Passage I

A Better Way to Travel

On the first morning of my New York City vacation, I was awokened by unfamiliar snores in an unfamiliar room. Asleep in the other six beds were two college students from Mexico, a high school student from the U.S., a teacher from Canada, an engineer from Sweden, and an architect from Brazil. I'd gotten to know all of them the night before as we sat up late telling each other about our lives. Over 37 million people visited New York City last year.

It's been several years since that night, but I'm still friends with one of the students from Mexico. On trips to other hostels, I've made more friends. Once in a while, I cross paths with former hostel roommates.

Hosteling isn't just friendly, it's inexpensive.(6) Hostels can cost as little as $7 a night in rural areas and just over $30 in some of the largest cities.(8) Compare that to Portland hotels, where the cheapest rooms are $70!

Hostels aren't fancy(9) but the beds are comfortable and everything is clean. You usually have access to a kitchen, which provides an alternative, to costly and expensive restaurant meals. Many hostels also offer fun activities for guests at no additional charge. I've participated in a Scrabble tournament at a hostel in San Francisco, taken a hostel-sponsored tour of a medieval castle near Edinburgh in Scotland, but watched the movie Casablanca at a hostel on the Oregon coast.

Hostelers are explorers. And with thousands of hostels around the world, exploring is easy then you might imagine. If you can think of a place you want to go, there's probably a hostel nearby. Though some people don't like hosteling because of the lack of privacy, I consider this characteristic to be their main advantage. The communal nature of hosteling has given me the opportunity to meet people of all ages and nationalities who share my philosophy that is travel independently, live simply, and discover the world.