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I called hostel dorms a scam for years until a $14 bunk in Lisbon shut me up
I avoided hostels for almost a decade because I figured paying $30 to sleep next to seven strangers was the dumbest trade in travel. Last October my flight to Portugal got bumped and my Airbnb in Alfama fell through, so I grabbed the last bed at a place near Rossio for 13 euros a night. The room had six bunks, a locker big enough for my whole pack, and a guy from Dublin who showed me the 24 hour grocery two blocks away where a full dinner cost me 4 euros. I stayed five nights and spent $71 total on a bed, which is less than one night at the hotel I almost booked. The free walking tour tipped me off to a tram pass that saved me another 20 bucks over the week. The catch is you gotta bring earplugs and pick places with a kitchen, or you end up eating out and blowing the savings. I still would not do a 12 bed mixed room in July, but for shoulder season in a walkable city, I was dead wrong about dorms. Anyone got a city where the hostel scene is so bad you would still pick a hotel every time?
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webb.xena9d ago
Stayed in a Lisbon hostel last summer and paid 45 euros a night for a room that smelled like feet and had one working outlet for eight people. That 13 euro price you got is a shoulder season fluke, not some hidden truth about hostels. In July or August you are paying hotel prices for a bunk and still getting woken up at 3am by someone packing a backpack. Pick any big European city in peak season and the math falls apart fast.
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