Despite all the traveling I've done in my years, there is one thing I've never really bothered with: Hostels. What are hostels? For those who don't know, they're essentially college dorms that you share. They can be dirty, crowded, and throw privacy out the window. Your enjoyment level at a hostel greatly depends on who you end up in the room with. Because most of my traveling involves business ventures (Broadway) or friends (Japan), I've only stayed in cheap hotels. But a cheap hotel in Paris is much more expensive than a cheap hotel in, well...pretty much any state here. So if I'm going to look into planning this trip, a hostel might be unavoidable this time around. After all, when the average hotel costs $98.65 and the cheapest hostel costs $24.59 a night, you have to ask yourself if you're willing to make a few sacrifices to save some money.
I don't know about you, but I have major privacy issues. This might be because I have Asperger's Syndrome (a form of Autism), but privacy at night is kind of a huge deal for me. I don't need people to see that I'm reading "Honey & Clover" or playing "Pokémon" on my Game Boy. Things like that are sacred, and you don't need anyone else to see you do this. What's more, I have a friend who DID stay at a hostel in New York City one time, and three of his four nights were miserable because the guy on the top of his bunk was a compulsive masturbator who jerked off every night. My friend lost a lot of sleep during the trip, and it really wasn't much fun.
He wasn't sure what kept him up more: The fact that his bunk mate did this in the first place or the thought of where he was disposing of his "precious bodily fluids" ("Dr. Strangelove" reference for all you movie fans out there). I admit, I think the second thought freaks me out more. I know some people are geniuses at doing this cleanly, but it's a grey area I'd hate to contemplate. Hmm, I think I lost track of something...oh yes, hostels. So yeah, as you can see, this is not an ideal situation. But if it saves a few hundred dollars, maybe it's worth looking into. After all, I have no plans to actually STAY at the hostel for anything other than sleep! Same with the hotel. If I go in this direction, I could cut $700 out of the upfront package cost and just pay a nightly fee for the hostel at Hotels.com.
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