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What comes to mind when you think about youth hostels? Echoey airplane hangars with cardboard partitions? Sleeping with your valuables clutched tightly to your chest? Being kept awake all night by inconsiderate strangers?

Yes, the hostel experience has the potential to be all these things. If you do your research and plan carefully, however, you can utilize youth hostels to make your trip more affordable and fulfilling without sacrificing on the quality of your vacation.

First of all, you need a basic understanding of what exactly a youth hostel is. These are affordable alternatives to the traditional hotel lodgings, and can be found in over 120 countries worldwide. Youth hostels often limit their services to people within a specific age range- often 18-35. In hostels, you'll pay a drastically reduced price in return for giving up some of the privacy and luxury of a traditional hotel room. Part of the mission of the youth hostel is to foster interaction between young travelers, and to this end they often boast amenities such as entertainment rooms and bars where patrons from all over the world can mingle with each other.

One concern often voiced about booking hostels is the lack of privacy and comfort. At the lowest end of the comfort scale, some hostels do put their guests up in 32-bed dormitories, where walls are so thin they can barely be called walls at all. However, nearly all hostels offer a range in accommodations. For a little extra, you can usually opt for a smaller dormitory, or even a private room- the prices will still be lower than what you'd pay at a traditional hotel. Keep in mind too that when you are traveling in an off-season, you may find you have a dormitory all to yourself. Know your own comfort level and needs, and keep these in mind when you are booking hostels. If you know you need a full night's sleep in order to function, or you feel uneasy at the thought of sleeping in the same room with strangers, pay a little more to get a private hostel room.

Another potential issue with hostels is safety. Even if you pack lightly, you're still going to need a few very valuable possessions on any trip- money and a passport at the very least. You don't want to have to sleep with your wallet under your pillow for protection. Many hostels offer some sort of security for your belongings in the form of lockers, safe deposit boxes, and a luggage room with CC TV. Before you book, make sure your hostel offers one of these options.

If you plan wisely and keep your personal needs at the forefront of your mind when booking hostels, you shouldn't have to worry about coming home with any hostel horror stories. Instead, you'll have more money to put aside for your next big trip!

Learn more about this author, Sarah Guy.
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