Hot take: staying in hostels in your 30s is worse than camping in a Walmart parking lot

I used to love hostels in my 20s, but last year I spent $35 a night on one in Portland and got woken up at 3am by someone practicing didgeridoo in the bunk below me. Crashed in my car outside a rest stop the next night for free and actually got better sleep. Am I just too old for the hostel scene or has it gotten worse?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma_clark1mo agoOG Member

hard disagree, hostels are still great if you pick the right ones

johnson.jason1mo ago

...and see, that's the thing, the "right" ones are getting harder to find because the good ones got priced out or turned into those bougie "social spaces" with $50 bunk beds. I looked at a hostel in Seattle last month and it was $60 a night with a shared bathroom and a curfew on the common room... that's more than a Motel 6. The whole point of hostels was the low price and the laid back vibe, but now you get the worst of both worlds, paying hotel prices for a loud room with weird rules. Maybe it's not just being older, maybe the entire model got wrecked by Airbnb and YouTube travel influencers.