You’re legal drinking age. You can’t wait to get away from the parents. You have some money saved. You won’t stay at some hotel where you have to pay to behave.
Best of all you are dead set in your intentions, and they spell P-A-R-T-Y!
All this is great and with a little planning, you can make this a vacation (or a blur!) of crazy nights and eventful days that you won’t forget.
Your first assignment is to settle on a destination. It doesn’t matter where you go, but it does matter where you stay. If you are traveling on a budget and want to meet like-minded people: hostels are the way to go.
I know a hostel sounds…..well, hostile. Hostel is a 13thcentury German word meaning hotel or inn. The current definition is a place where you stay to save some serious coin. Hostels are more popular in Europe than in the U.S. and can be found pretty much all over the world. There are, however, marked difference between different types of hostels…
You’ll need to decide what kind of atmosphere you want to stay in. Do you want a stiff place with rules and curfews (as if you weren’t escaping all of that already) or some loud, rockin’ partying place that doesn’t sleep until you pass out.
I guess that settles it, a rockin’ place it is.
Look out for what you don’t want. I know it sounds backwards but stay with me here.
Look at the hostel website. The site will generally have pictures. If it has old folks sitting on the porch, you don’t want it. If you read the description and it calls for a curfew, you don’t want it. If they give you any indication there are rules you don’t want to follow, you don’t want it. Sometimes the webpage will have customer ratings. Ratings about cleanliness, a welcoming staff those ratings. Look for these two categories: Personality and Fun. If the hostel has a personality rate of 1 on a scale of ten, you don’t want it. If they rate fun and it’s 2 on a scale of 10, you don’t want it either.
Now for what you do want to look for. Again, take a look at the pictures on the web page. If there are people your age and it looks like they are having a great time, make a reservation. If they are near a beach that you know is party central i.e. near South Beach for Miami hostels, or near the heart of the city’s nightlife i.e. Las Ramblas for Barcelona hostels, then as you know those places never sleep, chances are neither will you. If they don’t have any private rooms then make a reservation. If hostels have too many private rooms the occupants of those rooms are going to want quiet with their privacy. If they say anything about their clientele or who they cater to and it’s your type of crowd, make a reservation.
Item Last, if you have friends who travel and have stayed in hostels ask them which was their favorite. Everybody has one. What’s yours? Write about your party hostel days! Ever found the best party time on your travel? Tell us where!
