Paying for hostels

[bibowj]

With my trip coming up in January, I would like to have as much paid for as possible AHEAD of time to ease any fears of running out of money on the road. However, im finding that with most hostels you can only reserve the room/bunk ahead of time.. is that common? Is there no way I can pay ahead of time?

Also, of the cities below, if you were going to choose ONE city to just get a private budget hotel so you can get some good sleep, and showers etc... which one would it be and why( ie Paris, because most the hostels are crap)


London
Edinburgh
Paris
Rome

[joe7f]

Probably Paris becomes the hostels are crap :D (so I have heard, I have only spent 10 hours in Paris)

London's hotels are ridiculously expensive and I have no idea about Scotland.

Rome has some nice hostels so I wouldn't pick that one.

--Joey

[lauren313]

I would pick Paris, because you can get some really cheap hotel deals there. Also I hear the hostels are pretty crappy.

In regards to paying for stuff ahead of time... if you find you can't pay in advance, are you perhaps able to open up a separate bank account of something, into which you can put all the money you would spend on hostels, etc. So figure out roughly how much it would all come to, and put that into the account. Then just use that account to pay for the stuff you've set it aside for. Use your regular account for everything else.

Of course, this involves a lot of pissing about with banks etc. You could just keep it all in your regular account and be restrained with your money so you know you'll always be able to afford a bed!

[simply_angelic]

How are you going about your trip where will each of these cities lie on it? Are you only hitting up larger cities?

Definitely not Rome...I love Rome for the parties. London (the hostel I stayed at was shit but I hear the generator's amazing).

Of the list given I would choose Edinburgh or Paris. I stayed at a hotel in Paris my 1st night...which I didnt actually really use. I think I used it from 6am-11am & I was relatively cheap (like 40EU or something). The free breakfast was nice~ delivered to my room w/ a paper.

Edinburgh's a pretty quiet town itself so it would make sense if you wanted to relax a bit to stay in a hotel there.

Personally though, I'd choose neither. It's nice to see the big cities (although edinburgh really isnt that big) with other people. If you're at all planning on seeing the chateau's I highly recommend doing what I did & staying in Tours, France. I stayed at the HI hostel there. It's a small town but relatively close to a lot of the chateau's in the Loire Valley so you can take their all-day tours to see a good number of the chateaus (they're beautiful). The HI hostel I stayed in was 17EU/night & I had my own private room. I actually would have preferred not to but I did catch up on some well needed sleep. I think that includes a free breakfast too.

[bibowj]

Ill be getting around to those cities via plane...on easyJet... and all come into major Airports, minus Rome which is some BFE airport but has train access....

I think Ill probaly opt to get a hotel in paris, and just pay the money for something decent...being that ive not read one review of a place there that said anything consistantly nice... and the other cities seem to have several places that everyone generally loves, or is ok with...

[hurr111]

I would tell you to just stay in Hostels in each stop. It is much easier to meet fellow travelers in hostels and you always end up with a "Best Friend for a Day". As for Paris hostels, I stayed at the BVJ Lourve. This place was not terrible. The Breakfast was great and the facilities were clean. The staff was also helpful and the location was great. The only problem is that this hostel has a tendency to be a bit institutional and there are often large groups staying there. When I stayed here though, the guys in my room all got along very well which made it nice.

You will also find that a lot of hostels will only except cash as a payment. Especially in some of the more Eastern European countries.