A Night in the Young-at-Heart Hostel

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  07.22.08 | 12:15 PM ET

imagePhoto by Eva Holland.

Forget about the “youth” in youth hostel. Last weekend I spent a night in an HI hostel in the 1000 Islands region of upstate New York, and to my surprise, all my dorm-mates were septuagenarians, in town for a local festival. The next 24 hours were an exercise in expectation reassessment. For example, instead of going to bed at 9 p.m., my roomies sat up until all hours in the kitchen, swapping tales about their hosteling adventures from the past several decades.

When I offered up my bottom bunk, I was waved away: “First come, first served, honey, that’s how hostels work.”

For the duration of my stay, the old-timers clambered in and out of their bunk beds, waited in line for toilets, and took turns boiling water for tea, with fewer complaints and a better attitude than many young backpacker types I’ve encountered.

It was a powerful reminder that successful travel is so often about mindset.

If I’m lucky, I won’t have to stay in budget hostels by the time I’m in my 70s—but I’d also be lucky to have the adaptability and spirit of my dorm-mates this past weekend.

Tags: Budget Travel, Cheap Travel

Eva Holland is a contributor to the World Hum blog. She is also a contributing editor at the Matador Network and at Not Coming to a Theater Near You, and a regular contributor to the Ottawa Citizen. Based in Ottawa, Canada, she loves to write about travel, history, sports, and culture high or low.


2 Comments for A Night in the Young-at-Heart Hostel

Jake 07.23.08 | 4:33 PM ET

Awww that last comment made me sad Eva. “If I’m lucky, I won’t have to stay in budget hostels…”

For me hosteling isn’t because I have to or that I am too poor for anything else and something tells me that alot of those old timers you stayed with had the financial ability to stay in nicer hotels. Hosteling is about an attitude though like you said earlier in the piece. Even more than an attitude though, it’s a lifestyle.

I choose hostels over hotels for the community, not for the savings, and I always will.

Eva 07.24.08 | 12:13 PM ET

Hey Jake, sorry to disappoint you! I didn’t mean to suggest I never would stay in hostels, just that it’s not exactly a choice for me right now - and it would nice if, someday, it were. :)

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