"It used to be that you would hardly ever see anyone you met ever again. With the advent of email, the half-life of a friendship was about a year. Keeping up with mail tended to fall off at that rate, but with Facebook it lasts forever. There is a dark side, however. Over the last...

When it comes to travel on a shoestring - my favorite style - the amount of money you spend or save on accommodation becomes a serious matter. There was a time when travelling to China was very, very cheap, and accommodation options where everywhere. Unfortunately, with China experiencing the economic boom, things have changed quite...

Travis at the frequent-flyer blog Extra Pack of Peanuts had a post titled, Why Hostels Are Better Than Hotels . Among other reasons, he waxed poetic on the benefits of the local touch and community atmosphere. Many hostels are owned and operated by locals, so you get a more intimate feel than you would at...

Hostels vary wildly in quality. Some are total fleapits; others are so luxurious they rival hotels. How can you find the quality hostels instantly? The website Hostelworld.com announced the 2012 winners of the "Hoscars," their awards for the best hostels in the world. Users around the world voted for their favorite places to stay. The...

Nomadic Matt recently posted a list called My favorite hostels in the world . Goes to show that low prices don't always mean low quality. You can save money and have a great time. Matt's list spurred me to remember which hostels I've enjoyed over the years. Here are some of my picks: Circus (Berlin,...

Hostels are a mainstay of the budget travel circuit. Share a dorm room with strangers, shave off a big percentage of your accommodation costs. They do come with some drawbacks however, as this article from The Sydney Morning Herald describes: The problem with staying in hostels . Although for me, the "problem" the author writes...

"Abandon your mobile phone, laptop, iPod, and all such links to family, friends, and work colleagues. Concentrate on where you are and derive your entertainment from immediate stimuli, the tangible world around you. Increasingly, in hostels and guesthouses one sees "independent" travelers eagerly settling down in front of computers instead of conversing with fellow travelers,...

Damascus, Syria "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Charles Dickens in the opening line of A Tale of Two Cities . He was referring to life in an area of Europe in the late 1700s, but one could also feasibly slap this line into a book about overnights...

Good news for any vagabonders heading to Europe: the hostels are getting even better. In this New York Times report , a ex-backpacker revisits the hostel scene with his teenage daughters in tow. It's great the writer can put his perspective on the development of hostels, as he can draw on memories of how they...