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I’m in my Mid-40s. Am I Too Old to Stay in Hostels?

Dear Rolf,

I’m in my mid-40s and plan to take a six-month journey within the next year. I am curious to know if hostels are a smart option for someone my age—someone who has an affinity for sleep at night. I am liberal of thought, physically fit, young at heart, and eager to explore the world and meet new people, just as most travelers are. I have nothing against the young being young. However, any desire to party my way around the world dissipated some time around my mid-20s.

I’d like to know if someone my age entering the sanctum of the young budget traveler would be accepted, resented or simply ignored. I’d like to stretch my dollars and travel time and staying in hostels seems the smartest way to do that. Any experiences, thoughts or opinions you care to share?

-- Karen

Dear Karen,

I think you have some great travels ahead of you. Your age should rarely be an issue. I often get e-mails from people who read my book and were inspired to hit the road in their 40s.

So definitely don’t consider age an issue; on the road, it’s all about spirit. You might occasionally be ignored in some 20-something contexts (and this might at times be a blessing), but you will never be resented, and you will most always be accepted. I traveled with my 60-something parents to China a few years ago, and the youngsters at the Beijing hostel loved them (especially my dad, who’s a real conversationalist). Travelers in general tend to be easy, open-minded people, and they will most always welcome your company.

One note: Hostels are mainly a European thing. In Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, you should be able to afford guesthouse lodging, with a private room. To save money, you can team up with fellow travelers (and you’ll meet plenty of cool companions on the road) and split a room.

In Europe, the key to getting a good night’s sleep in a hostel is to choose your hostel wisely. Some hostels tout themselves as party hostels; others take great pains to maintain decorum and promote a good night’s sleep. Just do a little research using your guidebook and the Internet, and ask other travelers for recommendations while you’re on the road.

Many hostels can be researched and booked online via services such as these:

* HostelBookers.com
* HostelWorld.com
* Hostelz.com
* HostelTraveler.com
* HiHostels.com

Advance booking is possible for a small fee—and fully refunded reservations are possible if you cancel within 24 to 48 hours of arrival.

For the most part, advance booking is not even necessary—except for summer high season, or during festivals or holidays. Most hostels also have Internet facilities, so you can reserve online as you go, if you wish. But don’t be afraid to just fly by the seat of your pants and seek out rooms once you arrive in a given city.

Another way to stretch your travel dollar is to utilize hospitality-exchange services, which many travelers swear by. These include:

* Couchsurfing.com
* HospitalityClub.org
* Servas.org

Good luck in your journey, Karen!

Columnist Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.

Send your questions to . If you want to know whether Rolf has already answered your questions, see the Ask Rolf archive. 

I once met a fella from South Africa in his 70’s while staying at a hostel in Hawaii.  He even let me have the bottom bunk!

Have a great trip Karen.

never too old to stay in a hostel!! My dad went round the world last year after retiring and stayed in a mix of hostels and budget hotels...said he didn’t feel too out of place at all. I always book with hostelbookers as there don’t have a booking fee on top of the 10% deposit.

Karen, my last lengthy trip lasted three years and started when I was 43. I stayed in hostels of every size and shape while on the road…

In Blantyre, Malawi one night, I crept into a dorm room that was empty when I arrived - and filled with an additional five young Indian men when I woke up! They were incredibly solicitous and polite - and half my age.

And in Durban, I was greeted by the sight of an 80-year-old man getting undressed as I was getting up. This gave me great hope for the future - if he could do it at 80, I could too.

Travel is constrained by both our physical ability (I wouldn’t hike up a major mountain) and our mental state - and for some people on the road, the greater their physical age the younger their spirit.

As for the partygoing, it was usually solved by earplugs and getting to bed early!

Have a wonderful trip, and forget your age. No one else will notice!

I can only recommend hostels. I had been traveling for a couple of weeks in Chile
and Bolivia. And I never had a bad experience with any of the hostels.

Karen:

I’m 51, and my 10 year old son and I did hostels throughout Eastern Canada (the Gaspe Peninsula) for 12 days last summer. Cheap, clean, fun, friendly, and always easy to find. Don’t cheat yourself out of one of life’s great adventures. We recommend Perce Rock, Quebec and Ottawa, Ontario for the most fun. And don’t miss the converted convent in Fredericton, New Brunswick!

Karen, as Rolf did, I would highly recommend the couchsurfing site. Its free to join and the whole point of the site is the connect travelers with FREE and SAFE places to sleep in someones home or apartment, usually for a week or less and in most places you will easily find several surfers in each town, if you would like to stay longer. Hostels are a whole lot cheaper usually than hotels etc...but couchsurfing is FREE all around. You will be surprised to find some of the most unusual places with couchsurfers offering their hospitalities. Check it out!

Karen,

The oldest person I ever met in a hostel was in his 70s. I don’t think it should be an issue. But you should be able to tell on arrival...there are definitely some hostels which are a bit more party-oriented (say, if they have their own bar!) and some where people would be thrilled to meet a world traveler with more experience.

Depending on where you travel, I’d like to add to Rolf’s notes that while hostels certainly exist outside of Europe, my experience in Latin America has been that cheap hotels are only a couple dollars (literally) more and sooo worth the “splurge”. In the Middle East I only stayed in hostels, I think the gap between the hostels and cheapish hotels was a bit bigger. But I believe every single hostel also had private room options for not much more, and often dorm rooms were for just 4 people, not those massive rooms of bunks.

I’ve also used Hospitality Club and highly recommend it. In the Middle East, unfortunately it was easier to get the attention of men as many women were either more shy or living with their parents...I wanted to meet more local women. But I really liked all my hosts, it was a great experience.

I stayed at backpackers all over South Africa when I was there in 2006. I was 45 at the time and found a niche for my “need 8 hours of sleep a night” easily. I did stay at some of the livelier spots along the Wild Coast. They had a “quiet” section for those who’s jello” shot days were behind us. I met a 50 year old film professor from capetown, two Yanks my age traveling around the world to surf, and a lovely nuclear family with the sweetest teenage son I’ve ever met. You’ll be fine. That old chestnut “age is just a number” really applies with extended travel.