to be getting stricter with their maximum size of carryon. Really it becomes a matter of meeting the requirements and ease of use. It very well might be easier just to check the main pack and bring the day bag on board the flight.

As far as no vacancies, I am sure some have experienced it. Really the only thing you can do is try to find another hostel, or beg like hell. Sometimes that works, more so for girls probably. I know of a few people who have spent their nights in bus or train terminals because there was no where else to go. (or even ditches). Such is part of the adventure I suppose.

Best of luck, and if you don't want to worry about the no vacancy, I would recommend reserving at least a few days in advance.

Usually there are weight & size limits for carry-on bags and again, *usually*, backpacks exceed those limits. You'll most likely be relegated to checking it, my friend. :cowboy:

Whenever I know I'm going to be arriving somewhere, I'll try to book a place online either a few days before or up to a few hours before I get there-- that way I'll know right away whether or not there's space available and I can look for other alternatives if there isn't. :cheers:

Yeah, i've been turned away from a heap of hostels because they were full. All you can do is keep looking until you find something with a vacancy, 99% of the time you'll manage to find something, even if it means spending a bit of extra cash on a hotel or something. My first night in Barcelona we got there at 11pm and all the hostels were closed, we walked around for ages trying to find something and just when we thought we were going to have to sleep on the streets some dudes came up and offered us a room in their flat for 20EU, those guys became our instant new best friends!! In Pamplona for the running of the bulls there was NO accomadation of any sort, so we ended up sleeping in a park for 2 nights.

Of course, this can all be avoided by simply booking in advance over the internet. But, that means that you can't check out a place before you book, and it takes out a bit of the excitement of it all. But at least you'll have a roof over your head.

I take my day pack with all my important documents in it (passport, plane tickets, etc.) on with me and just put my pack in with everyone else's luggage. I don't think there's any need to take your pack on with you, it's pretty safe with everyone else's stuff.

Everything ^he said.

I found that if i begged hard enough hostels would let me crash on a couch for the night.

:mf_gap: Nothing like a good beggin' to get you a spot on a couch!

thanks for the replies.I can probably beg if I'm cold enough.lol. Hey, how was the park??

The park was.....interesting. The first night we were too drunk and stupid to think to get our sleeping bags out of where we had them stored, so we just curled up in the fetal position on the grass and attempted to get some sleep, it was FREEZING!!! Of the 3 times my mate woke up, twice he caught a dude going through my pockets as i slept, and the last time he busted the same guy going through his pockets. However, while we were too stupid to remember our sleeping bags, we were smart enough not to have anything in our pockets, so nobody lost anything. The second night was a bit better because we actually remembered that we had sleeping bags, but the park we chose ended up being a pretty busy one so we had drunken party people stumbling around us all night. But, nothing bad happened so it was ok, we actually managed to get a good few hours sleep.