Party Hostels

[bibowj]

Hello All,
Now that Ive booked all my various transportation around my main cities of choice (london, edinburgh, paris and rome), Im now doing the research on where to stay....ie hostels. Luckily, there is a wealth of information to be had about all the available hostels in most cities, however they're often conflicting.

Heres my question: Im 33, and traveling alone. Im a VERY social person, who loves to go out.. have some beers and socialize so in my my mind the social type of hostel is exactly what Im looking for. The problem Im running into is that Im only finding two types of hostels: The quiet non social long termer type or the frat house style ...Now, Im by no means a boring person and was once that frat kid, but that was years ago. Now Im in that weird place somewhere between abercrombie and eddie bauer if you get my metaphor. So i want a social and friendly hostel, but I dont want one where people are doing keg stands in the living room ...and i DONT want one where mom dad and the 4 kids are there either...


Does anyone have any advice or input on this?

[pinknic38]

Well that isn't necessarily an accurate generalization, I think every hostel I've ever been in has had it's own personality -- what makes it is the city you're in and the people that are there too. You might visit one hostel and have the time of your life and come back the next year or at a different time of year and have a lame time that time around.

That being said, there is ALWAYS fun to be had.

Where are you trying to travel, amongst the veteran TP-ers here, we've been ALL over so wherever you're going, I'm sure there's a reccomendation out there. Also check out the thread for the hostel reccomendations on the main page, that should give you a good start.

[lost in texas]

I think Nicole's right, and my experience had been the same. Some hostels may cater toward a certain crowd more, but for the most part, it's all about who happens to be there when you are. It helps to read reviews on hostelworld.com, if everybody mentions it's noisy or a has a big party scene, that's probably the way it is most of the time. In general, but not always, hostels that have ONLY gender-separate dorm rooms suck.

As far as specific recommendations go, I would highly recommend Budget Backpackers in Edinburgh. It's probably the nicest/coolest hostel I ever stayed in, and there's a good mix of party and laid back atmosphere. I stayed there more than once over the course of my trip, and it was always excellent. St. Christopher's in London is really cool too.

[bibowj]

I will be specifically in the following cities for the days listed in January..




Bath-3 days
York 2 days
Edinburgh- 6 days
Paris- 6 days
Rome 5 days
London 6 days


I know I was being a little too general, but Im just going on what ive read in various posts on here and other sites

[MIKEHONCHO]

if you are going to be staying in Rome you gotta stay at yellow hostel, they had 15 euros for two hours of unlimited drinks at a bar, just remember to know how to get home

[joe7f]

David and Nicole are both spot on who happens to be staying at the hostel determining the mood, but I thought I would add that HI hostels tend to be more strict so you may want to keep that in mind. In general if a hostel has the following attributes it will be right up your alley.

_Near town center
_No curfew
_Run by 20somethings
_Mostly 6-8 person dorms
_Has its own bar

I stayed at Pop-Inn in Rome but would not recommend it for someone in your situation. Have fun on your trip

--Joey

[MeTurk]

I tended to go for hostels wth bars but had the best time at a hostel with none that one of those guys at the train station brought me too. Just take it as it comes.

Originally Posted by MIKEHONCHO

if you are going to be staying in Rome you gotta stay at yellow hostel, they had 15 euros for two hours of unlimited drinks at a bar,

That's my holiday for next year sorted.

[The Sasquatch]

Def. agree with yellow hostel in rome. And they've now turned the downstairs restaurant into a bar so finding your way home is easy. oh, also, my crazy friend guides the pub crawl that they offer there, so you gotta do that.

[Legitikick]

Avoid the Youth Hostelling International hostels, they're full of families and school groups that wake up at 6am. They are usually the cheapest though. So its a tradeoff.

[MIKEHONCHO]

I was backpacking in central europe 6 months ago and the hostels I found to be the best were Yellow hostel in Rome, Flying Pig in Amsterdam(Vondel park and the one in city centre), Circus in Berlin, they have "DAS BOOT" from beerfest for 10 euros and a picture of the Hoff in a gold frame. Also Wombat's in Munich you get a free drink almost every night you stay and it was 8 euros for 2.5 litres of beer. But if you are looking for awesome beer go to Prague where a pint is about 95 cents cdn and it is the best I have tasted on my whole 3 month trip.

[TheWills]

the advie Iwill give you is stay away from YHA those are pretty square.
I would say what you wanna avoid are places with CURFEWS and LOCKOUTS!!! These are lame ass.
However at the same time if you dont want to rip it 24/7 a good way to avoid that is to stay away from places with a bar downstairs, especially if its 24 hours. Or places right in the heart of the pub districts.

On that note though even the party hostels wont have people doing Keg stands in the common rooms, your just gonna have drunk people wandering around, maybe the occation hurl puddle in the bathroom somewhere and drunk coming into your room at all hours. I stay at the party hostels myself usually cause they arnt thhhaaatttttt bad if you wanna take it easy and its just nice to have the options to cut loose every now and then.

Another couple things to look out for are places that encourage drinking buy organzing pub crawls or giving away free beer vouchers upon registration.
will

[joe7f]

^That's a good point and since someone mentioned the Wombat in Munich earlier, I'll use that as my example. It is a "party" hostel but the noise is very reasonable and you don't find puddles of bodily fluids adorning the hallways. It is just very social, which is probably all you want out of a "party" hostel anyway. If you are with a bunch of amateur drinkers it can be a bit annoying.

--Joey

[bibowj]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I think you all understood what I was meaning. I think theres a fine line between a social fun place and one with people throwing up everywhere....

So ill look for places billeted as "social" but ones that dont have a bar built in... and i ill probally be safe..

[Canadian Bacon]

Here's the ultimate party hostel - Francesco's on Ios, Greece. Actually the island was just a huge party. Ask Rebel1.... oh man, we tore that place apart... hahaha