Source: Sydney Harbour YHA

Inspired by a son who has stayed at hostels and another over 60 traveler I know, who stayed in a hostel for the first time and survived a 12-person co-ed dorm room, I was ready to give hostels a try. Newly retired, I wanted to travel more, but really couldn’t afford a lot of expensive trips.

An easy google search yielded a wealth of information about hostel groups, hostel apps, and enough tips to get me started. Although the focus of most hostels is geared towards the under 35 crowd, I found that Hostelling International (HI) welcomed seniors to their community. The hostels in their system are clean, well appointed, and located in good locations. I was traveling to Broadbeach in Australia to stay with a son who had rented a beach apartment for a business conference (yes there is a conference center in this beach community – genius!).

I decided to take a side trip to Sydney and HI had a hostel that intrigued me. Located in the Rocks Section near the harbor, the HI Sydney Harbour YHA was housed in a modern building, with clean bright rooms and a great communal lounge and shared kitchen. The building was on stilts, perched over an archeological dig and surrounded by historical buildings, plenty of restaurants and small grocery marts, and within easy walking distance of the major attractions. I opted for a 4 bed (2 bunk beds) all female room with an ensuite bath and individual lockers.

Fair warning – some hostels can be quite grubby. Hostelling International appears to have some good standards (at least from my experience so far) and has ratings for staff, cleanliness, location, security, service, comfort and green rating. A search site, Hostelworld (which has an app), also has good information. Trip Advisor review hostels in many areas. Although cost is important to me, I’m not interested in the cheapest option. I’m looking for good value that supplements, rather than takes away from my travel experience.

 My first roommates were women (aged 25-35) from Great Britain, Belgium, and Finland. The second night, the woman from Great Britain remained and we were joined by two college aged women from South Korea. For the most part, people did not hang out in their rooms, but either were out and about, or spent the evening in the common lounge. There was no shortage of people to talk with in the lounge and I soon realized that likely 25% of the people there were not what I would consider traditional users of hostels.

There were families (a private family room was cheaper than many hotels and provided access to the communal kitchen), others my age, one gentleman in his 80’s with another family member, and everything in between. People were sharing meals, information about things to do, and insights about life in their country and community. The second night I had a 3-hour conversation with my roommate from Great Britain and it was fascinating to hear her take on our recent presidential election, government sponsored health care, the EU, as well as some of the other places she had traveled on a shoestring.

Source: Sydney Harbour YHA

As I climbed into bed the first night, I had that feeling reminiscent of the first night of college, sleeping in the same room as strangers, but it was fleeting. The women the first night were very courteous (window open or closed, light left on or off in the bathroom, who had to get up and out in the morning, etc.).

The second night, the two younger women wandered in around 2 after clearly having more than a couple of drinks, zipped and unzipped their luggage no less than 30 times, and finally climbed into bed where one of them snored and ground her teeth so loudly it was painful to listen to. I found the value of good earplugs and soon was back to sleep after a busy day of sightseeing. The young women were still in bed when I left the room for breakfast the next morning.

Fortunately, I had read enough blogs to heed some suggestions on how to be a courteous roommate. Among them are 1) keep a flashlight in your bed so you can get into your locker without turning on the light, 2) lay out your clothes for the next day along with your toiletries so you can shower and get ready quietly in the bathroom, 3) keep the items in your locker organized so you don’t need to rummage, and 4) make sure your flip flops are handy because even though the bathroom was spotless, you want some protection for your feet.

Food is kept in an individual cubby in the kitchen or in a tagged bag in the refrigerator. Most people kept only small quantities of food to cover just the time there were there. The kitchen is well equipped with pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and utensils. Everyone is expected to clean up after themselves and for the most part, the kitchen was quite clean.

The enthusiastic people who worked at the hostel knew where everything was and a wall in the common area had all kinds of information on the area, things to do, coupons and discounts, and directions on how to get to places. They also served a bare bones breakfast from a small kitchen area and had a few other food items for sale.

Source: Sydney Harbour YHA

Many of the young people were traveling for some time, and carried huge backpacks with lots of extra possessions lashed to the outside, as well as regular backpacks worn as a front pack. As I watched them struggle under the load, I began to fully appreciate the concept of packing light. I had chosen to limit myself to a small bag (15 lbs) and a minimalist approach to avoid baggage charges, and I was hooked after experiencing how easy it was to travel with a small, light bag. My last day I went sightseeing after checkout, carrying all my possessions, without a problem.

After this positive experience, I knew hosteling would be part of my future travel plans.